How often to feed coral?

[Palting]

I guess it's a fairly basic, maybe even stupid, question, but I'm asking it, anyway. I realized recently that I have been underfeeding my coral. The sps didn't seem to mind, as they continued to branch out and encrust into the rock. But the lps, polyps, and softies were only doing so-so. I had a green stylo that light bleached, so I shaded it and started daily target feeding it. The stylo is recovering, but then I noticed all my softies and polyps seemed to perk up as well! That's when I realized I was probably underfeeding them.

So, now I feed at night since that's when most have their feeders out, and I also feed during the day. Plus the regular daily feeding of the fish. Been doing it for over a week now, and the biological filtration seems to be able to handle it since I'm not getting any spikes nor algae blooms.

Is that too much? Like I said, the biological filtration seems to be able to handle it. I'm more concerned about wasting the food, and the money, if I am overdoing it.

Thanks!!

 

[mike_cmu04]

I feed mine 2 or 3 times a week

 

[Dave VG]

Once a week sometimes two here.

 

[AquaReeferMan]

I never directly feed my corals.

 

[Palting]

Well, looks like I'm wasting food and money. I think I'll cut back to 2-3X week, just because I think I've starved them and need to play catch up, then go to once a week.

Thanks, all! And a Merry Christmas to all!!!

 

[uhuru]

If the tank can handle it there is no reason to cut back on feeding. Definitely not a waste. In the wild they are eating constantly as long as the polyps are out. You have to keep an eye on your water quality though. It can sneak up on you.

 

[fishchef]

I use Rod's Herbivore and it has lots of stuff that the corals like. So that makes it once or twice a day. I do target my plates and sun corals several times a week.

 

[bitts]

I've seen it said by several of the major names in the hobby. That well feed reef tanks are still under fed, when compared to natural environments.

 

[dun2run]

I was having similiar problems with my sps. They were growing great but color had almost faded to nothing. Once I realized the problem I started feeding oyster feast 2-3 times per week. After only 2 weeks the color started coming back and now I think I'm on the right track.

 

[jdm1114]

I used to feed my corals oysterfeast and im sure they liked it, but not anymore. The fish do a great job and after reading from others this is a good way to go. fish poo

 

[Sk8r]

This is why a mixed reef is difficult, because SPS really hates having food in the water, but suck up light and calcium, and softies and lps want a pretty 'rich' water; and softies don't use much calcium at all; but both SPS and LPS soak it up so constantly a kalk drip or calcium reactor is what will supply them. They're really from different environments.

 

[dublo8]

I will broadcast feed twice a week with a mixture of reef chili and reef roids. I feed directly once a week, same mix but with mysis added.

 

[Coral_Craig]

I'll spot feed my LPS once every week or so and give a squirt of some "fine" stuff into the tank once a month. However, I don't have a large stock of corals so I don't feel feeding any more (besides the LPS) would be necessary or even practical. But I do think if one does and has good export, then why not feed well (within reason ).

 

[allsps40]

I never spot feed. I feed a mixed home blended food 2-3 times a week and flake in between. Mixed food includes brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, krill, clam, cyclopeez, and AAs. This is for the fish and if the corals can get any great. I feed zooplankton 2-3 times a week and this is for my sps. I feed as much as my system can handle without increasing no3 or po4.

 

[dixiedog]

I'd say how often you can/should feed corals is closely related to your fish load. Enough fish, you NEVER have to feed corals. No fish? I'd feed every day.

It's different for everybody, like everything else in this hobby.


EDIT: Merry Christmas back at you Palting!

 

[Palting]

Thanks, dixiedog

As I am putting all the responses together, it seems several factors play into the frequency of feeding. Mixed reef is difficult due to the widely divergent preferences between SPS, LPS and softies. The general rule for stonies is clean water, for softies is high nutrient water. How often to feed depends on the relative ratios of stonies, softies, and fish, and the biofiltration capability of your tank. Relative to the wild, our tanks provide less nutrition, in general.

What I am getting is to keep as clean a water as you can with overboard filtration, then provide the feeding frequently. This will provide the episodic high nutrient water required by the softies, which will then be filtered and removed by the overboard filtration system to provide the generally clean water required by the stonies. The key, and the difficult part, is to find the sweet spot, the ideal compromise for your specific tank. For the group of responders we have, that sweet spot seems to be biased towards the once a week schedule. Does that sound right?