LPS Feeding

I make my own, hand feed, and it's a huge difference in sick corals. It helps a little bit in healthy corals (most corals get about 95% of their energy from zooxanthallae, not actual food.)

Edited by ReefdUp - August 25 2014 at 5:47pm

I use Fauna Marin LPS food

It seems good to feed at night when they are out looking for food.

I don't feed any coral directly. I feed the ~75 fish 1x/day in my ~200 gal system. Just for comparison, that food contains minute particles of BSD New Wave Arctic Copepods, Rotifers and Roe. Bob Carlson's newest food and Emerald Entree also go into the mix. The GSL and BSD Brine and Mysis contain broken up pieces which feed invertebrates. Lastly there is a spoonful of BSD Tahitian Blend Algae Paste in many feedings. The food is not drained because I believe the "juice" is absorbed by the coral. I have seen Coral eat fish poop. Coral absorb nutrients like fish pee and other N compounds from the water, right?

ReefdUp wrote: most corals get about 95% of their energy from zooxanthallae, not actual food.

If 5% of coral energy comes from captured food, and a coral gets 12 hours of light, does that equate to needing 0.6 hour of eating food(12 hours x 5%) How much captured food does it take to give a coral 5% of it's energy

Who has seen videos of the wild reef at night when the water is murky with swimming invertebrates and their spawn? In a well fed and not so "clean" more biologically active reef aquarium, there should be a good amount of worm and bug spawning going on at night which I believe feeds coral. As sunset approaches the LPS hydrate/expand and extend their feeding tentacles to capture and eat this spawn all night.

Below is a pic of a coral, a rescued Pearl Bubble Coral in one of my old tanks, in the middle of the night when it's feeding tentacles were out. The next 2 pics are of the same coral about 6 months later, shortly after dusk and again during the day. It remained hydrated/extended more than many LPS.

Aloha 


(The orange rock is Southern Utah sandstone beginning to cover with Coralline Algae. The camera flash made it look more orange than pink. The extensive growth of Saw Blade Caulerpa was eventually completely eaten by the fish.)

ReefdUp wrote: I make my own, hand feed, and it's a huge difference in sick corals. It helps a little bit in healthy corals (most corals get about 95% of their energy from zooxanthallae, not actual food.)

+1 Zoox provide 95% of the calories to a healthy coral. Nikki is one of the best sources around for coral healh.

I make my own food as well.

I blend high qualty pellets and flakes ( brine shrimp direct ) into a powder using a coffee grinder, then add RO water, brine shrimp, mysis, rotifers, squid, diced clams, fish eggs etc, and throw it in the ninja blender until everything is blended to a very fine level.

I put it in ziploc bags and freeze it in flat sheets. I break off a very small piece ( .5"x.5" ), mix it with tank water, then use a turkey baster to feed corals directly. I turn off flow and let the food drop onto the corals. I turn back on the powerheads 5 minutes later, then the pump 20 minutes after that. 

I feed bi-monthly unless a coral is recovering. For recovering corals I feed twice a week. Anything more than that is un-necessary in my opinion, and has the potential to pollute the water. 

Edited by Pete Moss - March 06 2015 at 3:29pm

Oh god...here we go again. Wonder how long this thread is going to end up being? :)

Grab a lawn chair and a beer.[/QUOTE]

That was good! And to stay on topic mine get fed once a week alternating between things like oyster eggs, brine, mysis, roe, plankton, depending on the coral. I've never tried any commercial foods never seen a need to.

 I figured that little "what if" would raise a few eyebrows.