Without skimming

F

Friendlyfin

New member
I love the feeling of a great reef tank. The work and planning for the next perfect piece. I feel I'm content on my small 35gl with out a way of adding a skimmer, yet I do over feed with a variety of mostly frozen and reefroids.
Not sure what to do.
I'm always on top of water changes every weekend 5gl worth , just about too the frogspon.
Anyways, it's been 3 years, just waiting for something to go out of balance.
Phosphate does clime some times, maybe some seagel in messhbag?
Looking for in site for future
 
First off, a little more information would be helpful, it's not clear to me what your question(s) exactly are.

I would recommend you stop trying to feed your corals. This paper showes species specific responses when the researchers looked at feeding various artificial foods to corals https://www.academia.edu/1647139/Coral_farming_effects_of_light_water_motion_and_artificial_foods For the most part feeding artificial foods was detrimental.

If you want to use something to remove phosphate there are multiple products on the market but be sure you keep it above .03 mg/l. (I'm happy with 0.1 mg/l) these papers done at Southhampton University over a period of 10 years shows low phosphate is very detrimental to corals.

Phosphate Deficiency:
Nutrient enrichment can increase the susceptibility of reef corals to bleaching:
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/Nutrient enrichment.pdf

Ultrastructural Biomarkers in Symbiotic Algae Reflect the Availability of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Particulate Food to the Reef Coral Holobiont:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2015.00103/full

Phosphate deficiency promotes coral bleaching and is reflected by the ultrastructure of symbiotic dinoflagellates
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17301601?via=ihub
 
Timfish said:
First off, a little more information would be helpful, it's not clear to me what your question(s) exactly are.

I would recommend you stop trying to feed your corals. This paper showes species specific responses when the researchers looked at feeding various artificial foods to corals https://www.academia.edu/1647139/Coral_farming_effects_of_light_water_motion_and_artificial_foods For the most part feeding artificial foods was detrimental.

If you want to use something to remove phosphate there are multiple products on the market but be sure you keep it above .03 mg/l. (I'm happy with 0.1 mg/l) these papers done at Southhampton University over a period of 10 years shows low phosphate is very detrimental to corals.

Phosphate Deficiency:
Nutrient enrichment can increase the susceptibility of reef corals to bleaching:
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/Nutrient enrichment.pdf

Ultrastructural Biomarkers in Symbiotic Algae Reflect the Availability of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Particulate Food to the Reef Coral Holobiont:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2015.00103/full

Phosphate deficiency promotes coral bleaching and is reflected by the ultrastructure of symbiotic dinoflagellates
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17301601?via=ihub
Click to expand...

Do not feed corals. They get all they need from the lighting and nutrients in the water.
 
Daddyrawg said:
So stuff like reef chili reef roids marine snow and pellets are detrimental?
Click to expand...

Taking any marine life out of their natural habitat can be said to be detrimental.. Should we all give up this hobby and return everything to the Ocean?
:hmm2:

If you look you can typically find a "scientific" study showing just about anything you want is good or bad or whatever..

Same type of studies can be shown about human food.. Do you just go Vegan or organic or whatever?
 
mcgyvr said:
Taking any marine life out of their natural habitat can be said to be detrimental.. Should we all give up this hobby and return everything to the Ocean?

:hmm2:



If you look you can typically find a "scientific" study showing just about anything you want is good or bad or whatever..



Same type of studies can be shown about human food.. Do you just go Vegan or organic or whatever?
Click to expand...
You dont feed your corals mac?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
I feed what has noticeable feeding response, once a week.
Acans, Palys, Duncan's, Brains, Scolyies, Ricordea, Yuma, to name a few.
For me, all these seem to "puff up" quite a bit when fed.

The rest are getting consistent mix of amino acid, phyto and zoo at a rate of 1 ml per each 6 hours.

This feeding has had zero effect on nutrients level, so no real harm.

I think, but certainly can not prove, that the energy from periodic feeding, can be directed to flesh growth/repair rather than plain survival......
 
Last edited:
Most corals in the wild get fed additional nutrients daily in waves via tides, clean pristine water one moment, lateron........... nutrient rich water rushing in & out next, also photosynthesis also all day long, unless they are deep water NPS types. This all depends obviously on location etc. as we all pretty much realize.
Light however is not the only thing they live on, and i see substantial growth effects on all my corals when fed over time as well & much better polyp extension, color & inflation especially on LPS types, the Acros seem to do ok on just water nutrients. The real tricky part is do you have the time & patience ...........& desire to turn off all circulation & filters & spot feed ea. one very carefully & slowly so as to not pollute the tank. I do this 2 times a week with just say 1 mysis per polyp and i totally agree natural foods are far better then manufactured pellets etc & i can see this because 1/2 the time my corals will expel the unnatural foods but not the brine , mysis, and other natural foods ever.
Over feeding corals is probably the worst issue, they do not need to be fed like pigs in a pen, altho ill say acans can eat a huge amount per polyp verses most others once they reach full size and sometimes even i will over indulge my acans with 3-4 shrimp per polyp with no issues & they grow like weeds when indulged with new polyps every month popping up so i think its mostly a case of do you want your reef tank to slowly evolve or grow rapidly? This is a long term hobby so i can see why many would lean twards a low nutrient feeding schedule so things progress slowly making it easier to keep a handle on overgrowth issues without sacrificing health.
Anyway this is what ive noticed over the past 2 yrs. of experimenting & feeding corals, yes it does dictate a few more water changes & filter cleanings but it clearly does make a diff on all but the most delicate Acros.
 
They look great, no surprise, I have been reading you for quite some time and have great respect for your knowledge!

I think the question feed/not feed is like which salt is best....
 
Uncle99 said:
They look great, no surprise, I have been reading you for quite some time and have great respect for your knowledge!

I think the question feed/not feed is like which salt is best....
Click to expand...
Thank you. I come on everyday to see what I can learn, but along the way get to share some knowledge. The main lesson is there reefing does not dictate one "right", as in only, way. But there are wrong ways.

I feed heavy so the corals can enjoy the additions of amino acids and some NO3 and PO4
 
I feed heavy so the corals can enjoy the additions of amino acids and some NO3 and PO4[/QUOTE]

You said it yourself Gary, you feed heavy so yes you feed your corals, just not doing it by spot feeding, you aren't concerned of nutrients too high since that issue is obviously taken care of, not everyone tho can do that without issues as say on a nano reef tank with no sump etc...
Ive seen corals starving personally by being fed only amino acids period nothing else introduced & they withered & wasted away slowly starving in frag tanks & had hi end lighting & on one aquarium i know of personally & he has the lighting set way too blue all the time so settings on lighting & how the tank is fed relate together.
All im saying is they do need additional food one way or another not just a pristine tank & perfect lighting. Does not have to be a large amount but something.
 
Oldreeferman said:
I feed heavy so the corals can enjoy the additions of amino acids and some NO3 and PO4
Click to expand...

You said it yourself Gary, you feed heavy so yes you feed your corals, just not doing it by spot feeding, you aren't concerned of nutrients too high since that issue is obviously taken care of, not everyone tho can do that without issues as say on a nano reef tank with no sump etc...
Ive seen corals starving personally by being fed only amino acids period nothing else introduced & they withered & wasted away slowly starving in frag tanks & had hi end lighting & on one aquarium i know of personally & he has the lighting set way too blue all the time so settings on lighting & how the tank is fed relate together.
All im saying is they do need additional food one way or another not just a pristine tank & perfect lighting. Does not have to be a large amount but something.[/QUOTE]

If you introduce "nutrients", I.e., NO3 and PO4, than you need a way to remove them. I use a skimmer, ATS dose carbon and periodically need to run the GFO reactor.

I have a short tentacle green plate coral that I got when it was about the size of a half dollar. It is now about 8 inches in diameter with a large mouth. I have never spot fed it.

I feed a home made mixture of cod, mussels, squid, shrimp and oysters.
 
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