Feeding Hammers, frogspawn and elegance Corals.

[stuart Kemshead]

Hi.

Like most people in this hobby, I have reached the stage where I realize there is numerous opinions and beliefs about feeding coral. For a long time I would accept much of what I was told ( by lfs ) as fact and never divert or genuinely consider other options as necessary.

Question 1. Do the aforementioned corals need feeding. Many lfs I have encountered say no, although many say they do better if fed. Another opinion is a mature tank with fish will provide everything these corals need. My main concern since starting has been not to overdose or add too much nutrients to the tank, however I have since learnt that my tank is perhaps deficient in certain areas.

Question 2. What is everyone feeding these corals and having success with. I have read a lot of conflicting information on this issue. I have also read articles that suggest feeding to large an item is actually detrimental. The most common answer i usually see is mysis or brine.

Question 3. Feeding zooplankton. Is this beneficial or just lfs trying to sell product. Also can this pollute the tank. I understand why this should be fed but if a tank is lightly stocked then it seems 80% of it will be wasted even if target feeding is employed.

Question 4. Vitalis coral pellets. I bought this to mainly use in place of mysis as the fish will often pick the frozen food out of the mouths of corals. I have started using this on frogspawn and hammer coral but am unsure if it is being eaten or beneficial.

In regard to the elegance coral, I am asking for a friend and I am yet to find out where it came from, ie indonesia or australia.

Thx in advance.

 

[NickNiz]

I feed Reef Roids with a pipet twice a week and also dose an additional supplement called Fuel, which contains fats and vitamins beneficial to coral. My Frogspawns and Acans occasionally catch Mysis shrimp as well. It seems to work well. Polyp extension is good as well as color. If your tank is small, be careful. I've got a 12 gallon Nano Cube and have to really watch how much of the Reef Roids I use.

EDIT: Reef Roids are great because the particles are so tiny that fish/inverts can't necessarily take it all from a coral.

 

[Michael Cronmiller]

I also use reef rods twice a week in combo with mysis...corals love it and fish get a treat too

 

[stuart Kemshead]

I feed Reef Roids with a pipet twice a week and also dose an additional supplement called Fuel, which contains fats and vitamins beneficial to coral. My Frogspawns and Acans occasionally catch Mysis shrimp as well. It seems to work well. Polyp extension is good as well as color. If your tank is small, be careful. I've got a 12 gallon Nano Cube and have to really watch how much of the Reef Roids I use.

EDIT: Reef Roids are great because the particles are so tiny that fish/inverts can't necessarily take it all from a coral.

I have actually used reef roids in the past, although not correctly. When i first started i generally followed whatever instruction/suggestion i was given by lfs or if i saw someone endorsing something on a forum then i would give it a try. This all led to me adding many additives to the tank ( albeit in small amounts ) , not following a regular dosing routine and not really understanding why i was adding a certain product. To further confuse the issue different lfs staff would have different opinions on what the role of an additive was. For example, I used to dose once a week with fuel and feed twice a week with reef roids ( had a goni at the time ) until i was told that roids and fuel were both amino acids and i was double dosing and all that was required was a pinch of roids broad cast fed to the tank once a week. Of course the fuel ran out and i continued on using the roids sparingly or not at all.

Having recently become aware of my misunderstanding I have taken to adding aminos and feeding roids twice a week, but would like to know the requirements of these corals a lot better and to hear from people who are having success.