Slowing down for success, the patient reefer’s way to “pre-stock” a tank

By Scott Fellman on Apr 24, 2010

Having set up more than a few reef systems in my time, I never seem to be surprised at my true hobbyist impatience! Let’s face it—once we get the plumbing done, the lighting tweaked, leaks sealed, and aquascaping set, we’re absolutely hell-bent on getting some fishes and corals in there! I mean—we’ve waited so long for “first water” in the tank that it’s time to enjoy the fruits of our labor. We need to get the fishes and corals in there right away…even just a few.

Think about it for a minute. Would you like to move into a house, which didn’t have a refrigerator full of food? I wouldn’t, for sure. Unlike humans, fishes seem to have not lost their genetic programming for grazing and hunting for food. Let’s face it—most of the waking hours of reef animals are devoted to acquiring food and reproducing (hmm…not a bad lifestyle, actually, huh?). They need to have some food sources to hunt and graze for. That’s reality.

So why not help provide for your animals’ needs by supplementing their prepared diet with some “pre-stocked” natural foods in their new home? No, I’m not talking about tossing in a few frozen brine shrimp hours before the first fishes go in the tank—I’m talking about a deliberate, systematic attempt to cultivate some living food sources within the system before a fish or coral ever hits the water! Imagine a “new” reef system offering numerous foraging opportunities for it’s new inhabitants!

“C’mon, Scott. You’re crazy! It could take months to accomplish this. I’ve just spent thousands of dollars setting up this tank and you want me to keep this tank devoid of fishes and corals while the mysids reproduce?”

Wow—you made a good argument! That’s what I would say too! Yet, in my last two systems, this is exactly what I did. And you know what? I was keeping Pipefishes and Dragonets in the tank from stocking day one with no losses, and fat and happy fishes actively foraging for their natural food sources between regular feedings. And I’m no genius, trust me. I don’t have half the skills many of you do but I have succeeded with many delicate “hard-to-feed” fishes over my hobby “career.” Delicate fishes require careful handling, regardless of who the aquarist is. Why not utilize a simple technique to give these animals every advantage possible?

How do you do it? It’s really quite simple, actually. Once you’ve got the system set up, you simply start adding cultures of copepods, amphipods, etc., along with other live plankton and micro fauna. Our friends at Reed Mariculture offer dozens of different pathogen-free live cultures from which to choose, or you can obtain many for free by simply asking a buddy for a clump of Chaetomorpha macroalgae from his/her sump.

Just shake the Chaeto clump into your tank and you’ve “innoculated” your system with some natural food sources. Of course, make sure it’s a healthy friend’s tank that you’re obtaining the Chaeto from, or you’ve also seeded your tank with Bryopsis, flatworms, and other nasty stuff.

Wait a minimum of four weeks—and even up to four months if you can stand it, and you will have an amazing population of micro and macro fauna upon which your fishes can forage between feedings. Having a “pre-stocked” system helps reduce a considerable amount of stress for new inhabitants, particularly for those fishes that have reputations as “delicate” feeders.

You can run the lights on a regular cycle or you could be more economical and just run them a few hours a day until you start stocking with fishes and corals. You can lightly “feed” the tank with foods like frozen or live rotifers, baby brine shrimp, or even a pinch or two of dried food once in a while.

Break out the flashlight and the magnifier once in a while and check out the action! You’ll see a large population of copepods, amphipods, and other creatures crawling about, free from fishy predators, foraging on algae and detritus, and happily reproducing in your tank.

It takes a certain patience- and a certain leap of faith-to do this. I’ve been doing it for a while and I can tell you it works. If you like delicate or difficult-to-feed fishes, it’s a technique that could help you succeed where you’ve failed in the past. Trust me, I’ve been there. The point of this practice is to help develop—or I should say—to encourage the development of supplemental natural food sources in the system before their populations can be devastated by your fishes and corals.

It’s not always easy to try something a little out of the ordinary, or a bit against the grain of popular practice, but I commend you for even thinking about the idea. At the very least, it may give you pause to how you stock your tank in the future: Herbivores first, micro predators last. Allow your system to mature and develop at least some populations of fauna for these fishes to supplement their diets with. You’ll develop a whole new appreciation for the hobby when you slow down for success.

Until next time.

Stay wet.

Scott Fellman

facebook.com/scott.fellman

http://www.mrsaltwatertank.com Mark Callahan

Is this reason enough to buy that Solana I want?! Surely it’d fly with the wife…

I like the idea and I think it’s something reef junkies would be up for.
http://www.mrsaltwatertank.com Mark Callahan

Is this reason enough to buy that Solana I want?! Surely it’d fly with the wife…

I like the idea and I think it’s something reef junkies would be up for.
Steve Bitter

Good thoughts Scott, it’s important for us to be reminded of this. It drives my wife crazy, but every time I set up a new reef tank I leave it for 6 months with no fish. We avoid lots of the typical algae issues this way too, since there’s minimal food input going in and the sandbed ecology seens to mature quicker. Sometimes I would explain this philosophy to my customers in the retail setting when they asked what kind of fish I had. I got a lot of approving nods when they heard that I still didn’t have any, but almost nobody wanted to wait more than a week to start adding fish to their own tank. It’s probably even more true of hobbyists who have been at it for a while- once we’ve had a little success, I think we’re all guilty of thinking we’re better at this than the average reefer!
Steve Bitter

Good thoughts Scott, it’s important for us to be reminded of this. It drives my wife crazy, but every time I set up a new reef tank I leave it for 6 months with no fish. We avoid lots of the typical algae issues this way too, since there’s minimal food input going in and the sandbed ecology seens to mature quicker. Sometimes I would explain this philosophy to my customers in the retail setting when they asked what kind of fish I had. I got a lot of approving nods when they heard that I still didn’t have any, but almost nobody wanted to wait more than a week to start adding fish to their own tank. It’s probably even more true of hobbyists who have been at it for a while- once we’ve had a little success, I think we’re all guilty of thinking we’re better at this than the average reefer!
Steve Bitter

Good thoughts Scott, it’s important for us to be reminded of this. It drives my wife crazy, but every time I set up a new reef tank I leave it for 6 months with no fish. We avoid lots of the typical algae issues this way too, since there’s minimal food input going in and the sandbed ecology seens to mature quicker. Sometimes I would explain this philosophy to my customers in the retail setting when they asked what kind of fish I had. I got a lot of approving nods when they heard that I still didn’t have any, but almost nobody wanted to wait more than a week to start adding fish to their own tank. It’s probably even more true of hobbyists who have been at it for a while- once we’ve had a little success, I think we’re all guilty of thinking we’re better at this than the average reefer!
http://www.oceansmotions.com Paul

I wouldn’t call it a rant, great advice! .
http://www.oceansmotions.com Paul

I wouldn’t call it a rant, great advice! .
http://www.oceansmotions.com Paul

I wouldn’t call it a rant, great advice! .
Mike

I always wondered about that part of our “reef building” ideas as well. Another big one is fish seem to precede the reef, where as in nature its typically the other way around!
Mike

I always wondered about that part of our “reef building” ideas as well. Another big one is fish seem to precede the reef, where as in nature its typically the other way around!
James C

I always assume things like this concept would be common knowledge amongst reefers new or old, but i guess everyone needs that reminder or suggestion to do things that may seem simple and obvious. Nice job!
James C

I always assume things like this concept would be common knowledge amongst reefers new or old, but i guess everyone needs that reminder or suggestion to do things that may seem simple and obvious. Nice job!
paul whitby

Its all about the feeder tentacles.
paul whitby

Its all about the feeder tentacles.
Jim

Great advice Scott. I’m taking your advice and waiting 6 months on my 450 display before adding a single fish.
Jim

Great advice Scott. I’m taking your advice and waiting 6 months on my 450 display before adding a single fish.
DRM

I have a short story to go with this. For a while I’ve had no fish in my tank due to a pH imbalance so my 25G tank didn’t have fish for at least 4 months. During this period the pods had the chance to reproduce, and reproduce… and reproduce some more to the point that you’d think my tank was purposely built for raising pods. Well… pH problems have been fixed, added two lyre-tail damsels and within ONE week the pod population has plummeted to almost none. Now I want more pods .
DRM

I have a short story to go with this. For a while I’ve had no fish in my tank due to a pH imbalance so my 25G tank didn’t have fish for at least 4 months. During this period the pods had the chance to reproduce, and reproduce… and reproduce some more to the point that you’d think my tank was purposely built for raising pods. Well… pH problems have been fixed, added two lyre-tail damsels and within ONE week the pod population has plummeted to almost none. Now I want more pods .
David

Scott definently good advice! As always you are one of the great Sages of the Reefing World! One question though? Why no coral for that amount of time? I wouldn’t think most coral would do anything to the pod populations?
David

Scott definently good advice! As always you are one of the great Sages of the Reefing World! One question though? Why no coral for that amount of time? I wouldn’t think most coral would do anything to the pod populations?
Brian Blank

Love it Scott! When I had my tank first up, I let it run for 6mos without coral and 7mos without fish. It did help but of course, you can still run in to troubles (an ongoing saga for me it seems!).

Slowing down also helps with regreting or making “wishiwoulda” purchases
Brian Blank

Love it Scott! When I had my tank first up, I let it run for 6mos without coral and 7mos without fish. It did help but of course, you can still run in to troubles (an ongoing saga for me it seems!).

Slowing down also helps with regreting or making “wishiwoulda” purchases
Scott Fellman

Thanks for the kind words…no sage here, just an everyday reefer with a big mouth and love of reefkeeping and the written word! Good question about the topic of no coral. My thinking is that you would not introduce any animals (even corals or sessile inverts) that could feed on planktonic life forms. You are right, corals will typically not feed on amphipods, but many of the smaller planktonic forms could become potential meal items to corals. If we approach the preparation and sticking of our reef systems in this sort of wholistic manner, I feel that we’re giving all potential future inhabitants of the tank the same shot at supplementing their nutritional needs with live natural prey items. Sething to consider, nonetheless!
Scott Fellman

Thanks for the kind words…no sage here, just an everyday reefer with a big mouth and love of reefkeeping and the written word! Good question about the topic of no coral. My thinking is that you would not introduce any animals (even corals or sessile inverts) that could feed on planktonic life forms. You are right, corals will typically not feed on amphipods, but many of the smaller planktonic forms could become potential meal items to corals. If we approach the preparation and sticking of our reef systems in this sort of wholistic manner, I feel that we’re giving all potential future inhabitants of the tank the same shot at supplementing their nutritional needs with live natural prey items. Sething to consider, nonetheless!
pickle

This is always good advice, but here’s one thing I would add to make this an easier process to tolerate– set up a second small tank to satisfy your craving while the “main” tank is left empty. It doesn’t have to be fancy, you can make it work just fine using a 20 gallon long with some T5s and a powerfilter. You can pull it off a complete setup for under $150. Once your main tank has matured, you can use this tank as your QT or frag tank.
pickle

This is always good advice, but here’s one thing I would add to make this an easier process to tolerate– set up a second small tank to satisfy your craving while the “main” tank is left empty. It doesn’t have to be fancy, you can make it work just fine using a 20 gallon long with some T5s and a powerfilter. You can pull it off a complete setup for under $150. Once your main tank has matured, you can use this tank as your QT or frag tank.
David

What would be nice is if there was a good source for the sand type critters…worms and such! Only thing I can think of would be to get a scoop of someone with some livelysand, but that could lead you into trouble!
David

What would be nice is if there was a good source for the sand type critters…worms and such! Only thing I can think of would be to get a scoop of someone with some livelysand, but that could lead you into trouble!
Scott Fellman

Pickle, good point about needing another tank during this process!! I think it would be a good idea to try an “Eco Reef” like Jake has written about…

David, there are some good sources for benthic animals, such as worms, snails, etc. One of my favorites is Indo Pacific Sea Farms in Kailua-Kona Hi. There are many others, of course. And if you can hook up with a reefer you can trust, you’ll get the best of both worlds!
Scott Fellman

Pickle, good point about needing another tank during this process!! I think it would be a good idea to try an “Eco Reef” like Jake has written about…

David, there are some good sources for benthic animals, such as worms, snails, etc. One of my favorites is Indo Pacific Sea Farms in Kailua-Kona Hi. There are many others, of course. And if you can hook up with a reefer you can trust, you’ll get the best of both worlds!

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