What and when to begin feeding

[snooter1]

Package 1 in a looking great. Cycled and thriving. Pacjage two on its way when the TBS guys feel better (hopefully this week). My question.

This stuff is full of life, do I need to begin feeding the corals, clams, oysters, sponges, feather dusters, etc.

Don not want to lose anything, also do not want to polute the tank given it is so young.

 

[snooter1]

Just re-read, man I need to learn how to type. Sorry. Hopefully you get the jist.

 

[hdtran]

Don't bother feeding anything. If you get an anemone, you can target feed the anemone a pea-sized piece of seafood about 2x/week (skipping feedings is ok). Once you get fish in (unless you're going to wait 8 weeks before putting fish in), the corals will get the detritus from feeding the fish.

If you feel guilty about the filter feeders, I personally feed DT's or Kent's Phyto or other filter feeder food, starting at about 4 weeks after the 2nd part is in.

 

[PRC]

I've pretty much given up on trying to feed most of the filter feeders with the exception of the porcelain crabs. I feed a small amount of spray dried phyto a couple of times a week. IMO the best thing you can do to feed the filter feeders is to NOT use any mechanical filtration. The only filter I've got on my system is a protein skimmer.
I do attempt to target feed most of the hitchhiker corals on my TBS rock. They all readily accept small chunks of meaty food. I generally feed them mysis shrimp though it is much less expensive and probably just as good to feed them chopped up seafood from the grocery store. The Caribbean Rose Corals (the ones that look like brain corals) seem to do particularly well with regular (2-3x/wk) feedings. Mine have almost doubled in size in about eight months and they were kind of beat up when I got them. There's a picture of one of my Caribbean Rose corals eating in my gallery.
Do be careful not to overfeed. Target feeding definitely helps to keep the pollution levels down.

 

[snooter1]

Please excuse the newbie question but I will ask anyhow. how are you getting the small pieces of food down to each coral / clam / etc. Small tongs? some tool? My tank is 28" deep and many of the cool corals are pretty dug in in tight spaces. Just wondering. I believe I have one of those rose corals as well. Would love to see him grow. How do I view your gallery. I am trying to ID all of the stuff in the tank.

 

[Slatts]

I use a turkey baster. My tank is 24" deep. I turn off the powerheads while feeding.

 

[Slatts]

Click in the gallery icon on top of his post to view.

 

[PRC]

snooter, two words - turkey baster. Best aquarium accessory I've ever bought. It's not 100% accurate, but it's a whole lot better than just dumping the food in the tank. Just be sure to be gentle with it, nothing likes getting blasted with chunks of food (well, maybe the peppermint shrimp and the starfish). IME it's not worth trying to feed the clams/oysters. They just close up whenever I blow any food (phyto, usually) anywhere near them. They seem to do fine on whatever's in the water since mine are still going strong at eight months.
You might also be interested in this post: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=339082

 

[mx250]

I have lost a couple of clams, and a couple of the smallest oysters. Note that neither of these species are photosynthetic. Unless you can use natural sea water, some phyto will really help these guys keep going.