Feeding: the number one thing holding back coral growth in the reef tank, not some tedious param of calcium or alk. I think feeding and exchange is the most important thing we do
One of the neatest ways to see if you are feeding correctly is to know if you have upped your water changes to compensate. What goes out of the tank is what allows that which goes in, so you don't create a nutrient buildup and algae. The way you know if you are feeding decently, just enough to get by, grade C feeding, is if your corals are not receding and your nutrients like nitrate and phosphate are testing low and you aren't having to work a lot via export work to keep things in tune. Mostly the tank just stays with its coral mass as-is, not building nor losing much, algae pretty much under control due to starvation, 80% of the reefing hobby is set to that mode but it's not the only way just because the masses who want less work use it
Then there's A+ grade feeding where corals put on mass and it can be seen/counted monthly, need to be fragged eventually, are resistant to disease due to mass building (just like how exercising humans are healthier) all because the keeper is either changing water more often to allow for sustained A+feeding, keeping things busy vs stale, the algae is still under control in spite of boosted feeding because water is changed before the extra feed breaks down and/or feeding tactics are being employed to boost the effort
You are already using one tactic, spot feeding vs broadcast feeding, so for the interval of spot feeding the feed to polyp ratio is high.
And then it casts off into the tank as broadcast...something to be considered when seeking real efficiency.
so the next effort multiplier might be a clear plastic cup or any other creative capture. What if occasionally let's say you capped a hungry coral frag on the sandbed with a clear plastic cup, then injected the cup with your normal feed. Nothing extra added, but now dwell time to polyp is however long you leave the cup. That coral just got -fed- comparative to C feeding.
Then move around so each coral gets some engineering and you just took the same protein input and output unchanged but fattened corals with it. Combine that type of effort with increased water change mode before extra feeds break down, a tune of sustained harder work on the tank, and you have no limits to the coral that can be kept. Kill algae on the spot independent of nutrients-this keeps your tank algae free, search out different means for that mode. Algae never had to be left in a tank, it can be killed quite easily within 24 hours
The way you know how much to feed is to be able to count some new polyps monthly in corals, if none, it's C plus effort so far. Mine have to be chipped out with a screwdriver and yes my tanks are treated busily
Wanted you to see that there are modes of feeding to choose from. Also see if phyto is fed to Lps vs other feeds exclusively or if people are using other feeds too, have to search goni and duncan threads to see what people are feeding. Amplifying the right food is just as important
