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jfinch
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Topic: When do you feed? Posted: July 23 2003 at 7:16pm |
When and what do you feed your corals?
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Marcus
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Posted: July 23 2003 at 9:24pm |
I feed my entire tank a combo of flake and frozen brine. I also direct feed my LPS krill. I usually feed in the evening, cause I work early in the morning. I try to feed every other day.
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jfinch
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Posted: July 23 2003 at 9:26pm |
Marcus, do you spot feed every other day or less frequent? Do you have any trouble with other inhabitants (fish, shrimp) stealing the krill from the coral?
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Marcus
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Posted: July 23 2003 at 9:38pm |
what does "spot feed" mean? My clowns fish steals krill from the brain that is next to the anemone. My crabs take brine from my sun polyps. But that's life I guess.
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jfinch
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Posted: July 23 2003 at 10:42pm |
Spot feed is what you are doing when you feed a piece of krill to your LPS or anemone. I don't think I made that phrase up (but I am tired right now)...
The reason I asked this question is that the polyps on my SPS corals don't open up until after lights out... just wondering if they would benefit from a little phyto after lights out?
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ewaldsreef
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Posted: July 23 2003 at 10:56pm |
I feed 2 times a day. After work 5:00 pm and before bed at about 9:30
I try and target feed my corals 3 times a week. I feed formula one, marine cusine , frozen brine, krill and flake food.
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Marcus
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Posted: July 23 2003 at 11:28pm |
I only spot feed when I think about it. That turns out to be about oce a week or so. I do not know what to tell you about you SPS not openning until after the lights go out. Maybe Jake or Mark might know why that is. The polyps on my SPS are out day and night, but more during the day. The sweeper tentacles on my LPS are out at night, but they are still "puffy" during the day. I do not think it would hurt to try feeding you SPS at night. Maybe do it for two weeks and see if you notice a change.
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John Fletcher
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Posted: July 24 2003 at 7:33am |
I feed my tank an hour before lights out for the fish and when it is lights out I feed my sps. The food is different for the corals than the fish, it is finer. Seems to be working for me.
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John Fletcher
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(Tank of the Month for May 2003)Taking a little break...
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jfinch
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Posted: July 24 2003 at 9:26am |
Maybe the question I should be asking is "is it normal for my sps to only open up when the lights are out"? How do I get them to open up during the day? I don't have a lot of sps so maybe it's just species specific and I don't have the ones that open during the day?
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John Fletcher
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Posted: July 24 2003 at 1:24pm |
Jon, My acro open both during the day and at night. I think it all depends on the speciies of acro.
John
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John Fletcher
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: July 24 2003 at 1:43pm |
Many many corals only open at night. That is when the plankton levels are highest (naturally). So no need to open in the day, actually it is a trade off, but not worth getting into here. Not sure how well our tanks, or your tank replicates this natural cycle, but maybe that is why.
I would suggest adding rotifers to your tank to see if that helps them open during the day. Hope this helps, and makes sence.
Adam
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Brad A.
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Posted: July 24 2003 at 3:33pm |
All of the acros's and other sps in my tank extend polyps during the day and night. However, I notice that at night the polyp extention is much greater.
This is only based on my experience with my tank, when my acros dont open up during the day I usually can find something wrong with my tank. Ex, dead animal, high nitrates, or temp problems (most common prob for me), pH (second most common prob).
I only have about 27 sps colonies with about 19 or 20 being different species (as far as I can tell or guess) and they all open during the day.
Hope that helps. Like Adams said it may be nothing to get excited over, but you may want to consider checking a few tank params just in case there may be something you can fix.
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Brad A.
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Posted: July 24 2003 at 3:37pm |
Oh, back to the original question. I feed golden pearls (smallest size) and live phyto after the lights go out.
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jfinch
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Posted: July 24 2003 at 4:41pm |
I'll do another round of tests tonight, but they've never been bad and my acros never open during the day (well they're kinda open... just not really extended). Maybe it has something to do with the softies in the tank (reference to Marcus's thread)? I'm not real worried about, they are growing. I think I'll start feeding a little phyto after the lights go out.
Does anyone local sell Golden Pearls?
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Brad A.
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Posted: July 24 2003 at 9:34pm |
http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/golden-pearls.html
I haven't heard of anyone selling GP's local, except the local business.
Have you fed your tank with GP's before? There is an excellent discussion (many of them actually) on how to dose them on reefcentral. Most important thing is to start with a small dose and slowly increase over a period of time.
They're finally back!
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