Biological filtration in a tank with no fish?

[wildmanzeke]

Hey brother,

Just wandering, Can you do a propagation tank with no live rock? The only thing going in would be frags.

[herranton]

Hey brother,

Just wandering, Can you do a propagation tank with no live rock? The only thing going in would be frags.

Can you? Yeah

 

It would be a lot of work though.

[wildmanzeke]

why? There would be nothing putting out ammonia or nitrite. There would be chemical filtration.

[sakana8]

Actually, corals do give out wastes after they catch food into their mouths.

[herranton]

There would be no place for bacteria to colonize. You would be stuck doing a lot of water changes, especially if you are putting in recently frag'd corals

[wildmanzeke]

From what i've read my impression is that fragged corals give off more of a toxin than anything. and that's what carbon's for. And yeah i get the feeding thing. Sorry, i should provide more info. It would only be for zoa's.

[herranton]

From what i've read my impression is that fragged corals give off more of a toxin than anything. and that's what carbon's for. And yeah i get the feeding thing. Sorry, i should provide more info. It would only be for zoa's.

There would still be little bits of flesh floating around the tank decomposing. You would need a fair bit of LR to deal with it. Its not that it is impossible, but I think it would be way easier just to add a couple 5 pounds of rock to the tank. Maybe hide it in an ac110 if you don't like the looks of it. Also, there would be almost zero anaerobic bacteria.