Gotta be fishless for a month, how to maintain nutrients?

[mntl]

Quick story then a question.

I have had a Starkii (stark's) damsel for quite awhile in my small sps nano (descr in sig). I added a Black-cap basslet and they did great together for a few months, both were fat and got along great. The Black-cap eventually started to succum to ick which he passed on to the starkii (definatley my fault, did not quarantine). Long story short I am now fishless. I am going to wait a month (so I have read) before adding any new fish as I do not want to re-infect them with any ick that may still be present in the tank. My problem is, the reason for the fish in the first place was to maintain nutrients to help with acro color (which has always worked out great for me), but being fishless now for a week I am seeing colors get a bit lighter and skimmate is definately much lighter, nothing major yet. I do not want to add food when there is nothing to feed, I do not let things rot in the tank, I usually just feed heavily and skim/syphon heavily.

I am looking for recommendations on maintaining nutrient levels for the sps but not by letting something rot in the tank?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!!

also, the tank is BB, is 1 month good to assume the ick is dead, the info I have read seems to show this to be about the max extent of it's life assuming no host?

 

[drock59]

how about just throwing some food in every day like you had fish?

 

[Large Polyp Dave]

possibly live phytoplankton and rotifers if you have time to culture them?

 

[gregm5]

just feed your corals a little heavier

 

[MiddletonMark]

Just feed your tank as if you didn't have fish - perhaps a little less. Keep up export - it should handle the nutrient load just fine.

 

[Ewan]

I was fishless for 6 months, and that is the best period I've had with my SPS. I fed live rotifers for most of that time, but things started looking really good when I started feeding frozen cyclopeeze. So good that I hung up my overalls, and I am no longer a rotifer farmer.

Try to find something to feed the water column, not the bottom of the tank. There's so much available for coral feeding now. We completely spoiled. Personally, I'd feed *small* daily amounts of frozen CE and ovster eggs.

-E.

 

[mntl]

Thanks for the responses!!

Try to find something to feed the water column, not the bottom of the tank.

This is what I am talking about. I will look into cyclopeeze/oyster eggs.

Leaving fish food in the tank to break down runs very contrary to how I run my system, I am not saying it wont work at upping my nutrient level, it's just that it will add very little to the water column that is small enough for my corals, so alot of it will be waisted. Maybe If I blend it up really good?

 

[JB NY]

You could just skim a little less as well.

 

[Fliger]

Like Ewan, I love frozen cyclopeeze. You can get it in a pump bottle, it seems pricey but l lasts forever. I also like DT oyster eggs and Coral Vitalizer. CV is my favorite - except I have to shut off my skimmer for a while. I get great response from all three.

Its might be a good time to diversify your pod population as well, since there will be no predators.

Any updated pix of your tank? I only remember a few from months ago when it was empty and I love the simplicity of it!

 

[mntl]

You could just skim a little less as well.

Thanks!! Gotta love the obvious stuff, but considering my skimmer I dont know if this is possible :lol: . I will try this (never thought I would attempt this with my lil skimmer).

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7377158#post7377158 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mntl
Thanks!! Gotta love the obvious stuff, but considering my skimmer I dont know if this is possible :lol: . I will try this (never thought I would attempt this with my lil skimmer).

I've got a TF1000, and you're right, that curved neck makes it tough to adjust. Seems like a tiny turn can make it go from dryer skimmate to huge mess all over the floor.

 

[Rav-65]

Stop the skimmer...

 

[JB NY]

You could just run the skimmer a few days a week if you wanted to.

 

[reefrick.M]

I also feed a frozen Cyclopeeze/oyster egg combo. Corals and fish seem to enjoy it.

 

[mntl]

Srry, my lame sense of humor must have come across wrong, It is hard to skim less with a skimmer that barely skims in the first place . I will give it a shot though!!

 

[RichConley]

What does yours have for a pump on it?

 

[JB NY]

If your skimmer is not that efficient, I wouldn't worry about it toomuch. I doubt you system is a nutrient poor as you think.

I am assuming you have snails and crabs and other kinds of tiny life in the tank. That will produce a some waste as well.

But if you really want to you can add a tiny amount of food.