Coral feeding...

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chickenscratch

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 2, 2011
Messages
14
All 3 of my LFS's have said I don't need to stress too much on feeding my soft corals too much... Should I add any elements or are there enough nutrients in the tank to support my growing ecosystem? I trust a good bit of their judgment as one of the guys does just coral in his tank and it looks amazing. I have green starburst, torch, hammer and zo's so far...
 
As long as you do your weekly water changes you are getting enough nutrients to them as trace elements are in most sslt mixes.

As you progress though some of your corals may use up some elements faster than you can reintroduce them.

do you know what your calcium, alkalinity and magnesium are? Those are the major ones that get affected I believe.
 
I've had my tank for 3 weeks... Cycling. I'm doing things as close to the book as I can. Live rock. Live sand. RO water. Crabs, snails. And a damsel to help cycle the tank. No nice fish till a month out or so. I will test my water for those things tmrw. I'm going to get another test kit. I had them tested last week and everything was fine then again a couple days ago and the nitrites were a couple notches above normal but not crazy bad. I'll get back to you but numerous "experts" have said to wait to do a water change till 4 weeks. Then do it every week. Is this what you suggest?
 
You are officially cycling with fish then. It's a bit different now. What you need for sure isan api saltwater master test kit now, not strips but the liquid one. You will have to do water changes when the ammonia and nitrites rise or else the fish will die. The fish is in there as your ammonia source instead of adding a dead shrimp or putting in pure ammonia.

Not the nicest way to cycle a tank and not that quick either. Theres a good chance that the damsel can die and you'd have to put another one in to continue based on your lfs advice.

Me, I would return the fish and do it the humane way.

Cycle your salt tank
 
You are officially cycling with fish then. It's a bit different now. What you need for sure isan api saltwater master test kit now, not strips but the liquid one. You will have to do water changes when the ammonia and nitrites rise or else the fish will die. The fish is in there as your ammonia source instead of adding a dead shrimp or putting in pure ammonia.

Not the nicest way to cycle a tank and not that quick either. Theres a good chance that the damsel can die and you'd have to put another one in to continue based on your lfs advice.

Me, I would return the fish and do it the humane way.

Cycle your salt tank
well put.i used pure ammonia.no suffering involved.
 
to answer your question- no. you don't need to add anything. you can have a thriving reef with weekly partial water changes.
 
carey said:
You are officially cycling with fish then. It's a bit different now. What you need for sure isan api saltwater master test kit now, not strips but the liquid one. You will have to do water changes when the ammonia and nitrites rise or else the fish will die. The fish is in there as your ammonia source instead of adding a dead shrimp or putting in pure ammonia.

Not the nicest way to cycle a tank and not that quick either. Theres a good chance that the damsel can die and you'd have to put another one in to continue based on your lfs advice.

Me, I would return the fish and do it the humane way.

Cycle your salt tank

That's what I was going away to say! It's not cool to put any fish through that
 
It's the way it was done 20 years ago, I remember my parents doing it when I was a kid. It was "the" way to cycle a tank and many an lfs has not come around to doing it the humane way. Plus for them is they get to makes fish sales the same day as tank purchase. :-(
 
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