SPS food
- Thread starter hypnoj
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watchguy123
New member
All us are looking for the trick to light up our corals especially with food or "color supplements". As far as I am aware of it there is no scientific evidence to suggest one food or supplement over another, that leaves empirical evidence. Anyone really gonna believe a reef manufacturer as to what they have and it's benefits. Maybe with a touch of curiosity and skepticism. Same with everyone's testimonial. It is difficult to separate fact from boast.
We keep asking, sharing, and experimenting. More info comes out daily, sometimes incredible and sometimes imaginative. The best tanks may use supplements, top secret or public foods but one thing they all have--meticulously maintained tanks. That seems to be the starting point for colors and I am disappointed because I'd rather add a food than be diligent in my tank routine and maintenance
We keep asking, sharing, and experimenting. More info comes out daily, sometimes incredible and sometimes imaginative. The best tanks may use supplements, top secret or public foods but one thing they all have--meticulously maintained tanks. That seems to be the starting point for colors and I am disappointed because I'd rather add a food than be diligent in my tank routine and maintenance
88rx, I don't believe I have ever used a pre-made coral food.
Watchguy, I go the other way, I do not want light corals, I want the deep colors without the brown outs. It is perhaps harder to achieve but I have seen way too many pale corals over the years. To each his own, it is part of what makes this all fun. :thumbsup:
Watchguy, I go the other way, I do not want light corals, I want the deep colors without the brown outs. It is perhaps harder to achieve but I have seen way too many pale corals over the years. To each his own, it is part of what makes this all fun. :thumbsup:
MammothReefer
Active member
That used to be my favorite food to feed my fish, but I can't get it locally and it's pricey to ship frozen foods so when I ran out I switched to pellets and upped the amount of times a week I feed oyster feast, or reed roids.
ksicard
New member
I feed rods food omnivore blend to my fishies, cyclopeeze for both corals and fish, oyster feast for corals, fuel by aquavitro, and I got a free unit of reef roids from a friend. Surprisngly the reef roids gives the biggest reaction from all my corals including sps, and a little bit goes a long way with it. Despite it's name it really does get a visible feeding respons from all my corals, more so than all my other foods. reef roids, cyclo peeze, then oyster feast is the order of which foods get the most response out of my corals. My zoa's have really started taking off sense using reef roids, all paly's and zoas show a noticable feeding response.
dkeller_nc
New member
Just for variety (of opinions, that is), this is what I feed my tanks:
1) Phytofeast - about 1/2 a teaspoon per 50 gal after the lights go out.
2) Oysterfeast - about 20 drops in 50 gal
3) Live nannochloropsis - couldn't give you an exact quantity, as this is a home-culture.
4) Copepod nauplii from 4 different species, harvested about once a week.
5) Live saltwater rotifers - again a home culture so I couldn't give you an exact density.
6) Live artemia that are "loaded" with nannochloropsis, Isochrysis, and diatoms
In addition, the fish get fed a large variety of frozen foods. The most recent addition was Larry's Reef Services "nano" blend - it's similar in composition to sirreal's mix.
1) Phytofeast - about 1/2 a teaspoon per 50 gal after the lights go out.
2) Oysterfeast - about 20 drops in 50 gal
3) Live nannochloropsis - couldn't give you an exact quantity, as this is a home-culture.
4) Copepod nauplii from 4 different species, harvested about once a week.
5) Live saltwater rotifers - again a home culture so I couldn't give you an exact density.
6) Live artemia that are "loaded" with nannochloropsis, Isochrysis, and diatoms
In addition, the fish get fed a large variety of frozen foods. The most recent addition was Larry's Reef Services "nano" blend - it's similar in composition to sirreal's mix.
I understand that a lot has changed since the "reef bibles" came out, but the reason I like reading them is because most of these guys don't just own a tank, or 2 tanks, or 3 tanks; they own SPS growing business's with greenhouses and such. I think most of them would agree that how you take care of a DT and how you grow propagating sps corals are two different things (I think we'd all agree on that as well). But a large percentage of these guys are marine biologists as well as propagators for money and I bet they know every trick in the book for growing/feeding sps corals. I wish some of them would chime in and let us know. I have no desire to start a coral growing business, but we'd all agree that feeding is a major key to success after taking care of parameters. So come on sps coral propagating guru's!! Tell us what we're wasting our money on!
MammothReefer
Active member
Actually most of the reef bible writers are notorious for being unable to sustain reef tanks for any extended period of time. If you notice almost all the examples or tanks they talk about are of "wonderful systems they came across by so and so" and not their own. Great at theory and understanding why things do (or why they believe) things do what they do. Not so great at executing consistently but it's understandable. To a hobbyist it's a hobby and these are our pets we want them to grow and thrive. (and they also cost us a lot of money) To marine biologists it's about answering questions and experimentation and you don't catch them shelling out TOP dollar at your LFS so the fear of loosing their 1000s of dollars of inhabitants isn't there and then there are some that travel a lot so keeping a healthy sps tank is a little hard to do when you aren't a homebody.
The propagation gurus though are gonna be your farmers which are mostly retailers or wholesalers (like ORA, or many of the LFS and online shops that grow frags). There are some hobbyists that also do an amazing job with semi-commercial prop systems like Garrett from Socal.
Most farmers aren't feeding massive amounts of special food from what I understand, it's to hard, ORA maybe but they have an unlimited supply of amazing Florida reef NSW. For the rest of us who have to mix our water though we have to do the dance between food in nutrient out and it's easier to go with less food in. I can't see any commercial farmer being able to afford to run a zeo system but I could be wrong it would be to cost inhibiting from a business stand point in my experience.
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