slapshot
Active member
I think Steve Weast's approach to feeding his cold water tank is genius, we just need to replicate that but on a much larger scale for tropical species. Concentrate as much small particulate food as possible *correction: concentrate the appropriate amount of particulate food* in the tank in a given amount of time and then let the rest get filtered out, all with automation. If you can grow enough live food to create the proper food density in your tank on a regular basis, even better. IME, sun corals do great with this method of feeding as well and it practically eliminates the need to target feed them. Larger LPS like Rhizo's and large dendro's may still benefit from occasional target feeding of larger foods but can go for weeks without and still look very good. Most of the time I could never see with the naked eye what my corals were eating but they were definitely eating. In a tank full of gorgonians there may not even be much food left over to filter out after the first 30 minutes or so. That is another thing... these are suspension feeders, they filter particles out from your water. In other words, they are filters in themselves and convert food to energy, growth and reproduction. A densely populated NPS tank will do better than a sparsely populated one because no matter what you need a certain food density, but a sparsely populated tank has lots of extra uneaten food. Then you get pests like aiptasia!
So Mike, I've seen this before from you. You only fed your tank a couple of times a day, right? Currently I feed every hour. What you are saying is I would be better feeding more every 4 hours. Is that what you are saying? Thanks!
Don