We here at Coral Fanatics have come up with some feeding ideas and some commercial products we like to use to help shed some light on what and when to feed.

No two aquariums are the same, so they all have to be fed different. I currently feed 9 different saltwater systems including some green water tanks and mangrove bins. Ranging from 7 gallons to 5,000 gallons. The focus on all the systems, IS, the system- keeping the animals they inhabit in mind. If you just focus on the inhabitants, the system will perish, stressing the exact animals you were focusing on.

 

Here at Coral Fanatics, feeding consists of a number of things. From the fish, inverts, and corals, we try to make our tanks happy and flourish and do the best we can do to keep our animals alive. Here are some things we do: Like we said before, no two tanks are like. There are a couple of different things we use to feed the SPS and LPS corals and clams. This is what I do for our tank, which is a 240 gal. display tank with a 75-gallon sump, a 75-gallon refugium, and the two holding bins for our SPS frags, Zoanthids and clams. I use about one tablespoon of Marine Snow, and for the DT’S Phytoplankton, about the same amount- one tablespoons and four squirts of Cyclop-eez. Then we made some stuff for our corals and our fish. We used regular shrimp, clams, krill, oysters, flake food, broccoli, romaine lettuce and eight cloves of fresh garlic and then blended it all together. We blended it for about ten minutes to make sure it was pureed to as fine as we could get it so the corals and the fish could eat it. Every once in a while I spot feed some of the SPS corals and some of our LPS corals. Like the brains and fungias, favia, platygyras, sun polyps and some of the mushrooms. They like to be feed every once in a while, and they get big and happy. We feed our fish brine shrimp and flake food. First I get the hot water running and put the brine shrimp in it. Then I put the mixed food in to defrost, put the planktons in and feed the fish. They go crazy over the food. I feed twice a day to keep my stuff happy but it all depends on the amount of fish and corals you have in your tank and how big your tank is, to know how much to feed. Some days I don’t feed all that stuff, but I try to feed them every day, weather it is the plankton and the mixed food, or brine shrimp and flake.

Cody Henslee-

More feeding ideas include some newer products on the market, as well as age old ideas of feeding. Greenwater and a rotifier culter provide live nutritiuos food source. This feed together can be the ultimate food source-- if done right. The key is to get a high enough cell count of algea, and the right strains, and to feed and culture enough zooplankton from this source. This can be quite a challenge and more often than not, will produce a food source less nutritious than commercial products. Frozen cyclope-eze, liquid life bio-plankton & coral plankton, and golden pearls, are some great commercial foods available. Phytoplankton is the basis of all life and is a necessity in the food chain of a reef aquarium. When feed, it will feed the natural zooplankton in the aquarium, developing a food chain of live natural food for your corals and fish.

Chris Conk-

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