Feeding Coral Food

[Akrite]

I run Radion Pros over a 120 gallon tank and while colors of my corals look good my growth sucks. So I want to start feeding coral food but I need advice on what to start with. What brands are you guys using, how do you feed, what time of day and how often?

I started dosing amino acids two weeks ago and haven't seen any difference. I have 10 wrasses and a tang that get fed pellet or flakes 3 times a day and mysis once a day so I don't think my tank is under fed. I also have a Eshopps R300 sump/refugium(not sure how many gallons it holds) with a Vertex Alpha 200 crammed in there with a lot of chaeto in the refugium.

 

[droth335]

We feed a DIY reef mix (mostly targeted to fish) daily and feed a mixture of coral frenzy & NLS micro feeder 1-2x per week. In one tank (SPS dominant) I feed the corals with lights out because the PE is much better at night. The other tank gets fed in the evening with lights on.

 

[Hentz]

Every tank is different, but here is my routine.

- 20 Gallon water change weekly
- Dosing 2 Capfuls of Tech M (Nightly)
- Mix Marine Snow, Oyster Feast, and Coral Frenzy (Nightly)
- Skimmer off from Feeding at night - Morning when I wake up.

I'm also running a refuge full of Chaeto.

I honestly free pour the coral foods into a cup at night. I have nothing except my water changes and doses of Mag measured.
My SPS are blooming, colorful, and exploding in growth.

 

[trueblackpercula]

I use Pappone and it's amazing and cost less then $20 to make 800ml.

 

[Msleckro]

What intensity do you have your lights set at? I also have two radion pro's over my 120g and had the intensity at 75%. My colors were dull and growth wasn't great. I lowered my lights to 55% and have noticed a big difference in the color and growth in the past 2 weeks.

 

[trueblackpercula]

this may help
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2332173

 

[Akrite]

What intensity do you have your lights set at? I also have two radion pro's over my 120g and had the intensity at 75%. My colors were dull and growth wasn't great. I lowered my lights to 55% and have noticed a big difference in the color and growth in the past 2 weeks.

My intensity is at 45% for the last two weeks, before that it peaked at 60%. Most of my corals have good color and a couple were a little pale and have darkened since lowering the intensity. I think 50% is my sweet spot.

 

[Piper27]

Do you guys actually notice growth from feeding coral foods? I have not, mostly more healthy looking coral if anything. Assuming they werent before. Other than that i havent ever seen extra growth from feeding anything extra.

 

[trueblackpercula]

Do you guys actually notice growth from feeding coral foods? I have not, mostly more healthy looking coral if anything. Assuming they werent before. Other than that i havent ever seen extra growth from feeding anything extra.

I see very good results and growth. If your not seeing results maybe what your feeding them is not enough.

 

[hart24601]

Posted this a few times as feeding seems to have come up a lot recently. Study showing SPS (at least the type tested) has dramatic growth with feeding. Even when natural seawater is being used.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blo...rine-shrimp-drastically-increase-their-growth

 

[AcroporAddict]

Posted this a few times as feeding seems to have come up a lot recently. Study showing SPS (at least the type tested) has dramatic growth with feeding. Even when natural seawater is being used.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blo...rine-shrimp-drastically-increase-their-growth

Pocillopora is an aquatic weed to begin with, and has always been a fast grower, whether you feed it intentionally or not. But I am sure any available food will aid in growth.

For me, the question is is it really necessary or desireable to feed corals? Personally, I think not. If you have kept SPS corals for any long period of time, it becomes a big pain when one type starts to grow more than the other, starts to overshadow others, and requires pruning or removal from the system itself. If you are purposely wanting to frag SPS and sell them to make money from your tank, maybe. But I would prefer healthy, slow growing corals to fast growing corals any day. Feed your fish and you feed your corals. I have never purposely fed my SPS in my 465 gallon reef, and I have multiple SPS colonies over a foot across.

Overall, it is a big pain to keep large SPS colonies trimmed down, and sometimes you can't and have to remove the entire colony to keep the light accessible for the other corals in the reef.

So I will always prefer a slower growing coral and see no need to facilitate growth in them, when fish poop has always given excellent colors and healthy SPS in my reefs.

 

[Piper27]

I see very good results and growth. If your not seeing results maybe what your feeding them is not enough.

I am not seeing extra growth because i already feed enough from the start by just feeding my fish and supplimenting the fish food. I think it would be hard for me to prove that my corals were growing more at this point. How would i tell the difference in a normal growth spurt and a growth spurt from feeding?

 

[trueblackpercula]

I am not seeing extra growth because i already feed enough from the start by just feeding my fish and supplimenting the fish food. I think it would be hard for me to prove that my corals were growing more at this point. How would i tell the difference in a normal growth spurt and a growth spurt from feeding?

Based on the study I did it's very evident that the Sps i target feed showed a positive reaction to it. I will also say that the Sps that I target feed had not RTN or STN from the base and the colors were very vibrant. Now if the structure of a small pyolp stony corals comprise of over less just say 50% of feeder pyolps then One must ask themselves does this animal need to be feed if it has so many many mouths?
You decide I already have.
Michael

 

[Akrite]

this may help
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2332173

Took me a while to read the whole thread but it has a lot of good information in there. Its a little more work than buy a bottle with magic inside but its hard to argue withe the results. Thanks for the link

 

[trueblackpercula]

Took me a while to read the whole thread but it has a lot of good information in there. Its a little more work than buy a bottle with magic inside but its hard to argue withe the results. Thanks for the link

Oh no problem that's what we are all here to do is help each other when in need. I have tried a lot and have found that the pappone works well for my tank. I really think for $20 bucks it's worth a try. I know I have to feed my Sps for several reason. One my tank is ULNS, I have a lot of medium sized Sps and they are all competing for the same food source and I like to feed the life in the tank that helps filter my water.