Feeding corals without spiking nutrients

[Ollie05H]

Is there a good coral food that does not increase nutrients too much. I currently have reef roids which I find causes a massive increase in phosphates.

 

[KStatefan]

I have not noticed a spike with Benipets

 

[Timfish]

Any food is going to be adding carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus to a system and water changes are an ideal way to remove stuff. For excess PO4 I'd use GFO but be careful not to drop it below .03 mg/l. I've messed with the coral specific foods and wasn't too impressed with the results. Looking at the research it was pretty obvious feeding corals is a very complex subject and corals have species specific response and can have a "goldilocks" response to supplemental feeding and live food is much better than prepared foods. What was also interesting was the research showing fast growth can be detrimental and can't be used as an indicator of a healthy coral. Here's links to some of the research:

(PDF) Coral farming: Effects of light, water motion and artificial foods

PDF | Improved coral cultivation will facilitate the reduction of wild harvesting, reef restoration, preservation of biodiversity, and the use of corals... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Comparing the capacity of five different dietary treatments to optimise growth and nutritional composition in two scleractinian corals

Developing an optimal heterotrophic feeding regime has the potential to improve captive coral growth and health. This study evaluated the efficacy of three exogenous diets: Artemia nauplii (ART), a commercially available coral diet (Reef Roids) (RR), and a novel, micro-bound diet (ATF), against...

journals.plos.org

Elucidating an optimal diet for captive Acropora corals

Developing an optimal heterotrophic feeding regime has the potential to improve the growth and overall health of captive corals. This study evaluated …

www.sciencedirect.com

Influence of different feeding regimes on the survival, growth, and biochemical composition of Acropora coral recruits

Heterotrophic feeding in newly-settled coral planulae can potentially improve survivorship and accelerate early development in some species; however, an optimal diet to facilitate this does not currently exist. This study evaluated the efficacy of three heterotrophic feeding regimes (enriched...

journals.plos.org

(Note teh difference in feeding live foods in these 2 papers verses the freeze dried in the paper out of Hawai'i)

Effect of natural zooplankton feeding on the tissue and skeletal growth of the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata - Coral Reefs

Laboratory experiments were designed to estimate the ingestion rates of the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata under varying prey concentrations and feeding regimes and to assess the effect of feeding on the tissue and skeletal growth. Six sets of corals were incubated under two light (80...

link.springer.com

Interactions between zooplankton feeding, photosynthesis and skeletal growth in the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata - PubMed

We investigated the effect of zooplankton feeding on tissue and skeletal growth of the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata. Microcolonies were divided into two groups: starved corals (SC), which were not fed during the experiment, and fed corals (FC), which were abundantly fed with Artemia...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Growth can't be used as an indicaor of health:

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www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Effects of phosphate on growth and skeletal density in the scleractinian coral Acropora muricata: A controlled experimental approach

Phosphate contamination can negatively affect corals, modifying growth rates, skeletal density, reproduction, mortality, and zooxanthellae. We determi…

www.sciencedirect.com

 

[flashsmith]

Red Sea Reef nutrition is good. I also use reef nutrition phyto and oyster feast with good results. I only spot feed my meat corals a couple times a month and the rest get by on what they filter. When I spot feed I use reef nutrition granules if the corals miss it it's plenty big enough for my cuc to pick up off the bottom and not end up in the sump. I got away from powders as they made a mess of my tanks. I put stuff in that I know will get used up by something in there.

 

[HB AL]

Roids although a good coral food, does spike nutrients quickly and high especially if your not using any mitigating tactics to keep the nutrients lower. If your getting good results from the roids before trying other kinds of coral foods I would keep feeding them roids but alot less (the corals don't really need a bunch of food) then check nutrient levels a couple times a week until you reach an equilibrium between the amount fed and the amount of the different types of nutrient reducing tactics your using