Food recommendations for Plank feeder

[JHSteepat]

What do people do in this situation?

I try to feed frozen food when I am home. I have a Plank feeder that I control using my Hydros system on a mixed reef with mostly smaller fish, but also a Tomini Tang and Midas Blenny. When I use it, I feed Reef Jerky but feel I have to add pellets and/or flakes to feed the larger tang and blenny and to get decent sized food particles to all corners of the tank to feed the fish that don't hang right under the feeder. I have an anthias on the way, and have a Midas blenny, and want to travel (and go to work) with at least 2 dry feedings per day and 3-4 when I travel.

Every time I try to auto-feed dry food (with pellets and PE mysis flakes), I get a green hair algae explosion. I want to feed 3-4x per day, which will result in a complete mess with the current food combo.

What are people doing for this? Is there a freeze-dried mix of larger plankton that I can feed the tank without spiking nutrients? (krill looks too big for the fish). I see hikari sells freeze dried vitamin and spirulina enriched brine shrimp, and freeze-dried mysis is broadly-available. Anyone have experience with those or recommend anything else?

 

[Jekyl]

TDO pellets are what I use.

 

[JHSteepat]

TDO pellets are what I use.

Are they good for avoiding nutrient spikes? I use them with Hikari Seaweed extreme which may be the problem if the tdo are generally good for this purpose.

 

[west co reefer]

The problem with a lot of freeze dried stuff is they float and don't sink unless you squeeze it after it soaks. I use jerky, and a variety of pellets in my Plank. I also set it to feed at least 6 times a day for 1-2 minutes at a time. I have a 120g. I found it is best to have a powerhead aimed upwards at the feeding tube to disperse the food as it comes out. This gives a good chance to all the fish to get a bite. Also run it for at least 2 minutes at a time, and set the tube pump to a higher rate if you have a heavy stocked tank.

 

[JHSteepat]

I tried freeze dried mysis with Jerky that seem to not make it to the top of the tank and sail around the tank if and when they get past the initial guard of fish. I will redirect the powerhead.

Pellets are not going in there. The Jerky + Mysis don’t seem to affect the tank algae too much.

 

[dangles]

Benepellets advertises that their foods don't spike nutrients like traditional foods do. I can't speak to this from personal experience though.

 

[JHSteepat]

Benepellets advertises that their foods don't spike nutrients like traditional foods do. I can't speak to this from personal experience though.

I’ll look into this.

 

[BeanAnimal]

All food is going to "spike" nutrients if it goes uneaten.

I use the Avast Reef Jerky and TDO pellets mixed together.

 

[JHSteepat]

All food is going to "spike" nutrients if it goes uneaten.

I use the Avast Reef Jerky and TDO pellets mixed together.

Of course.

I am thinking the way the Plank works is that the pellets are hydrated before getting to the display. I don’t have a powerhead aimed close enough to the bottom of the delivery tube so I may be getting some pellet food falling into the rocks, especially the Hikari Seaweed extreme, which I don’t feed anymore.

I read about the benepellets. I’m thinking about trying, but TDO is good food, too.

 

[ygbsmww]

Coupled with adjusting the flow so it broadcasts over the tank, maybe feed less (and/or a more restrictive setting on the Plank) but more often so it gets eaten.
Observing the quantity dispensed with the Avast recommended "dry test" is important, especially with new or mixed foods to give you an idea of how much food you're putting into the tank.