Adding fish to a Coral only Tank

[ggNoRe]

I have had a secondary tank up and running in my garage for years now. It goes for long periods of time with coral only and no fish. The past 3 fish I added all looked incredibly healthy swam well and ate for about 3 days. Then suddenly started breathing heavy showed bruised gills and died very rapidly. It seems there symptoms are similar to what happens with high ammonia. Is it possible to have high ammonia in a system that has been running for a long time with several corals and no fish? If not any other clue what it might be? Temp salinity and nitrates are at optimal parameters (78°, 1.0255, and 3 respectively).

 

[James M]

corals produce very little waste so when you add a fish the ammonia will spike because there’s barely any bacteria in the tank to eat the ammonia

 

[ggNoRe]

corals produce very little waste so when you add a fish the ammonia will spike because there’s barely any bacteria in the tank to eat the ammonia

What's a good way to prepare the tank properly before adding a fish again?

 

[PharmrJohn]

@VintageReefer --- Do you have any idea on this? My first thought was to add some Fritz 900 Turbostart, then ghost feed to bring the bacteria levels up. Only problem is that this would be a balancing act to avoid ammonia spikes and off the corals......this is a new one!

 

[dedragon]

What's a good way to prepare the tank properly before adding a fish again?

How long have you been fallow for? Is there any biomedia?
If the fallow period is over but no biomedia, add a bio plate and just some fritzyme 9 every 12 hours or so for like 3 days and you should be fine. You can add it for as many days as you want but it will just be redundant after like 7 days or so

 

[ggNoRe]

@VintageReefer --- Do you have any idea on this? My first thought was to add some Fritz 900 Turbostart, then ghost feed to bring the bacteria levels up. Only problem is that this would be a balancing act to avoid ammonia spikes and off the corals......this is a new one!

I think I thought of an easy method. Going to put some filter pad in the sump of my display. And just add to garage tank a day or 2 before adding next fish.

 

[VintageReefer]

I think I thought of an easy method. Going to put some filter pad in the sump of my display. And just add to garage tank a day or 2 before adding next fish.

Pot scrubbers hold more bacteria than any other media

 

[PharmrJohn]

I think I thought of an easy method. Going to put some filter pad in the sump of my display. And just add to garage tank a day or 2 before adding next fish.

Pot scrubbers hold more bacteria than any other media

@VintageReefer --- LOL! You JUST taught me this trick for a QT tank! Jeez. 60 year old brain. I won't forget next time!

 

[VintageReefer]

@VintageReefer --- LOL! You JUST taught me this trick for a QT tank! Jeez. 60 year old brain. I won't forget next time!

There have been studies. Pot scrubbers hold more than matrix, bioballs, and almost everything else they were compared to

There was one that beat them. But if I recall correctly it was an obscure thing

Oh. Don’t use pot scrubbers for your dishes. Biological breeding ground lol

 

[PharmrJohn]

There have been studies. Pot scrubbers hold more than matrix, bioballs, and almost everything else they were compared to

There was one that beat them. But if I recall correctly it was an obscure thing

Oh. Don’t use pot scrubbers for your dishes. Biological breeding ground lol

Are you talking pot scrubbers as in pot scrubbers you buy at the grocery store? Those yellow scrubbers with the plastic mesh encircling?

 

[PharmrJohn]

Found the article. Those (and others of a similar nature) are it!

 

[brandon429]

Check any cycle analysis post on the site, I'm always polar opposite from the crowd, it's my m.o. (and it's how my friends and I build giant work threads, testing crazy claims)

There's some clues here that don't support ammonia burning at all, in this display

The only missing clue needed is the usual: a tank pic

So that we can assess the surface area in the tank

If the surface area looks like any other reef you did not have an ammonia control problem in a display. Nobody ever does

But if it's devoid, and your fish were huge and the feed was tremendous, then I buy it 4% chance.

What kind of fish were they? Tiny, small, or huge with huge feed requirements?

As soon as this prediction pans out I'm linking this excellent cycle challenge threads to our other cycle challenge threads

Canigedda full tank picture?

Causatives for their behavior can be things other than highly highly unlikely free ammonia control issues: display reef tanks don't get those problems. Actual fish disease is more likely, or acclimating issues etc

But not ammonia, from a tank with coral in it and the usual rocks.

You're going to need a tank with no rocks in it for this suspect event to be true. If you have rocks, I'm 1000% certain you didn't have a cycle issue



That's what we've spent about ten years patterning out in the hundreds of cycle threads collected so far. It only seems like ammonia was the cause, we're all trained to think that so we'll instantly buy something as a remedy... prime, Dr Tim's bottle bac etc.

The chance you have an ammonia issue is zero if there's rocks in that display.

 

[dr_vinnie_boombatz]

Do you have inverts like snails? They would produce ammonia, no?

I am in a very similar situation! Coral only LPS tank with snails up and running for year+, I will be adding a single, and only, fish tomorrow

 

[ggNoRe]

There are snails and tons of stomatella. 20 gallon

 

[dr_vinnie_boombatz]

Have you ruled out stray voltage from a heater, etc? Good surface agitation? I doubt its ammonia if you're feeding the coral

 

[ggNoRe]

Have you ruled out stray voltage from a heater, etc? Good surface agitation?

A 50G seachem filter. 25g aqueon, and a small jebao powerhead. My stray voltage test it i put my hands in all the time and haven't got shocked yet.

 

[brandon429]

Agreed that's low surface area, yet still some SA is in effect due to structures in the tank, corals themselves, the entire back wall coralline growth is very high surface area. Though that's not a proper display, it still eats ammonia fast fast

Those fish needed to be really big but they weren't for a 20 I'll bet

You weren't leaving food uneaten and littered about, that tank is treated better than that I can tell.

Adding bottle bac is not how we'd fix this even if it was a verified cycle issue, we'd add surface area.

Every surface there is already full with bacteria, there isn't less due to less fish

The surfaces in that tank have the same filter ability as if they came from a ten fish tank. Fish don't control the presence of our filter bacteria, surface area is the limiter along with flowpathing designs for the setup.

What did your ammonia testing say happened? Can't believe I'm asking that lol / denier of all non seneye test readouts / still curious to know.

 

[Fish Fan]

Pot scrubbers hold more bacteria than any other media

+1 on pot scrubbers! I get mine for 3/$1 at my local dollar store.

 

[ggNoRe]

+1 on pot scrubbers! I get mine for 3/$1 at my local dollar store.

Can you show a pic of what kind is good.

 

[dr_vinnie_boombatz]

Why not get Matrix? That is what I run in my coral only tank. I paid $7 for 250ml which was enough for 50g. I used a portion of the bottle