Feed like a geek...Your reef will LOVE you for it!
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Shtiff1
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vetteguy53081
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I spoon feed frozen food mixed with a hint f water and liquid vitamix such as vita chem.
Big E
Valuable Member
A couple of things----------
What's important is to have a good export sytem in place and Imo this is where most people fail.
Most of the phosphate passes through the fish.........they actually use a very small amount.
I use a lot of frozen raw food (grocery store) which has less PO4 than commercial fish foods. Most raw seafood still has tripolyphosphate in it that's used as a preservative. You can avoid this by buying your raw seafood from a fish market that gets fresh fish in every day. Or you can try fish from Whole Foods.....I haven't bought from them but I believe they claim their fish is fresh.
I can't express more to make your own fish food and freeze it. There's many good recipes out there..........they contain a lot less phosphates and are substantially less expensive.
What's important is to have a good export sytem in place and Imo this is where most people fail.
Most of the phosphate passes through the fish.........they actually use a very small amount.
I use a lot of frozen raw food (grocery store) which has less PO4 than commercial fish foods. Most raw seafood still has tripolyphosphate in it that's used as a preservative. You can avoid this by buying your raw seafood from a fish market that gets fresh fish in every day. Or you can try fish from Whole Foods.....I haven't bought from them but I believe they claim their fish is fresh.
I can't express more to make your own fish food and freeze it. There's many good recipes out there..........they contain a lot less phosphates and are substantially less expensive.
OP
OP
So well stated...I think if we look at feeding our reef as a part of a total approach, including the nutrient export mechanisms, stocking management, proper equipment, etc., than it all makes more sense. When you think about it, everything that we do in reefkeeping is dependent, to some degree, upon our developing and adhering proper methods, re-evaluating periodically, and tweaking when something goes wrong. With a better understanding of the whole environment we are trying to replicate or create, our chances for success cannot help but increase. The perfect example would be NPS tanks. People who are successfully keeping non-photosynthetic coral tanks balance massive, consistent food inputs with robust nutrient export mechanisms, otherwise, they're looking at a massive, nitrate-infested, algae-smothered aquarium with many dead corals!
It's all connected...
-Scott
blue.flyzz
Active Member
Hey Scott....just placed an order for your splatter mushroom and added a Lucky Charms chalice, looking forward to receiving these beauties!!!!
OP
OP
pseudonym
New Member
Add feeding! My favorite subject! Hey there. New to the forum and just registered to respond to this post. I am a bit of a feeding geek when it comes right down to it. The tank is a 125G (5'x2') mixed reef housing NPS, SPS, LPS and softies. I have the following stocking:
Fish
- 1 large green striped mandarin
- 1 small red striped mandarin
- 1 purple tilefish*
- 1 Watanabe female angelfish*
- 1 Two Bar Rabbitfish
- 1 Atlantic Blue Tang. Still quite small
- 1 Blue spot jawfish*
- 1 Sailfin blenny
- 1 Yellow sleeper goby
- 1 Leopard wrasse
- 1 Black Leopard Wrasse
- 5 yellow striped cardinals*
- 2 Bangai cardinals*
- 2 Ocellaris clownfish*
- 1 Wartskin frogfish in the refugium
Other Animals of note:
- 3 "spiny" crinoids
- 1 carnation coral
- 2 chili corals, possibly three.
- 2 sun corals (not having much luck with these)
- 1 cotton candy coral
- 1 5 head Dendrophyllia colony.
- 2 sea apples
*These are fish I term "display" fish as I have to add food to the tank to feed them. They do not get their nutrition from the tank itself for the most part.
My over-all philosophy of feeding is to feed the fish themselves as minimally as possible. When I feed, I like to "feed the food, not the fish", which means that I really want the animals to find the majority of their food from the tank itself. That means keeping up a vibrant population of microfauna: copepods, amphipods, mysis etc. The entire system is setup with these very small animals in mind and doesn't include any components that use "hard" mechanical filtration or skimming. Instead I use very deep sand beds planted with sea grass, algaes (god bless cheato) and red mangroves (tip: put the ATO input over their roots for better growth), have the DSB/Fuge set up as a "gravity filter" and am running Carbon, GFO and a UV sterilizer.
What this boils down to is lots of small particle feeding. I don't spot feed as a rule, but do when animals need it or seem to be struggling. The small particle feeding is not really part of "coral care" per-se, it is a happy consequence that corals just happen to love the food as well! The main target organisms are those microfauna which both feed and clean the tank. Of course you modify what you feed and how much according to your coral and other animals in the tank, but small particle feeding has been something I have been doing to boost microfauna populations since well before I had coral.
I like to include "starve" days that up until recently meant that I did not feed anything at all on weekends other than sheet algae. After I added in the Angel, I started to notice that if I didn't feed on weekends, my millepora would pay a high price. I haven't caught her in the act so I am somewhat suspicious of the Rabbitfish, however he is has been good up until this point and the problems really started with the addition of the Watanabe. Seems to be in check, but not completely resolved now that I am feeding frozen on weekends as well as weekdays. I still starve off small particle feeding on weekends however.
I also believe strongly in variety and insuring that there is as much diversity in my tank's diet as possible. All frozen food is strained with a screen and then in soaked the following additives before being added to the tank:
- korallen-zucht Aminoacid Concentrate Fish
- Korallen-zucht Immun Stabil Fish
- Kent Garlic Xtreme
- Fauna Marin Food Energizer
- Brightwell Aquatics AngeLixir
Before frozen foods are added I will drip one drop of Garlic Xtreme into the tank about 2-5 min before feeding.
Here is the regime for everyone but the frogfish in the refugium who gets fed a live guppy or mollie once per week:
Daily:
- 1 sheet of dried Red, Green or Purple algae
- 2 cubes of Red Plankton, Mysis, Cyclopsis, Rotifers, Artemia or Kril
Monday - Friday:
- 10mL Kent Chromaplex
- 5mL Kent Phytoplex
- 15mL either Kent Zooplex or SeaChem Reef Zooplankton. I change this up.
- 15mL Two Little Fishes Marine Snow
- 5mL Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast
- 5mL Reef Nutrition R.O.E.
- 1 spoon** New Life Spectrum Reef Microfeeder
- 1 spoon** Reef Roids
- 1 spoon** Fauna Marin Ultra Sea Fan Feed Particles
- 1 spoon** Fauna Marin Ultra MINf Fine Food
- 4 spoon** Reef Bugs
**Large artemia spoon. 4 spoons is about 2/3rd of a teaspoon
The liquid and dried foods are mixed together with water from the tank and left to sit for about 20 min stirring occasionally in order to activate the bacteria in the reef bugs. Once ready, the tank is put into "feed" with reduced pump flow and the food is added directly to the tank. Any animals that need spot feeding are fed at this time as well.
So that is about it. I am modifying and tinkering with feeding all the time trying to get it just perfect. I have started a continuous copepod culture so if that takes off I will be able to reduce the amount of frozen I am feeding and replace some of that with live! Live food is food that isn't rotting and creating excess nutrients before it is consumed so it is always prefered. My reef looks great and my animals are thriving. I am really happy with the feeding system and the tank in general to be honest. It is a very balanced system, and while I do my bi-weekly water changes, it isn't excess nutrient load that prompts them but rather a sense of precaution to remove nutrients and toxins that I can't or don't know how to measure.
Loved the article! Thanks for giving me a chance to be all geeky about my food hehehe. And I haven't even gone into additives!
Fish
- 1 large green striped mandarin
- 1 small red striped mandarin
- 1 purple tilefish*
- 1 Watanabe female angelfish*
- 1 Two Bar Rabbitfish
- 1 Atlantic Blue Tang. Still quite small
- 1 Blue spot jawfish*
- 1 Sailfin blenny
- 1 Yellow sleeper goby
- 1 Leopard wrasse
- 1 Black Leopard Wrasse
- 5 yellow striped cardinals*
- 2 Bangai cardinals*
- 2 Ocellaris clownfish*
- 1 Wartskin frogfish in the refugium
Other Animals of note:
- 3 "spiny" crinoids
- 1 carnation coral
- 2 chili corals, possibly three.
- 2 sun corals (not having much luck with these)
- 1 cotton candy coral
- 1 5 head Dendrophyllia colony.
- 2 sea apples
*These are fish I term "display" fish as I have to add food to the tank to feed them. They do not get their nutrition from the tank itself for the most part.
My over-all philosophy of feeding is to feed the fish themselves as minimally as possible. When I feed, I like to "feed the food, not the fish", which means that I really want the animals to find the majority of their food from the tank itself. That means keeping up a vibrant population of microfauna: copepods, amphipods, mysis etc. The entire system is setup with these very small animals in mind and doesn't include any components that use "hard" mechanical filtration or skimming. Instead I use very deep sand beds planted with sea grass, algaes (god bless cheato) and red mangroves (tip: put the ATO input over their roots for better growth), have the DSB/Fuge set up as a "gravity filter" and am running Carbon, GFO and a UV sterilizer.
What this boils down to is lots of small particle feeding. I don't spot feed as a rule, but do when animals need it or seem to be struggling. The small particle feeding is not really part of "coral care" per-se, it is a happy consequence that corals just happen to love the food as well! The main target organisms are those microfauna which both feed and clean the tank. Of course you modify what you feed and how much according to your coral and other animals in the tank, but small particle feeding has been something I have been doing to boost microfauna populations since well before I had coral.
I like to include "starve" days that up until recently meant that I did not feed anything at all on weekends other than sheet algae. After I added in the Angel, I started to notice that if I didn't feed on weekends, my millepora would pay a high price. I haven't caught her in the act so I am somewhat suspicious of the Rabbitfish, however he is has been good up until this point and the problems really started with the addition of the Watanabe. Seems to be in check, but not completely resolved now that I am feeding frozen on weekends as well as weekdays. I still starve off small particle feeding on weekends however.
I also believe strongly in variety and insuring that there is as much diversity in my tank's diet as possible. All frozen food is strained with a screen and then in soaked the following additives before being added to the tank:
- korallen-zucht Aminoacid Concentrate Fish
- Korallen-zucht Immun Stabil Fish
- Kent Garlic Xtreme
- Fauna Marin Food Energizer
- Brightwell Aquatics AngeLixir
Before frozen foods are added I will drip one drop of Garlic Xtreme into the tank about 2-5 min before feeding.
Here is the regime for everyone but the frogfish in the refugium who gets fed a live guppy or mollie once per week:
Daily:
- 1 sheet of dried Red, Green or Purple algae
- 2 cubes of Red Plankton, Mysis, Cyclopsis, Rotifers, Artemia or Kril
Monday - Friday:
- 10mL Kent Chromaplex
- 5mL Kent Phytoplex
- 15mL either Kent Zooplex or SeaChem Reef Zooplankton. I change this up.
- 15mL Two Little Fishes Marine Snow
- 5mL Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast
- 5mL Reef Nutrition R.O.E.
- 1 spoon** New Life Spectrum Reef Microfeeder
- 1 spoon** Reef Roids
- 1 spoon** Fauna Marin Ultra Sea Fan Feed Particles
- 1 spoon** Fauna Marin Ultra MINf Fine Food
- 4 spoon** Reef Bugs
**Large artemia spoon. 4 spoons is about 2/3rd of a teaspoon
The liquid and dried foods are mixed together with water from the tank and left to sit for about 20 min stirring occasionally in order to activate the bacteria in the reef bugs. Once ready, the tank is put into "feed" with reduced pump flow and the food is added directly to the tank. Any animals that need spot feeding are fed at this time as well.
So that is about it. I am modifying and tinkering with feeding all the time trying to get it just perfect. I have started a continuous copepod culture so if that takes off I will be able to reduce the amount of frozen I am feeding and replace some of that with live! Live food is food that isn't rotting and creating excess nutrients before it is consumed so it is always prefered. My reef looks great and my animals are thriving. I am really happy with the feeding system and the tank in general to be honest. It is a very balanced system, and while I do my bi-weekly water changes, it isn't excess nutrient load that prompts them but rather a sense of precaution to remove nutrients and toxins that I can't or don't know how to measure.
Loved the article! Thanks for giving me a chance to be all geeky about my food hehehe. And I haven't even gone into additives!
So I run spot feeding every other day and then every other off day I feed a cube. this is in my 125 Gallon reef / fish tank, being that I have so much diversity in there it truly is a battle however the weekly water change makes a huge difference just make sure the water quality is good otherwise the water change is useless.
OP
OP
Love that! Excellent write up...I love that you shared your rationales for your practices, etc. I'd love to see pics and progress on this tank, and would love to see more posts like this from fellow reefers...It's kind of like developing a "style guide" for reef keeping...When we hear of different reefers' methodologies, we can learn and develop strategies that help us with our own systems!
Thanks again for sharing!
-Scott
OP
OP
Excellent point...Water quality is really the most important environmental parameter in a closed system, in my opinion. This is a huge key to success, and you've locked in on that beautifully!
-Scott
OP
OP
I'm operating on my experience when I advise eliminating the fines and packing juices...However, in a very densely populated system or perhaps an NPS system, the argument could be made that many hungry mouths will grab the stuff before it accumulates...Again, I just err on the side of caution, and advise everyone to do the same...However, experimentation is good!
Thanks for sharing!
-Scott
OP
OP
vetteguy53081
Well known Member and monster tank lover
Partner Member 2024
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
RGB
Article Contributor
Tampa Bay Reef Keepers
West Palm Beach Reefer
Hospitality Award
Ocala Reef Club Member
305 Reef Club
Wisco Reefers
Midwest Reefer
Fish Medic
MAC of SW Florida
Rock Pool Reef Keepers
R2R Secret Santa 2023
My Tank Thread
My Aquarium Showcase
Variety is also important especially in a reef aquarium which contains fish. The difficulty in assuring all specimens are fed is increased.
pseudonym
New Member
I really enjoyed the article and I alway love having a chance to talk about feeding! Like someone else was saying, feeding really goes hand-in-hand with nutrient export and finding that balance really is key. I don't have a lot of progression pics for the tank other than just random shots I have taken along the way. Here is a full tank shot from tonight however. ;I would have posted it earlier but I was waiting for the sun to go down and reduce the glare on the tank.
http://i.imgur.com/yTobSG4.jpg
A Better Fish Bowl
New Member
I have 3 tanks up and running, 40breeder full of frags, 72 bowfront with rock, soft corals and Fish are large and fat and include :Foxface, Morish Idol, Hippo tang, Melanaurus wrasse, Blue jaw trigger (small), PJ cardinal, purple dotty back, Blue reef chromes. and a 90 reef.
I feed 2 x a day, flood the tanks.
Pellets and frozen mix of clams, Rods, PE Mysis and I DO NOT drain the water for this or any of my tanks.
The 72 gal tank has a Emperor 350 HO filter, a RedSea Prizm skimmer and a UV, also 2 x hydor pumps for movement, and thats it.
My parameters are always spot on, no issues.
I do @ 20% water change every 4-6 weeks.
Yes, I believe there are a lot of extra nutrients in the frozen that the average person would have trouble with, but I have learned to use this to benefit my tanks.
For example, last week here in West Palm, we had a frag swap for the PBMAS, and everyone could not believe how huge my zoanthids were, they all wanted to know what I do...I pollute my tanks with food, for the fish and coral. But I closely watch my tanks too.
Sorry but I don't believe in staving your fish, coral, tank, etc...
I feed 2 x a day, flood the tanks.
Pellets and frozen mix of clams, Rods, PE Mysis and I DO NOT drain the water for this or any of my tanks.
The 72 gal tank has a Emperor 350 HO filter, a RedSea Prizm skimmer and a UV, also 2 x hydor pumps for movement, and thats it.
My parameters are always spot on, no issues.
I do @ 20% water change every 4-6 weeks.
Yes, I believe there are a lot of extra nutrients in the frozen that the average person would have trouble with, but I have learned to use this to benefit my tanks.
For example, last week here in West Palm, we had a frag swap for the PBMAS, and everyone could not believe how huge my zoanthids were, they all wanted to know what I do...I pollute my tanks with food, for the fish and coral. But I closely watch my tanks too.
Sorry but I don't believe in staving your fish, coral, tank, etc...
OP
OP
Oh, I agree...we dont want to deprive animals of nutrition...I just think a lot of reefers (especially newbies) could use that as sort of a "crutch" for developing sloppy feeding habits and lax husbandry practices, and I'd just hate to see that happen. Experimentation with careful measures of food is one thing...I just hate to see it go overboard, ya know?
-Scott
