Fish and corals share an environment, but---they react differently and have different ills. If you have a tank too large to break down and start over...and have been hit by something that makes you question why you're in this hobby...
If you have somehow contracted a lethal plague that wipes out your fish---go fishless at least 72 days---or more. If you have something that needs fish to live, the longer you have no fish, the less likely you are to see a recurrence. So go corals-only, take proper precautions (dip and observation) and build up that aspect of your tank for whatever time it takes. A year is not too much.
If you have something that takes down your corals, do the other thing: fish-only until whatever got your corals has gone. And quarantine! You don't need both plagues at once.
Fortunately most 'pests' like one or the other.
Of course the OPTIMUM answer is ---take proper precautions with each in the first place. One is not necessarily harder than the other. They are different. They react differently (corals hate nitrate that fish can survive; and fish die of ammonia that corals can survive...but take measures to keep nitrate way down (5%) and don't have ammonia, period.
I offer this as a what-to-do if you're at a point of desperation: it hits people new in the hobby, like, I spent all this money, it should have worked, and it didn't. This either/or gives you a chance to enjoy your tank while you're waiting for whatever-it-is to be done with. And either type of tank changes daily and has plenty to entertain you.
If you have somehow contracted a lethal plague that wipes out your fish---go fishless at least 72 days---or more. If you have something that needs fish to live, the longer you have no fish, the less likely you are to see a recurrence. So go corals-only, take proper precautions (dip and observation) and build up that aspect of your tank for whatever time it takes. A year is not too much.
If you have something that takes down your corals, do the other thing: fish-only until whatever got your corals has gone. And quarantine! You don't need both plagues at once.
Fortunately most 'pests' like one or the other.
Of course the OPTIMUM answer is ---take proper precautions with each in the first place. One is not necessarily harder than the other. They are different. They react differently (corals hate nitrate that fish can survive; and fish die of ammonia that corals can survive...but take measures to keep nitrate way down (5%) and don't have ammonia, period.
I offer this as a what-to-do if you're at a point of desperation: it hits people new in the hobby, like, I spent all this money, it should have worked, and it didn't. This either/or gives you a chance to enjoy your tank while you're waiting for whatever-it-is to be done with. And either type of tank changes daily and has plenty to entertain you.
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