Using varied foods for corals, separate or together?

[Herefishyfishy]

As an experiment, turned off the return, left the SEIOs on, added a little of each of my 3 powder micro foods including frenzy and reef roids, plus a nice dose of Kent Zoaplex and some egg based stuff to see what happened. AMAZING!.

Almost every coral had a huge polyp extension. Guess I need to feed more often with a wide variety of the foods. Might have to try just frenzy to rule out that it was the difference.
Could be that it was not the mix as much as having a huge quantity of food in the water.

Time for some better tests with some controls. Will have to wait a couple days till their appetite returns :>)

 

[redrooster]

It's mostly the concnetration. Corals spend a lot of enery "catching" food, even thought it seems like their not doing anything by our mammalina standards. When they smell/sense that food density they certainly respond. The mix of foods helps as well. This is a topic I have been harping on and no one usually responds when I mention it. I do cyclopese & DT's at least every other day, some days both. I also do DT's oyster eggs 2X a week, and new hatched brine every few days. My excellent feeding helps make up for other deficiencies IMO. I think this is why my Sun coral spawned recently as they are filter feeders only.

 

[DonW]

Dont be fooled by polyp extension. There are a few different reasons for it. Also be carefull with all those foods, most a full of phosphates. FWIW youll get the same reaction with a tsp of table sugar.

Don

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Thanks Don, will check phosphates and put my reactor back on if any readings. I have been told by a couple frag propogators that they feed their corals and rics.

 

[DonW]

Thanks Don, will check phosphates and put my reactor back on if any readings. I have been told by a couple frag propogators that they feed their corals and rics.

I'm sure there is nothing wrong with the feeding softies part, its the what and how much. Maybe talk to Anthony for some insite on the what, without the P and sugars.

Don

 

[redrooster]

I've never had a phosphate problem and I don't skim aggressively, water change aggresively or have a fuge or sump. People warn of this but I've never actually found someone who said "yeah my coral feeding was keeping my phosphate high" In theory I agree with you, but in practice I've never actually seen it be a problem. You can see the reaction best with particulate feeders. My sun coral will not react to sugar (someone else told me the same thing so I tried it), it reacts slowly to phtyo, goes crazy if zoo enters the water. Just my personal experience.
I have no data but I would think the total phospahte in these foods are about as much as enough food to feed 1 fish. Your tank would have to already be unstable for this to do much damage.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Thanks RedRooster, good to hear all the varied opins.. Since no two tanks are the same, what works in one might not work in another. My Phosphates are zero, but should have turned the skimmer off. It went nuts with the food in the water and overflowed my skimmate container onto the floor. Need to set the skimmate darker anyway.

Best part of this site, we can disagree and still maintain friendly respect for all views.

 

[tamarindthai]

Dont be fooled by polyp extension. There are a few different reasons for it. Also be carefull with all those foods, most a full of phosphates. FWIW youll get the same reaction with a tsp of table sugar.

Don

polyp extension:
going on defended?
going on feeding?
going on release toxic,,chemical warfare?,,who know what it is?

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Dang, do you specifically feed your corals or just depend on fish waste?

 

[redrooster]

Yeah there are no rules in this game!! My tank breaks all the "rules", but still does quite well. But this doesn't mean I have the secret to sucess. Someone else can have the exact same setup, but with different fish/corals and have major problems. It's all just trial and error, and learning. What's nice about this board is that unlike some others noboby here seems to be talking out ther a$$, just to make themself seem cool. People either back stuff up with research or will admit "Hey thats just my personal experience" At some other places people act like just becuase it has worked for them for 6months it must be proven science!! I have a number of "no-no's" such as no sump, no fuge, medium sand bed, lower flow than most others, overfeading, unaggressive water changes, never test my water etc...etc..., but all the same I am fragging regularly to get rid of overgrowth. I honestly think my biggest + is reef maturity. I have had my tank 3.5 years, but moved it water and all from another local reefer who had it set up for 9 years. All of the corals and a few pounds of LR are new, but the rest has been togehter for 12.5 years. Of course I can't prove this, but I think this has helped cover a lot of my mistakes, especially the ones I made early on when I first started.

 

[DonW]

Dang, do you specifically feed your corals or just depend on fish waste?

Most sps keepers rely only on fish waste. Your tank is a mixed bag, so makes it tough to find the right balance so just be careful. Dont just assume that because you see 0 on your P kit that its accurate. Reality is if you have fish you have P. The Idea is to keep it from building up over time.

Don

 

[redrooster]

Yeah my phosphate when I last tested was .05 PPM. I have a mixed bag on coral so that is OK. If you have acro though that might be too much. Montipora is probably the "pickiest" coral I have as far as water quality goes. As I remove some softies my PO may go up as I think they have been sucking most of the PO out of my water. Softies like a little PO.

 

[DonW]

As I remove some softies my PO may go up as I think they have been sucking most of the PO out of my water. Softies like a little PO.

Well.... not really. You have organic and inorganic phosphates. If you feed live phyto like dt's your feeding both. The inorganic is what your seeing on your test kit. After something eats the organic or it rots the inorganic is released. So unless you skim out ALL the left overs( kind of a waste) that are building up, your eventually adding inorganic phosphates. Reality is there is no way around this other than just doing the best you can to limit input.

Don

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Most sps keepers rely only on fish waste. Your tank is a mixed bag, so makes it tough to find the right balance so just be careful. Dont just assume that because you see 0 on your P kit that its accurate. Reality is if you have fish you have P. The Idea is to keep it from building up over time.

Don

Don, my phosphate had been measurably above zero tested with a Salifort PO3 kit, until I started running phosban. Run it regularly between carbon changes, alternating. Also, most of the tanks I have looked at with rapidly growing healthy sps, also have softys in with them. Ever look at Eric's tanks? Many feed micro food to their corals. I suspect as soon as one thinks they know the group's norm, a whole new set of averages crop up. For now, I'm going to maintain my status quo of infrequent coral supplimental feedings since everything seems quite healthy and growing. As I add more fish, less food will be required. I genuinely respect your experience and generous help.
As a SPS newby, I appreciate all the help I can get!

 

[DonW]

Don, my phosphate had been measurably above zero tested with a Salifort PO3 kit, until I started running phosban. Run it regularly between carbon changes, alternating. Also, most of the tanks I have looked at with rapidly growing healthy sps, also have softys in with them. Ever look at Eric's tanks? Many feed micro food to their corals. I suspect as soon as one thinks they know the group's norm, a whole new set of averages crop up. For now, I'm going to maintain my status quo of infrequent coral supplimental feedings since everything seems quite healthy and growing. As I add more fish, less food will be required. I genuinely respect your experience and generous help.
As a SPS newby, I appreciate all the help I can get!

I'm just saying be careful with all that stuff in a can or bottle. 0 p on a salifert kit is not 0 p and will catch up to you if you over do it.

Don

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Thanks Don, I agree. (and I do have a tendency to over do most things)

 

[kevinpo]

Feeding SPS corals is certainly not required especially if you have fish. Many soft and LPS corals will starve over time (1yr or so) if not fed extra food above what the fish are fed. Some tanks that have a heavy fish load or that are fed heavily do not require additional feedings. Each tank is different depending on the fish load/type, frequency of feeding, equipment, coral combination, food type, etc.

Over time nutrients build up in reef tanks as normally we import more than we export. Most of the time this accumulation shows up as some form of algae growth if the lighting is suitable. It can be very difficult to detect nutrients if the algae growth equals the amount being generated. If you don't have much algae growing and you have good lighting then you probably don't have a nutrient problem. Sometimes visual observation is equal to or better than a test kit Hair type algae are the most common growth when excess phosphates are present. Some phosphates are required by SPS corals and I have had SPS corals lose tissue from overusing phosphate removers. Coralline algae growth can be another indicator of high phosphates. If it grows slowly or not at all you may have elevated phosphate levels. There can also be other causes but usually if calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium levels are near NSW you will have excellent coralline algae growth.

I have many tanks of different sizes from 2-600gal and each one is different. Some have no fish, some have 30 fish. I have a 155 with no protein skimmer and a 600 with a skimmer taller than I am, even one with a under gravel filter . The point is, that all of these tanks have excellent growth (1"+ per month) and require different husbandry to keep them that way. So there is without a doubt in my experience no single path to success in this hobby.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[tamarindthai]

i feed my coral at night and feed my fish 1 hr before all the light turn off,or just before the MH turn on.

Dang, do you specifically feed your corals or just depend on fish waste?

 

[spongebob lover]

i feed my coral at night

what are you feeding those gorgeous corals of yours Dang ?

 

[tamarindthai]

golden pearl,baby bryschrimp and roitifer,,