What and When to Feed

[bigfoot610]

yup i would put a maxijet 600 in and shut everything else off pour in the shotglass of live phyto and let the maxi circulate for 1 hour then i would fire everything back up I would get alot of skimmate and always had phosphate remover in the sump zos grew fast and my pulsing xenia grew like weeds couldnt give it away fast enough lol
as for my hammer corals and other lps i switched their food up at the grocery store i would get raw uncooked shrimp crab clam oyster and fish and would put it in the good ol food chopper with some tank water and feed that to larger palys and lps kept my Gbta hungry too it would eat daily ( belive smaller and more frequent is better watch out on the clams tho because 90% of them were still alive lol i kept 3 alive in my reef lol

 

[j.p. harrington]

i feed a crazy amount of stuff in my tank BUT...... and its a big but you have to have the proper amount of filtration to counteract and of the negative side effects of feeding so heavily i know i over feed but ive got the filtration and established system to take care of it.

i steadily ramped up the amount of food i fed over about 6 months so al together im feeding MY TANK not just the coral about 5 frozen cubes every other day or so

but as far as zoas go im addicted to them and i really like the reaction i get from OYSTER FEAST by reef nutrition

 

[A. Grandis]

I've tried Oyster Feast before.
They liked it, but had problems with algae for a while because of that.
Even doing the partial water changes every week to be able to keep feeding them.
I did target feeding, but of course it doesn't really matter because you're introducing it in the system.
I didn't like it because of that and it didn't make any difference in their growth rate than any dry foods I've tried.
The dry foods are much better to deal with and works.

But they do like to feed on Oyster Feast.

Grandis.

 

[knutez24]

Oyster Feast is something zoas def respond to.

Has anyone tried Sponge Power? I've heard from a few people w/ SPS dom tanks that feed this have seen some great response from some of their zoanthids.

 

[A. Grandis]

Humm...
If it does what it claims, should be one of the best to try.
It works for most of the inverts one wants to keep in a home reef tank!

Almost $40.00!!
Hope to hear from someone using it.

Here are some info, from MD's web site:

"Sponge Power is the first product of its kind – charged specifically with the task of maintaining and boosting the growth of all your filter feeders including clams, feather duster worms, sponges and tunicates. As an added benefit, you will notice much clearer water due to this increased sessile biomass and diversity!

Sponge Power will add Nitrate or Phosphate to your water.

Use Sponge Power to:
Safely accelerate the growth filter feeders
Increase the occurrence of new ‘growth tips’ on all SPS corals
Massively strengthen the proliferation of all soft corals
Promote vigorous polyp expansion from corals
Intensify coral colors, especially blues and purples
Encourage healing of damaged corals
Shorten the ‘cycling process’ in new systems
Dose: 1 drop | 25 gallons per day"

http://www.marinedepot.com/Korallen...ements-Korallen_Zucht-VX5353-FIADSACS-vi.html

I think, and hope, they meant:

Sponge Power will NOT add Nitrate or Phosphate to your water.

Grandis.

 

[knutez24]

Ya i'm hoping to hear from someone also. I do think it meant will NOT add them. Especially when you read the reviews and claims.

$40 does seem a little steep, but when adding just 1 drop/ 25 gallons it should last awhile.

Hopefully we hear from someone!

 

[A. Grandis]

Many people try different things at the same time.
It would be nice to hear from someone that is just using that alone.
Specially when we can't see the reaction of the zoas when adding the "food".
I don't think one can see much reaction with couple drops added to the water.
If so, that would be really amazing!!!!
In this case, I think the way they look/reproduce would be the way to know it works.
That way we can make sure it's that particular food, doing it's job.

Every food would have to show us the results only after a while, of couse...

I still didn't find THE zoa food. Many that we've tried are very good.
But non of the them is still the ultimate food for zoas yet.
Maybe the combo of some of them would do a wonderful job.

I believe in target feeding for two reasons:
1) Helps not to waste the food.
2) Avoid to add excess and unnecessary food in the system, and in most cases, adding undesirable nutrients, depending on the type of food.

Another very important point is to remove the excess of nutrients daily!
Skimmer! Partial water changes, every 2 weeks, I would say!

There is a key to add "foods", like the product in question, and it plays with the absorption from water column. That is a fact for zoas. We know.
I think I would call the product more of a "system/invert supplement", than "system/invert food".

Grandis.