Help me understand none photosyntetic corals

[Allmost]

Hello,
I have a SPS tank and a seahorse tank, connected together via a sump.

system has low nutritions
ALOT of sponges and feature dusters growing everywhere, even in sump.

yet I can not keep some corals like goniopora and seafans alive !!

system uses DSB and Zeo products, I add live phyto to the tank every morning as well.

the seafans all ended up getting covered with algae and the goniopora is slowly diying after a year and a half,

how do you guys keep these corals ? any tips ?

 

[flying_dutchman]

You have a lot of sponges because of carbon dosing (a recent study as shown that sponges absorb DOC (dissolved organic carbon).
Seafans and other NPS corals need ZOOplankton, just phyto plankton and DOC is not enough.
You will need too spot feed the gorgains a couple of times a day, or install a autofeeder.

 

[flying_dutchman]

Read this too:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1832601
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1760416

 

[Allmost]

You have a lot of sponges because of carbon dosing (a recent study as shown that sponges absorb DOC (dissolved organic carbon).
Seafans and other NPS corals need ZOOplankton, just phyto plankton and DOC is not enough.
You will need too spot feed the gorgains a couple of times a day, or install a autofeeder.

Yes I also dose Sponge power from zeo which helps with sponges growth, which in turn will make water more clear.

my understanding was that phyto dosing would increase the population of Zooplanktons ? and then corals can consume those, not gonna happen is it ? lol

also, what do you recommend as feeding ? I dont think there are any auto feeders out there for frozen food, is there ?

I feed my tank Nutriplus (larve, eggs and much more in there) reefroids, cyclopezze, selcon, kent zooplex, once a day (when feeding the fishes).

 

[uhuru]

Which seafans are you trying to keep? I generally shoot for at least 10x a day. There are no commercial auto feeders for frozen foods at this time.

 

[Allmost]

Which seafans are you trying to keep? I generally shoot for at least 10x a day. There are no commercial auto feeders for frozen foods at this time.

wow ! 10 times a day!!! lol

Im reading the sticky threads posted, alot of good info thanks, will have to give it a shot to see if a feeding like that would effect my SPS corals and overal nutrition of the system.

thanks