Coral and Inverts Only Questions

[scelona]

Hey there,
I just finished cycling my tank and dialing in my calc, alk, and mag and will be getting my lights tomorrow (photon 24). I am planning on doing inverts and coral only until January and was wondering if there was any reason not to do this. My plan is to start with some GSP on its own rock and slowly work my way up to some other softies (zoas, leather) and finally some LPS (I really like torch, frogspawn, hammer, etc). After getting this dialed in I will start adding fish in January (pair of clowns, royal gramma, lawnmower blenny, diamond wathman goby). After adding my fish I will quarantine any additional corals. What issues or problems could arise from coral only if any? Thanks and I can't wait to get some life in my tank.

 

[LuciDog]

I'm doing the same thing now. I started with GSP, mushrooms and zoa's. They blossomed nicely so I added a hammer. It's doing awesome as well. When I added the candy cane it looked ok for about 2 weeks. Then it got knocked and fell when I was moving some things and it's mad. Really mad. It's been retracted for about 2 weeks and hasn't opened back up. It's still full of colour so I'm assuming maybe damaged tissue. I'm holding out hoping it comes back.

 

[scelona]

I'm doing the same thing now. I started with GSP, mushrooms and zoa's. They blossomed nicely so I added a hammer. It's doing awesome as well. When I added the candy cane it looked ok for about 2 weeks. Then it got knocked and fell when I was moving some things and it's mad. Really mad. It's been retracted for about 2 weeks and hasn't opened back up. It's still full of colour so I'm assuming maybe damaged tissue. I'm holding out hoping it comes back.

Nice I'm glad thats working for you and I'm sure the candy cane will come back with some TLC. Corals are the reason I got into this hobby and I have to imagine the water stays pristine in a fishless system.

 

[toothybugs]

Nice I'm glad thats working for you and I'm sure the candy cane will come back with some TLC. Corals are the reason I got into this hobby and I have to imagine the water stays pristine in a fishless system.

You will need to put SOMETHING in to the water for nutrients, as well as watch your alk/ mag/ ca chemistry, but yea control is great. I have a bare invert system going here at work. The fish are at home in QT so they'll come in time. For now the invert system is kind of fun. I dropped 3 different nems in after a week and they haven't moved yet. It's funny how much junk comes off your rock, snails, and crabs though. Just when you least expect it - blammo, turds.

 

[scelona]

You will need to put SOMETHING in to the water for nutrients, as well as watch your alk/ mag/ ca chemistry, but yea control is great. I have a bare invert system going here at work. The fish are at home in QT so they'll come in time. For now the invert system is kind of fun. I dropped 3 different nems in after a week and they haven't moved yet. It's funny how much junk comes off your rock, snails, and crabs though. Just when you least expect it - blammo, turds.

Since I probably won't have any algae for some amount of time I was planning on feed my CUC (only snails for now) nori and probably a small amount of mysis every week or so, would this be adequate for nutrients? Glad you're enjoying the invert tank.

 

[Sk8r]

Have a cuc including bristleworms and drop a cube of food into the tank now and again. There's coral food put out, but generally worm poo and such works pretty well.

 

[scelona]

Have a cuc including bristleworms and drop a cube of food into the tank now and again. There's coral food put out, but generally worm poo and such works pretty well.

Thanks for the advice, I will give that a shot.