What to feed a fishless tank?

[Be102]

I have had my tank fallow for about two years now following an ich outbreak.. maybe less but it feels like a very long time .. But now I am going to try to get back into the hobby with mostly inverts and try to add more corals as my corals have been doing well lately.. I placed an order for about 15 random snails and hermits from reefcleaners and they will be coming this week which is exciting but now I am a little confused on what to feed a fishless tank! I will honestly say I havent really fed my tank anything for a very long time *I know its bad but there isnt much inside and the snails and hermits are satisfied with algae and whatnot* but I will like to change that.

I will be adding fish down the line... just plan on moving sooner than later so would rather wait on the groups of fish.


I was thinking some coral food and a combination of other healthy-ish food such as fresh seafood... any other ideas?

 

[brandon429]

cool setup, that's rare to be fallow that long. any common reef food or pellet is ok for the clean up crew, and for sure your bacteria are not dead. specifically, withholding feed didn't starve them, they ate from natural means.

we'd relish in cycle study threads getting to see a common ammonia up/down proof off a cheap test kit for proofs before your first feeding

re proving in 2021 that two years of fallow cannot starve a cycle would upend about 99% of current rules in cycling, so we should do that ideally.

if you started a poll asking if the bacteria were dead or weakened in any way due to your withholdings, 99.9% of respondents will answer heck yes. but .1%, a cable guy from texas would not, and that's ironic.

 

[Be102]

cool setup, that's rare to be fallow that long. any common reef food or pellet is ok for the clean up crew, and for sure your bacteria are not dead. specifically, withholding feed didn't starve them, they ate from natural means.

we'd relish in cycle study threads getting to see a common ammonia up/down proof off a cheap test kit for proofs before your first feeding

re proving in 2021 that two years of fallow cannot starve a cycle would upend about 99% of current rules in cycling, so we should do that ideally.

if you started a poll asking if the bacteria were dead or weakened in any way due to your withholdings, 99.9% of respondents will answer heck yes. but .1%, a cable guy from texas would not, and that's ironic.

It’s actually interesting you mentioned that.. as I am a huge advocate for your rinsing live sand and that also is something I did to my tank.. the only differences since going fallow was the addition of dry rock which has now transformed into live rock where I could not tell you where one begins and the other ends.. I am embarrassed to admit I neglected my tank substantially for months with nothing more than refilling my ato ( when my tank got noisy lol) and that means no water changes as well.. I have since changed that mentality but despite doing that for as long as I did with no food and no additional add ins or witchcraft.. my corals have really thrived and have gained new heads as well as my leather coral multiplying..

Now I am back into the good husbandry of doing water changes and dosing to see what will come of it.. I am going to also start to feed which will greatly help my corals and the inverts will eat whatever algae is left from my neglect!

 

[brandon429]

O gosh that system is way further along than I envisioned

Those are indeed great plump corals! Their association in the tank keeps everything fed fine, nice looking corals there