feeding corals

kimba · Dec 15, 2015

When I first started my tank 10 yrs ago, I used 2 products to feed my coral. One was a phytoplanktin and I can't remember what the other was. They were liquid and I would add like 1/8 tsp of 1, then a few days later an 1/8 of a tsp of the other, so my corals were fed 2x a week 2 different things.

My LFS didn't have either of those so I got ZooPLANKTOS-L. I'm a little nervous using it because it's not quite a liquid, it actually has chunky bits in it. I am spot feeding with a pipette (turning off my pump) but a bunch of it lingers and gets uneaten.

I only have a 12 gal and I'm nervous of overloading my system. I have ordered the Kents PhytoPlex.

sorry this is so long-I guess I have 2 ?s. One-does anyone know what besides phytoplankton I would have fed my corals (I had softies, frogspawn, candycane and a tongue coral).
The other-how will I know if I'm feeding too much? I'm assuming if my levels go up (amonia, trites and trates)

Any advise would be great, thanks

CodyRVA · Dec 15, 2015

I would just feed frozen mysis shrimp, comes in frozen packs, thaw it and feed. Brands such as PE or Hikari are most popular. You'll know you're feeding too much if you start seeing your sand turn brown, hair algae, cyano, etc. General rule of thumb is only feed as much as your fish can eat within a few minutes so that little to no food hits the sand bed.

kimba · Dec 15, 2015

I don't have any fish right now, just feeding coral, CUC and a cleaner shrimp.

CodyRVA · Dec 16, 2015

Gotcha. If you get some of the frozen stuff, thaw it out in a cup and add some tank water to it and keep it in the refrigerator. I grab my cup every couple of days, use a turkey baster and squirt my corals with the food. Depends on what you're feeding in regards to too much. I have two large RBTA's, thus they can take on more food than say a small single headed torch frag. IMO less is more, many people don't even spot feed coral at all, so a little bit every few days seems to work. If you notice them puking up a lot or see any negative signs from feeding, that you didn't see before, you maybe feeding too much. I will hit my zoas and softies with the dirty top water in my feeding cup, this is also good for small polyp corals, the food particles are very small. Compared to feeding an LPS or an Anemone, i'll grab the meaty pieces of Mysis as they can digest larger foods. I usually turn off my power heads so the food doesn't get blown away, but if you feed small amounts to each coral and your tank is healthy and mature, you shouldn't have issues with over loading the system.