Feeding, Fish Load, Nopox

[KenRexford]

125g 6ft refugium good skimmer brs dual carbon gfo etc.
Hippo tang, yellow tang, blonde naso tang, tomini tang, foxface, 2 clowns, 2 chromis, domino damsel, azure damsel, lawnmower blenny, engineer goby, fairy basslet, cleaner shrimo, 3 peppermint shrimp, tuxedo urchin, mixed hermits and snails, about a dozen soft corals.
Plan move into lps additions next, then later 1 or 2 sps.

2 questions.

1. I feed about 2 san francisco bay multi pack frozen food cubes per day plus occasional treats of a pinch of dry wafers or a bit of caulerpa from the fuge. Is this the right food level?

2. My nitrate/phosphate is now fantastic because of nopox despite essentially 0 water changes. Nopox amount is at the highest recommended dose because n/p was horrible. Cost not important. Should I keep nopox where it is? Reduce nopox amount? I am loving the results and want to leave ot be figuring maybe more food and gradual fish size increase and coral increase with be buffered but I do not want to nopox overdose.

 

[ZoWhat]

the thought "more food = bigger fish, growing corals" is a deadly husbandry thought.

uneaten food by fish or corals = poison

feeding corals food is actually 3rd on the list of what corals need. They need nearly perfect light and great water quality elements FIRST. most corals do just fine feeding on fish poop.

1) rule of thumb is to put enough food where in 5mins there is no sign of any food left bc it's all eaten. if there is still food floating around on the 6th minute, too much food. TWICE a day is a good regiment

2) NoPox sounds like it's really working for you by supercharging good bacteria with carbon dosing NoPox. Did you realize you can make your own NoPox? According to Randy Holmes Farley NoPox is 50% vodka 50% vinegar. I dose my own vodka/vinegar mix and save some money. but vodka still costs $12 a fifth and only lasts me around 30 days.

overdosing NoPox? I'm sure it's a possibility if your pH goes haywire. other sign of overdose is good bacteria blooms causing your tank to look cloudy. also strings of good bacteria on the LR called "the uglies"




.

 

[KenRexford]

Don't misunderstand me. I do not think that more food translates into bigger fish and corals. Rather my assumption from being an organism that also grew at one point is that larger fish and corals require more food. I certainly eat more than my 7 yr old daughter. Hence I would assume that an 8 inch tand needs more food than when he was a 2 inch tang. And poops more. So, as the tank matures it seems that the food uptake should increase, the poop for the growing/spreading corals should increase, and thus logically the need for nopox might increase. Against that nopox increase factor would seem to be coral growth. Hence it seems logical to me that perhaps maturing tanks might stabilize themselves if all is kept somewhat static as far as nopox.

Your assumptions seems to be that I want to fatten up my tank like force feeding a goose to make pate. Instead, I seem to be on the low end of what others seem to feed and am concerned that I will at some point be starving a growing tank population.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

What’s the good word this evening.

A few observation, comments

You have 4 tang and a fox face, are they juvenile or mature? 2 cubes seems low actually. For reference my 180 has 2 medium size tangs and a 10 inch Vlamingi. They eat 2-3 on their own, not including everyone else. I feed 4-5 a night and it is gone. I would recommend varying food to include Nori and other healthy stuff like Larry’s or freshly frozen clams or black worms

I am not a fan of no-pox or bio pellets. If it is working I would say not mess with it. But some of your high numbers are coming from the heavy bioload in the 125. Like you mentioned bigger requires more food and more poop. Balancing the right bioload for the tank is best way to go in place of trying to solve the problem with heavier dosing

Just a few thoughts

 

[Oldreefer44]

Have nearly the same setup w/o the GFO and had the same issues. Started dosing nopox until reached an equilibrium (via adjusting dosage) that keeps everything happy. I rarely feed corals, water changes are only occasional and fish feeding consists of pellets once a day and a variety of frozen foods 2 out of 3 days. This has been in place for over a year. IF it is working, why mess with it?

 

[KenRexford]

Thanks for the analyses!