Reef Discussion

[rosechaser]

Hi, yes a newbie and just posted about an ammonia spike...primarily due to overfeeding (I think)

I have new pair of clowns and they just seem so hungry...how do I know how much to feed them

They're in an isolation tank and I have given then frozen mysis shrimp cubes and also spectrum pellets

Tips most appreciated

 

[DavidS]

I wouldn't be as worried about them being hungry as I would how much you feed each time you do feed them.

I'm yet to find fish in any type of tank that should be fed more food than they can consume in two minutes. I'd be happier feeding that type of amount a 3 or 4 times a day than I would feeding them twice as much half as often. No doubt others opinions will differ..

 

[MagicJ]

Fish will always be looking for more food - in the wild they don't know when their next feed will be and are more accustomed to eating small but constant meals. If you feed too much, most will go straight through their system and out the other end resulting in increased wastes to be handled by your filter.

As David has said, only feed enough to be consumed within 1 or 2 minutes - mine generally only get fed twice a day, 5.30 when I get home and again at around 9.00.

 

[Dr. Schell]

I have a large school of chromis in my tank, so I I have to geed relatiely large ammouts to ensure that all the fish get a chance to eat. I feed the fish several times a day (ranging from 2 to 5 times). However, I do have a very large clean up crew that is capable of eating meaty foods (40+ nassarius snails, pair of coral banded shrimp and 15+ pepermint shrimp in the tank) so what ever the fish do not eat, the CUC eat within 10-15mins and thus not much time for bacterial to turn the food into ammonia.

 

[MTG]

This makes me feel like I feed to much. I feed roughly 15 times a day variety of foods, mysis brine, pellets , brine flakes, cyclopezze, reef roids, marine snow fatty acids in the food to enrich it, marine angel similar to mysis I think? Daphnia , muscle, nori, and a few more I can't remember,
I don't have any issues with ammonia etc all to food gets eaten by either the corals fish or cuc.
Since i haven't been running a skimmer for the last 2 weeks I have found the phosphates now creep up and I must keep them under control, ( new skimmer is on it's way )

 

[n0rk]

I feed about 10-15 times a day, with more types of food than you can shake a trout at. The new tank will be getting fed 96 times a day plus whatever I put in by hand... gotta keep the little nippers happy after all.

 

[Synodontis]

Geez, 15 times a day. Now I feel like i'm starving our fish lol. Only feed twice a day, Jen drops in M/shrimp roter's in the morning, I drop in a shell fish mix at night. Every now and then I'll sit there and hand feed some of the coral's. Just so I know they are getting some. Love to hand feed the clowns and watch them take the larger piece's back to their "buddies"

 

[n0rk]

One of the reasons most people shouldn't feed 15 times a day is it takes a huge toll on your system's ability to process nutrients. If you've not designed the system specifically for the purpose you'll inevitably run into problems.

 

[alteclansing]

oh man I only feed my fish once a day, enough for them to eat within 1 min. Nori + formula2 thats it...

 

[MTG]

Hil how would you like only getting one meal a day ;) I know I would be hungry!! I found feeding less but spreading it throughout the Day is the way to do it,

 

[Reefin]

96 times a day HOLY F*** haha that insane...
i try to feed them once ...if i remember...jks ahha
is that with an Auto feeder ? or r u really really organized ? lol
keep it up haha

 

[MTG]

I have a feeling he will be running the food through a dosing pump or something

 

[n0rk]

Dosing pumps indeed. When you're keeping feeding-intensive corals and fish you need to feed them a lot. This works out to about once every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day.

 

[Reefin]

How much 'feed' is going into the tank every 15minutes
( i understand there is a wide variety ) is it all the same
every 15 minutes or set up to feed particular things ?
and yeah what do you feed? hehe
thanks

 

[n0rk]

That I haven't worked out yet. It'll depend on the tank and how the livestock reacts... everything will be tuned so there's no wastage. That goes for foods as well :)

 

[Reefin]

He he he Something NORK does't know OMG!!!
the world is going to Explode...just kidding hahahah
lookin forward to when you have the stats :) a DIY
or Equipment post could be a good Idea for us ( me )
noobs to setup for when we have really advanced tanks
like yourself :D
thanks hehehe
Tim

 

[Talmier]

Wow I feed once a day an alternative feedings

First day is half a cube of Mysis Shrimp and Seaweed marine Dinner the next day just flake

 

[n0rk]

He he he Something NORK does't know OMG!!!
the world is going to Explode...just kidding hahahah
lookin forward to when you have the stats :) a DIY
or Equipment post could be a good Idea for us ( me )
noobs to setup for when we have really advanced tanks
like yourself :D
thanks hehehe
Tim

Part of it is because it's a very experimental plan and I've not quite finalised things yet... there's a few things up in the air that'll change it critically. Either way, it'll be fed in a very similar manner to many NPS tanks with refrigerated planktonic foods injected to the return feed via venturi, as for what types of planktons will be decided by what I can adapt the fish to to begin with. I can't see this setup being particularly useful for just about any other type of tank, it's mostly just because I like to tinker and test things and have the facility and means to do so.

 

[Reefin]

Tinkering is so much fun ehehhe
ecspecially moving the aquascape around every other day ahah
thanks

 

[Donski]

I only have the one little clown and feed anywhere between 1 - 4 times a day depending on if i am home.