fishless reefs ? ? ?

[fishamajig]

do any of you keep a fishless reef? I am considering getting rid of all of my fish and going with an invert, reef tank. i got a new addition and it gave all of my fish ich. just a pain in the a$s. let me know what the opinion is. and any pics would help of course.

 

[shnabbles]

I know of a couple people that do this... Makes for ALOT less maintance... no or alot fewer water changes!

 

[fishamajig]

WORD !!! thats what im talking about.

 

[crzyfshygy]

Fish and corals are like peanutbuter and jelly. Doesnt the ocean have fish? :notsure:

 

[acrylic51]

Originally Posted by Shnabbles
I know of a couple people that do this... Makes for ALOT less maintance... no or alot fewer water changes!
Your

against the wall if you think the maintenance aspect goes down without fish in a reef tank..........

 

[fishamajig]

I undersand that dosing trace elements and maintaining the proper ph cal and alk is always going to be a maintenance issue. I am looking to remove less detritus and do less water changes.

 

[crazyzeus1]

I had a thread about this a while back & there were a lot of responses with people who do an invert/coral only tank without fish...
I hate ich!

 

[dragonboy]

I was gonna do that as well but the fish does add extra life to the tank but somewhere along the line you would want a wrasse and a lawnmower benny to keep the algae down and pods down. Just don't get too much fish when it comes to a reef tank 2 or 3 is good enough.

 

[acrylic51]

Fishmajig I think your missing the whole point....It's great to add trace elements and such, but water changes are more important than that you will still have a buildup over time and need to dilute that buildup

 

[viper_930]

I'm pretty close to fishless...I only have one fish in my tank full of corals. I still do 15% water changes weekly.
And BTW, I still get a TON of detritus.

 

[acrylic51]

 

[dragonboy]

Originally Posted by acrylic51
Fishmajig I think your missing the whole point....It's great to add trace elements and such, but water changes are more important than that you will still have a buildup over time and need to dilute that buildup
Also it depends on how you feed your tank.

 

[acrylic51]

Originally Posted by dragonboy
Also it depends on how you feed your tank.
We could debate regardless till the end doesn't matter how, what, if, maybe you feed or not......Supplementations are just that......Supplementing for calcuim, alk, strontium, iodine, mag, etc....is just that replacing what is being used....Regardless you will still have waste, or bi-products that the supplements are doing squat for or about, and that is were water changes come into place......
With water changes your not only replacing those elements being consumed and used up, but your also diluting any waste or pollution in the tank.....

So Dragonboy your saying there won't be any waste or pollution or bi-products produced inside a coral tank only?

 

[acrylic51]

Originally Posted by ViPeR_930
I'm pretty close to fishless...I only have one fish in my tank full of corals. I still do 15% water changes weekly.
And BTW, I still get a TON of detritus.
Hey DragonBoy what does detritus lead too???????

 

[dragonboy]

Originally Posted by acrylic51
We could debate regardless till the end doesn't matter how, what, if, maybe you feed or not......Supplementations are just that......Supplementing for calcuim, alk, strontium, iodine, mag, etc....is just that replacing what is being used....Regardless you will still have waste, or bi-products that the supplements are doing squat for or about, and that is were water changes come into place......
With water changes your not only replacing those elements being consumed and used up, but your also diluting any waste or pollution in the tank.....

So Dragonboy your saying there won't be any waste or pollution or bi-products produced inside a coral tank only?
I'm just adding to your info I'm not saying pollution won't buildup over time. Where did I state anything where a tank will stay clean if fish wasn't in it. Water changes is always important I'm just adding the fact if you feed often which some people do which usually increase the bioload and pollution more dramatically.

 

[acrylic51]

Originally Posted by dragonboy
Also it depends on how you feed your tank.
Sounds like you were agreeing that there wouldn't be any pollution

 

[smoney]

I may just do that, my fish are getting ich, again!

 

[fishamajig]

where is the bulk of the pollution coming from if there is no fish adding to the pollution of the water. i know corals and inverts such as clams and shrimp produce waist. they are alive! but if i have 125 gallons of water, that is heavily skimmed, fed only about every 3 days, no phyto and using completely clean ro water, I would have to say there is going to be less maintenance involved. if you stock the tank with less then you have to clean up for less, and so on and so forth.

 

[viper_930]

Originally Posted by ViPeR_930
I'm pretty close to fishless...I only have one fish in my tank full of corals. I still do 15% water changes weekly.
And BTW, I still get a TON of detritus.
I just want to add that I never even feed my one fish. He just finds pods and whatnot around the tank. No phyto or zooplankton either. And I do as heavy skimming as I can, collection cup lowered all the way on my CPR Bakpak.
JME

 

[fishamajig]

me too. do you have a bare bottom tank? all of my detritus is due to rock shed. I am hoping to eventuially get rid of it. i didnt cook my rock before going to bare bottom and this is the price i have to pay. eventuially it will shed everything and it will become clean again. how long has your tank been shedding detritus?