feeding

[truck0000]

My tank is doing great. Parameters have been stable for 4 months now and the tanks is 7 months old. I have been feeding flake food every other day. Phytoplex twice a week.

Livestock
5 Damsels
2 Skunk cleaner shrimp
1 Coral banded shrimp
2 emerald crabs
softies ( 5 zoo frags, xenia, Kenya tree)
100 various snails and hemits.

Tank
75 gal
20 gal sump
mag 12 return ( to much going to go with a 9.5)
coralife SS 65
seio 620 and 820 pwoer heads.
125 lbs live rock
3.5 inch sandbed

I recently added a very actice Sailfin Tang. He is about 3 inches and swims around everywhere in the tank. I put in a quarter of sheet of Nori and he mowed thruogh it in 4 hrs. I also feed some frozen mysis which he and the damsel feasted on.

My question is how often should I feed the mysis and nori without having to worry abhout crashing my tank. Really worried about over feeding tank and under feeding the sailfin.

[GaryP]

Tangs need to be fed a couple of times a day. They are high energy fish with a matching metabolism. A mixture of flake, nori, and frozen would be good.

Remember that reef fish are accustomed to eating low nutrition food almost constantly. We, on the other hand, try to get them to eat an all you can eat buffet, once a day or every other day. Food goes through them very fast and they don't absorb a lot of it. Of course this means a lot of waste is produced that is high in nutrients. That is another issue, but the way to control nutrients is NOT to starve your fish.

They have a tendency to break out in Ich or velvet if they are stressed. Stress can include being under nourished.