How much food to feed

[JoelA7]

Hi. I know the standard answer: as much as is consumed in a few minutes. But this fails in many scenarios. For example, one has a relatively new tank and adds a fish that's either timid or likes the rock work. So to get the amount that this fish eats in 3 minutes close enough so it will be eaten requires considerable extra. So!! Do folks have measures that are useful?

 

[m0nkie]

have you tried using a turkey baster and shoot the food close to the fish in the rock work

 

[Cu455]

Feed a little let the scent get into the water and then feed the rest. To the question of how much to feed. It's a judgement call based on the tank. I have one tank that I feed 2-4 times a day and one I feed 5 times a week.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It does obviously depend on the fish and the type of food and one cannot possibly give any general rule of thumb with any accuracy. Even the time measure is not a good idea, IMO.

FWIW, I feed many times per day.

 

[JoelA7]

Also fwiw right now tank is about 3 months. Really starting to get going. Pods, worms, green star polyps growing. Yellow polyps awesome. Some zoas stretching nicely. All values proper except NO3 which is 25-40 depending on test kit and the day. First fish: Bicolor Blenny. So I'm feeding 4x a day and after 8 days he's got a nice round belly again. But I bet there is 3x-4x the food it eats going in. So a little more algae and diatoms then ideal. That's all. No big. Another few fish another big water change etc etc.

 

[ulua56]

I have always fed my fish by this motto" Feed your a fish a little, keep them a long time, feed your fish a lot, lose them overnight. I always feed on the side of caution, remember what goes in must come out.

 

[SGT_York]

Like randy said, it is fish specific, I have a 120 with a few fishes, but my watchman Goby kept starving so I bought specific food for him because the other fish would eat it before any settled to the areas he would go. In this case specific food or alot of food at once was the only option to go.

Put a list of which fish you have and your tank size and we can give better information.

 

[ca1ore]

Feeding what your fish will consume in a few minutes is a completely absurd approach and a sure path to eutrophication. I feed mine two thawed cubes per feeding (I do have a lot of fish) and would be surprised if it lasts more than 10 seconds. I'd have to add a massive amount to last two minutes, and then much of it would get trapped in the rocks or go over the weir. Multiple smaller feedings are much better.

 

[JoelA7]

Hi everyone - How much to feed redux. HAH!

Thank you for all the help thus far. So here's the stock.

Current Fish

1 @ Royal Gramma 2"
1 @ Hoeven's Wrasse 2"
3 @ PJ Cardinals 1-1.5"

Current coral

Green Star Polyps (doing great)
Blue Short Waving Hand (might be Blue Clove) (doing great)
Orange Ricordia (really vibrant but has not divided yet)
Green Striped Mushrooms (new addition and appear to be growing)
Trachyphyllia (not thriving yet...have concern)
Duncan (doing well)
3 Acans (2 doing well one damaged in shipping holding on)
Blue Spruce Caulastrea (got bleached but holding on, on bottom)
Red & Green War Coral - Favites (doing great)
Yellow eyed deep red zoas (doing great)
Rock w green/green and orange zoas and Blue palys doing well
Yellow Polyps (doing great)

Fish just back in tank from fallow period. Lost the Bicolor. Yeah I know I'm so paranoid now it's stupid.

I've been feeding 1x per day about 1/2 cube soaked in selcon. I'm sure that they'd eat much more if I fed 2, 3 or 4x per day. I'd like to find a balance of not so much to have algae issues etc. but also get some growth on these guys.

Future additions planned (going into 2 QT tanks tomorrow

Bicolor Blenny
Midas Blenny (hope that the 120 w plenty of rock is big enough for these two)
Eibli Angel

Then after they are in the DT the last fish

Kole Tang

That's it for fish.

So same question as before, how much to feed? LOL Sorry guys, the technical stuff is easier for me. This is the art and there is no Yoda nearby to drop in and mentor. Your input is much appreciated.

 

[LouH]

I use an Eheim auto feeder loaded with flakes, small pellets and cyclop-eeze. It is programmed to feed twice each day (10 AM & 7:30 PM). I also run an Apex controller that is programmed to turn off the return pump, dosing equipment and powerheads 5 minutes before feeding time. These items remain off for an additional 7 minutes after the Eheim feeder runs. At the 7 minue mark the powerheads come on to circulate any uneaten food, and ensure that very little goes into the overflow when the return pump starts back up. To determine how much you can safely dose, measure PO4 with an accurate test kit to get your baseline. Then begin dosing food while tracking PO4 concentration. Continue to increase the food delivered/feeding event until you start to see PO4 concentrations increase, and then back the dose down a little. In my tank, I maintain PO4 around 4-6 ppb. My constant is a 1/3 sheet of nori for my tang. Several nights a week I'll bypass the Eheim feeded and feed with my home made food which consists of clams, mussels, nori, Cyclops-eeze and concentrated HUFAs. Everything is run through a food processer to make chum out of the ingredients. I do not have algae issues with this technique, although I'm currently dealing with some kind of bacterial bloom that you'll see a post about shortly. However, this is more an issue of the tank being moved to a new home in April where it went through another cycle, and not my feeding regimen.

My tank is 120 gallons with a yellow tang, 6 damsels and a dottyback.

 

[LouH]

I forgot to mention that this automated feeding system is good for small, skittish fish that hide in the rocks when you start reaching over the tank to manually dose food.

 

[JoelA7]

LouH. Isn't the cyclopeese frozen? And good idea on measuring PO4. I am running phosban so to do that I'd need to take it off line for a while.

 

[LouH]

Joel,

No, the cyclops-eeze is a freeze dried product shipped loose in a can.

I would continue to run the GFO while you try this. Running your system with GFO is your baseline. You have already determined that you need it, so removing it will likel cause you problems.

One thing that I did not mention is that the health of your fish should determine how much to feed. If they appear to be healthy and colorful before you see an increase in PO4, stop adding food.

I use the the Hanna Phosphorous ULR meter with good success. Colormetric kits for PO4 have not workef well for me. YMMV

 

[m0nkie]

Joel,

No, the cyclops-eeze is a freeze dried product shipped loose in a can.

I would continue to run the GFO while you try this. Running your system with GFO is your baseline. You have already determined that you need it, so removing it will likel cause you problems.

One thing that I did not mention is that the health of your fish should determine how much to feed. If they appear to be healthy and colorful before you see an increase in PO4, stop adding food.

I use the the Hanna Phosphorous ULR meter with good success. Colormetric kits for PO4 have not workef well for me. YMMV

where do you buy dried cyclops-eeze now? I only see their frozen cube/stick packagings

 

[JoelA7]

With my GFO online I run undetectable levels with a Salifert kit.

I also got the frozen cyclops-eeze.

I'm pushing the amount up in my DT. QT I'm nervous about but slowly increasing.

 

[LouH]

where do you buy dried cyclops-eeze now? I only see their frozen cube/stick packagings

I bought it so long ago that I can't remember. The can says it's 30 grams. Possibly that might show up in a search?

 

[hypnoj]

One rule I heard and always liked, even though it has no scientific basis that I know of, is that a fishes stomach is the same size as its eye. So only feed as much food as the eyes in your tank. I think this is a good rule for new reefers.

 

[criticalencore]

I feed alot.. like ridiculously alot... I have a bunch of really big fish though and they eat it very fast. I defrost alot of food but then only add a little every 30 min or so from like 7:30 to 10ish...

So.. I'm going out on a limb here though and I'd say don't feed as much as your fish can eat but more only feed as much waste as you are able to filter out. When the fish eat the food doesn't magically disappear. It comes out later. My 14" vlamingii tang looks like he turkey bastes a whole cube of mysis out his bhole at least once a day... I run a big ATS, big calupera fuge, 3 big skimmers, and I change about 10% of water a week....


What afe you doing for filtration? Good luck

 

[JoelA7]

See signature for setup. Fish are still small. Not many coral yet. It seems like soon as I push food up I get a bit more algae and may start to see a hint of cyano. If I back off a touch the cyano goes away. Phosban seems to do a great job denying the algae nutrient but maybe this hurts the coral too?

 

[igot2gats]

Feed a little let the scent get into the water and then feed the rest. To the question of how much to feed. It's a judgement call based on the tank.

This - dabble it in the water, and let the fish know what's coming. Then, once it comes up, put it in.