Coral Only Tanks?

Der_Iron_Chef · #1 05-31-2007, 03:49 AM

Hey, like the title says, does anyone have coral only tanks? Meaning no fish. And what would that be....a COWLR? Hmmm.

I'm wondering if anyone does, and if so, if the skimmer skims much less, if there's noticeably less detritus, etc.

Thoughts? Is the idea kind of lame? I'm way more into my corals than I am into my fish.

Chin_Lee · #2 05-31-2007, 03:57 AM

i had a 15g at work with corals only and 4 hermit crabs and 2 snails. detritus continued to collect and chaeto grew like crazy. no skimmer but algae also grew. i used rowaphos in hang on filter ac500 and i've found it harder than the tank at home.

Ruth · #3 05-31-2007, 04:05 AM

I had that brainiac idea when I started up my 110g cube. My water quality was pristine, my corals just sat there and did........nothing. Some colored up a bit but for the most part there was little or no growth.
So being the wizard I am I started to do some research and found a couple of articles (somewhere) that there had been some research or experiments done on this before and apparently the corals need the tank to work like it should - ie: bacteria, bugs, fish waste.. constant cycle to really thrive.
I now have 2 firefish and a madarin as well as numerous shrimp, a couple of hermits and one big a$$ black harry crab that has so far outsmarted me (like that's difficult......see above comment about doing research after the fact).
My corals (mostly SPS) are growing well and my tank is doing great.
As for skimming - I have a very light bioload but I still get about 1/2 cup of fairly dark skimmate every other day. Right now I am skimming with a HOB Deltec but one of these days when I get time I am going to try and hook up my H&S skimmer to this system and start using all of the Zeovit product again.

fastfish · #4 05-31-2007, 04:36 AM

I had a 20g SPS coral only tank 3 years ago. It was fun at the beginning but became boring when corals were growing so slow.

fastfish · #5 05-31-2007, 08:06 AM

Oh...forgot to mention....I was using Bak-Pak Skimmer which was doing pretty good job to keep my water very well. But still, I did have to clean up my tank more often because water got dirty pretty easily with such low water volume. By the way, I did not have any snails and crabs.

untamed · #6 05-31-2007, 11:30 PM

My old tank has become that without intention. Slowly, I've been in the process of shutting it down and moving things into the 400. As a result, it is now COWLR. Looks very nice...but it is kind of boring. I have only changed my feeding routine by adding just slightly less food because I'm still feeding all the starfish, worms, crabs etc. that live in the rock.

Still do my weekly water change and cleaning. I've got to shut this thing down soon...