How Much Should I Feed My Tanks?

[FishRFriends!=Food]

Apologies if this question is a bit elementary in nature, but how much should I be feeding my tanks?

I'm worried that in the process of not wanting to overfeeding my tanks, I may be actually underfeeding them instead. Is there a good way to tell when all the tanks inhabitants are content?

Tank 1 is an IM 25 Lagoon, 8 coral frags, 2 small clowns, royal gramma, cleaner shrimp and about 10-12 snails/hermits. Running for 45 days from dry rock and live sand/bacteria, 2x AI Prime 16HD.

Tank 2 is a FijiCube 20 Peninsula, 4 frags, firefish, small watchman goby, coral banded shrimp, 10-12 snails/hermits. Running 2 months from dry rock and live sand/bacteria,1x AI Prime.

Currently feed once a day, mix of mysis and small pellets, occasionally some protein flakes.

Thank you in advance,

 

[Spare time]

I prefer 2x a day minemum. Multiple times a day in small quantities is best imo.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Apologies if this question is a bit elementary in nature, but how much should I be feeding my tanks?

I'm worried that in the process of not wanting to overfeeding my tanks, I may be actually underfeeding them instead. Is there a good way to tell when all the tanks inhabitants are content?

Tank 1 is an IM 25 Lagoon, 8 coral frags, 2 small clowns, royal gramma, cleaner shrimp and about 10-12 snails/hermits. Running for 45 days from dry rock and live sand/bacteria, 2x AI Prime 16HD.

Tank 2 is a FijiCube 20 Peninsula, 4 frags, firefish, small watchman goby, coral banded shrimp, 10-12 snails/hermits. Running 2 months from dry rock and live sand/bacteria,1x AI Prime.

Currently feed once a day, mix of mysis and small pellets, occasionally some protein flakes.

Thank you in advance,

You can always feed more and track your nitrates (and/or phosphates) to see where the tipping point is. Depending on the type of cuc you have (algae eaters or detritivores), you might be fine.

 

[Nemo&Friends]

Check your fish, if they look thin, you under feed. Do they slow down gobbling up food when you feed them or do they look like they are looking for more?
What do you feed them? pellets, flakes or frozen?
Depending of the size or your fish a frozen hikari cube should feed between 3 to 8 fish. I feed my 14 mid size fish 5 cubes a day.
The youngest is an hippo I have for 4 years.
But I feed less than a cube to the 6 gobies I have in another tank.
I hope it helps.

 

[FishRFriends!=Food]

You can always feed more and track your nitrates (and/or phosphates) to see where the tipping point is. Depending on the type of cuc you have (algae eaters or detritivores), you might be fine.

Keep feeding until theres a drastic change in Nitrate/Phosphate, and then I know the maximum? Or does it gradually increase regardless of how much is actually consumed?

 

[FishRFriends!=Food]

Check your fish, if they look thin, you under feed. Do they slow down gobbling up food when you feed them or do they look like they are looking for more?
What do you feed them? pellets, flakes or frozen?
Depending of the size or your fish a frozen hikari cube should feed between 3 to 8 fish. I feed my 14 mid size fish 5 cubes a day.
The youngest is an hippo I have for 4 years.
But I feed less than a cube to the 6 gobies I have in another tank.
I hope it helps.

I feed all of the above options. For the lagoon tank id say 40 or so small pellets and a tiny amount of mysis. Sounds like I can push this up a fair bit?

 

[Nemo&Friends]

I do not give them any pellet and I give flakes only if I am in a hurry, and do not have time to defrost the cubes. I feed once a day.
How many fish do you have and how big?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Apologies if this question is a bit elementary in nature, but how much should I be feeding my tanks?

I'm worried that in the process of not wanting to overfeeding my tanks, I may be actually underfeeding them instead. Is there a good way to tell when all the tanks inhabitants are content?

Tank 1 is an IM 25 Lagoon, 8 coral frags, 2 small clowns, royal gramma, cleaner shrimp and about 10-12 snails/hermits. Running for 45 days from dry rock and live sand/bacteria, 2x AI Prime 16HD.

Tank 2 is a FijiCube 20 Peninsula, 4 frags, firefish, small watchman goby, coral banded shrimp, 10-12 snails/hermits. Running 2 months from dry rock and live sand/bacteria,1x AI Prime.

Currently feed once a day, mix of mysis and small pellets, occasionally some protein flakes.

Thank you in advance,

2-3x a day and generally what can be consumed in a couple of minutes. Its easier to add food than to remove it

 

[FishRFriends!=Food]

I do not give them any pellet and I give flakes only if I am in a hurry, and do not have time to defrost the cubes. I feed once a day.
How many fish do you have and how big?

Tanks with livestock are listed in the original post. I tried to pick juvenile fish when possible, so their all fairly small atm.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Keep feeding until theres a drastic change in Nitrate/Phosphate, and then I know the maximum? Or does it gradually increase regardless of how much is actually consumed?

Any uneaten food will decay and cause an increase in nitrogen... If the corals/algae/bacteria take up the ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate, you still won't see an increase in nitrate when you test; but if there is excess nitrate produced then you'll know your input is exceeding the tank's consumption and that you either need to feed less or increase nitrate export.

If you go this route, I recommend testing the same time each day you test (could be weekly), and running the test either right before you feed or several (6 or more is better) hours after.

If you see a steady increase then you know you need to adjust.