Questions about my first Acropora tank

[RickvDam]

Hello!

I have an empty tank available, and I've been wanting to try my luck with Acropora for a while now. My current tank contains almost exclusively LPS, but the water parameters, as far as I can read online, are perfectly suited for Acropora. I've achieved these values through various types of coral foods, dosing, and my filtration system.

Now, I'm wondering: if I start a new tank with only Acropora (my plan is to really keep only Acropora in it, so no fish), would it be more challenging to match those ideal values? Since I already have those in my current tank, I'm considering using the water from a water change for the Acropora tank.

My idea is to take X liters of water from my current tank every week, remove X liters of water from the Acropora tank, and then replenish the Acropora tank with the water from my existing tank.

What do you think about this? Of course, I will also need to dose in the Acropora tank, but the baseline parameters would already be optimal.

 

[Bruttall]

I may be wrong but I thought coral fed off fish waste, so no fish in a tank would mean lack of sustenance for coral? Which is why even in nano tanks you see 1 or 2 fish.

 

[RickvDam]

Corals feed off nutrients. Nutrients that will be in the used water. I will also use coral foods and dose when necessary.

I may be wrong but I thought coral fed off fish waste, so no fish in a tank would mean lack of sustenance for coral? Which is why even in nano tanks you see 1 or 2 fish.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

IMO I would not use waste water from one tank to start new tank. The elements will be depleted from the other tank, you might get nitrate, but what about everything else that new salt water brings?

The best way would be to start with live rocks. If you don't have access to, or don't want to spend for live rocks, then you can start adding rocks to your current tank/sump. Wait a couple of months and you have live rocks to start the new tank.

 

[RickvDam]

IMO I would not use waste water from one tank to start new tank. The elements will be depleted from the other tank, you might get nitrate, but what about everything else that new salt water brings?

The best way would be to start with live rocks. If you don't have access to, or don't want to spend for live rocks, then you can start adding rocks to your current tank/sump. Wait a couple of months and you have live rocks to start the new tank.

I have everything here to start the second tank except live rock. I’m pretty sure my extra rocks are dead at this point.

My LPS tank has cal: 440, mag: 1380, alk: 8.9, po4: 0,02 and nitrate: 4. Due to dosing these parameters are spot on during the entire week. That’s why I was hoping to reuse the water. My normal salt mix doesn’t have these parameters. The dosing, feeding, filtration and livestock causes these parameters.

 

[Bruttall]

Corals feed off nutrients. Nutrients that will be in the used water. I will also use coral foods and dose when necessary.

exactly! Coral feed of Nitrates and other nutrients that are products of Fish Waste including ammonia. It just seems to me that a fish or two in the long run would be a better method of putting nutrients into a Acro tank, and probably cost ya a lot less also. Either way I'd like to see a build thread to see what ya do!

 

[RickvDam]

exactly! Coral feed of Nitrates and other nutrients that are products of Fish Waste including ammonia. It just seems to me that a fish or two in the long run would be a better method of putting nutrients into a Acro tank, and probably cost ya a lot less also. Either way I'd like to see a build thread to see what ya do!

I’m not a 100% sure I will go through with this idea. Really depends on other people opinions about the way I want to do it. I always thought a fishless acro tank would be easier but I guess that was a mistake. I might add a fish, but I really don’t want to untill everything is “stable”. I really hope I can use my LPS water as those parameters are great, and I wouldn’t get them with just salt.

 

[Dburr1014]

Live rock offers stability also in the biome.
Not much bacteria in just the water.

I'm setting up a temporary frag tank, coral QT if you will.
I'm be using water from the display to do weekly water changes but probably more like 50/50. 50% old water/50% new water to replenish what missing/depleted from the display.

I'm only doing this for new additions to my display or when I do coral shows. I can monitor any pests incoming and outgoing.

I wouldn't do this to just try acros. They need stability.

Can't you just add coral to the display?
Are you worried about pests?
Is this just a temporary tank?

 

[RickvDam]

Live rock offers stability also in the biome.
Not much bacteria in just the water.

I'm setting up a temporary frag tank, coral QT if you will.
I'm be using water from the display to do weekly water changes but probably more like 50/50. 50% old water/50% new water to replenish what missing/depleted from the display.

I'm only doing this for new additions to my display or when I do coral shows. I can monitor any pests incoming and outgoing.

I wouldn't do this to just try acros. They need stability.

Can't you just add coral to the display?
Are you worried about pests?
Is this just a temporary tank?

Yea the thing is, I’ve wanted to add Acro’s to my tank but it’s an Euphyllia tank. It’s PACKED with long sweepers. If I add something else, something will get hurt. As my parameters are always the same just before a waterchange I feel like it will give stability, but these answers is the reasons I asked. I got everything laying around so it wouldn’t cost me anything to start another tank, just the frags. And yes losing a 50€ acro frag would suck but it wouldn’t be the end of the world. My parameters are so incredibly stable and perfect for acro’s I’d love to re use it, but if it isn’t a good idea, Ill wait until I have the space for a bigger tank.

 

[Dburr1014]

Yea the thing is, I’ve wanted to add Acro’s to my tank but it’s an Euphyllia tank. It’s PACKED with long sweepers. If I add something else, something will get hurt. As my parameters are always the same just before a waterchange I feel like it will give stability, but these answers is the reasons I asked. I got everything laying around so it wouldn’t cost me anything to start another tank, just the frags. And yes losing a 50€ acro frag would suck but it wouldn’t be the end of the world. My parameters are so incredibly stable and perfect for acro’s I’d love to re use it, but if it isn’t a good idea, Ill wait until I have the space for a bigger tank.

Can you connect the tank to the old?

 

[RickvDam]

Can you connect the tank to the old?

They are both AIO so I can but it would look kinda ugly… but to be honest that doesn’t really matter as I run a wall mounted oversized UV so my plumbing already goes out the tank to the UV and then back.

 

[twentyleagues]

Fish will be healthy for the tank. Can you do it without fish? probably. I dont know how large of a tank you are thinking but certain tangs can help not only feed your corals but take care of algaes in the tank.

 

[RickvDam]

Fish will be healthy for the tank. Can you do it without fish? probably. I dont know how large of a tank you are thinking but certain tangs can help not only feed your corals but take care of algaes in the tank.

I’m talking about nano’s. My preference is multiple nano’s over 1 big tank. The Acro tank is roughly 15 gallons. I know it’s small and I will probably fail. I just like to experiment and try new things even if I fail.

 

[exnisstech]

I doubt you'll find a coral farm that does not have fish in thier tanks. Fish poop feeds the coral. Some fish eat algae. A pest eating fish like a sixline is a must in my tanks especially my acro tank. I would not use old water in my acro tank. I would use old water from my acro tank in a fowlr.
I'm a noob and my acro tank is only 18 months old so my advice may be totally wrong. I would not expect any substantial success with acro untill the tank is at least a year mature. I started mine dry rock with bare bottom but had a large tray of old rock rubble in the sump. I added a bunch of frags, lost some to RTN and STN. I kept plugging along and finally at about 13 months the frags took off and started laying down base then branching out. It's far from a showcase but having acros grow rather than dying so it's a success for me lol. Tank is a reefer 300 started February 2023 with 4 fish. A few recent shots

 

[twentyleagues]

I’m talking about nano’s. My preference is multiple nano’s over 1 big tank. The Acro tank is roughly 15 gallons. I know it’s small and I will probably fail. I just like to experiment and try new things even if I fail.

This might be a good opportunity to test out @Randy Holmes-Farley thread on starting a bare tank and adding a ton of corals and an ammonia source!

 

[Hockeypunk1]

A couple things come to mind here. First is that you're not checking all the minor trace elements that are more important when dealing with acropora. You test the main elements that are stable but we rarely test for things like potassium, iodine, iron, fluoride, and a whole list of other elements without an ICP test. Chances are these elements would be depleted from your main display water, and one might argue that they are more important for coloration in Stony corals. Another big factor is that it's incredibly difficult to have sufficient nutrients without fish. Fish tend to add the right amount of nutrients in the proper form. There's a reason corals have developed to eat the way they do. You might be able to add certain fish food for po4 and ammonia for no3, but I would bet that you wouldn't maintain the proper balance for the long run. You're tank would likely become overrun with pest algae, or dinos, or your corals would bleach out, turn brown, die, or just never grow. I agree with the idea of connecting the two tanks together if you can! That way you could add corals as soon as your tank is set up. Especially if you used established live rock