Best way to feed a reef tank that isn't accessed at night?

[deputydog95]

I got a Red Sea 65 gallon in my office. It's been running for over a year now.

However, I leave at 5, sometimes 6p at the latest.

My research on here shows that everyone is feeding their tanks well after the lights go out.

Am I stunting my tank by not being able to do?

Is there an alternative? I feed the corals 2 or 3x times per week, with the lights on. Some show signs of eating, other's don't.

It's a combo tank.

[jrobbins]

what are you feeding? if frozen you dont have much of a choice. if pellet/flake/freezedried you can use an automatic feeder. either use a controller to shut off your return for a few minutes or use a feeding ring to try and keep everything from washing down the overflow.

you can try freeze-dried cyclopeeze at night and see if your corals like it. just don't overdo it

[HiImSean]

Originally Posted by jrobbins

what are you feeding? if frozen you dont have much of a choice. if pellet/flake/freezedried you can use an automatic feeder. either use a controller to shut off your return for a few minutes or use a feeding ring to try and keep everything from washing down the overflow.

you can try freeze-dried cyclopeeze at night and see if your corals like it. just don't overdo it

The main problem with feeding dry foods is most, besides pellets, don't sink. Most of what drops in will flow right into your overflow and into your sump.

One option is get a doser and drip a bit of a non-frozen food/supplement into the tank. Or if your office is cool with it, get a minifridge, drill it and setup a something with thawed frozen foods. That may require some sort of stirring device to prevent the food from settling in the bottom.

[phillrodrigo]

Originally Posted by HiImSean

The main problem with feeding dry foods is most, besides pellets, don't sink. Most of what drops in will flow right into your overflow and into your sump.

One option is get a doser and drip a bit of a non-frozen food/supplement into the tank. Or if your office is cool with it, get a minifridge, drill it and setup a something with thawed frozen foods. That may require some sort of stirring device to prevent the food from settling in the bottom.

I wanted to do something like this but the thought of all the nasty food decaying in the lines will make it go bad fast. It took me 30 plus minutes to prime all my 1.1 ml dosing pumps. So you would have to have it run empty until the lines were empty.

[Crooked Reef]

Are you wanting to feed after lights out for corals or for fish? Some corals are nocturnal and may benefit from night time feedings but with the exception of a few nocturnal fish, most bed down at night and don't require feeding.

[foundnemo11]

If you can feed corals when lights are out. Feed a little bit to get their attention wait a few minutes for polyps to extend then spot feed them.

I us brs reef chili and it works great. Most others I tried always raised nitrates. My tank loves when it hits the water

[deputydog95]

It's my office building, so I can pretty much do as I please

Problem is, I'm not sure what to do. I have dosing units and could potentially add slave unit. But as the other poster said, you'd have line full of rotting food in no time as they wouldn't totally clear unless you flushed them.

I had thought about the automated feeders, but as the other poster said, most of it floats.

I do use a controller so I could shut things down, but I still thing most of it would stay on the surface. I use reef chili too, and if you don't shake it up in a bottle and let it sit, it will just float. And even then some of it floats.....

Thinking out loud... What if I set up a small dosage of food, say in a 3 oz bottle mixed with tank water. It should be able to sit out for a few hours right? Couldn't I dose that and run the doser for say an applicable 10oz run time so that it pumps all the lines clean? And then run some tank water through it the next day to clear the lines?

I could program the controller so shut the skimmer and circ pumps down for an hour while the doser pumps in some food, leaving the ecotech pumps running to blow it around the tank?

Thoughts?

[d2mini]

Originally Posted by deputydog95

My research on here shows that everyone is feeding their tanks well after the lights go out.

Not me. I feed the fish with the lights on, once per day (evening) and that's pretty much it. The majority of my coral food is fish poo.
Sometimes I add some Oyster Feast to the mix for the corals.
Once in a blue I'll throw some Reef Chili in the tank before lights come on in the morning.

I have a nano at work (8g) that doesn't have much in it. Just one fish, a shrimp, a crab and a few coral and I feed it once a day and nothing sat-sun.