Just a few tips and tricks for those new to SPS and reefing....
- Thread starter SunnyX
- Start date
This is a great point...I have been feeding alot and it seems my corals have slowly started to not grow! is this from overfeeding?
I run a skimmer 24/7 and do all the things you suggested including run a phosphate reactor! I have some big fish and want to see them happy but I may be over feeding...My system is 400 gallons including the refugium and sump. I have a few 13" fish and feed everyday including about 10 cubs of spurlina...how much do the bigger tanks get fed? how many fish?
Formula One pellets:
http://www.oceannutrition.com/product_marine.php?file=bc01.html&head=03
4th ingredient is wheat flour...
Big E
Premium Member
Same here............most of these tips are good advice, but not necessarily needed.
The one I agree with the most is to design a plan & stick with it.
I've always kept it simple....... 10% weekly water changes & a skimmer. Nothing else & it's served me well.
By the way........my 16 year old purple tang has been eating Spectrum pellets almost exclusively for the past year & he has never looked better. He looks healthier fuller, & thicker than he has ever been. Before that he ate 85% Formula frozen foods, mostly 1&2. Maybe a combination of the two is the best bet, who knows.
It's another form of carbohydrates and don't know why it would have an adverse effect. I recently bought Coral Creole. I didn't realize it was 18 for a flat baggie.
I think most dry foods have 3% wt/wt phosphates whereas frozen rinsed foods are about 1/10th that. That might be the adverse effect but sounds like your doing great and some phosphates are needed.
I think most dry foods have 3% wt/wt phosphates whereas frozen rinsed foods are about 1/10th that. That might be the adverse effect but sounds like your doing great and some phosphates are needed.
Waterobert
New member
Read everything you can find with coral reef in title
CleveYank
20 Years and Over
I do not know about much of flour good or bad. But I can attest to Big E's fish and coral health for I've seen the very apparent healthy and well established system.
I don't like flake food myself for the reason that it tends to bump phosphates a tad from what I've seen in my setup at least. I like it because of the engineered vitamins (think of it as millbrook wonder bread for fishies) that is purposly designed to bring about good fish health. Something that brine and scallops alone won't give you. I use these products for the vitamin reason but sparsely in my SPS systems to prevent the phosphate bump that pretty much all of the flake and pellet foods appear to cause. In some systems it doesn't mean a thing.
My no care or hands off system which is more of a fish only with liverock that has some softies in it that I rarely do more than topoff and change out carbon when I remember to do it. I can dump flake in by the ton and no hair algae and this is lit by metal halides to boot. I do not even have a clean up crew in that system except one lone hermit crab. Yet if I feed my SPS setup some flake for more than a couple days things start to change quick.
It's amazing how one thing is great or of -0- negative impact for one setup and can be not so good for another.
When are those updated pics coming Sonny? Not coloring eggs this year so maybe you can add some pastels to the holiday in the form of your updated coral pics I saw you threatening to post.
I don't like flake food myself for the reason that it tends to bump phosphates a tad from what I've seen in my setup at least. I like it because of the engineered vitamins (think of it as millbrook wonder bread for fishies) that is purposly designed to bring about good fish health. Something that brine and scallops alone won't give you. I use these products for the vitamin reason but sparsely in my SPS systems to prevent the phosphate bump that pretty much all of the flake and pellet foods appear to cause. In some systems it doesn't mean a thing.
My no care or hands off system which is more of a fish only with liverock that has some softies in it that I rarely do more than topoff and change out carbon when I remember to do it. I can dump flake in by the ton and no hair algae and this is lit by metal halides to boot. I do not even have a clean up crew in that system except one lone hermit crab. Yet if I feed my SPS setup some flake for more than a couple days things start to change quick.
It's amazing how one thing is great or of -0- negative impact for one setup and can be not so good for another.
When are those updated pics coming Sonny? Not coloring eggs this year so maybe you can add some pastels to the holiday in the form of your updated coral pics I saw you threatening to post.
SunnyX
New member
Are you referring to the new livestock pics I am going to post this evening or these ones I posted up last week? http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1436138&perpage=25&pagenumber=39
Ill have them up this evening. I am redoing the basement so I have to first hit Lowe's and Ikea with the wife. 
