Fishless system?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Danny,

It may not be that NO3 is totally unbeneficial for corals, just that above a very low level it becomes harmful rather than helpful. In other words, the corals may use NO3 at low concentrations, but since the oceans are usually NO3 free since different organisms like macro algae & phytoplankton use it up, corals are not adapted to thrive in high NO3 environments. My softies, for instance, seem to do better when the water is not completely nutrient-free.

Anthony

[Ruth]

What I may actually do is to go totally fishless for say 6 months or so - evaluate how things look, growth etc. and then perhaps introduce an anemone. The anemone would of course be fed and would presumably produce waste.
If I am not getting the results I may then just add say 3 or 5 firefish (it's a 100g system with probably an additional 25g in the sump). So far all that is in there are 1 lonely SPS , 2 Crocea clams that are smiling and happy and probably 25 or so snails. Calcium reactor will be hooked up this weekend so maintaining ca/alk/magnesium will be taken care of (I add mag. chips to my reactor which seems to work to keep my mag. levels about 1450) Should be interesting. I am going to continue to feed the tank with Phytofeast for the clams probably 2 times a week or so.

[marie]

I live by the motto "If it has a mouth, feed it".There must be some reason that corals grow so many mouths


I don't think a coral could live in a completely nutrient free enviroment, the algae that lives in it's tissues need the same nutrients that nuisance algae needs if nothing else

[Farrmanchu]

I've read that Clams feed on Ammonia to some extent. Would be cool to have just Corals and Clams, and feed Phyto.

[Ruth]

Well I am not planning on having any LPS or softies in this tank - we'll see how that goes as I am a sucker for ricordia and colourful LPS. I am only going to go with SPS coral and clams for now. I will feed the tank with Phyto and probably also use some Pohl's coral vitalizer once I get a few more SPS in there.

[Quagmire]

I saw an article about feeding corals a few months back.They did a small test with 2 tanks,one with just light and one with light and food.Added a number of differant corals,then compared the differance after I can't remember how long.Huge differance in growth rates in the fed tank.I'll see if I can find it and I'll post a link to it.But it leads one to think that a tank with coral friendly fish would be the way to go.You feed the fish,the corals eat too,then eat again when the fish take their morning constitutional.

[Farrmanchu]

Yeah, my Clowns crap right in the mouths of my LPSs. The hosting causes the LPS to shrink, but if the Clown moves on, the growth from the crapolla is apparent when the LPS expands.

[albert_dao]

Nitrate and Phosphates are actually required for proper growth of many animals. In fact, there's European nitrate products available for people who can't keep up to the nitrate needs of their giant clams.