Reef nutrition

What food does everyone put in their Avast Plank?

MarcosD

MarcosD

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Recently ordered an Avast Plank. I’ve been meaning to do it but a couple days ago @Darkxerox gave me one of his copperbands and I want to make sure she stays well fed. I’ve been doing a good job of feeding multiple times already but this will make life easier.

What food is everyone putting in there? I ordered some Freeze Dried Mysis shrimp. On top of that, there is the trial bag of Reef Jerky included. Thomas said she won’t eat pellets. What else do you guys suggest I add in there?
 
I have 2 planks. One feeds SF Bay brand freeze dried mysis (larger size) with a splash of Reef Jerky (smaller). The other feeds pellets, about 3/4 TDO medium, plus whatever else I have, which varies.

2 planks because the dried mysis feeds relatively slowly and the pellets faster. Like the pellets are enthusiastic to come out and the mysis needs some coaxing lol. If you put them together you get way more pellets out than mysis, the pellets can actually displace the mysis up and off the feeding screw (I think). Also because sometimes one of them fails for any of a variety of reasons, usually either something stuck to the intake of the mix pump, or junk clogging the outflow of the mixing chamber. So I don’t have all my autofeeding eggs in 1 basket.
 
JVU said:
I have 2 planks. One feeds SF Bay brand freeze dried mysis (larger size) with a splash of Reef Jerky (smaller). The other feeds pellets, about 3/4 TDO medium, plus whatever else I have, which varies.

2 planks because the dried mysis feeds relatively slowly and the pellets faster. Like the pellets are enthusiastic to come out and the mysis needs some coaxing lol. If you put them together you get way more pellets out than mysis, the pellets can actually displace the mysis up and off the feeding screw (I think). Also because sometimes one of them fails for any of a variety of reasons, usually either something stuck to the intake of the mix pump, or junk clogging the outflow of the mixing chamber. So I don’t have all my autofeeding eggs in 1 basket.
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Interesting. Here I thought you ran two for aesthetic reasons like @finalphaze987
 
I am putting TDO, Seaweed Extreme, some flakes, and Reef jerky in it. My fish love everything that comes out of it, even my triggers go for seaweed, seaweed pellets etc, so cannot tell and continue to mix various types of food.

On a separate note, I do not, oddly but intentionally, feed anything from the SF Bay Brand. They seemed to have produced more local previously (under different ownership?) but seem to source the majority now from 'overseas', where breeding conditions might vary, and I am trying to avoid this.
 
I picked up a few different things from Neptunes right now. Some frozen food I normally don’t use- just to add variety. Some spirulina flakes to go into avast along with reef jerky and freeze dried mysis. I do have some of that Seaweed Extreme @Alexander1312 mentioned so I’ll throw that in there too!
 

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So do most of you guys with this feeder even bother feeding frozen?

Also how does feeding freeze dried compare to frozen stuff?

Is that something I can just drop in like tdo pellets or needs to be mixed with tank water first like frozen to use it?


I've never once tried freeze dried. I use to feed 90% frozen (random swap between mysis, brine, or roe) and 10% tdo pellets. I could never use flakes few times i tried p04 spiked like crazy.

Now it's done a complete 180 with 90% tdo and 10% frozen. I also have only ever hand feed 1 time per day. I've never had a legitimate protein skimmer running so feeding more than once was a definite no with p04.

I have probably have 3 different auto feeders, I've aquired never had the nerve to try one out. I don’t think any is a plank mentioned here yet I would have to search to find out what the ones I have are.
 
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Can people note, if they're feeding via the sump or directly in tank in their answer? Bonus points edit existing ones.

Mine goes into the sump return section, onto a cheap power head to keep it all moving, then eventually up the return pump. I'm curious if anyone's doing pellets and other things that way or only directly into the tank.
 
richiev said:
Can people note, if they're feeding via the sump or directly in tank in their answer? Bonus points edit existing ones.

Mine goes into the sump return section, onto a cheap power head to keep it all moving, then eventually up the return pump. I'm curious if anyone's doing pellets and other things that way or only directly into the tank.
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I only feed directly in the tank, I don't want to chop up the whole mysis any more than the plank pump does already. I feed frozen once or twice a day when I'm home @MichaelB in addition to 5x 1:30 feeds from the plank.
 
Darkxerox said:
I only feed directly in the tank, I don't want to chop up the whole mysis any more than the plank pump does already. I feed frozen once or twice a day when I'm home @MichaelB in addition to 5x 1:30 feeds from the plank.
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Cool Sounds like a lot of food. I use one cap of tdo pellets for each of the 2 tanks that currently has fish, the cap that's on the pouches.
 
MichaelB said:
Cool Sounds like a lot of food. I use one cap of tdo pellets for each of the 2 tanks that currently has fish, the cap that's on the pouches.
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@BAYMAC can probably speak to it more but my understanding is that tdo pellets are pretty nutrient dense compared to freeze dried whole shrimp (and especially frozen) so you really don't need to feed as much volume to volume.
 
Alexander1312 said:
I am putting TDO, Seaweed Extreme, some flakes, and Reef jerky in it. My fish love everything that comes out of it, even my triggers go for seaweed, seaweed pellets etc, so cannot tell and continue to mix various types of food.
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Are you getting any issues with mixing pellets and flakes? Where the different feeds separate during the drum rotating process and eventually the heavier stuff goes to the bottom? I get the same issue @JVU mentioned with freeze dried brine shrimp and pellets. Maybe it's more prone with certain shaped freeze dried products.
 
richiev said:
Can people note, if they're feeding via the sump or directly in tank in their answer? Bonus points edit existing ones.

Mine goes into the sump return section, onto a cheap power head to keep it all moving, then eventually up the return pump. I'm curious if anyone's doing pellets and other things that way or only directly into the tank.
Click to expand...
Mine just dumps into the display. @TheRealMadMax dumps his into the return chamber to feed two tanks.
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