Fishless Tank Questions

[Beverly]

Am pondering what to do with my now empty 67g and thought I might make it an lps and softie tank with stock from my 37g cube. Cube would possibly be a cap only tank with no fish/shrimp (that are currently residents).

Questions:

- With no fish or shrimp, just snails, would I have to feed the tank?
- If so, how often, how much and what should I feed it?

TIA for your input.

[KrazyKuch]

Well from what I know about LPS corals and snails is that they don't feed off "Food" you give them.....As far as I can see you would only have to make sure they get their light and nutrients from the water...ie, Ca, Alk, the usuall..

Thats just my opinion someone else might prove me wrong!

[Bob I]

As far as I understand corals feed mainly off stuff in the water column, which collectively is called "Marine Snow". At least that is what my corals books say. There is at this time a product on the market that has the very name of Marine Snow. I think J&L stocks it. I got mine locally. I use it sporadically, and have found that it has improved the looks of my zoanthids.

[Aquattro]

I've always fed my LPS mysis. They love it, they eat it, therefore I believe it is required. LPS do posess prey capture mechanisms and mouths, so makes sense they need food.
Eric Borneman will insist you feed them regularly. Once or twice a week, directly into the polyps for the LPS.
I've not seen caps actually grab introduced foods, so you might get away with not feeding for them.
You'll likely have worms and such though, that might be a bit hungry, so a bi-monthly feeding of a couple of bits of food might be ok.

[Beverly]

Thanks for the input If there is little food introduced to the tank, I assume very few snails, if any, would be required. Is this a correct assumption?

[Willow]

i feed my lps regularly, they seem to eagerly take food so i imagine it is required for long term growth. last month i picked up a frogspawn colony from someone that had let the tank slide a bit over the years. i started feeding it 3 times a week. a week or so ago i noticed it has started 14 new babies on the underside. maybe it's a coincidence or just the change that helped im not sure but i believe that food is good for coral and necessary for some species.

even without food your lighting and water chemistry is still going to produce algae, along with possibly adding it on new stock or it growing out of your rock. i think you are always going to need some form of cleanup crew albeit a much smaller one without fish.

[Skimmerking]

I have read that the more water changes that you do, the more the corals will grow. Can some one top up that question for me..

The reason is that they are getting freshly new nutrients from the water. But i thought that RO/di water has no Cal in there water.

thanks mike

[Beverly]

Mike, the Ca, alk, Mg and trace elements come from the salt mix. I still plan on doing weekly water changes in the tank, fish or no fish.

The LPSs that are growing like mad in my 37g will be going into the 67g with fish and will get fed indirectly as usual. Maybe. Still don't know what we'll actually be doing with either tank. Got more research to do