Favorite fish/coral food

[los.tejanos83]

Rather than change the direction of someone else's thread based on secondary questions i tossed into the mix, i thought i would submit a new thread. The downside is my submission will show my faults in tank management :redface:. Oh well, humility is a virtue and i could use some virtue. :angel:

I feed the majority of my corals with Kent Marine ChromaPlex...yes that's it :blushing:, although i'm sure it will change after reading your posts. However, some corals (Dendros, Duncans, Meat Coral, Sun Coral) get target feed with Jumbo Mysis, Regular Mysis, or Silversides.

My fish get:
Nori and Romaine lettuce
Mysis shrimp or Spirulina/Brine shrimp (frozen cubes)
Ocean Nutrition marine pellets
Sprirulina flakes
and an occasional Silverside on a veggie clip

Fish consist of Tangs, Cardinals, Chromis, and several other stragglers. :)

I dont have to feed the aiptasia, they seem to take care of themselves :angry:

Angelo

[FireWater]

You have a good variety. Only key is to remember to not overfeed at one time. That is where a lot of people add to the problem. I was told to feed small amounts over the day versus a big chunk at one time. My feeding schedule is varied, but I usually feed right when I (or my wife) get home from work anf then once more before lights go out for the night (usually 9:30 - 10)

I feed mysis, Rod's foods, and nori sheets/lettuce (about every other day)

Hope this helps - and remember this is what I do, you have to find the right mix and what works for you. Others will have more options as well. Good luck

[los.tejanos83]

Somewhere i read that you feed an amount of food that they can consume in about 5 mins...it may have been for tropical fish. Rod's food came up during some posts on your thread i was trespassing on :-) All kidding aside, i need to do some checking on what exactly is Rod's foods.

[corruption]

Rod's Foods is a company -- they make high quality marine foods, and have a few varieties now -- they used to just have 'Rod's Food'... The amount they can consume in 5 minutes is pretty much dead on -- its a rough estimate, but the idea is to only add the amount of food that will be consumed, and to avoid any remainder still hovering in the tank.

I'd agree as well on your current feeding mix -- looks like a healthy mixture to me :)

-Corruption

[Europhyllia]

I'll be lazy and just copy and paste from 'the other' thread:
My corals get what my fish are getting. Nothing snazzier but my fish eat pretty well already ;)

The big stuff: frozen mysis and Hikari bloodworms (SFB are way too big for mine)
The small stuff: frozen cyclops, frozen prawn eggs and freeze dried cyclope-eeze
To enrich (which I rarely do anymore): Super Selco
Live Foods: (only for starting the mandarins on prepared foods) Brine Shrimp Direct's EZ-Eggs hatchable decapsulated brine eggs

If you have a good mix of fish Rod's Food might be great since it has such a variety of stuff but I don't have any large herbivores or large carnivores so the big chunks in Rod's and the broccoli bits were just a waste for me. Rod's also has small particles in it for corals and it doesn't need to be rinsed (or else you rinse the small good stuff out)

Oh wait I do have 'coral food' although I got it for the clams: DT's Live Phyto
I am also getting oyster eggs.

I prepare the big batch (mysis, blood worms, prawn eggs, cyclops) in the morning (small glass bowl with frozen food and tank water) and let it thaw in the fridge, then strain through a small fish net, add new tank water and refrigerate.
I feed 2-3 times a day using a sea squirt (love that thing but had to drill the hole a little bigger).
I make a small batch (mysis and cyclops) before bed time because I also feed the nocturnal corals at night or in the early morning.
Phyto is dosed once a day. If the chili corals are out (polyps) I'll give an extra dose at night (chilis are nocturnal).

[Jarob]

Ive started using New Life Spectrum marine pellets and I LOVE them, so do my fish! Really made some of the colors POP more!

I feed anywhere from 2 to 6 times a day just varrying amounts making sure its always all gone pretty quickly, I also use a wide variety of foods other than the pellets.

[allan]

Tagging along to learn, but I'll post my schedule as well.

Used to feed twice, now only once. Might change that depending on what I read here in this thread.

I take large raw shrimp, squid, and large scallops, a large chunk of mysis, Krill, and then I blend them together to and place it in zip locks to freeze into a sheet. Then I break them into little chunks which I feed the fish with. I blend one cake extra fine which is used to feed the coral (trumpets, acans, and have been gently wafting particulates to the new clam but I'm not sure if he's eating it or not).

I reduced feedings to cut back on the nuisance algae, and now I'm rinsing the food through the fish net. I had always wondered how y'all were doing this rinsing thing without losing good food... KISS, and this was learned at the last meeting up in San Marcus.

I feel that with my own mixing of foods I might be missing some of the variety that the fish/corals need... but I enjoy stinking up the kitchen, and the wife reeeeeaaaaally enjoys this. :)

Additionally I feed the open brain and Anenomies half a large scallop along with whatever they are fortunate enough to catch on their own. I slice the scallop down to prevent (perhaps in vain) to allow just enough material that the coral/BTA is able to digest so that it doesn't expell a mass of half digested food back into the tank.

Still trying to tighten my shot group, and always willing to learn new sight adjustments to allow that dime sized pattern.

NOTE: I have tried feeding my hoard the spectrum pellets, haven't really seen much mastication on the part of the fish. Half of my pellets make it to the overlfow and the other half seems to fall to the sand bed.

[Mr Cob]

I feed frozen once a day and nori on a clip every other day for the 3 tangs I have. Return pumps and HOB refugium are turned off during feeding.

My frozen food is a combination of of various sized foods for all inhabitants of my tank. I thaw out about 6-10 different frozen food types and then mix them up in a large bowl. I then bag them into small wallet sized bags and lay them flat in the freezer. Once frozen I break pieces off to feed the tank.

My mix is currently made up of the following:

Mostly Hikari brands:
Mysis
Octopus
Brine
Spirulina
Krill
Cyclops
Ocean nutrition Formula
Daphnia
Plankton

[firecoral3msd]

My fish get blue zoo mix (pellets and flakes) in the morning.
Frozen food in the evening. (emerald entree and marine cuisine) squid, enriched brine and pe mysis. I rinse the frozen food in RO water and then soak it in zoe, selcon and garlic juice.

[msmith619]

You are feeding well.
I take several frozen foods: Blood Worms (yes, ALL my fish LOVE them), spirullina enriched brine shrimp, both large and small mysis shrimp, angel & butterfly mix, emerald entree and take 1 cube of each, melt and mix them then refill the cubes with the mix. I feed 1 cube 4 times a day in my 125 gallon reef tank and 1 twice a day in my 75 gallon reef tank.
When ever I eat shrimp, I also feed some to the tank, especially all my anemonies.
For coral food: (all my anemones and corals are thriving/growing) I think the 'milk' from the frozen mixture and any food that the fish miss feeds the meat eaters and they also directly absorb fish waste products. The clams and phytoplankton eaters get the green algea that my MH lights grown on the glass and I scrape it off the every night. That turns the water cloudy for half an hour
I have tried algea clips but my angels and tangs are afraid of them so, I feed vegie flake food daily too.
My fish include several varieties of both large and dwarf angels, many tangs, several different types of anemone fish, several wrasses, royal grama, firefish, and several gobies.
The reef contains Dursa, Croacea and maxima clams, a few soft corals, a lot of different Zoas, about 8 varieties of sps and plate corals as well as (they keep multiplying) several green BTA, 2 red BTAs, 2 LTAs and my own small collection of aptasia that I keep actively eradicating.
The take home for me from all these posts is: there are several good feeding policies and what ever fits your schedule and shows growth in the tank as well as providing variety is probably good.

[los.tejanos83]

I would imagine most of us work full-time, whether at home or outside the home. I'm impressed on how many of you feed several times per day. My lights are off and fish are sleeping when i'm out the door by 7 am and home by 5 pm. That doesnt leave many awake hrs before this old man goes to bed. :shades:

Also, nobody else appears to be feeding with liquid plankton such as ChromaPlex...you experienced reefers must not see much value in these types of products...am i wrong?

To reduce the amount of food waste into the overflow boxes, when i drop flakes and pellets into tank i submerge my hand about 6-8 inches in the water and then release the flakes and pellets. Plus i attach nori strips to my small mag-floats with rubberbands.

Angelo

[Europhyllia]

Also, nobody else appears to be feeding with liquid plankton such as ChromaPlex...you experienced reefers must not see much value in these types of products...am i wrong?

To reduce the amount of food waste into the overflow boxes, when i drop flakes and pellets into tank i submerge my hand about 6-8 inches in the water and then release the flakes and pellets.

liquid supplements like that are not live. They immediately decay if not eaten and contribute to pollution while live phytoplankton (in theory)actually takes up some of the nitrogen or at least doesn't immediately decay.

When I dose phyto I shut off the return pump so it doesn't go in the overflow.

[los.tejanos83]

Karin, since i'm still learning product names and/or dont always know what to look for on the web or at LFS, what are the names of the live phyto stuff your buying?

Angelo

[Europhyllia]

DT's

[allan]

We recently had a "make your own food" at our monthly meetings, it would be interesting to have a "several ways to feed your tank" with a Q&A afterwards. Maybe two differing experts relating their own processes?

it may also make for an interesting article for the newsletter.

[Europhyllia]

I'd be interested in that! Maybe 3rd coast or one of the sponsors could speak (Dts, Reef Nutrition, etc.)? (unless you have more experty experts in mind. If the sponsors speak they might bring samples ;) )

[allan]

I've spoken to Jason at AD about six months ago asking him why he doesn't attend the meetings for visibility and marketing (trying to put my mba to work).

His response was along the lines that the meetings are often on sunday's and that's a busy day for him.

But unless I miss my guess/recollection, the gentleman showing us how to mix food standing next to Steve (Big Bird) was a sponsor from Austin (???). But I do agree that it would be very interesting, much as this (now somewhat hijacked) thread has been to me.

[Mr Cob]

liquid supplements like that are not live. They immediately decay if not eaten and contribute to pollution while live phytoplankton (in theory)actually takes up some of the nitrogen or at least doesn't immediately decay.



Yep...I'm also not a big fan of adding supplements to the tank. I found it makes it difficult to keep a stable system inless of course you use a dosing system and keep it steady all the time.

I feed once a day...skim...use a refugium, top off water and change about 5 gallons of water a week. That's it. No fancy stuff for me. No UV, no reactors...no dosing....etc...etc... I went down that route once before and for me it was very difficult to keep a stable system. Something was always causing an inbalance. Some do it well...but it didn't work for me. Simplicity and consistency have been the best techniques for me personally.

[los.tejanos83]

Rob,

I figured the Chromaplex, although a "supplement", was more of a food product vs other additives such as iodine, trace elements, etc., as being a tank supplement. I also like your 5 gl min water change and simplicity mantra.

Again, good info as i progress down the path of becoming an experience reefer (i hope). :wink_smile: