SPS food?

[snagged by reef]

I'm setting up an SPS frag tank for a "hobby"...lol.

Anyways, what is the suggested food and/or chemicals for SPS only tank? 40lbs frag tank w/ a sump/fuge set up. i'll have live rock with cheto in the sump for bio filter both frags only in the main tank.

All the manufacgturers say just about the same for all their products (phytoplankton, zoplankton, chromoplex, phytoplex, etc). "Enhance color, 5 - 10 microns, filter food, etc, etc"

Let me know what has worked best, "IMO", for SPS frag tankers.

thanks everyone!

[cnaegler]

Believe it or not, just feed the fish well and their "poo" will feed them, no joke. You could also try rotifers, cyclopseeze, and oyster eggs. Anything else, i think, would be too large for them to capture.
I'm sure someone else will chime in with more options.

[dcog277]

fish poo

[DLANDINO]

I have been using Coral Frenzie and rotifers. Seems to work well.

[o.c.d.]

Nutrient balance is what is important. Are you going to have fish in your setup? If so than fish poo is great but how large the tank is and how much fish food going in makes a difference also the amount of sps stock will need a certain amount of food. This is where your observation comes in too much food = excess nutrients = algae. Always start with less observe over time and then decide if more or a supplement is needed. Just keep track of what you are doing so if there is a change you know why. I add reefroids once a week just for good luck and it's the fist thing I stop adding if cyno or algae appears.

[XSiVE]

Skimmate!

Seriously, whenever I accidentally spill skimmate into my sump, all of my SPS go nuts.

[cnaegler]

Originally posted by XSiVE
Skimmate!

Seriously, whenever I accidentally spill skimmate into my sump, all of my SPS go nuts.

Concentrated fish poo!

[Hop]

Fish poop. Its what's for dinner

[manofcoral]

We need one of the big guys who sell frags for a living to chime in. What works for them.

[phish guy]

light and fish poo is a coral delacasy (i did not spell that right)

[Everyones Hero]

Originally posted by XSiVE
Skimmate!

Seriously, whenever I accidentally spill skimmate into my sump, all of my SPS go nuts.

I thought skimming was supposed to be extremely important in taking out nutrients so corals can grow... Now I'm hearing that skimmate makes good coral food...

Anyone have a link for the home brewed foods?

[abulgin]

I purchased Golden Pearls 5-50 micron after reading a lot of good things about it on RC and other places. I feed it once or twice per week, and my corals are all very healthy and growing. The thing I like about this product is that it is so fine that it stays in suspsension for a long time.

Who knows whether the Golden Pearls makes a huge difference, but many of the more experienced reefers swear that feeding your corals is just as important as feeding your fish.

http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c11...-Diet-c32.html

[Logzor]

Serious about the fish poo. Dont waste your money!

Brew up a nice DIY frozen frozen from reefkeeping magazine and have enough food for a year plus enough to sell to cover triple the costs.

Since fish gorge a lot of the food comes out churned up but not digested completely so this is great good for your sps and it is cheap.

I say forget shelling out cash for golden pearls, it sounds like a gimmick to me.

[Everyones Hero]

So basically fish wastes & uneaten food makes a good meal for corals?

[abulgin]

Originally posted by Logzor
Serious about the fish poo. Dont waste your money!

Brew up a nice DIY frozen frozen from reefkeeping magazine and have enough food for a year plus enough to sell to cover triple the costs.

Since fish gorge a lot of the food comes out churned up but not digested completely so this is great good for your sps and it is cheap.

I say forget shelling out cash for golden pearls, it sounds like a gimmick to me.

I'm sure that corals can by fine in nutrient rich water, but Golden Pearls appears to be a quality product. It's not a gimmick.

[Logzor]

I believe it is, in that if the main promotion of the product is the particle size. If you can achieve this particle size by just letting your fish poo then it is a gimmick.

I am sure it does a great job but it seem unnecessary and expensive.

So, IF you can achieve the same particle size and quality of food from fish poo by feeding an inexpensive home made food, which would you choose?

I have no proof really but it seems that this is the case as ive never seen many of the TOTM with massive SPS colonies feed anything special like that.

The guy from Thailand with tons of sps only fed F1 and F2.

[abulgin]

Well, by definition a gimmick is a trick designed to attract attention. If SPS feed on GPs, then it's not a gimmick. It may be unecessary, or you may be able to achieve the same result using other methods/means as you suggest, but that doesn't make it a gimmick. In my experience, home-made foods don't always/usually work because I have never been able to blend them small enough to get a useful particle size.

[Logzor]

By definition yeah you are correct.

You need a bass-o-matic!

[Everyones Hero]

To get back onto the topic:

Would ground up Mysis & Brine shrimp, along with ground up fish food make an adequet coral food?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Anyways, what is the suggested food and/or chemicals for SPS only tank?

On the chemical additive end of that question, it is mostly just calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. I address it in this article:



The “How To� Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners, Part 2: What Chemicals Must be Supplemented
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php

[nattarbox]

I followed conventional forum wisdom and tried to rely on fish poo to feed my SPS, ended up starving half my frags. I only had two fish of course.

If you have a low mass of non-coral inhabitants, I think its important to add some sort of extra food source. I've been having good luck mixing oyster eggs (Coral Frenzy I believe) with amino acid supplements.

[cnaegler]

Originally posted by Hop
Fish poop. Its what's for dinner

aaaaahahahahahahahahaa! That's a good one!

[stanlalee]

fish poo or if no fish zooplankton small like rotifiers and oyster eggs. NOT phytoplankton unless you are using it to grow out the rotifiers and zooplankton that eat the phytoplankton.

[Everyones Hero]

Coral Frenzy is what the local LFS carries. 17.99 for a very small container of it.

I like to support the local places, but I'm better off getting it offline with my testing equipment & Ca. They carry Kent Marine Magnesium, but no Ca or any of the associated tests.

[plyle02]

I use the Prodibio full system, zeovit sponge power, zeovit coral snow, aminos, and VSV. In this system, I have many fish, an over-sized skimmer, and all the fun bells and whistles... Having the ability to keep sps happy in terms of growth is one thing, but being able to find complete balance in your system is another feat in itself... Feeding the corals continuously is going to raise the over all nutrients in your system, which may fuel an algae outbreak if not careful. This is why so many bb sps gurus have many fish, way overated skimmers, and simply feed a large fish population and skim the leftovers out. With this said, you still will see a rise in nitrates, and phosphates, which will retard growth, and brown out your colors. However, some sps tanks have reported running up to 15ppm on nitrates and are captivating with outstanding color, usually zero on PO4. So, in my longwinded approach to provide my opinion, look to control parameters, and as long as you do so, feed your fish well, add coral feeding foods if necessary, and maybe some aminos, and focus really on control of nitrates, phosphates, calcium, alk, and mag for starters. Good luck, post the pics once you are up and running....