Feeding corals

[MarineTeng]

well really i didn't have time to read nikki's post this morning, though i hope to get around to it, i was thinking more for my lps's, sps are quite the minority in my tank

 

[pnikiel]

So it looks like phytoplankton isn't necessary. There are lots of zooplankton products available on the market. Are they worth the $ or should the coral get enough nutrition from left over fish feed and fish poop?

 

[Curtswearing]

well really i didn't have time to read nikki's post this morning, though i hope to get around to it, i was thinking more for my lps's, sps are quite the minority in my tank

Depending on bioload, flow, etc. many LPS can utilize larger meaty foods. For instance, I would periodically target feed Euphyllia (hammer, torch, frogspawn, etc.) with PE or Hikari Mysis Shrimp in my softy tank. This was necessary because I didn't have good enough flow in it to keep wastes suspended.

The key is, look at the size of the "mouth" and look at how much tissue is supported by that "mouth", look at the length of the 'tentacles' of the polyp, look at the color of the coral, and see if the animal is colonial (which share nutrients). Obviously, a larger mouth is capable of ingesting larger foods. Longer tentacles on a polyp tends to indicate better prey-capture abilities. Zooxanthellae is brown. Corals that stay brown tend to have a LOT of zoox in their tissue. Even though some species might have a lot of tissue, it might not need much in the way of additional feeding due to the quantity of zoox. (Look at the size of the tentacles as a clue).

Examples:

Frogspawn....each "head" is one animal. It is not colonial and it doesn't share it's nutrients with any other "head". There is a lot of tissue to each animal and the "mouth" is fairly large. Depending on how your tank is set up, this animal might appreciate periodic target feeding of meaty foods.

Most SPS....this animal is colonial and what hits one polyp is shared by the entire colony. The "mouths" are very small and most SPS tissue is only 2 cells thick. I feed them good flow to get fish poop and other detritus covered with bacteria to the polyps as well as good lighting. When I would see colors lightening, I would feed my fish more for a couple of days.

Zoanthids....very tiny mouth, not colonial, medium amount of tissue. Sure, there's plenty of tissue for each animal but how on earth are you going to feed that tiny little mouth? Answer, you don't need to. Photosynthesis, DOM, and bacterioplankton will feed them just fine. Just to show you the variation in the same family, yellow polyps (parazoanthids) have a medium size mouth, much longer tentacles on the polyp, and should be fed. The 0length of the 'tentacles' is a clue. Protopalythoa have good-sized mouths and medium length tentacles. They will close up on any small or medium sized food you give them. I've seen them close up and eat foods as big as mysis shrimp before.

Colt coral....Cladiella has a lot of tissue, is colonial and each polyp shares nutrients, has medium sized polyps. If you have decent flow, you probably don't need to feed these much. Particularly, tan or brown specimens. Zooxanthellae is brown. Brown corals typically have a LOT of zooxanthellae and get much of their energy budget from photosynthesis.

FOOTNOTE: I hate my post because it generalizes so much. However, hopefully it shows the thought processes I go through with my corals and how/what/if I need to feed them.

So it looks like phytoplankton isn't necessary. There are lots of zooplankton products available on the market. Are they worth the $ or should the coral get enough nutrition from left over fish feed and fish poop?

As above, it depends on your situation. I've utilized both Cyclopeeze and Sweetwater Plankton in my blender mush.

 

[MarineTeng]

thanks for the help, that makes things much clearer

 

[redrooster]

I'm new to the forum but will add my $.02 I have used DT's live phyto most of the time that I have had my tank (3 years) but stopped for about 6 months at one point. I would say that all my corals stayed healthy and happy even without the phyto, but the growth rate of the soft corals seems to be better when using the phyto. I also started feeding cyclopese about 3 months ago and have seen an increase in growth from the hard corals. From the info in this thread I am tempted to discountinue the phyto, and just stay with the zoo as it seems to benefit a wider range of corals. Also the corals that are helped most by the phyto are pretty quick grower to begin with. Anyways I guess up till now I figured that I already had so much invested in the tank that an additional $20 a month for phyto was tolerable. Also I have a lot of small tubeworms and sponges that I think are supported by the phtyo.

 

[pnikiel]

I stopped feeding the phyto a couple of weeks ago, after going through the info on this thread. I've been watching a couple of Feather Dusters in my tank to see if they'd miss it. They still seem to be fine. They're filter feeding on something... I'm keeping my bottle of phyto standing by incase they start to suffer. But so far so good...

 

[Curtswearing]

Redrooster,

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

You brought up a good point. Some people really like tubeworms, sponges, and other critters that may utilize phyto. While I think they are cool, I'm not going to pollute my tank simply to feed them. I care more about my fish/shrimp/corals. If I had some expensive decorative feather dusters or Christmas Tree worms I might have a different opinion.

I wouldn't be shocked if some of your soft corals grew a little quicker with regular doses of phyto. If you add live phyto, one of two things will happen. A) It will be skimmed out and you're out a few $$$. B) The phyto dies and you are not only increasing available phosphates, you are also increasing Dissolved Organic Material. Many softies will grow quicker in the nutrient-enriched situation. Unfortunately, so will many nuisance algaes.

 

[NaH2O]

Redrooster - Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

I'll ditto Curt's comments...

 

[redrooster]

Well coming on here inspired me to check my tank levels. After gaining some experience I have been just doing water changes by "feel". Watch the corals and when the don't look as good do a water change. Very scientific I know! Anyways it had been 14 months since I checked the levels. My PH was 8.1 Alkilinity was medium and PO was around .05-.07. I change 5 gals a water a week and skim 12 hours a day. I only skim 12 so that I can turn off the skimmer before feeding phyto so as to help utilization of the phyto before being sucked out of the system. Also I dont keep much SPS so I don't need to have perfect water quality. With this maintenance I have had zero algae in the last two years. I'm pretty undecided about what to do though. I know my tank will be OK without the phtyo, but I really believe in feeding as diversified a food base as possible. I feel that way about keeping individual species, but in the case of a reef with over 100 different species it's probably even more important. Anyways thank you for the warm welcome I look forward to discussing reefkeeping with you all.