How much food is too much?

[Tennyson]

I just got this really nice food by formula one, and have been feeding it to my lps corals like crazy.

For the past four days, I have been stuffing my open brain coral with atleast three large pieces per mouth. I figured this would be ok since it kept taking it in. I am starting to wonder where all this food is going though. Its probably already eaten about half its mass worth of food. Am I feeding it too much? It hasn't thrown up any of the food at alll.

And how often should I feed this to it? Every 1-3 days?

 

[Logzor]

Spot feed those types of coral 1-2 a week. In my experience corals will go through a massive growth spurt if spot fed every day.

If they can not extract the necessary calcium building elements from the water they can die off.

I lost a duncan and bubble coral this way. I fed them 1-2 times a day, they grew like crazy, my alk dropped and they died off because they could calcify as much as they were demanding.

This was just my experience, though.

 

[Cramz07]

i feed my sunpolyp every night and my brain every two nights....i don't understand Logzor feeting too much makes them grow fast but kills them?

 

[Logzor]

Well based upon my own experience and quotes from other reefers, yes feeding too much can kill them if you are not careful.

My case was a particular one, though.

Imagine the coral getting tons of food every day. It then hires 150 extra builders to make new skeleton and heads on the coral. This continues for a few weeks and things look great. 15 new heads are popping out. Good jobs guys.

Then they have a problem, they are really busy building these new heads and then the buffing capacity of the water drops and they can not access calcium (drop in alk). They have spent so many resources on half-built heads and can not longer access any more, resulting in a serious problem.

The main head begins to die because it can not keep up with all of the needs, much of the specimens dies and retreats back to what it can sustain.

In my case, the main polyp on my duncan died and 9 of the 12 new heads died. So it retracted to the two small heads that it recognized that it could sustain.

Again, my mistake was not maintaining my alk. I then realized that my tank required daily dosing, way more than i ever imagined. I learned my less and back on track.

I believe that subjecting a coral to extremely unnatural daily feedings can kill it. It could be possible that no matter what your alk and calcium are it may not be able to build the amount of skeleton that it needs to and die back to what it can sustain.

The only affected corals were my duncan and bubble, which i subjected massive feedings to.

This made sense to me and another reefer. Then again it could have just been some parasite effecting only the bubble and duncan, which is unlikely.

 

[Tennyson]

OK, guess I should stop feeding it every day. How often should I feed my corals then? I have a two-mouthed open brain, and a 5 headed frogspawn that is soon to become a 6 headed frogspawn.

But eventually, all my corals will grow that big, so they all will need alot of calcium and the right levels of alkalinity right?

Is it possible to maintain the proper levels when corals start to grow really big? Lets say my frogspawn grows from 6 heads to 12 heads in the next 3-6 months, will I be able to support its calcium needs and have it still grow easily? Would I have to dose calcium every day with alot of calcium needing corals? Would a calcium reactor be the answer to this problem?

Thanks

 

[Logzor]

Once I started adding a lot of stony corals my demands increased dramatically.

At first I never dosed (resulting in the problem that I described in my past post), now I dose a cap of alk and calcium almost every day in my 55 gallon.

Get a two part solution and add equal amounts of each (do lots of testing) until you find that you can balance your alk at 8-11 DKH and calcium between 400-440.

So yes, demands will skyrocket and you will need to dose when your corals start to grow a lot.

Frogspawn does not need to be target fed, if you want, turn off powerheads and target feed once a week. Same with any of your other corals, no more than 2x a week. This is just my opinion.

If you have the money and space a calcium reactor would help. There are less expensive ways to take care of the problem. Check out the reef chemistry thread, at the top, there are links to DIY additives (limewater, baking soda, etc).

 

[Tennyson]

OK, I've just started dosing for calcium since I got that frogspawn. What products are there by Kent Marine that I can use for dosing alkaline if any? I think my current levels may be 7 or below.

In case I forget dosing for Calcium, or alkaline, and it plumets, how long can corals survive without the appropriate levels?

And how fast can my corals digest all this food I've been giving them for the past 4 days? None has been thrown up or anything, so I'm guessing they are ok with it, but I'll cut back on feeding.

Once I get a sun coral, do these rules for feeding still apply? Or should I feed every day if possible?
Thanks, will check out the reef chemistry section.

 

[Tennyson]

I'm thinking about getting a calcium reactor, not sure I'll have enough room for it. Can they be put under my tank, not behind it, but under it, theres a cabinet back there.

Heres what I mean:

 

[Tennyson]

Heres a really low priced one I found on ebay, I'm not sure it would be good because of the low price. It looks like its meant to be placed on the floor from the flat base, so I'm thinking it could be put under the tank. would it need tubing or something to deliver the calcium?

Heres the link to it:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Coral-Sea-Calci...ryZ46312QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[ahoyhoy239]

i think you should research more on the calcium and alk subject before getting a calcium reactor. unless you have alot of hard coral and a big tank a calcium reactor will probably be a waste of time and money and you will be able to maintain your levels with regular water changes and kalkwasser and/or 2-part. also be sure to get the test kits for whatever you will be dosing, also look into magnesium supplementation as well, it plays a very important part in the corals ability to calcify as well as maintain you calcium at normal levels

 

[32flavors]

Kent makes calcium additive called "Calcium Reactor" I think. It's meant to supplement in the same way a calcium reactor would and is sold in large sizes--I think 32 oz is the smallest. I haven't tried it yet but I think I am going to, as working in a LFS I have heard and seen first hand too many disasters with calc stirrers to go that route.

 

[Tennyson]

Ok, thanks! I was never planning on getting a reactor, just learning more about them in case I might need one in the future.

And I'm getting reef builder to raise and control mgnesium levels and maintain alkalinity.

Thanks everyone, this was so helpful.

 

[Tennyson]

oh yeah, just another short question, is alkalinity the same as carbonate hardness or something like that?
thanks$