F O O D !

[tebstan]

I feed a lot of stuff. I'm always looking to try something new, or to fill some niche that might be missing.

Don't worry... I'm careful not to over feed. For example, the powder coral foods are fed about 1/2 a tsp each day, and the flake foods amount to about 1 loose tbs a day. (Total, not each. I use a teeny tiny scoop to fill the automatic feeder and it's dispersed throughout the day.)


Is there anything I don't have that I should try?


Here's my current list:

Refrigerated foods:
DT's phyto
Fauna Marin Ultra Min D filter feeder diet
Reef Nutrition PhtyoFeast (it has a brown microalgae that DT's is lacking)
Reef Nutrition OysterFeast (has eggs and ovarian tissue)
Reef Nutrition MysisFeast

I will probably be adding ReefNutrition Shellfish diet to the mix, but may not continue the MysisFeast only because I feed mysis in other forms and my fridge space is running low. MysisFeast is an awesome convenience though, so I might stick with it.


Frozen foods:
Hikari Squid, pureed
Clam strips, pureed
Hikari Krill (fed to crabs via toothpick spear when I'm bored)
Hikari Mysis
H2O Mysis
H2O Spriulina/Brine shrimp/Mysis
H20 Blood worms
Nutra Mar Prawn Roe
H2O Oyster eggs
H2O Rotifers
H2O Cyclops

I mix all the frozen stuff together in an appropriate ratio and make my own custom flat pack. People seems to like the PE Mysis a lot. I'm going to use up what I have left, but might consider switching. Some say it's greasy though?


Coral Dry Foods:
Fauna Marin zoa/acan food
Fauna Marin sea fan food
Fauna Marin LPS pellet
Cyclopeeze
Coral Frenzy
Marc Weiss' Reef Bugs (only occasionally)

I'm thinking of adding reef chili to the mix as well.

This is the area I'm afraid I'm lacking some nutrients. Some of these foods seem like they're all the same stuff in a different can. The ingredients are usually proprietary information, so there's no way to be sure. Since I use the automatic feeder, the corals are fed mainly dry foods so I think there ought to be more variety. I'd like to add a phyto but I'm not sure they'd eat it, so I've stuck with the refrigerated stuff so far. Argent and ESV both have a variety, but I haven't looked into them much.


Fish Dry Foods:
Blue Zoo pellets (corals eat this also!)
H2O Marine Fusion flake
H2O Mysis Fusion flake
Omega One marine flake
Ocean Nutrition reef flake
Aqueon marine flake
New Life Spectrum marine pellet
Dainichi reef veggie pellet


Occasionally the fish get some salad appetizers:
Ocean Nutrition Green algae strips
Ocean Nutrition Red algae strips
Ocean Nutrition Brown algae strips


I also use Seachem's Aqua Vitro Fuel as an amino acid supplement.


So... what do you use that I don't have? Thinking about trying something, and want me to be the guinea pig?

[ramsey]

Good god! I think you about have it covered. I'll know who to turn to if there's ever a shortage on foods. :P Since you've used a ton of different foods, what's your favorite for SPS and dendro/sun corals (if you have any)? Also, anything special for clams?

On a side note, with the amount of different foods you're already using, have you looked into a Zeovit system?

[Europhyllia]

The PE Mysis is greasy. Thaw and rinse and then rinse again. lol
The greasy is what makes it special: more Omega 3 than any other mysis.
I guess they need a little extra fat to not freeze their little mysis butts off in that arctic lake.

[Europhyllia]

and you could add live baby brine of course. Mine get it every other day (just because it takes me 18-24 hours to hatch).
I am fond of the decapsulated hatchable eggs from BrineShrimpDirect but I will NOT recommend that place at this time because the last shipment went wrong/bad, they promised a solution right away but now don't respond to my email. (I will update if they get going on fixing the problem)

[BSJF]

Karin, that surprises me about BSD. Hope your problem gets resolved.

[tebstan]

I've heard of the zeovit system but haven't looked into it. I'm running bio pellets now. Fewer than recommended in a reactor that's probably not the most efficient. That makes it work at just the right amount of inefficiency... I don't want my nitrates dropping too low. They hover around 15-20. My macro is still growing, just slower than it used to.

I don't have any SPS. They grew but browned out, so I gave them away. It hurt my feelings a little when they colored up nicely in other tanks. My sun coral opens sporadically throughout the day, when the feeder dumps food in every few hours. I've seen it eat the Blue Zoo pellets, and of course it grabs mysis when it can. But it has the best feeding response from Coral Frenzy and Reef Bugs.

For clams, I do the refrigerated phyto and Ultra Min D. I'm curious to try a dry phyto, but I don't know if the clams and feather dusters would benefit from it as much. I have to supplement calcium, I'm assuming because of the clams. I don't worry too much about all the other things clams need in trace amounts because it should be in the salt mix. As they get significantly bigger I may have to dose elements.

Karin, thanks for the note on the PE mysis. I thought greasy was a bad thing, but it sounds like just a beneficial nuisance. I'll give it a try.

I've done the brine shrimp hatchery a few times. It was fun! I set it up in a back room so I wouldn't hear it, and forgot about it. Maybe I can try setting it up somewhere less hidden.


Anyone use reef chili or a dry powder phyto?

[Europhyllia]

a dry powder phyto?

I use Fauna Marin Clam in my autofeeder and I assume that's powdered phyto. It lists microalgae and nanoplankton as the main ingredients but also has other stuff in it.

I find the bubbling of the brine hatchery kind of soothing.

[Europhyllia]

just wanted to update: BSD made good on their promise. Everything is okay.