SPS Targeted Feeding Macro Video Experiment

[sahin]

OK, so further to all the brilliant SPS feeding information from Professor Biggles I've took some top down shots of some of my better coloured SPS. I still have MANY brown turbs wasting space and consuming valuable Ca and Alk... :mad2:

Overall, I am seeing deeper colour in most corals that are already coloured up. The brown turds continue their disobedience and refuse to colour up.

I posted these photos on my main thread, but thought I'd post here too because the results of the feeding has certainly improved my SPS colours. Not all, but its made a difference to these corals below:

Lets start off with my Tort: It is being blasted with about 400 PAR yet maintains a very deep blue colouration.

Next up is my pink "Millepora". This one used to be a bit more pastel in colour but has since deepened in colour:

Here is another shot of it from a different angle (I'm unsure if its the same branch though):

This one is a deepwater which has been colouring up. I couldnt capture the light blue tips (underneath is my pink/red Chalice):

These two are at WAR: The Yellow/Green one with the blue tips is much slower growing but it is the stronger of the two. The two corals grew right up against each other, and then the Yellow/Green decided to attack and caused the 5mm deathline. The one on the right has a beautiful deep green metallic look with all new branch tips in a sky blue colour terminating with purple tips. I couldnt catpure the purple tips though. Notice the brown turd frag on the top left. Not all my SPS are coloured up!

Here is a better shot of the right hand side of the green one. This branch is getting about 250 PAR and has pretty good colour. You can just about see the purple tip ends. Notice the blurred A. tenius underneath all brown with a few blue tips:

And finally my prized SPS. This one used to be brown with slight purple tip face and a little green on the base. Its now coloured up beautifully and the growing tips are turning a beautiful sky blue. Just about managed to capture the skyblue tips. This coral SHIMMERS under the point source nature of the White LED's which was missing with T5 only:

Hope you like the photos. After adjusting the photos to what they look like in real life, I went back to my tank and looked at each coral with my topdown viewer to ensure colours were faithfully represented.

I am going to continue the current SPS feeding regime, but in addition, I am going to pick up a few select pieces of quality cured liverock to place in the sump...not only to increase the microlife, but also to bring in a bit of bacterial diversity. Maybe I am just crazy...but I will try this before I give up on the brown SPS and get rid of them.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

When you use fresh sea food, isn't there a risk of introducing viruses and pathogens? How do you address the risk?

:beer:

 

[sirreal63]

Exactly what pathogens are you concerned about? This is the same food we eat, we would be more susceptible to any pathogens from the ocean than our fish and corals would be, or so it would seem. Do you have specifics or just concerned? I suppose it would be possible but I have never heard of anyone having issues from it.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Exactly what pathogens are you concerned about? This is the same food we eat, we would be more susceptible to any pathogens from the ocean than our fish and corals would be, or so it would seem. Do you have specifics or just concerned? I suppose it would be possible but I have never heard of anyone having issues from it.

I read in a thread on RC that some people "disinfect" raw fresh sea food in a microwave (40 C) ro disinfect various "viruses"(?!). Unfortunately, I cannot find this thread.

I also remember reading that raw fresh prawns may contain various viruses which might affect fish in a reef tank.

Is there any truth in all these?

Thanks

 

[sirreal63]

Interesting, raw seafood in a microwave is cooked seafood. I have not heard of people doing this but it would not surprise me either. I have also never heard of anyone tracing a virus that effects fish to raw shrimp though that also would not surprise me. I do know that a lot of reefers worldwide use a variety of the papone mix's to feed their tank, with positive effects.

 

[Chriskid]

I read in a thread on RC that some people "disinfect" raw fresh sea food in a microwave (40 C) ro disinfect various "viruses"(?!). Unfortunately, I cannot find this thread.

I also remember reading that raw fresh prawns may contain various viruses which might affect fish in a reef tank.

Is there any truth in all these?

Thanks

I don't think raw seafood in a reef needs cooking, I have been chopping fresh shrimp and squid daily for my reef for years.

 

[nonstopfishies]

I don't think raw seafood in a reef needs cooking, I have been chopping fresh shrimp and squid daily for my reef for years.

Just a few weeks ago my LFS lost their bat ray and a blue spot ray they have had for a few years in a very large vat. They fed fresh shrimp from the grocery store. Nothing else in the tank was affected, those just happen to be the only two inhabitants that eat the shrimp. They all eat krill and other things. At the same time a complete different system had two triggers start spitting out the same shrimp, eventually going on a few week feeding strike from anything before eventually taking other foods again. These triggers are large and hardy and have been there for a few years as well. Raw stuff can introduce undesirables and unlike us humans it is hard to treat fish/corals/inverts/or whatever it is in time even if we are able to.

With that said, cooking it isn't the way to go. Freezing it however is critical imo. There really is no reason not to and it will kill most of the things that could cause problems.

 

[sirreal63]

Dustin, that seems to point to bad shrimp, not all shrimp being bad. Getting bad seafood is always a possibility.

 

[nonstopfishies]

Dustin, that seems to point to bad shrimp, not all shrimp being bad. Getting bad seafood is always a possibility.

I agree with you. Wasn't saying all shrimp is bad. I am saying there is a chance you get bad seafood. The risk is higher if it isn't frozen before feeding. i.e. buying fresh from the store in those cases that have tons of other stuff in them and bacteria growing like crazy and then feeding without freezing them at home.

 

[sirreal63]

I give everything a sniff test, bad or rotting seafood can be frozen and passed along just as easily. There is always a risk with anything we do.

 

[nonstopfishies]

So I have been feeding my tank "Reef Chili" as of a couple months ago. Just turning off the return and letting the stuff broadcast feed. The tank has only been up 6 months, but was a downsize of a different tank I had, so some of the pieces were decent sized. Growth in the first 4 months or so of the tank being setup was next to nil for the sps, though they had colored up nicely. The first time I broadcast fed the tank I woke up in the morning to new buds all over at least half of my sps. It was like a miracle. By the time I got home from work they were popping more and growing more. I have continued to find about every other night just a little scoop or two that comes with the bottle. They have continued to grow...

So I thought I would see what would happen when I shut off all the flow and used a 10ml syringe to shower the Reef Chili onto the corals. I mixed the food in a cup with tank water for a few minutes before doing so. All my corals were wide open like usual when the lights are on. Upon feeding I am seemingly getting little to no reaction out of any of the corals I watched. I was very surprised by this.

Am I just feeding the tank which in turn is making food for the corals? I would think that is possible, but how did the initial growth happen so fast assuming this? Or is it just because they have to adjust to feeding a different way because there was no flow instead of the unusual night time flow?

 

[trueblackpercula]

Hello SPS keepers,

possibly the freaking best I have ever used feed SPS to date.

Just wanted to share what SPS food I made this past couple of days. To my surprise I could not find oysters anywhere in my area as ever store was sold out for the Holidays. So I was not able to make the Blu coral method food exactly.

Here is what I was able to make for this batch and see how it goes for a month or until the batch I made starts to smell spoiled. I was able to make with the below ingredients that made a total of about 14 oz of food for about $9.59 CENTS. of that $4.59 cents was the cost of the NORI seaweed the other $5.00 bucks was for the seafood.

I used a normal blender for 5 minutes and let it cool down as per the directions to not let the food cook. It was very easy to make and poured it into a small 6oz bottle that was used from the oyster feast manufacturer and froze the rest in a small plastic container. ( Chances are I will not use it as I want to make the next batch with oysters)

I used 6mls yesterday to feed the tank with the return pumps off and only had one small power head on to circulate the food around the tank, I did Not target feed but I will this weekend and take a video for all to see. I feed my SPS at 3:00pm with the lights on out of pure excitement to see if what I made would stimulate my SPS into a feeding frenzy.

Well let me say as stated by Mr. Biggles that my SPS were almost overdosing trying to feed. There sweeper tentacles were out like I have never seen before. I mean I didn't even know that my True Purple Garf bonsai had sweeper tentacles until yesterday ( Long very thin ones that look like for sowing and had a very light transparent yellow color to them). I will feed again on Saturday and take some pictures and post for all to see.

I am going to say out of all the foods that I have tried to date,this is by far the one that gave the most impressive results. I can only imagine what the next batch of food that I make using oysters what affect it will have on them.

***My only concern with the food is shelf life as I have it in the refrigerator stored in the little bottle that contains 6oz of food that the oyster feast originally came in.***

I would think that it can be stored for at least 30 to 40 days before it expires. ( Does anyone think this is off let me know ) I don't want people to think that it last longer and start polluting there tanks and blaming me for something that was not noted.

I will continue to use this food and try and figure out the correct dosing in ML's for my 120 gallon tank. This is not like the commercial made products and is very high in nutrients so be very careful adding it to your system. I think the 6mls i used was too much so my next dosing will be cut back to 3mls.

Good luck everyone and I have not problem being the test pilot on this one.

***WARNING: KEEP REFRIGERATED AT ALL TIMES AS THIS IS RAW SEAFOOD AND COULD CAUSE HEALTH ISSUES***
Materials:
5 Oysters (NONE locally )
5 Mussels = YES fresh
5 Clams =YES fresh > if you can have the store you buy them from open them up for you have them do so as these things are hard to open up.
5 Shrimp= YES whole no heads or shells and I did not clean the vein left it in.
1 Tablespoon of Sugar (not corn syrup, etc.) = YES regular sugar
200 mL of RO/DI water =NO I added 250 ml RO/DI water because it was too thick and this appears to have a better consistency for feeding.
10 g of Algae = NO I used three sheets of seaweed NORI
" you use about 1.33 mg of somatropin, which corresponds to the 4 unit vial." = NO not in this batch but possibly in the next batch LOL pending my doctors approval.

Any questions please feel free to ask.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Your food idea is interesting. My only reservation is the inclusion of sugars. According to Tom (tmz), using sugars is not a good idea as an organic carbon source to feed bacteria. For more information refer to this thread.

I used to use Oyster Feast and agree with you that it brought on massive polyp expansion on my acropora corals. However, we cannot get this product any more due European Union's import restrictions. Fortunately, we have been told that the company has recently complied with EU's import regulations and that from this Spring onwards we will be able to get our hands on this product once again

 

[Allmost]

dont think Id take tom as source of chemistry.

 

[zangmann]

Looks gross but sounds like a great recipe. What's a good alternative to HGH?

 

[stevedola]

ive been making my own food for years with my reef club. very similarhowever we add some other ingredients and freeze into cubes so that it keeps longer.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

dont think Id take tom as source of chemistry.

Why? Is something wrong with what he said in his thread?

 

[Allmost]

Why? Is something wrong with what he said in his thread?

no, not really. but I wouldnt take one persons bad experience with Sugar as the end of sugar dosing and a fact that sugar is no good in this case.

my personal experience differs.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

no, not really. but I wouldnt take one persons bad experience with Sugar as the end of sugar dosing and a fact that sugar is no good in this case.

my personal experience differs.

Fair enough. Thanks.

Would you be kind enough to provide links to successful reef set ups, which you are aware of, in which various forms sugars is used to feed corals and bacteria?

 

[sahin]

very similar however we add some other ingredients and freeze into cubes so that it keeps longer.

Can you please share what other ingredients you add? I also intend to freeze the stuff.

How often do you feed this stuff?

Thanks.