Gorg Food?

[Fretfreak13]

He RC,

I'm thinking about getting into seahorses and I'd really like to have real gorgonians in the system. I have a photosynthetic gorg, but its not the prettiest thing in the world. Of course the pretty ones are the NPS ones. Anyways, I'm in a college dorm and have a 6 gallon AIO system. That being said, I don't have room to culture a bazillion types of food for these things. Is there a bottled food that would work well that I can just spot feed with?

The tank will also have quite a bit of display macro in there to hopefully help with nitrate problems, but I'm not trying to overload the system and get a ton of algae just from feeding the gorgs. The only other filtration is a ton of LR rubble, a few filter pads, and chemipure elite.

 

[altolamprologus]

NPS gorgs require insane amount of food and it's probably not the best idea to keep one in a tank that small because the nitrates and phosphates produced from feeding them so much are toxic to them.

That said, I feed mine a mix of reef nutrition bottled foods (phytofeast live, roti feast, oysterfeast, and ROE), reef cleaners filter feeder formula, nutrimar ova, and pork blood and they seem to like it. All can be bought at a store, except the filter feeder formula, which can be bought online. I also feed live baby brine shrimp, but that can be left out. You should look into getting a GFO reactor if you are going to get a gorg. I have the bulk reef supply one and I highly recommend it. That combined with display macros and frequent large water changes should be adequate.

 

[altolamprologus]

Oh, and you should get a gorg of the genus Menella. They are one of the easiest, if not the easiest, non photosynthetic gorgonian available.

 

[Fretfreak13]

Thanks for all the info, Alto.

Pork blood? Where on earth did you get that idea? lol

I work at a LFS so I have access to most of that stuff. If I just got a bottled formula, could I just spot feed it, or is it essential that it pulls it out of the water column itself on its own accord? A don't think I can get a reactor. I'm mega limited on space and I want this set up to be really clean looking equipment-wise. Having a reactor sitting on the desk next to it is kind of the opposite of what I"m going for lol

I'm still probably going to wind up with photosynthetic gorgs, but with maybe one of the Menella species (just googled it, very pretty!). Hopefully some day, years down the road and after a lot more research and practice, I will have an enormous, fat, healthy blueberry gorg.

 

[altolamprologus]

Thanks for all the info, Alto.

Pork blood? Where on earth did you get that idea? lol

I work at a LFS so I have access to most of that stuff. If I just got a bottled formula, could I just spot feed it, or is it essential that it pulls it out of the water column itself on its own accord? A don't think I can get a reactor. I'm mega limited on space and I want this set up to be really clean looking equipment-wise. Having a reactor sitting on the desk next to it is kind of the opposite of what I"m going for lol

I'm still probably going to wind up with photosynthetic gorgs, but with maybe one of the Menella species (just googled it, very pretty!). Hopefully some day, years down the road and after a lot more research and practice, I will have an enormous, fat, healthy blueberry gorg.

I got the pork blood idea from a project scripps did with black coral. The gorgs really seem to like it, but it's not necessary.

You could probably get away with not having a reactor if you did one or two large water changes a week.

 

[GreshamH]

Pork and beef blood are old stand bys for feeding fish and inverts. Cell size is decent for replicating phytoplankton.

 

[katekate087]

Can I jump in on this thread? I'm having trouble keeping my gorgs alive. Maybe I'm not feeding tank properly? I'm new to this. My tank is about 8 months old mixed reef 60gl cube 30gl sump/fuge. My purple gorg had to be cut because chunks of its skin was shedding down to the core bone and seems to be doing better but he never fully opens. my lavender gorg is now starting to recede as well. I love these little guys, they were gifted to me by a friend I recently lost so I REALLY want them to live. I feed 10-15cc every other day a mixture of drained cyclopeeze, oyster feast, and live phyto. I have a phosphate reactor but I don't do many water changes because the lfs I frequent says my water was too perfect and that's why my corals aren't thriving. Any advice?

 

[katekate087]

I guess I'm just wondering what I can do differently.

 

[reefwars]

hey kate, try mixing up your foods a bit the stuff your using is good but maybe look into adding some more to it.

currently for my nps 25g tank i feed:

fauna marin:

ultra clam
ultra minf
zoa and acan
soft shrimp
seafan


nls micro reef
freeze dried cyclopeeze


mysis ,bbs, and pacifica plankton....no rinsing.

live phytoplankton

zeovit coral food and polyp lab coral food.


corals are fed 24 /7

i cloud the tank with settled ditrius daily and dose tiggerpods.


gorgs,suns,dendros carnations and tube anemones for me.

all are out 24/7


your tank needs to be mature enough to sustain micro life , it needs to be stable enough to accept the large feedings and it needs to be small enough that the feedings get to the corals.


the rest is gravy

 

[altolamprologus]

Kate, every other day is not nearly enough. Ideally they should be fed 24/7. If you're like me and don't have an autofeeder, a few times a day will suffice. I feed my gorgs once or twice for every time I eat to make sure I don't forget. I also shut off my return pump and high density disperse feed the whole tank for an hour or two each day.

 

[Fretfreak13]

Out of curiosity, how much does all that different food cost you on a monthly, or even yearly basis with you dosing it 24/7? Dendros (and blueberry gorgs haha) are my favorite corals out of them all, but I've never been ballsy enough to get some. lol

 

[altolamprologus]

Idk about reefwars, but I spend about $90 a month on food, most of it being phytoplankton for my carnation and flame scallop. It'd be more like $40 a month if I didn't have those two. Dendros are a lot easier and cheaper to feed than the filter feeders.

 

[reefwars]

Kate, every other day is not nearly enough. Ideally they should be fed 24/7. If you're like me and don't have an autofeeder, a few times a day will suffice. I feed my gorgs once or twice for every time I eat to make sure I don't forget. I also shut off my return pump and high density disperse feed the whole tank for an hour or two each day.

not sure how big your tank is but to get a lttle more out of your feeding you could do what i do which is use a strip off eggcrate across the top of your tank and fill a turkey baster with food , gravity will pull a little bit at a time untill its gone.

i agree once every other day is def not enough gorgs do better with feedings as often as possible.

 

[reefwars]

Idk about reefwars, but I spend about $90 a month on food, most of it being phytoplankton for my carnation and flame scallop. It'd be more like $40 a month if I didn't have those two. Dendros are a lot easier and cheaper to feed than the filter feeders.

im not sure on the cost but its def not cheap , my suncorals and tube anemones etc they get by on meatier foods, the gorgs and other smaller polyp corals feed on finer foods or live which are more expensive.

on top of food is large water changes and large amounts of gfo.

 

[katekate087]

Thank you I'll look into an auto feeder... What's this about a floating egg carton with a turkey baster?

 

[katekate087]

And would feeding that much cause mass algae bloom? I'm thinking of redoing my sump by taking out a baffle and adding grass substrate and maybe a mangrove to eat up nutrients... I mostly HATE making salt water so whatever I can do to lessen that... Any thoughts on that?

 

[altolamprologus]

Oh one thing I do to feed when I won't be around for a while is I mix up all my foods together with tank water and freeze them in an ice cube tray. Then I hang a fish net over my return pump in the sump and throw in a few cubes. They slowly melt and drip onto the return pump which pumps the food into the display over the next couple hours

 

[katekate087]

And now that I'm thinking about it... Am I even spot feeding correctly? I use a big syringe, fill with food mixture to about 10cc then dilute to 30cc with tank water and then spot feed. Should I use the concentrated stuff directly?

 

[altolamprologus]

And would feeding that much cause mass algae bloom? I'm thinking of redoing my sump by taking out a baffle and adding grass substrate and maybe a mangrove to eat up nutrients... I mostly HATE making salt water so whatever I can do to lessen that... Any thoughts on that?

Mangroves don't help with water quality unless you have a lot of big ones on a small volume of water. Get chaeto or caulerpa instead. A GFO reactor is also pretty much essential when feeding that much.

And now that I'm thinking about it... Am I even spot feeding correctly? I use a big syringe, fill with food mixture to about 10cc then dilute to 30cc with tank water and then spot feed. Should I use the concentrated stuff directly?

Target feeding like that is fine, just not very effective. If you're going to do that, do it a few times a day at least

 

[reefwars]

Mangroves don't help with water quality unless you have a lot of big ones on a small volume of water. Get chaeto or caulerpa instead. A GFO reactor is also pretty much essential when feeding that much.

Target feeding like that is fine, just not very effective. If you're going to do that, do it a few times a day at least

+1

when feeding as much as this macro algaes or even mangroves wont do much for you if anything at all.

heavy skimming either 24/7 or on a timer and gfo through a reactor changed as needed.

monitor your phosphates and nitrates
for me i use large water changes and i stir up ditrius reguarily and have a fair bit of flow.


i dont target feed any of the gorgonians i keep food in the water coloumn 24/7 i do target feed the dendros though and a few other things every day or every other day.