Can you overfeed frags?

[Reefdad]

My question is strictly for feeding coral frags. I run a 12 gallon system with about 10 different frags in it. (frogspawn, duncan, torch, yumas, ricoridea, 2 monti's, porciplla (sp), rough ridge and a marble madness) These frags are always hungry. I have been feeding them every other day Reef nutrition products, Phyto, Oyster, Roti's. Am I over feeding? I have no water quality changes "YET". Or should I move to every day and is it better to feed at night or day time?

 

[A_Lee]

I think 1-2 times a week is fine; once a day is definitely too much.
Of course don't feed so much such that you compromise water quality. But the more the more you feed, I'd imagine the more water changes you would be doing.
You can feed anytime, though at night time most LPS let out their feeding tentacles. They can be trained to be this anytime there is food in the tank, day or night. Many people like to feed at night to reduce the likelihood of fish taking the food.

 

[tuberider]

I feed the crap out of my tank, everyday twice a day.

I do have a skimmer rated for a 160g tank on a 40g tank and with a total volume of 60g I change between 15-20g of water a week. What I do is try to make the food available for longer periods rather than feed in pulses, bleeding the food in over the course of time.

 

[GreshamH]

[quote author=A_Lee link=topic=6054.msg77890#msg77890 date=1233526774]
I think 1-2 times a week is fine; once a day is definitely too much.
Of course don't feed so much such that you compromise water quality. But the more the more you feed, I'd imagine the more water changes you would be doing.
You can feed anytime, though at night time most LPS let out their feeding tentacles. They can be trained to be this anytime there is food in the tank, day or night. Many people like to feed at night to reduce the likelihood of fish taking the food.
[/quote]

I couldn't disagree more accept for the feeding at night comment. Corals eat and need food daily.

 

[zambavi]

Glad you chimed in here tuberider and greshamH... I feed my corals daily and had a small shadow of doubt there on if i've been doing the right thing.

Thanks!

 

[sfsuphysics]

Well as member Jim once told me "Corals didn't evolve to become all mouth for nothing!"

Of course that being said, just because you don't actively feed doesn't mean they aren't feeding.

 

[GreshamH]

With the minuet amount of zooplankton a typical captive reef has, as well as the amount of bacterplankton in a captive reef, not actively feeding won't supply your corals with much. A single Pocci polyp has shown the ability to uptake more itself in a day then most people feed in several days to their reef.

 

[Vincerama2]

Doesn't feeding alot really screw up your water though, and cause algae outbreaks? I've specifically cut back on feeding for that reason. Hmmm, reefing is too confusing ...

V

 

[Elite]

Skim the crap out of it after you feed the crap out of it LOL ...

 

[zambavi]

I think that actively feeding daily and overfeeding are not one in the same. There is certainly a balance. IME If you want to feed your corals agressively for health and growth it will require a heavier skimming and waterchange schedule than if you were not in order to keep your WQ good. I agree with tubrider, gresham and elite here...

 

[tuberider]

[quote author=Vincerama2 link=topic=6054.msg78266#msg78266 date=1233709133]
Doesn't feeding alot really screw up your water though, and cause algae outbreaks? I've specifically cut back on feeding for that reason. Hmmm, reefing is too confusing ...

V
[/quote]

I think it goes back to the old days when we didn't skim as well as we do now, we also have GFO too. Believe me it's taken me years to get used to the fact that I can actually feed my tank without worry.

 

[Vincerama2]

Well, my skimmer runs 24/7 so I can't "skim the crap out of it" any faster! I wish there was a turbo button on it! LOL!

I just recently bought some GFO from Bulk Reef Supply and just put it in a mesh bag in my sump. I had considered hooking up my old cannister filter to put it in, but there is too much crap hooked to the tank already. The mesh bag technique might not be great, but it's better than not!

I generally just feed the fish and let the corals fend for themselves, though when I use cyclopeeze, they probably can get some of that. I occasioanlly feed "Zoplan" as well.

Interesting topic though, I'm glad I stuck my nose in!

V

 

[badbread]

My skimmer runs as well as it can 24/7 and I am battling a hair algae problem at the moment. I guess I'm skimming the crap out of it, it's a tunze 9002 rated for 52 gallons on a 14 gallon tank.

For feeding I do 1 drop of oyster feast a week and a tiny bit of mysis for the fish.

Would a phosphate reactor help with the hair algae problem as well?

 

[zambavi]

I like to feed my tank a lot and my skimmer works pretty well but I could use a bigger, better skimmer but just don't have the room in my sump for anything better than I've got really. Considering doing a recirculation MOD, a Mesh MOD, Gate Mode etc on the guy in the next couple of weeks to get it to work even better.

10% weekly WC's keep my WQ good for the most part.

 

[GreshamH]

Is the HA growing on live rock?

 

[badbread]

Mostly on the live rock, it doesn't touch the frag plugs or the frag racks.

 

[GreshamH]

Sounds like your LR has PO4 locked up in it all ready.

 

[badbread]

What's that mean? How do I fix it?

 

[GreshamH]

phosphate is bound up in the live rock (is what I was saying). The only real effective way to deal with it is to "cook" it which doesn't involve a stove or any heat source what so ever as I was first inclined to think when I saw the thread on RC

 

[Vincerama2]

You know, I've got HA as well, some of it is on rocks, but a lot of it grows on my pumps (easy to deal with, remove pumps and scrub!) and my return pipes. It also grows ... ON MY SNAILS! LOL!

V