Eric's "famous" coral food recipe

[michaelg]

Thanks- Ed- I know that one of the names dropped, but for the life of me, still stay confused Good stores in the DC/baltimore area are
www.reefstore.com (northern VA)
www.exoticaquatics.com (B-more)
maybe
www.roozens.com (south east side of DC outside the beltway).

You can always pop over to www.wamas.org and let people know you are coming into the area if you want to see some tanks. We have some prop peeps in the area that I can send you their e-mail contacts as well if you are looking for frags...

Michael

 

[Obi-dad]

the exoticaquatic link says Ft Lauderdale, FL

 

[MarineMark]

Shows what a noob i am to this site, i didn't know he had a book

 

[michaelg]

OOPS- was missing the last "s" on the URL. It's fixed now.

 

[EdKruzel]

michaelg,
Thanks for the links. I will be in the Front Royal area for 15wks on business.

I'll give you a shout once I get settled. I'd love to check out some tanks and browse the stores.

Thanks again,
Ed

 

[dgphelps]

michaelg, a few pages back you mention that it costs about $12 for you to fill up a blender. I was trying to price out the stuff in the ingredients and this is what I came up with.

Shrimp, clams, mussels, oysters, etc at grocery, enough for about $9
enriched brine shrimp and mysid from LFS i pack each $9.50
Golden pearls two sizes about 5.5 ounces $11
Cyclopeeze 30 grams $11
Powdered marine flake, who doesn't have this lying around? $0
Tahitian blend 125 ml $14
Spirulina powder 6 gram $0.95
Nori 20 grams $1.95
Total $57.40 not including shipping should you have to have it shipped...

Are the amounts for the items I have above wrong or do you just put in different things? Also, this does not include any DTs...

I am trying to keep my per blender cost down to at least $30 without leaving out important food items that my tank may need. I have a 29 gallon with 4 clarkei clowns, 1 frogspawn, 1 galaxea, many gsp and zoanthids, some mushrooms, and xenia. Not to mention my pods, tube worms, and sandbed inhabitants.

Any ideas or suggestions for me on helpful items etc. Thanks alot for your help and know that I love that I am not the only one who wants to know how to make my own batch of smelly nasty stuff that I wouldn't drink in a lifetime.

-Daniel

 

[EricHugo]

I usually spend about $40 in ingredients per batch that last many months. The costs you list include some packages that you will use several times making several batches. Whatever the case, doing it this way is a whole lot cheaper than buying frozen flats at the fish store and is a much better food addition.

 

[Okireef]

tag

 

[flaunt]

Eric,
I hope this isn't too off topic for this thread or a silly question, but how do you determine what is the "correct" amount of this food to feed at a time? Normally I gauge it by how cloudy the water becomes with all those fine particles zooming around the tank... How do you do it?

Thanks.

 

[EdKruzel]

Okireef,
Please observe at the bottom of the page is a link to subscribe to a perticular thread.

This helps to save on server spce as well as people receiveing notice when there hasn't been any new information posted.

Flaunt,
I like to begin with slightly less than I was feeding initially with prepared foods.
With more nutrition and less waste you don't need as much.
It will also take some time for the corals and fauna to adjust to the feedings.
Beginning slow and building will also help to reduce the chance of an algae outbreak.

Ed

 

[EricHugo]

Depends on the tank - how it's set up, what's in it.

 

[Mariner]

I feed a blended mix of shrimp, mussells, spirulina flake, garlic extract, nori and vitamin supplement (Kent Zoe) to my fish in the evening just before lights out. I just ordered some golden pearls -- didn't read this thread before hand so I didn't order the smallest size that Eric recommended, but the next two sizes up. If I added the GP's to the mix and fed in the evening would this likely be sufficient nutrition for the corals in my 75g mixed reef? Should I place another order for the smaller size GP's? I think Eric mentioned that he doesn't use everything in the recipe every time -- What else from Eric's recipe should I add for a good balanced coral food?

My corals are:
xenia (lots)
star polyps
several mushrooms
1 tubipora musica
1 fox/ridge (nemenzophyllia)
1 platygyra
1 anthelia
1 green acro
a few small montipora (digi & cap)
2 sinularia

thanks,
Mariner

 

[PoggiPJ]

Slow Dripping fish Recipe?

Slow Dripping fish Recipe?

Hi Eric,
I've been a follower of your recipe for some time now. I recently purchased a Knight Medical enteral feeding pump, and for the last several days Ive been dripping it in slowly, at about 125ml per hour. I've been dosing about 1 litre a day into my two tanks, which are plumbed together at roughly 300 gals. No cyano, which surprised me.
The other surprise, unless it's my imagination, is that my corals are expanding more and looking even healthier than before. Have you done this or heard of anyone else doing it? I'm curious about your thoughts on how much would be too much.

 

[EricHugo]

What else from Eric's recipe should I add for a good balanced coral food?

The recipe itself is the good balanced food. It's not necessary to add everything exactly as it is listed, but just as a complex cake recipe won;t be the same cake when you add subtract and substitute ingredients, neither will this. There is no "minimum" list that does the job just fine or I would have posted it like that in the first place.

My corals are:
xenia (lots) - won;t capture prey
star polyps won;t capture prey
several mushrooms
1 tubipora musica minimal prey capture
1 fox/ridge (nemenzophyllia) minimal prey capture
1 platygyra
1 anthelia won;t capture prey
1 green acro
a few small montipora (digi & cap)
2 sinularia


Pete: I bought two medical IV pumps to do this from an aquarist in Tampa - he swore they worked. They didn't. He won't respond to my emails. The company has been bought out, and no support for the pumps. Consequently, I wish I could compare notes with you.

But, every other time I have tried to do constant feeding, the results were stellar. Problem is, I never found anything that kept working for very long...hence why I bought the dosing pumps. sigh.

 

[MarineMark]

So xenia and star polyps won't benefit at all from the feedings, what corals benefit from this,
i currently have :

monti. digitata
red brain open
worm brain
candy cane
torch
hammer
several leather corals
kenya tree
pipe organ
red / green / blue mushrooms
anthelia
donut coral
green star polyp
cabbage coral

i want to get into SPS more in my main tank too

Would i benefit from preparing a mix like this ?

 

[nine9d]

Forgive me if this has been asked, is that frozen cyclop-eeze?

 

[Mariner]

Eric,
Thanks much for your response to my earlier post. What you said comparing the coral food recipe to a cake recipe made lots of sense, and I think I'll just try to get as close to the recipe as I can.
I was pretty well aware (thanks to reading after you) which of my corals would prey capture and which wouldn't. My thought in asking the original question and listing my corals was that perhaps the few corals that I do have that prey capture would need/use some of the recipe ingredients more that others. I.E., maybe acro would like golden pearls but wouldn't notice at all if I left out shrimp. In other words, I was looking for an abridged recipe that would feed the specific corals I have and leave off ingredients that my particular corals don't really need.
So much for that idea
thanks for your help,
Mariner

 

[bastion666]

I made some of this "coral chow" up this weekend. I basically went with the following:

8 oz seafood (clams and mussels)
8 oz frozen (mysis shrimp and enriched brine)
16 oz by volume dried (GP's mostly, vibraglow, some marine flake)
2-3 Tbs Zoecon (no super selco available)
1 Tbs Tahitian Blend

This made up about 20 oz of a food, in a light paste texture. Using 1 quart zip top bags, I was able to make 5 packages, all very thin. What should the consistancy of the food be?

I took some of the fresh mix, about 1-2 tsp worth and added it to the tank. Wow, entire tank clouded and skimmer shutdown for about 6 hours. Okay, a tad bit too much on the first run. I'll start with maybe 1/2 tsp frozen and go from there.

Does this sound about right?

 

[kbd]

Re: Slow Dripping fish Recipe?

Re: Slow Dripping fish Recipe?

and for the last several days Ive been dripping it in slowly, at about 125ml per hour. I've been dosing about 1 litre a day into my two tanks, which are plumbed together at roughly 300 gals. No cyano, which surprised me.

Pete, Eric

Any concerns about decomposition ? After all, I guess that the food is thawed and warm for much of a day if you are using this method.

Pete, I guess you first dissolve a "cube" in tankwater ?

kim

 

[EricHugo]

I use the dry Clop-Eze, mostly, but prefer the frozen. A matter of availability, mostly.

Bastion - sounds about right, and yes maybe a little much if you wil use it regularly, but once in a while I like "fogging the tank"

Kim, I keep it frozen. In a big way. All frozen foods have a short life once they are in the fridge - esepcially if you use a feeding spoon or whatever that touches tank water and then hits the bag of food. Lots of bacteria!