What comes first fish or coral?

[joshinjosh]

It's pretty noob of a question and remember reading about it during my early research, but forgot the arguements and reasons for the answers:

(When your tank is 100% ready for livestock after the cycling of course) What do you guys reccomend to add first, coral or fish.​

 

[spongebob lover]

i say fish, then corals.

 

[joshinjosh]

i say fish, then corals.

got a reason behind that?

josh

 

[keener1830]

I added fish first to test my water and make sure it would survive before I added anything that would cost more than a couple dollars. Of course I got rid of the damsel before I put anything else in the tank

 

[jamiehill]

got a reason behind that?

josh

In my opinion, it would be best to add the fish first then corals later. This gives the tank more time to mature. Just because the cycle has completed does not mean the tank is fully stabilized.

Fish are generally more hardy than corals. I would give the tank a while before adding corals. If I remember right, I was told by several people that even after the cycle is complete it would be best to wait a few months before adding corals.

Jamie

 

[spongebob lover]

well i first added 2 damsels to test my water and since damsels are hardy and cheap, i thought it would be a good test to see if i could add clownfish later, just like what Kenner did.
I think that if you add corals first you really don't know how the coral is gonna react in a tank that is not mature.

 

[mfinn]

I would think that if you have gone through a complete cycle that your tank should be able to support any life.
And I would think that a coral would add less waste to a new system than a fish would.
In fact this is what I did with my 40 gallon tank. I added corals before adding any fish.

 

[Willy]

Wish I could remember where I read it. But I THINK I read that you start the tank off with the easiest of corals first. Correct me if im wrong.

 

[dnjan]

Corals require much greater stability (in terms of water chemistry, etc.) than fish - especially stoney corals, and double especially SPS.

Put your fish in, and 6 months later, when they are getting boring, think about adding corals.

 

[jetaero]

Fish supply ammonia to build up the bacterial supplies... When you add new fish, the ammonia will be slightly higher until the bacterial colonies can grow to catch up with this... In essense cycling, but on a much smaller scale.


The second is that corals need great stability in order to survive and flourish, so if ammonia went high, etc. It would not be perfect conditions for them.

-Josh-

 

[mfinn]

But how much ammonia is a coral going to produce?

 

[jetaero]

Hopefully/most likely.. close to nothing... which is what I was trying to say

 

[mfinn]

I'm not trying to be argumentative ( wish I had spell check here).
Just, when the tank is 100% cycled, whats the harm in adding a few mushrooms and button polyps to brighten up the bare rock?
I'm not advocating loading it up with expensive sps.

 

[LarryB]

When I first set up my tank I was going to stock it with corals and fish later. I had a teaming pod population at that time and spent a nice chunk of change on a frag of blue zooanthids. I watched in horror as the pods striped the rock bare in about a week. I didn't think pods would eat zooanthids till I saw it with my own eyes. A big one would run across the top and make them close up, then they would go to work on them. In hind sight I probably could have put some other food in for the pods, but I was a newbie (still am) so what did I know?

 

[spongebob lover]

Finn dood i think zoos are ok if you add them after the cycle is done and some other softies ... i mean may be hook up with someone who can frag a few zoos so you can start from there.
But yeah if you were about to add sps, i don't konw i'd think it twice just because they're so sensitive and hard to take care for

 

[dnjan]

I'm not trying to be argumentative ( wish I had spell check here).
Just, when the tank is 100% cycled, whats the harm in adding a few mushrooms and button polyps to brighten up the bare rock?
I'm not advocating loading it up with expensive sps.

The real harm is that those first "easy" corals (mushrooms, star polyps, etc.) tend to spread quite easily, and can cause problems in the future if/when you decide to add SPS.

Spend the time after adding fish to carefully think about what you would like to have, and where. Mushrooms are very difficult to completely remove once they are established.

Also, don't add any of the "easy" corals until after you have had them in a quarentine tank. I acquired my first (and fortunately only) flatworm infestation on a harmless-looking mushroom rock that I added without quarentining about 4 or 5 years ago. Didn't see a single flatworm on the rock when I put in in, but a couple of days later I saw some brownish-red dots only on that rock. Within a week - flatworm convention all over!

 

[spongebob lover]

ouch Don .
i have been there and it's horrible when you have flatworms in the tank.

 

[dnjan]

All because as a noobie back then, I didn't know you were supposed to quarentine corals too ...

 

[joshinjosh]

thanks guys, i'm leaning toward adding fish first then coral.

pods eat zoos?!?!

josh

 

[mfinn]

I didn't realize this was a sps tank.
Copepods don't eat healthy zoanthids.