BuckeyeTodd
New member
So corals naturally feed on live plankton, and dissolved organics. If we accept this to be correct, what would be the correct way to replicate this?
How many of you feed your acros?
- Thread starter BuckeyeTodd
- Start date
dzhuo
Active member
There is absolutely no question that corals are able to catch and ingest food. In fact, when you supply the corals with enough food, they grow much much faster. I wouldn't be surprise to see a good typical 2 years of grow can be easily achieved in 6 months. To give you an example:
It shows in its natural habitat, Dendro can grow as fast as 7% daily! Have you ever seen anyone achieve this type of grow rate? Not even remotely closely (or at least I have not). The real question, obviously, is how to provide similar type of environment with enough food for SPS. With all the studies I have seen, there are 2 characteristics common along them:
1. Concentration of food. It's not merely just food but a certain concentration level is required to trigger feeding response. This is the primary reason why I don't feed any liquid food because there is no way of knowing putting any food in there would trigger the SPS to start feeding. The number varies from corals to corals but it's usual very high to be feasible without putting too much N & P.
I just don't think I am able to provide this types of concentration to benefit the corals. I am sure you can feed less but then the benefit is very minimal.
2. Velocity and flow speed. It has been demonstrated that in order to trigger a feeding response, the food particles have to hit the corals in a certain range of velocity. If the speed is low, the food is ignore. If it's too high, they can't hold on to it. I have no idea how this translate to the GPH of our pumps put out so it's another reason why I don't feed the corals. I have, however, seen my SPS eat Formula One so I am sure there is still benefit of doing it. I just do know how much.
To me, the real answer is to replicate what our NPS friends have been doing for a while:
Continuous feeding NPS filter feeders
Unfortunately, I won't be able to do this for my current set up but my next tank will be.
It shows in its natural habitat, Dendro can grow as fast as 7% daily! Have you ever seen anyone achieve this type of grow rate? Not even remotely closely (or at least I have not). The real question, obviously, is how to provide similar type of environment with enough food for SPS. With all the studies I have seen, there are 2 characteristics common along them:
1. Concentration of food. It's not merely just food but a certain concentration level is required to trigger feeding response. This is the primary reason why I don't feed any liquid food because there is no way of knowing putting any food in there would trigger the SPS to start feeding. The number varies from corals to corals but it's usual very high to be feasible without putting too much N & P.
I just don't think I am able to provide this types of concentration to benefit the corals. I am sure you can feed less but then the benefit is very minimal.
2. Velocity and flow speed. It has been demonstrated that in order to trigger a feeding response, the food particles have to hit the corals in a certain range of velocity. If the speed is low, the food is ignore. If it's too high, they can't hold on to it. I have no idea how this translate to the GPH of our pumps put out so it's another reason why I don't feed the corals. I have, however, seen my SPS eat Formula One so I am sure there is still benefit of doing it. I just do know how much.
To me, the real answer is to replicate what our NPS friends have been doing for a while:
Continuous feeding NPS filter feeders
Unfortunately, I won't be able to do this for my current set up but my next tank will be.
Dog boy Dave
New member
My corals grow fast. Real fast. Healthy corals do. There is always a lot of stuff floating around in my system when the fish are awake. A lot of the stuff floating is bacteria that the fish have dislodged picking around. I also have copious amounts of other animals living and growing in the system. I imagine some of those animals produce eggs and fry that also float around. Other than the things the tank produces I dont feed my corals additional food. I do however maintain a high nutrient high energy situation so I also will add additonal organics to the system occationally when the remote dsb begins to loose its cyano algae coat.
There is plenty of research that show corals need to eat. In my system I honestly dont know if my corals feed on particulate matter floating in the water column or instead live on the highly active zooxanthellae due to the high nutrient, high flow, high light environment. Because i cant imagine that they would ignore an opportunity to feed on some of the available organics, I do believe they do eat and I have observed a correlation between my nutrient levels and the deep colors i strive to produce.
The question most of us need to ask ourselves is can our system produce enough food for the corals to stay healthy. If not, then we need to ask ourselves can our system handle the extra organics we add in the form of supplimental feeding. Hopefully the answer to at least one of those questions is yes or we will have long term issues maintaining healthy animals.
There is plenty of research that show corals need to eat. In my system I honestly dont know if my corals feed on particulate matter floating in the water column or instead live on the highly active zooxanthellae due to the high nutrient, high flow, high light environment. Because i cant imagine that they would ignore an opportunity to feed on some of the available organics, I do believe they do eat and I have observed a correlation between my nutrient levels and the deep colors i strive to produce.
The question most of us need to ask ourselves is can our system produce enough food for the corals to stay healthy. If not, then we need to ask ourselves can our system handle the extra organics we add in the form of supplimental feeding. Hopefully the answer to at least one of those questions is yes or we will have long term issues maintaining healthy animals.
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coralreefdoc
New member
Phytoplankton. Roti-Feast. Oyster Feast. Cyclops. Reef Roids
I do have some NPS corals in the system which require heavier feedings than would be ideal for many SPS systems
I do have some NPS corals in the system which require heavier feedings than would be ideal for many SPS systems
kellerexpress
New member
Just feed mine some coral frenzy, the feeing response was amazing. Here is a pic of a bottlebrush acro that was bleached and im trying to recover it. He must have been hunrgy!
JG1
New member
dzhuo
Active member
The NPS guys have tried this but it doesn't work well. This is basically the first version uhuru tried:
He quickly gave up and the thread have detail why. The best way to achieve continuous feeding is by using a small refrigerator (~ $50), drill a couple of holes and buy a BRS doser. The content of the food will stay fresh inside the refrigerator and you program the doser to add small amount of food to a pipe running to the tank. The entire set up cost less than $200 and easy to maintain.
My next set up will incorporate this design.
He quickly gave up and the thread have detail why. The best way to achieve continuous feeding is by using a small refrigerator (~ $50), drill a couple of holes and buy a BRS doser. The content of the food will stay fresh inside the refrigerator and you program the doser to add small amount of food to a pipe running to the tank. The entire set up cost less than $200 and easy to maintain.
My next set up will incorporate this design.
dzhuo
Active member
The idea is to feed the animal at the lowest food chain which will then feed the rest higher up. The phytoplankton will feed the zooplankton which then feeds the SPS. I am not sure why people just don't feed the zooplankton directly tho; perhaps it's cheaper to use phytoplankton.
solitude127
Proud user of IO Salt!
Oyster feast for me.
JG1
New member
where does one purchase zooplankton?
klepto
New member
People feed phyto because it acts as a food source for microfauna that are in the system. Corals can prey on the live food already existing in the system (which is ideal) rather than a frozen/dry food that the aquarist has to supplement.
Despite what you may believe they "like", Tridacna do NOT require phytoplankton. That has been well established. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/7/inverts
emerald crab
New member
I feed live food only, rotifers and bbs, alternating.
coralreefdoc
New member
Well said Klepto
Reef Bass
colors and textures
Ok, I can get behind that. Though, to be specific, they're feeding their system phyto, not their sps.
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Reef Bass
colors and textures
Interesting link, thanks Jake. One of the great joys of this hobby is the perpetual learning that occurs.
The author does put considerable emphasis on the stomach containing a lot of stuff besides phyto. I hear that, but I'm not sure that just because it's in the stomach, that it's a good food source. Clams being filter feeders are going to ingest bits of non food items and the job of their digestive system (and any creature's digestive system) is to absorb what they need and to expel the rest.
On the other hand, it certainly makes sense that there are nutients potentially available in all that the clam seives from the water and it would seem unlikely that any lifeform would not take advantage of easy pickings around it, as it were. And I've seen numerous clams which have existed for years without food supplementation, let alone specific applications of phytoplankton.
Back to my original statement, "clams like phyto", please notice I didn't say "clams require phyto". I should perhaps have more accurately stated "clams can benefit from phyto". I was just trying to give an example of a reef creature that includes phyto in its diet, as opposed to sps which prefer zooplankton. And yes, there are lots of marine fauna which benefit from phyto, as well as phyto being a fundamental building block or link in the food chain.
The author does put considerable emphasis on the stomach containing a lot of stuff besides phyto. I hear that, but I'm not sure that just because it's in the stomach, that it's a good food source. Clams being filter feeders are going to ingest bits of non food items and the job of their digestive system (and any creature's digestive system) is to absorb what they need and to expel the rest.
On the other hand, it certainly makes sense that there are nutients potentially available in all that the clam seives from the water and it would seem unlikely that any lifeform would not take advantage of easy pickings around it, as it were. And I've seen numerous clams which have existed for years without food supplementation, let alone specific applications of phytoplankton.
Back to my original statement, "clams like phyto", please notice I didn't say "clams require phyto". I should perhaps have more accurately stated "clams can benefit from phyto". I was just trying to give an example of a reef creature that includes phyto in its diet, as opposed to sps which prefer zooplankton. And yes, there are lots of marine fauna which benefit from phyto, as well as phyto being a fundamental building block or link in the food chain.
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