muddybluewater Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 (edited) Quote:In shallow clear water, efficient corals can get over 100% of their daily carbon needs from their zooxanthellae. Quote:It has been found that bacteria alone can supply up to 100% of both the daily carbon and nitrogen requirements of corals. All corals studied consume dissolved organic material, bacteria, and detrital material. This is more than can be said for any other food source, including zooplankton and light. Quote:Now, here is an updated version of my coral food recipe that has been posted about everywhere on the planet by now. Eric's "famous" coral food recipe These are quotes from Eric Borneman. I stopped feeding my corals after reading this on anouther site and have not seen any change in growth after 3 months of not feeding and my water quality has improved. Just thought I would share. Edited August 23, 2009 by muddybluewater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamp Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 I go back and forth with feeding my lps and zoas reef roids. I think I get better growth when I do, but then I start worrying about my water quality. There is no doubt that I get way better growth on lps and sps with 2-part dosing. I have fun feeding them roids though. Its cool to see everything open up their tentacles and feed. I also feed mysis to everything that will eat them occasionally. My trumpets go crazy when I do this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 I'm going to go with Calfo/Fenner on this. There are three main things that determine cloral health and growth. Water quality, feeding and then lighting is a very distant third. With the exception of species with only rudimentary stomachs (xenia/star polyps) all corals need to be fed for health and growth. The way I see it, if they have guts, mouths ect, they need to be fed or you are starving a creature. The little polyps may be able to get by on symbiotic algae but they aren't as happy as they could be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 Zara, You are right on target. As with everything moderation is the key. Observe the effects on the system. Since I have been running skimmerless for ten years with plant refugiums, I feed heavily. These systems, in themselves, are high nutriant systems. Nutriant export is achieved by trimming of macroalgae and replacement of resin (phosphate removal and carbon). Nutriant recycling is balanced between macroalgae growth, growth of pods, growth of corals, growth of fish, growth of micro-inverts which feed corals and fish. Addicted to reefing, Pat Castille Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 Fish poo makes great coral food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddybluewater Posted August 23, 2009 Author Share Posted August 23, 2009 Fish poo makes great coral food. That's about what I think of it also. If corals can get their nutrition from bacteria and detrius why feed extra. I have seen and read too many stories of problems with phyto and such. This is just my opinion, and I thought it would make for a good thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 Definately too much focus is given to lighting in this hobby. I understand it as a lot of the SW reef hobby has been driven by high light needing SPS. There was also a lot of inexact science during the 80s and early 90s that led everyone to believe that a coral reef was a nutrient poor community. Then it was found out that reefs are really very nutrient rich, it's just that all the nutrients are exploited to be 0 at all times. You don't see huge piles of fish poo even though the fish population is in line with bat caves where you do get piles of bat poo. Why? because it's all used up pretty much by the time it can hit the floor. So I think it behooves us as caretakers to really try to provide this high nutrient but 0 point environment for our charges. As an example, when i started out I had a nitrate issue like all new reef keepers. The answers you always get are to feed less. But if I did i noticed that the corals I had and especially the fish were acting hungry all the time. This was too the point where I started to see predation with creatures who had been well behaved prior to this. So the real answer was to feed the same but add in nitrate reducing filtration (a DSB and Chaeto in my case.) Now I feed even more than I did when I started out but I consistently test out at 0-5 nitrates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 Skimmerless and heavy feeding works for me. Go to Inland Aquatics and look at his site. He is a big proponant of turf algae scrubbers and heavy feeding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted August 23, 2009 Share Posted August 23, 2009 I have tried using several products to feed my corals and I haven't seen any results. I'm just tired of wasting money. I believe Calfo is a proponent of fish poo. I just don't like adding all these thing to a closed environment. I try to keep things a natural as possible, lesson learned after dumping a ton of money into coral foods and additives. But this is just my opinion. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caferacermike Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 I feed with Reef Roids and Oyster Feast and have noticed a dramatic improvement since I switched over from my "no food" mantra. I had been battling hair algae and couldn't win for anything. So I decided to try something drastic. First thing was to way overskim the tank. Next was to replace all the bulbs. Next was to order a ton of corals. After that I began to feed heavily. Slowly all of the algae recessed and all the corals exploded with color and amazing growth. To each their own. I over feed and love it. I also way overdrive the lighting on my tank and love the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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