Do I Overfeed?

[Eisernes]

My system is a 40b with a 20h sump. My filtration is BP's and a skimmer. I don't use any carbon or gfo or anything else like that. I don't dose anything. My stock is 2 Red Head Fairy Wrasses, a royal gramma, and a yellow watchman. I feed 1 cube of mysis every day. All 4 fish are fat and healthy.

 

I'm interested in getting a lower phosphate level and I'd like to start with my feeding habits before getting complicated because I have a happy little ecosystem going. It hovers around 0.06 with undetectable nitrates. Those levels have not changed for about 8 months now. I think the phosphate level is keeping me from being successful in keeping sps.

 

Every morsel of food gets eaten either by the fish or various inverts but I know from my experiences with my dogs that animals will eat their body weight in food if you give it to them. I'd like to solicit some input from my fellow reefers before I cut the food supply and risk my animals health.

 

So, is a cube a day a reasonable amount or should I cut back to something like 3 times a week? Maybe every other day?

[Havok_9]

Maybe try feeding every other day. I like using Rods frozen fish food because you can break off as little or as much as you need. If I know I'm going to feed heavy, I do it the day before a big water change.

 

Or maybe try full spectrum pellets, I dont think those fowl up the water like frozen food does

[Lawnman]

My system is a 40b with a 20h sump. My filtration is BP's and a skimmer. I don't use any carbon or gfo or anything else like that. I don't dose anything. My stock is 2 Red Head Fairy Wrasses, a royal gramma, and a yellow watchman. I feed 1 cube of mysis every day. All 4 fish are fat and healthy.

 

I'm interested in getting a lower phosphate level and I'd like to start with my feeding habits before getting complicated because I have a happy little ecosystem going. It hovers around 0.06 with undetectable nitrates. Those levels have not changed for about 8 months now. I think the phosphate level is keeping me from being successful in keeping sps.

 

Every morsel of food gets eaten either by the fish or various inverts but I know from my experiences with my dogs that animals will eat their body weight in food if you give it to them. I'd like to solicit some input from my fellow reefers before I cut the food supply and risk my animals health.

 

So, is a cube a day a reasonable amount or should I cut back to something like 3 times a week? Maybe every other day?

A cube a day is to much IMO. I feed flake everyday and frozen once a month. When I use to feed frozen every other day I always had higher phosphates and algae. Good to see you back on NR .

[hey]

my skimmer goes ham if i feed a half cube of hikari mysis. Its gross lol

[joy13]

Feeding only mysis isn't the best diet. Fish do better with a varied diet if you can get your hands on some Larrys reef frenzy you will find will see the difference. I feed my fish everyday twice a day only a few new life spectrum pellets then some Larrys. If I wanted an sps tank I would cut back on my fish load rather than see them go hungry. I am pretty sure you can get Rods food easy, Larry does ship his as well but shipping frozen food is expensive.

 

A cube a day is to much IMO. I feed flake everyday and frozen once a month. When I use to feed frozen every other day I always had higher phosphates and algae. Good to see you back on NR .

If I feed flakes the sump gets a better meal than my fish if I forget to turn off my pumps.

[Lawnman]

I feed the meat flake and veggie flake I alternate the days.

[hey]

My clowns actually don't eat the mysis as greedily as they do pellets... i swear they are trying to play keep away from the other fish when i feed pellets.

[Dramad1]

Wow, I have a wrasse and fire fish in one tank (29g), and a wrasse and clown in another tank (34g) and I feed maybe 1/2 a cube of mysis mixed with reef chili and pellets between the 2 tanks every 3 days or twice a week. Am I under feeding? Fish eat it all up in 5 mins but if I add more they end up with some floating around for the nxt 30 mins.

[hey]

Wow, I have a wrasse and fire fish in one tank (29g), and a wrasse and clown in another tank (34g) and I feed maybe 1/2 a cube of mysis mixed with reef chili and pellets between the 2 tanks every 3 days or twice a week. Am I under feeding? Fish eat it all up in 5 mins but if I add more they end up with some floating around for the nxt 30 mins.

I am pretty confident its about feeding what your tank can handle, I mean even if your fish could eat more would you do it at the expense of a nice shag carpet of algae. I look at it like this, I am not grooming a fish for show, I am maintaining a tiny ecosystem.

[Eisernes]

My fish are kinda snobish. I have tried to feed them pellets and it just becomes hermit crab food. I will have to try to find something dry that they will eat.

[joy13]

Not all pellets are the same I tried several kinds before finding one they like. Do you have any friends that is in the hobby to let you have a small sample of food?

[CrazyCarl]

Try Cyclop-eeze, NLS Pellets and flake. I had 4 fish of similar size in my nuvo 16 and fed them 1/2 a cube of mysis only 2 times a week. and let them fast the day after that. The rest of the time alternate dry food. Worked well, didn't have any remarkable nutrient issues.

[Formula462]

Piscine Energetics. No phosphate

 

6 times the protein of Hikari

 

Argent Cyclopeeze is a favorite as well for the same reasons.

[markalot]

Everything has phosphates, good grief.

 

I like alternating flake every day, frozen once a week maybe, Reef Roids every other day.

 

.06 is NOT NOT NOT keeping you from having SPS. Here's the thing, phosphate reduction has killed more SPS corals than higher phosphates ever will. Flow + light + stable Alk and reasonably stable calcium will grow SPS. Too high phosphate will cause SPS to brown out, but they will still grow until Phosphate gets really high. Pale dying SPS is usually caused by lack of food in the water column, too much light, not enough flow, or a pest like AEFW or Montipora Eating Nudis.

[Eisernes]

I got a jar of this today. It floated around in the tank for about a minute before the fish realized what it was and then they went nuts for it. Ate every scrap of it. Seems to have a lot of nutrition in it, it's dirt cheap, and the fish love it. Win all around. Now I just need to dial in how much to give. I'm going to feed every other day and increase the amount each time until they leave leftovers and feed the mysis once a week for the corals.

 

So I think the answer was yes, I am feeding too much.

 

Now I wonder if my past SPS failures were from not feeding enough of the right thing.

[hypostatic]

The issue with tanks isn't over-feeding. It's UNDER CLEANING.

 

It's natural for fish to eat daily and throughout the day. They're constantly feeding in the wild. Don't starve your fish just because you don't have sufficient filtration going on to handle the bio-load.

[jimmy_c]

Yup, We all over feed them. Reason... Cause we like to watch them and it's our one time to interact with them, so. Yeah we all over feed them. Think about it, in the wild they hunt for food so the get what they can get when they can get it.

I have dropped back to every other day and mix between frozen and pellets. The amount depends on your fish load so you'll have judge that. Fish will survive they are hardy....mostly.

The only time I alter is when I add something new to the tank. Learned the hard way.

Added three peppermint shrimp in 24hrs they were all gone, have no idea what happened to them. No parts nothin to find. Have a hard time thinking my 3 clowns 1 blue tang 1 cleaner shrimp got them but nothing else to go on..

 

Anyway cut back they will be fine

[jimmy_c]

Interesting...seems Hypostatic and I have opposite ideas,.... Gota love it.

Good point about under cleaning.

[markalot]

 

Anyway cut back they will be fine

 

 

No. In the wild there is almost an endless supply of food for most of the fish we keep.

 

If you keep corals and cut down on feeding you will end up with pale lifeless corals, especially if you keep SPS.

 

Interesting...seems Hypostatic and I have opposite ideas,.... Gota love it.

 

How much reef experience do you have?

[clownfitch]

I am with hypostatic on this one. I feed my fish not only daily but sometimes several times a day in very small amounts. Under feeding can bring out the aggressive nature of some fish as well as lead to a lowered immune system. There is no problem with feeding a couple of times a day as long as you don't feed more than they can eat, keep up with your tank maintenance, and have the proper equipment for keeping a healthy tank to begin with.

[Alex B]

I feed 3 times a day. 2 of those times is frozen. All in all, I prob feed a cube of PE mysis daily, and a 1x1 square of reef frenzy. I also do pellets and blackworms every other day. This is a full blown sps tank. I clean my sump 2 times a month, change filter socks regularly, and vacuum a little bit of my sand bed every water change. The display also has a ton of flow, so whatever the fish don't eat will end up in the overflow. No dead spots anywhere.

[farkwar]

Here you're underfeeding...http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/333267-40b-without-a-catchy-title/?p=4829874

 

The issue with tanks isn't over-feeding. It's UNDER CLEANING. It's natural for fish to eat daily and throughout the day. They're constantly feeding in the wild. Don't starve your fish just because you don't have sufficient filtration going on to handle the bio-load.

^Bravo^

[Boggers]

Have you guys looked at MetroKat's tank on here? She feeds a MASSIVE amount. She has great coral growth from SPS to Zoas. It is all a ballance. If you feed a bunch you have to have something to uptake that food. Macro, skimmer, yourself with WC.

[SquishyFishy]

O.K. I'm throwin this in just to mix it up. I started this schedule because of MetroKat and Gena. They feed lots

 

I have 4 fish in a 16G Nuvo. I feed NLS Thera-A once a day. They eat it in about 10 seconds It's such a small amount maybe 1/4 of 1/4 of a teaspoon. Then on alternating days I feed either 3 little fishes plankton or Reef Frenzy....everybody goes nuts for the frenzy, the Gramma loves that. The snails come out and rush around eating it...so I know its a great product. Then about 2 times a week I feed the RBTA, Hammer and torch one small piece of krill and a small piece of frozen lobster roe for the tank. Too much? Too little?

 

Before you speak, I am really having trouble with GHA right now. Lights are on 8 hrs a day, params are near perfect. WC once a week. Before I feed less to handle the GHA I'd like to hear from ya'll!

 

Oh and I have a skimmer ChemipureBlue and floss and pond matrix to boot. I have dragon's breath macro too and chaeto in the back chamber.

[Nano sapiens]

'Probably'

 

It's human nature to feed too much and a fish's nature to try and eat it all

 

I feed small amounts twice a day (flake, pellet, frozen) and just enough to keep the fish healthy (no thinning behind the head, especially). Once you have this down, then it's a matter of analyzing nutrient export. Also don't forget that as a tank ages and things grow (hopefully) the maintenance routine that you may have used successfully in the past may not keep up with the present situation.