Feeding

[APFish]

Maybe am I am looking too hard here, but how is everyone feeding. I have been having trouble with my phosphate levels. I have since corrected that issue but have been concentrating on everything that causes high levels. Food is one that everyone looks at. Here is what is happening in my tank: I place food in the tank to feed, everyone goes crazy and starts eating. With in a couple of minutes the food has been washed over the skimmmer in to the sump. This is where instead of being injested it is broken down into those miserable little phospates. So how does everybody feed. Maybe I am feeding the wrong type of food?

Rob

[Wiskey]

I would consentrate more on getting the skimmer to do it's job. Most people are really really over feeding their tanks due to sps lightning up.

What kind of skimmer do you have?

How much water does it process in GPH?


Did you cook your rock?

How long has the tank been BB?

What levels of phospate are we talking about here?

How often do you have to clean algae of your front glass, and what kind of algae do you clean off?

Perhaps some of these questions will help us to solve your problem.
Whiskey

[APFish]

Well you hit it on the head with the skimmer. I have had the tank up and running for a couple of months now. The problem is that I have been having constant problems with the skimmer. Well, I have hopefully solved that problem with a new pump that is coming in. It seems that the mag 7 I have been running is on the fritz and so I have replaced it with a quite one. Lets start at the begining I have a 55 gallon, with an EV-120 skimmer. I have been recirculating about 900 GPH along with two power heads while I figure out what to do with a closed loop. I did cook my rock for almost 8 weeks and get little algae on the glass. Even with the skimmer problems I am cleaning the glass maybe twice a week, and I still remove about a cup of skimmate per day, the pump is not totally dead. I have two gold strip clowns and a couple of green chromis. Snails and crabs to fill. Any help would be great.

Rob

[Wiskey]

So you only have 900GPH in tank turnover? That is perty low IMHO, take a powerhead to your rocks and blast off as much crap as you can, then wait 1 hour and syphon all the crap out. Do this every day and see if your phospate levels go down.

If they do you know too much stuff is setteling on the rocks and not being skimmed out. If your phospate level does not go down after a while then we need to concider other options.

Whiskey

[APFish]

OK, that seems resonable. If I do get a lot of detritus off of the rocks would one assume that I don't have enough flow. Also, what should be my goal for water turn over in the tank. In that number, also do people add up all of the pumps or just the ones that are on. Let me clearify, if I have two power heads on a timer alternating their current, do you only say that you have what is on at one time or do you add both in.

My other question is that I am running a filter sock and everytime I feed the food goes up and out of the tank quickly w/o much getting to the livestock. Is there anything else I could feed to keep it down or do people turn their pumps off to feed?

Rob

[Wiskey]

These are all loose rules, and can be bent or broken in some cases, but I think in case of a problem it is best to get back to basics.

Filter socks are another no no. Deatris breaks down much faster in high flow areas and the faster it is broken down the less time your skimmer has to get it. Plus if you are holding it up in a sock you skimmer dosen't even get a chance at it (poor skimmer). You are better off with a pile of deatris then the same pile in a sock.

If you are running a wave maker I would say both pumps count, because at times both are on.

As far as what kind of flow you are shooting for, I don't know, but I can tell you what I have. I have a 4 foot 50 gallon tank (same tank size as you but 2 inches shorter). I have a Seio 1500, a Seio 820, and a Seio 620 plus a mag 7 return pump. This all adds up to around 70X in-tank turnover, before I had it amed right I thought I needed more, but now I think I will be ok until a couple of my colonies grow out.

I turn off my return pump when I feed (not the Seios), and alow the food to bounce around the tank for a while, this gives the fish an honist shot at it, but still makes them work for it

HTH,
Whiskey

[Graham]

What types of food are you feeding? Stay away from flake if you use it - loads of PO4.

I always close off my return pump when I feed - and I feed a pretty good amount daily. Wait for a minute (till the overflow stops taking in water) and then put the food in. Nothing leaves the tank. Just make sure you open the return valve afterward!

I also soak all my (frozen) food in RO water until it thaws, stir it up, and pour it through a fine mesh net. That way, I'm not adding all the nutrient juice to the tank with the food. I make my own food, so I make sure there is particulate in it for the corals. I'd be happy to share my recipe if interested.

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Graham

I make my own food, so I make sure there is particulate in it for the corals. I'd be happy to share my recipe if interested.

Please do.

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Graham

I make my own food, so I make sure there is particulate in it for the corals. I'd be happy to share my recipe if interested.

Please do,
Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Hmm, I thought the first one got lost in cyberspace

Whiskey

[Graham]

The last batch I made cost about $15 in seafood and there's enough there to last a solid year. It varies a little from batch to batch depending on what's to be had, but mostly the same

In step-by-step form:

Day 1



1. Buy fresh seafood. My last batch was

• 4 - fresh tiger shrimp
• 6 - littleneck clams
• 6 - mussels
• 6 - oysters
• 6 - scallops
• 1 - small filet of Red Snapper
• 1 - sheet of Nori
• a handful of Dulse (a red seaweed)
• 1 - chunk of frozen cyclopeeze (about 2"x2"x1")
• 3 - T sea urchin roe
• 3 - cloves of garlic (pressed/very finely minced - juice included)
• 1/2 t golden pearls
• the contents of 4 amino acid supplement caplets (pierce the tablet and squeeze out the goo).
• 8 oz. bottle of Kent Zoe

You also need:

• food processor
• ziplock bags (sandwich and large freezer size).

2.) Peel/deshell/skin everything, fill 2 bowls with RO water. Put the fish chunks in one and everything else (hereafter referred to as "seafood") in another (seaweeds are added on day 2). Let the stuff soak for 5 -10 minutes. Rinse and repeat. Even fresh fish and seafood is minimally preserved and this usually contains phosphate. We want to get rid of that.

3.) Dice the fish into small-ish cubes (don't worry, it will get processed later) and cut up the shrimp, cut the rest up as desired. It will also get processed later. Right now, the main goal is to get enough contact with the food and the vitamins/supplements you add later. Again, fish meat in one bowl, misc seafood in another - free of as much "juice" as possible. Rinse it again. Then add enough Zoe (or whatever vitamin supplement(s) you use) to coat everything in the bowls. I also add the cyclopeeze, GPs, aminos and garlic at this time - usually just in the seafood bowl. Mix well.

4.) Cover the bowls and put it in the fridge overnight. I like to shake the bowls up a few times during the basting process to increase vitamin absorption.

Day 2

1.) Get your seaweed(s) and let them soak until rehydrated. Drain and set aside.

2.) Get your food processor - not needed, but better than finely mincing everything you have in the bowls. You should find that your food has soaked up most all of the vitamin you put in there. Using Zoe, my food is basically a very bright green when I process it.

3.) Get the fish bowl and drain off excess vitamins/juice, mix it up real good and spoon it into the processor. Chop the fish until it turns into a nice thick paste. This is why you want to minimize the amount of liquid put into the processor. Amazingly, it's kind of the "gel" in the mix and will not just disappear into small bits when added to the tank. Take the fish out and set in a bowl.

3.) Slice up the seaweed into smaller strips and add to the seafood (non-fish). Chop away. The reason I use two bowls and do the fish separately is becasue the seafood takes less chopping than the fish. Process the seafood to desired consistency. Take into account the size of the mouths of the fish you're targeting.

4.) Mix it all together.

5.) Get the ziplock sandwich bags and make about 3 double bags. Spoon in about 1/3 of this mix into a bag. Lay it flat, spread it flat and push as much air out as you can. The food should be pretty thick, not runny. Seal the bag until one little corner is still open and get the remaining air out. Seal both sandwich bags. Repeat for the rest of the food.

6.) Put all this food into one or two larger zip bags and lay flat in the freezer. If you spread it flat enough, you can break off what you need for feeding. I actually have a small paring knife I use only for cutting off a chunk of food.

7.) I thaw this food in RO again, stir it up to separate it and pour through a brine shrimp net. The food is still green when I feed it to the tank. It will smell like fishy garlic.


Only use one bag at a time. If you keep the others sealed in their bags with minimal air, they won't burn. I've made batches that have lasted over 2 years without going "bad". I may add that I have yet to loose a fish to something other than carpet surfing or an errant powerhead visit. That tells me they're eating OK. Everything eats it.

I feed this mix 2 days and then a day of mysis, then 2 days of the mix, then a day of mysis....etc. That's it!

Hope you find this useful...

[Wiskey]

Another question, where do you get all this stuff? Do you have to go to a specialty store or does Safeway carry it?

Thanks,
Whiskey

[Graham]

I don't know what Safeway is. We don't have them around here...that I know of.
I shop at a natural foods co-op.

The seafood at any grocery store or seafood specialty store.
The urchin roe and seaweeds at any Asian market.
cylopeeze mailorder or maybe you can find at an LFS.
Kent Zoe at an LFS or mailorder.
The amino acid supplements were just from a GNC.
Golden Pearls were from brineshrimpdirect.com and I only included them because I have them and don't use them for any other reason. Basically, cyclopeeze fits the bill better.

Much of it is optional and if you read the ingredients on any package of frozen food, you can get a good idea of things to include.

[Wiskey]

Save and print. Safeway is a grocery store chain popular in a lot of places.

I will set aside a day to track down those materials, thanks for the list.

Whiskey