SPS Targeted Feeding Macro Video Experiment

[sahin]

Great looking tank!


I noticed a very slight boom of diatom after feeding just the other day! Measured my no3 and Po4 and they remained the same.

Half the amount you just fed and see what happens. These foods are loaded with lots of goodies and being that a lot of it is mush, you can easily overload the system.

I now feed a crazy amount compared to what I used to feed, but I slowly built up how much I feed. This has allowed the biofiltration system to catch up/be able to process the extra food.

 

[trueblackpercula]

FTS:

Dude your tank is amazing also I am going crazy over how clean the SANDBED is thank you so much for sharing. Also what sand is that I really like the size and color of it?

 

[Tristan66]

Hey guys, love the topic. just started with my own dosing of pappone recipe.
just one question or thought.
what if 4 mils. per day x 4 per week. would be distributed in 6 servings per week then a water change on the 7th day. for ex. if i dosing a total of 16 mils. now per week total, what if i dose 2.6 or so of the pappone per day for six days.
another ex. would be if i dose 6 mils. per dose x 4 days = 24mils. total. then this could be dosed at 4 mils. per day for 6 days then a water change on the 7th.
the reason i'm asking this is because it makes more sense to me to dose every day that way the micro fauna is fed more often than 4 doses spread through the week.
or do you guys think this method could cause alot of problems with overloading the system. what do you all think. please advise.

 

[evolutionZ]

I would think dosing daily in small amount would be much better den a bigger dose but lesser frequency

 

[tyuksel]

Great looking tank!


I noticed a very slight boom of diatom after feeding just the other day! Measured my no3 and Po4 and they remained the same.

I had the same reaction. I used to get this when i overdose KZ products as well. So i am now basically reducing the amount to half as well. With bio pellets in the system it might be an overdose sugars that is causing that bloom... Just an uneducated guess..

 

[trueblackpercula]

Hey guys, love the topic. just started with my own dosing of pappone recipe.
just one question or thought.
what if 4 mils. per day x 4 per week. would be distributed in 6 servings per week then a water change on the 7th day. for ex. if i dosing a total of 16 mils. now per week total, what if i dose 2.6 or so of the pappone per day for six days.
another ex. would be if i dose 6 mils. per dose x 4 days = 24mils. total. then this could be dosed at 4 mils. per day for 6 days then a water change on the 7th.
the reason i'm asking this is because it makes more sense to me to dose every day that way the micro fauna is fed more often than 4 doses spread through the week.
or do you guys think this method could cause alot of problems with overloading the system. what do you all think. please advise.

Sound like a great idea and I see no problem with it. Please be reminded and I tell this to everyone using it. 5ml is for a tank that has more the the avg Sps and lps in it. I have 22 Sps ranging from small to extra large pieces so that's why I dose 5mls four times a week and on Sundays I do water changes. It has been working well for me.

 

[tyuksel]

Dude your tank is amazing also I am going crazy over how clean the SANDBED is thank you so much for sharing. Also what sand is that I really like the size and color of it?

Thanks! I have a very thin layer of sandbed.. Around 1.5 cm that's half an inch.. I vacuum some part of it with weekly changes. I keep it just for aesthetic purposes because my overflow causes circulation problems and i cant get most of detritus of the sand if its deep.. It seems to work so far.

The sand is CaribSea - Arag-Alive - Special Grade..

 

[Tristan66]

Sound like a great idea and I see no problem with it. Please be reminded and I tell this to everyone using it. 5ml is for a tank that has more the the avg Sps and lps in it. I have 22 Sps ranging from small to extra large pieces so that's why I dose 5mls four times a week and on Sundays I do water changes. It has been working well for me.

Thanks trueblackpercula, my system consist of 180 gal. tank with a total volume of around 200 gals total system. medium average stocks with mostly sps and some lps. i started dosing this week about 2.6 mils every day for 6 days and a water change on the 7th. i will be upping the dose to 3mils. in a few weeks depending on how the tank looks. i also have lost a few sps do to what i suspect is a nutriend deficiency system. i really hopping this helps my sps to regaing color and growth. thanks for the responce

 

[greg1786]

I find this thread fascinating. I am a firm believer that a high quality, varied diet is the most important thing we can give the animals in our reef tanks. I have about 15 different fish, coral, and invert foods that I rotate on a weekly basis so that im never feeding the same things two days in a row. After reading this thread, I decided to make my own food. So I took a bit of food from some of the most nutritious foods I use on the tank, and went to the market and picked up some fresh seafood and veggies. I blended half of the food super fine, and half of it chunky, and mixed the two together so I would have an all in one fish, coral, and invert food. It contains rods coral food, red nori, green nori, carrots, broccoli, garlic, selcon, zoecon, scallops, shrimp, tilapia, lobster, clam, mussles, oyster, roe, krill, mysis, brine, cyclopeeze, rotifers, and rodi water. Ive been using this food once a day now for two weeks and not only do my fish love it but my corals are showing better PE, growth, and color than prior to me using this food. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread for coming up with the homemade food idea!!!

 

[evolutionZ]

After about 4 dosage of home-made food. One obvious improvement is the PE of my birdnest! They are becoming so hairy I almost thought they were pocciliporas!

I reduced my feeding dosage to a few drops/day (250l Sps dominated tank) and that alone is enough to make my fish go crazy and make my naussrius snails come out to search for the smell. It's been a week since I made the food and it still smelled good!

 

[trueblackpercula]

I made mine on January 11th and it's been in the refrigerator every since. I have been feeding it to my tank since then and smell it for freshness daily. Well to my surprise it's still very fresh and has no fowl order at all. I think the sugar acts like a preservative to keep it from spoiling, or if you feel like you need to freeze it for a longer time that's also been done with freezer bags or mini ice cube trays. The original amounts mixed correctly will make 800 mls.

Hope this helps

 

[trueblackpercula]

We here is a update, it's not like my sps are dripping with color but take a look at the pictures and judge for your self. So it's been a full month and I must admit that pappone food has changed my entire outlook on sps keeping.

Please be totally and brutally truthful and let me know if there is any difference. All pictures were taken from the same angels and using my iphone 5. No photoshop here Lol

Michael
Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

 

[Fredfish]

Looking at the background between the two sets of shots, the white ballance looks completely different, so it is impossible to compare the two.

The important thing is whether or not you see any difference though.

 

[Jakef150]

Ok, I made a small test.

One Frozen Mysis cube, 1/8" piece of rods coral blend, 1 cube size Larry's frenzy reef food, 3 scoop of bulk supply reef reef chilli.

I mixed it in blender with 1/4 cup of ro di water.

2x a week I dump 5ml 2 hours after light out. I could see all corals were screaming hahaha.

Phos and nitrate are same within range, nitrate 5ppm and phos (Hanna) 0.04-0.08

One day , I will go to the sea food store to buy few and try it ha

Jake

 

[trueblackpercula]

Looking at the background between the two sets of shots, the white ballance looks completely different, so it is impossible to compare the two.

The important thing is whether or not you see any difference though.

Thanks I didn't realize that but after looking at the pictures now I see your point. I will try and take another set of pictures trying to get them to match the older ones. I have led lighting so it would have to be at the same time of the day. Now this will be chalgning as I don't remember the exact time I took them. But let's see what I can do.

 

[stickleback]

You can definitely see a change in growth between the pics.
How much do you thing that is down to pappone and what was growth like before?

 

[trueblackpercula]

You can definitely see a change in growth between the pics.
How much do you thing that is down to pappone and what was growth like before?

So in my case feeding alone is not the cause of acropora growing. I have also done a few things to make them happier as I was lacking in a few areas. But to answer your question I will go on record here and say yes feeding has helped with color and growth in my opinion 10 fold. There really is no reason why if your keeping an animal that feeds then why not feed them? I only wish I would have started this years ago.

There are a couple of videos on here that clearly show that acroporas are capable of catching pry and utilizing it. Yes they also feed off the light spectrum to produce zoanthela, but pappone is just another food source that probally gives them the so called meat and potatos to thrive.

I don't think if you follow the recipy to the letter and start with small amounts based on your tank size and animal load you can go wrong. If it doesn't help your acropora and lps change for the better then you can always just stop. The cost to make it is less then $20 bucks.

If you don't want to use pappone there are a few other recipes list in this thread you can also try. I trid a few and did get respons from my sps. Weather they were good enough was unknown as I only test one for a long period of time. That was oyster feast and it's probally the same as pappone, but I like pappone as it freshly made and I whole lot cheaper. Dont be afraid to try multiple food source as long as you know when to stop when you reach that level of over dosing nutrients.


Hope this helps

Michael

 

[laureef]

Great and informative thread!
Have anyone tried reef pearls 5-200 micron from reef interest?

 

[jackson6745]

I've been using reef nutrition ROE for the last year. Most of the SPS in my tank capture and consume these larger eggs. Here's a few horrible quality pics after lights out.

 

[trueblackpercula]

I've been using reef nutrition ROE for the last year. Most of the SPS in my tank capture and consume these larger eggs. Here's a few horrible quality pics after lights out.

Hey your PE looks great, how often do you feed and have you seen an increase in sponges,pods worms Etc since you started feeding?