Fallow Period

[dustin.emmanuel]

Hello everyone! I'm a very new beginner into saltwater hobby. I have a few questions about fallow periods.

I started around November 5, 2025. I buy fish from online vendor "aquariumartsonline.com". Bought a longnose butterfly that turns out to have ich, which I discovered while looking at the white spot. Anyway the whole tank turn out dead not from ich but from ammonia spike. I'm left off with ich in the tank. I read a lot of r2r forums and youtube vid about QT in which I started doing.

The DT is empty with no fish around November 27th. I went to a LFS 3 days after to see whats up and saw a coral I liked, pick it up and put it inside the DT. The coral was in a tank with fish in it. Then on December 17th, I met with a guy that have a coral farm, has setups all over. He also has fish inside, with 3 different tables. I remember he got a powdered brown on one of his tank, and bunch of small fish on others. Later at December 27th, I went to my LFS (different one) and pick up bunch of corals too, otw home met with a lady that has BTA with 2 pair of clowns.

After all of this, I have not add a new thing to the tank anymore. All corals are thriving and growing except for my zoas for some reason.


I have 1 purple tang i got from petco and valentini puffer and 1 chromis that has been on therapeutic copper power treated for 30 days and just need to prazi sometimes next week.

I have a 120 gallon.
Is the fallow period resets or continued?

 

[fishywishy]

Are you sure the fish died from an ammonia spike, and are you sure the fish actually had ich? In a tank that size, it’s very hard to get an ammonia spike big enough to kill fish. Also, white spots are not always ich.

Technically the fallow period reset on December 27 because you added new corals. But if you’re not worried about anything coming in on the corals and you’re just concerned about when you first went fallow in November, you’re almost ready to add fish again. It’s been 69 days since November, so I would wait until day 76 to add fish if it was actually ich, since ich has a 76day fallow period.

 

[W31Olds]

Did you only get the Anemone from the Lady or the Anemone plus the Clowns? You should be fine with the Anemone. The Corals can be a problem especially if they were in with Fish. By the time you finish QT Prazi and an observation period you should be around 60 days and good to go.

 

[dustin.emmanuel]

Yes, I'm postive it was ich. I purchased the butterfly with a small sailfin and blue jaw trigger. The butterfly actually is eating the 3rd day it arrives and has been a champ and aggresive, although it has ichs showing because of a damsel chasing him. I love to see the tank eats and will overfeed them sometimes knowing the skimmer will handle it (my rookie mistakes). Coincidentally, my protein skimmer's cable snap off while i was checking, so the whole time I was over feeding it, the left over food turn into ammonia. The butterfly ended up dying first, then a few days later tank is giving up foul death smell. Knowing this I did not water change, the healthy looking sailfin and trigger who were swimming around suddenly died the next day. Those rotten smell was from my snails dying and rotting inside, so thats how it happens.

These are the picture, the sailfin was like that 2 days before it died. It look bad, but you can see small dots there

 

[dustin.emmanuel]

Did you only get the Anemone from the Lady or the Anemone plus the Clowns? You should be fine with the Anemone. The Corals can be a problem especially if they were in with Fish. By the time you finish QT Prazi and an observation period you should be around 60 days and good to go.

I only get the anemone. So prazi treatment lasted only a week and do a water change after I'm pretty sure

 

[mmorrison55]

You say everything is dead?

What’s in the tank now as far as livestock?

If there is nothing, and everything is dead, I’d personally start over.it would be easier and quicker than going 60+ days fallow. If you can start over, do yourself a favor and get some live rock to kickstart your tank

If you do have livestock, and you want to eradicate ich in the tank you could try hyposalinity or remove all remaining livestock and treat with copper.

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2024 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

You may need a fishmedics advice.

FYI… to make them aware of your thread, just post with #fishmedics

You can tell them by the fishmedics banner under their name

 

[dustin.emmanuel]

You say everything is dead?

What’s in the tank now as far as livestock?

If there is nothing, and everything is dead, I’d personally start over.it would be easier and quicker than going 60+ days fallow. If you can start over, do yourself a favor and get some live rock to kickstart your tank

If you do have livestock, and you want to eradicate ich in the tank you could try hyposalinity or remove all remaining livestock and treat with copper.

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2024 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

You may need a fishmedics advice.

FYI… to make them aware of your thread, just post with #fishmedics

You can tell them by the fishmedics banner under their name

Only fish and snail has died, though that was on November. The hermits I added still live, and asterina starfish are still alive. The corals are all still alive, in fact I got a mushroom colony that wont stop spreading. As of fish I have 3 in qt 55 gal, i dont think I have to restart. Although the dt has some hair algae issues

 

[dustin.emmanuel]

Only fish and snail has died, though that was on November. The hermits I added still live, and asterina starfish are still alive. The corals are all still alive, in fact I got a mushroom colony that wont stop spreading. As of fish I have 3 in qt 55 gal, i dont think I have to restart. Although the dt has some hair algae issues

I just want to know when it is safe for me to add the 3 fish, or perhaps a new order from dr reef quarantined fish

 

[mmorrison55]

Ok, so only inverts and corals in the tank…

Then fallow is generally considered to be at least 60 and up to 72 days

 

[Euphyllia97]

what temperature is your tank? Fallow period for ich is normally 45 days at 81F, increasing to 60 days with lower temperatures. 76 days is based on an experiment which is not really comparable to our tanks (it was in axenic water) including another safety margin.

Your fallow period did reset on 27 December due to coral addition. As you are already that deep in, assume the fish in the coral tank were carriers of ich. Even if they don’t show signs.

My advice. Ramp up your temperature slowly to 81F, If your corals react badly, lower it down again. If corals are fine and tank is running at 81F. You should be good to go in 2 weeks. (Would say 20 february)

 

[W31Olds]

From the pic, your Sailfin looked to be very thin and in poor condition. Jay recommends 60 days Fallow so you are close and when your fish finish QT and an observation period, you should be there. I wouldn't be too concerned about a snail or two or three dying. They don't seem to ship well and are sensitive to acclimation and water parameters. I've lost many that just seem to die for no reason. Be mindful of cross contamination between your QT Tank and your Display Tank. If your tank is already around 77-78 degrees, I wouldn't adjust it.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello everyone! I'm a very new beginner into saltwater hobby. I have a few questions about fallow periods.

I started around November 5, 2025. I buy fish from online vendor "aquariumartsonline.com". Bought a longnose butterfly that turns out to have ich, which I discovered while looking at the white spot. Anyway the whole tank turn out dead not from ich but from ammonia spike. I'm left off with ich in the tank. I read a lot of r2r forums and youtube vid about QT in which I started doing.

The DT is empty with no fish around November 27th. I went to a LFS 3 days after to see whats up and saw a coral I liked, pick it up and put it inside the DT. The coral was in a tank with fish in it. Then on December 17th, I met with a guy that have a coral farm, has setups all over. He also has fish inside, with 3 different tables. I remember he got a powdered brown on one of his tank, and bunch of small fish on others. Later at December 27th, I went to my LFS (different one) and pick up bunch of corals too, otw home met with a lady that has BTA with 2 pair of clowns.

After all of this, I have not add a new thing to the tank anymore. All corals are thriving and growing except for my zoas for some reason.


I have 1 purple tang i got from petco and valentini puffer and 1 chromis that has been on therapeutic copper power treated for 30 days and just need to prazi sometimes next week.

I have a 120 gallon.
Is the fallow period resets or continued?

To be safe, I would start a 60 day fallow period starting at the last coral addition on 12/27. You found most likely just go 45 days, but I’d play it safe and do 60.

 

[dustin.emmanuel]

My tank parameters have been stable for a while. Temp is around 77-78 F, everything is okay other than the hair algae, which my purple tang will eat soon. Okay, from what I gathered is that everything was reset so starting from December 27th. I might do 76 days after all, just to be cautious. Quarentine is not fun to do, I feel like I spent more money on it than the fish. Is Dr reef Quarentine fish a good source to buy fish? I'm into that marine betta they have

 

[Jay Hemdal]

My tank parameters have been stable for a while. Temp is around 77-78 F, everything is okay other than the hair algae, which my purple tang will eat soon. Okay, from what I gathered is that everything was reset so starting from December 27th. I might do 76 days after all, just to be cautious. Quarentine is not fun to do, I feel like I spent more money on it than the fish. Is Dr reef Quarentine fish a good source to buy fish? I'm into that marine betta they have

I haven’t bought fish from them, but I understand their quarantine methods and they should work well….certainly better than no or partial quarantine options.