Best way to feed tank

[jefft321]

Ok so I was reading the thread on feeding corals and I was wondering about feeding the tank (corals and fish).
I feed daily, I use Sprectrum flake food twice a day, then I use a mixture of Rods, and Mysis shrimp mixed with RO/DI water about 5 times a week. I also feed Cyclopleeze, and DT's 2 or 3 times a week. When I feed the mixture of Rods, and Mysis it seems to cloud the water - I thought this was good to feed everything, but I was thinking of adding less RO/DI because it creates such a large amount of mixture ( cloudy water) and the fish really just want to eat the Mysis - not the small stuff. I was wondering what the overall best way to feed was?
I think I might be adding too much. My fish will keep eating so it's hard to figure out how much.

 

[itZme]

Sounds like you are feeding several times what you need for a 90g. You have happy fat fish but the water params and skimmer are going to go crazy.

I made up a batch of mixed ingredients like Rod's food and it has everything in it for corals and fish of all sizes. I feed it about every other day and i feed some fish a few pellets about every 3-4 days.

The batch of food I made has lasted about 6 months and I got rid of 1/3 of it to other people so I will make half the batch I did last time and it should be a 6 mo supply for about $25-30 depending on if I have some of the stuff on hand like phyto or golden pearls, selcon etc...

If I were you I would cut out the flakes unless you have some fish that will only eat them. If so feed them about once a week and throw in some frozen while adding flakes so they get used to knowing that frozen stuff IS food. It also helps your phosphates stay down if you rinse the mysis in RO and then strain it out so you only have the meaty parts to feed. If you are mixing water to feed with something frozen use tank water and not RO.

HTH

 

[jefft321]

Could you post or PM your recipe for the frozen food you make?
So I am ok if I don't feed the fish daily?
What if I go out of town for a few days? Will the fish be ok if I don't feed them for 4 or 5 days?
Thanks, Jeff

 

[4RJN]

I feed only once a day mysis 1 small cube for about 11 small fish and 1 large tang. I feed corals cyclopeeze about 2 times a week and I spot feed the cup corrals 1 time a week with mysis. I agree about the flake food I stop using flake and other dry food awhile ago and it has helped keep the water cleaner and everyone in the tank is surviving just fine.

 

[jefft321]

I try to spot feed corals, but the fish just dive in and get what they want.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

My general philosophy towards feeding is to strive towards feeding nearly constantly in very small amounts. I believe this regimen is better than the typical large meals once or twice a day regimen as it is closer to what you have in the ocean. This is particularly the case for many coral species, which are unable to capture more than very small amounts at any one time.

As far as what food I use, I prefer live and dry food and sometimes use frozen. Live food is obviously the best, but typically impractical unless you are willing to setup a culture system. I like dry food because it's easier to use for continuous feeding. Also, I'm pretty sure that frozen food tends to add more phosphates and other crap directly into your system, unless you rinse it with RO. I do use it, however, because there is tons more variety. I try to feed as varied as possible.

As far as my actual feeding regimen goes, I use a peristaltic feeding pump (the kind they use in hospitals) to deliver a cocktail of Reef Chili, Coral Frenzy, Golden Pearls (of various sizes), Marine Snow, and Selcon. The fish will eat some of the GPs, but this is mainly used to feed the corals. The feeding pump slowly delivers over the course of the entire day. I use a magnetic stirrer to keep the stuff in suspension while it is being dosed. I have my sump return pump going fairly slowly to avoid loosing too much food to my protein skimmer. I also use Tunze 6055s with the Aquasurf to create a resonance wave in my tank. This helps keep food constantly in suspension. On top of the dosing pump, I spot feed my Tubastrea colony and Dendrophyllia usually once every other day with either freeze-dried mysis or krill or with some frozen food (mysis, cyclops, prawn eggs, etc). As far as feeding the fish goes, I like to use an automatic feeder with ORA sinking pellets. However, I think they probably get enough food from the GPs and the insane number of pods I have growing in my tank. They also eat whatever the corals don't grab when I'm spot feeding. I'm planning on plumbing in a refugium and adding a phyto/pod/brine shrimp culture as well. It probably is overkill in the end, but I have a well over-sized skimmer to deal with the mess and use copious amounts of carbon and GFO to deal with the rest.

 

[scottfarcuz]

I spot feed my anemones, and LPS a few times a year. Even then I think its usually just for my entertainment. It's still cool to see a fungia crammin silversides into itself. Other than that I just feed the fish. I use nothing, but frozen foods rinsed under TAP water.

If I'm feeling really dedicated after rinsing/thawing it under running tap water in a brine net I will soak it in some selcon, warner marine vitamins, and crushed b12.

Years ago I would spot feed all my LPS almost daily. They seem to grow about the same for me with daily feedings as next to no feeding. That maybe not the case for someone with a better system that could handle the added feedings. Tank now is geared more toward SPS which I don't go out of my way to feed at all.

Guess my point is your coral (unless non-photosynthetic) will live fine with no direct feeding. IF you start a lot of direct feeding, and water quality suffers from it I don't feel you are ahead at all.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Certain photosynthetic LPS need to be fed in order to thrive at all, such as Duncans, Elegance, and Gonioporas. At least that seems to be the general consensus; I've never kept any of those myself. In general, I don't think spot feeding is a very practical method unless you're talking about corals that need meaty foods (like the above mentioned). For other corals, I think a system of keeping small amounts of food in suspension at all times would be optimal. They just simply don't eat in "meals" like we do.

My tank is very much geared towards soft corals, filter feeders, and non-photosynthetic corals. As such, I need to feed a lot more than an SPS dominant tank would require. Still, I think an SPS tank would benefit from the same feeding strategy, just with a smaller total quantity of food added. Also, I think SPS only really feed at night, so one might only add food during lights-off.

 

[boozerell]

Itzme, I'd be interested in your recipe as well. Can you post it? I think figuring out how much to feed is the hard part for me. Like Jeffr321 said, the fish always seem hungry.

 

[scottfarcuz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11307021#post11307021 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by aninjaatemyshoe
Certain photosynthetic LPS need to be fed in order to thrive at all, such as Duncans, Elegance, and Gonioporas. At least that seems to be the general consensus

This is probably true, and a group I mentally skipped. Up until what I consider very recently these corals weren't something 99.9% of reef keepers had much success with. I'd still like to think new reefkeepers shy away from them until getting a little experience.

I know gonis seem to be getting a better track record, and I've heard the aussie elegance coming in lately are doing pretty well for most people also.

Oh on the coral food recipe Kevin can't give out his secrets. He is planning to undercut rods.:lol: