Leather/ Soft Corals Only

[Bomber]

I have a marine reef tank, but i only have leather/ soft corals, so i am wondering what do i need to add? should i add Magnesium, calcium, Strontium ect.

The corals i have in there now are 2 spaghetti leathers, 2 colt corals, a lot of different mushrooms, Xenia, cabbage coral, hairy leather, and polyps

Thanks

 

[Lynden]

Your water changes will take care of everything most likely. Few to no additives are needed in my opinion for softies.

 

[SkiFletch]

Your water changes will take care of everything most likely. Few to no additives are needed in my opinion for softies.

Agreed. Softies really don't care much about calc/alk/mg. Waterchanges will keep them happy.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Just to save SH some breath, if you do decide to go with additives, NEVER do so blindly. Good rule of thumb there...never buy an additive without buying a test kit for said additive.

 

[steelhealr]

 

[1entra]

Sorry to be jumping in your thread Bomber, but I'm just curious if you have hard corals do you need to dose or should frequent water changes take care of the matter?

 

[Musho3210]

dose fish food to feed the fish, it contains plenty of nutrients that some of the softies may use.

 

[1entra]

Yea thats fine for softies but what about LPS hard corals...?

 

[chrissaysyes]

Thats funny, me and the owner at the LFS got in a chat today about whether or not corals absorbed any nutrients from flake or pellets. There was a clown bringing flake to some paly polyps and we didnt know if it was cool or if it was just silly.

 

[SkiFletch]

Thats funny, me and the owner at the LFS got in a chat today about whether or not corals absorbed any nutrients from flake or pellets. There was a clown bringing flake to some paly polyps and we didnt know if it was cool or if it was just silly.

Depends on what corals Chris . Many including Zoanthids, Palythoa, Euphyllia, Bubble, Elegance, Blastomussa, Acanthastrea, Mushrooms, Anemones, and more can and will readily eat foods of varying sizes. Clownfish commonly feed their hosts in the wild, so the fact that it brought the flake to the paly is normal behavior. Did the paly close up on the food and gobble it up?

 

[chrissaysyes]

It actually went in between two polyps. But I never realized they would accept flake!

 

[Lynden]

Palys eat damn near everything, one of mine ate a shed shrimp antenna, on end; took all day. They are also the only animals in my tank to regularly eat shed amphipod skins; everything else rejects them.

Many soft corals such as Xenia feed primarily by absorbing nutrients directly from the water column, so I would suppose they can be "fed" fish foods.

 

[SkiFletch]

Amen Lynden. My giant palythoa ate a whole hermit crab molt once. Sometimes I wonder if the things would eat my finger if I let them try...