Your favorite additives for SPS

[wdavid]

What is everyone feeding their sps with? Fish poop, acropower, whatever it may be. Super interested in seeing first hand accounts of products from successful SPS keepers!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Been broadcast feeding reef roids about once a week. Everything, even the lps and softies, seem to really like it

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Been broadcast feeding reef roids about once a week. Everything, even the lps and softies, seem to really like it

Crabs you don't see a PO4 spike after broadcasting? I'm afraid to broadcast roids. I do however Broadcast Aquavitro Fuel, but I used a precise target feeding with the roids... In fear I will have too many wasted in the water table and result in nutrient spikes.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Crabs you don't see a PO4 spike after broadcasting? I'm afraid to broadcast. I Broadcast Aquavitro Fual, but I used a precise target feeding with the roids... In fear I will have too many wasted in the water table and result in nutrient spikes.

None that i've observed. I'm sort of a light feeder though

 

[jda]

I feed the fish. I also feed the corals with high quality Metal Halide.

There have been times where I thought that I saw a difference in supplementing or feeding the corals, but then when I stopped, nothing changed. I have come to the conclusion that my mind was just out of whack and probably looking for some positive. Others swear by feedings.

 

[wdavid]

Been broadcast feeding reef roids about once a week. Everything, even the lps and softies, seem to really like it

Do you just follow the recommended dose on the label? And do you mix or add anything else with it?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Do you just follow the recommended dose on the label? And do you mix or add anything else with it?

I don't mix anything else with it. I do less than the recommended dose, about half of what it says I should.

 

[hatfielj]

In the wild corals eat a lot. Check out the presentation that Jake Adams posted on Reefbuilders yesterday. The coral farmer from Indonesia talks about how often the water there is turbid with various types of food (algal blooms, etc). So, I think feeding can play a role in our tanks. The problem is no one knows what the ideal is, if any. FWIW, I try to feed reef roids at least once a week as a broadcast. I also think scraping the tank walls helps. And of course, feeding the fish heavily so they poop a lot and produce plenty of nitrates and phosphates is important.

 

[Jeremy Luke]

I just posted something regarding this. I have fed aminos, coral food etc while keeping PO4 at .03-.05 ppm (Hanna ULR). The SPS color and PE hasn't been great. I recently was out of town for a week and set up an auto feeder to dump a mixture of pellets and flake in the water twice a day. When I returned my sand bed was very colorful and the glass was filthy. When I peered through the filth the SPS color and PE was dramatically improved. Alk consumption had spiked. I had no idea I could see such a quick, positive reaction in my SPS. For my tank it seems dirtier water in general is better. The pellets are that Neptune stuff coated in coral food, perhaps that's magic? I can deal with the extra cleaning duty if this is the result.

 

[madweazl]

I feed the fish, often.

LRS Reef Frenzy twice daily
Algae sheet once daily
Whole Littleneck clam once daily

 

[ajhudson15]

I feed my tank and mixture of Mysis, brine, calanus, lrs nano, and lrs breeders. couple times a week pellets or flakes and then maybe once a week roids or reef chili if I remember. funny thing is im still at 0 on my phosphates.

 

[wdavid]

I feed the fish. I also feed the corals with high quality Metal Halide.

There have been times where I thought that I saw a difference in supplementing or feeding the corals, but then when I stopped, nothing changed. I have come to the conclusion that my mind was just out of whack and probably looking for some positive. Others swear by feedings.

I just posted something regarding this. I have fed aminos, coral food etc while keeping PO4 at .03-.05 ppm (Hanna ULR). The SPS color and PE hasn't been great. I recently was out of town for a week and set up an auto feeder to dump a mixture of pellets and flake in the water twice a day. When I returned my sand bed was very colorful and the glass was filthy. When I peered through the filth the SPS color and PE was dramatically improved. Alk consumption had spiked. I had no idea I could see such a quick, positive reaction in my SPS. For my tank it seems dirtier water in general is better. The pellets are that Neptune stuff coated in coral food, perhaps that's magic? I can deal with the extra cleaning duty if this is the result.

I feed the fish, often.

LRS Reef Frenzy twice daily
Algae sheet once daily
Whole Littleneck clam once daily

Definitely a good amount of votes to the "feed fish well" category. Kinda interesting to see the contrast between keep tiny amount of fish and feed sparingly crowd and the moderate/heavy load with strong feeding crowd. Definitely a good amount of success in both categories from what I've seen so far though.

 

[wdavid]

I feed the fish, often.

LRS Reef Frenzy twice daily
Algae sheet once daily
Whole Littleneck clam once daily

I feed my tank and mixture of Mysis, brine, calanus, lrs nano, and lrs breeders. couple times a week pellets or flakes and then maybe once a week roids or reef chili if I remember. funny thing is im still at 0 on my phosphates.

What are your water volumes and how do you control nitrates and phosphates?

 

[madweazl]

75g total volume. If the graphic doesnt update, just click on the image and go to the "Log" tab.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

75g total volume. If the graphic doesnt update, just click on the image and go to the "Log" tab.

Nice looking setup you have there sir.

 

[ajhudson15]

What are your water volumes and how do you control nitrates and phosphates?

My phosphates are staying at 0 and I do not have anything removing it other than the system itself. As for nitrates I actually dose it to keep it up otherwise it drops to low. I have mixed reef and my sps like my nitrates to be around 5-10. I have a 75 gallon tank with a 40 gallon sump.

 

[Scorpius]

I like to dose stability, patience, and keep it simple.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

I like to dose stability, patience, and keep it simple.

You dose Stability to feed your corals!??!

 

[29bonsaireef]

If there was one additive I stood strong by it would be Kalkwasser. Best product you can add to a SPS system IMO. Feeding corals is a bit extra in my honest opinion. Unless you are having a hard time keeping any nutrients in your system. Feeding won't boost the health of your corals. Good lights, stable params will.

 

[jda]

I find it a little interesting about all of the different things that you hear about how much "corals" eat in the wild. When we were in the Coral Sea, I asked the collectors that we went out with and we collected acropora from places where filter feeders could not live - no sea fans or NPS corals. Most of this part of the world is this way save for the atolls and places with runoff. I get there are probably places on the planet where there are massive amounts of food for "coral" to eat, but do they pertain to SPS and specifically acropora? They told me that the places where they collect NPS, LPS and the few softies that they have do have a lot of plankton to eat and acros are not all that common there.

In the end, I think that all that anybody knows is that feeding SPS is not necessary and that it might help.