Tossing around the idea

[sharkbite]

I have a 320gal tank that has to remain fish less for the next 8wks due to a parasite in the main tank. I lost 6 fish and the rest are in QT right now doing well. I was looking at my tank and was thinking about adding corals to my setup. I have a few zoas, few heads of frogspawn and a RBTA. I have four of the marine ecoexotic LED strips over the tank. The main tank has an overflow that drains down into 3 40gal breeder tanks that I have joined with 1" PVC pipe connecting them. In the first tank I just have a filter sock to catch any large particles and waste, then in the second I have some rubble rock and cheato, and in the third I have my skimmer and return pump. I think I may shift everything down one and use the last for a ATO. Is there something that I should look at getting or add to my filtration to keep corals. For the most part I want to keep mostly softies and some LPS, and a few SPS. As for the fish that I have, I have a vlamingi tang, disjardini tang, hippo tang, fox face rabbit fish, and a few chromis. I will mainly add a few small reef safe fish like a melanaris wrasse, two different pairs of clowns, and some sort of blenny and that's pretty much it for fish, I want the corals to add the rest of the color to the tank. What are your thoughts and advice for me. I figured right now would be a great time to add the coral with all of the fish out and then when it's time I can slowly add the fish back.

 

[Mike M]

Sounds like you have the major items you need to keep corals. I am not familiar with the Ecoexotic LEDs and whether they are strong enough to keep corals so I would check on that or maybe someone else can chime in. SPS may be a bit more demanding on water quality depending on what they are. I would just test your parameters and make sure those are in-line. Keep in mind adding rocks, plugs, corals, etc. can extend the time you would need to leave the tank fallow if you are concerned about other parasites and diseases coming in with the new additions.

 

[sharkbite]

I spoke with one of the reps at ecoexotic and explained what I had and what I wanted to start keeping in the tank, and he recommended that I add two of the ecoexotic panarama actinic blue strips. He said the blue spectrum penetrates the water deeper and with these two additions I would be able to keep SPS corals and provide them with the amount of lighting that they would require. We'll see how things work out. Just one question, I didn't know that parasites such as ich and what have you could travel on coral frags. I was planning on putting the fish that I currently have back in the main tank in Feb., so do I need to wait an additional 8wks after the last coral is put in to allow for certain parasites to run their course?

 

[mediccby]

I personally have 1 24" ecoexotic panarama strip on my 20 gal tank. I keep softies just fine if I had a second one I could keep sps.

 

[Ben]

Yes, if you're trying to starve it out you need to wait 8 weeks after the last thing that goes into the tank to be certain it's all dead. Then to keep it that way you'll need to keep any coral frags in quarantine for 8 weeks before adding to the main and do the hypo-salinity quarantine on any fish that are added.

As far as the ecoexotic strips I personally don't think they put out enough light to be useful for anything other than lighting a FOWLR tank or acting as stunner strips. I don't think you'll be happy with just them in the long run especially over a tank that big. They may have added to their product line since the last time I looked at them though so hopefully others that have actual experience with them can chime in.