[Social D]

I Know most of you feed SPS so lets talk about routines amounts and makes of food you use.
Please state as much detail as possible .

I'll leave you kick it off.

[Crabbit]

I have been using coral vibrance twice a week few tea spoons New era flake food few tea spoons finely crushed every day i have found this gives me a big feeding response, Cyclop-Eeze as well once a week and fish poo and 1310w of light. I guess they also eat what my fish don't get. After feeding this my sps look like they have had spider webs wound around the end of them. This happens with in a few min of putting in the food. I am planning to use the pappon or blue coral method.
5 Oysters
5 Mussels
5 Clams
5 Shrimp (NOT cocktail shrimp, the big scampi type w/o the head and the shell)
1 Tablespoon of Sugar (not corn syrup, etc.)
200 mL of RO/DI water
10 g of Red Algae (Palmaria palmata; Bisck uses Julian Sprung's brand)
and/or 10 g of Spirulina, 10 g of Nori (spirulina is what Bisck prefers)

Methods: Make SURE that all ingredients are the freshest possible and DO NOT use frozen foods (unless it is impossible for you). Make sure everything "live" is rinsed and cleaned before putting it into the blender. Put all the ingredients into the blender and blend for 5 min, wait 2 min for it to cool, 5 more min blending, 2 min of waiting again, then finally another 5 min of blending (the pausing is so that the solution doesn't get too hot and "cook" from the heat of the blender/blades). Pour into cube forms (approx 10 mL each). Then freeze it all—you want to minimize how long everything is at room temperature.

Procedure: One hour prior to turning off your lights, you have the option of adding Amino acids to the tank*. (For example, 11pm Halides off, add AA’s, 12am, actinics off, then add pappone). Take off the cup of your skimmer, but leave the skimmer running (so you don’t have a massive drop in O2 levels overnight). After the lights are off, start with only a ¼ of a cube per WEEK for every 400 L of tank water (approx 100 gallons). Be sure to measure NO3 and PO4 the next morning so that these parameters don't spike after feeding. You can reduce the amount fed if you are having nutrient problems. Also don’t forget to put the skimmer cup back on the next morning before the lights go back on.

[ziggy]

Crabbit, on Feb 4 2008, 12:02 AM, said:

I have been using coral vibrance twice a week few tea spoons New era flake food few tea spoons finely crushed every day i have found this gives me a big feeding response, Cyclop-Eeze as well once a week and fish poo and 1310w of light. I guess they also eat what my fish don't get. After feeding this my sps look like they have had spider webs wound around the end of them. This happens with in a few min of putting in the food. I am planning to use the pappon or blue coral method.
5 Oysters
5 Mussels
5 Clams
5 Shrimp (NOT cocktail shrimp, the big scampi type w/o the head and the shell)
1 Tablespoon of Sugar (not corn syrup, etc.)
200 mL of RO/DI water
10 g of Red Algae (Palmaria palmata; Bisck uses Julian Sprung's brand)
and/or 10 g of Spirulina, 10 g of Nori (spirulina is what Bisck prefers)

Methods: Make SURE that all ingredients are the freshest possible and DO NOT use frozen foods (unless it is impossible for you). Make sure everything "live" is rinsed and cleaned before putting it into the blender. Put all the ingredients into the blender and blend for 5 min, wait 2 min for it to cool, 5 more min blending, 2 min of waiting again, then finally another 5 min of blending (the pausing is so that the solution doesn't get too hot and "cook" from the heat of the blender/blades). Pour into cube forms (approx 10 mL each). Then freeze it all—you want to minimize how long everything is at room temperature.

Procedure: One hour prior to turning off your lights, you have the option of adding Amino acids to the tank*. (For example, 11pm Halides off, add AA’s, 12am, actinics off, then add pappone). Take off the cup of your skimmer, but leave the skimmer running (so you don’t have a massive drop in O2 levels overnight). After the lights are off, start with only a ¼ of a cube per WEEK for every 400 L of tank water (approx 100 gallons). Be sure to measure NO3 and PO4 the next morning so that these parameters don't spike after feeding. You can reduce the amount fed if you are having nutrient problems. Also don’t forget to put the skimmer cup back on the next morning before the lights go back on.

what the blu coral feed method??????

[lindsay]

We also use the blended high fead mix once a week and i also use salifert coral food and dry coral food daily.I will say that we will be getting in coral vibrance again soon which i used for over a year on the smaller sps system and loved it as did the sps .

[Social D]

Brilliant, Coral vibrance was and still is the best food ive ever used ....good to hear its coming back

[Crabbit]

Pappone and blue coral method are the same thing.

[wayne g]

SPS Nut, on Feb 5 2008, 01:11 AM, said:

Brilliant, Coral vibrance was and still is the best food ive ever used ....good to hear its coming back

that and fish poo!
vibrance is superb!

[Crabbit]

I not sure about them as if you read up the link in sps tanks we would like to have. They says its best to use vegetable biased AA you can't have any yeast in the AA. Can't real see a brake down on the link of whats in them.

[ziggy]

Crabbit, on Feb 5 2008, 11:32 AM, said:

Pappone and blue coral method are the same thing.

Oh right

[ziggy]

Crabbit, on Feb 4 2008, 12:02 AM, said:

I have been using coral vibrance twice a week few tea spoons New era flake food few tea spoons finely crushed every day i have found this gives me a big feeding response, Cyclop-Eeze as well once a week and fish poo and 1310w of light. I guess they also eat what my fish don't get. After feeding this my sps look like they have had spider webs wound around the end of them. This happens with in a few min of putting in the food. I am planning to use the pappon or blue coral method.
5 Oysters
5 Mussels
5 Clams
5 Shrimp (NOT cocktail shrimp, the big scampi type w/o the head and the shell)
1 Tablespoon of Sugar (not corn syrup, etc.)
200 mL of RO/DI water
10 g of Red Algae (Palmaria palmata; Bisck uses Julian Sprung's brand)
and/or 10 g of Spirulina, 10 g of Nori (spirulina is what Bisck prefers)

Methods: Make SURE that all ingredients are the freshest possible and DO NOT use frozen foods (unless it is impossible for you). Make sure everything "live" is rinsed and cleaned before putting it into the blender. Put all the ingredients into the blender and blend for 5 min, wait 2 min for it to cool, 5 more min blending, 2 min of waiting again, then finally another 5 min of blending (the pausing is so that the solution doesn't get too hot and "cook" from the heat of the blender/blades). Pour into cube forms (approx 10 mL each). Then freeze it all—you want to minimize how long everything is at room temperature.

Procedure: One hour prior to turning off your lights, you have the option of adding Amino acids to the tank*. (For example, 11pm Halides off, add AA’s, 12am, actinics off, then add pappone). Take off the cup of your skimmer, but leave the skimmer running (so you don’t have a massive drop in O2 levels overnight). After the lights are off, start with only a ¼ of a cube per WEEK for every 400 L of tank water (approx 100 gallons). Be sure to measure NO3 and PO4 the next morning so that these parameters don't spike after feeding. You can reduce the amount fed if you are having nutrient problems. Also don’t forget to put the skimmer cup back on the next morning before the lights go back on.

Try freezing 30% of your RO water prior to blending to avoid cooking that stuff will cook quicker then 5 min, also make sure once your cube are frozen put them in an air tight bag or container to avoid freezer burn on those delicate little shell fish....

[ziggy]

lindsay, on Feb 5 2008, 02:29 AM, said:

We also use the blended high fead mix once a week and i also use salifert coral food and dry coral food daily.I will say that we will be getting in coral vibrance again soon which i used for over a year on the smaller sps system and loved it as did the sps .

This may be the millon dollar question but how often would you feed your corals in a normal system ie not a chuffing great system like yours. could be poll time.

[Crabbit]

I would say suck it and see. It all depends on your water quality. You need to keep an eye on your phosphates and nitrates ammonia and nitrite. You need to wait for anaerobic bacteria to handle the feeding. Thats what the sugar helps with. Your better off feeding a small amount 3 times a week or twice a week depending on the water test. Then up the amount you feed. The aim is to match the food with the growth of your corals. A good way to measure this is to see how much your skimmer is pulling out after you replace the cup back on in the morning after a night feeding. I would say once you see less in the skimmer over a day of skimming its a good sign to up the feed.

[ben]

to carry on this subject, how long after lights out do sps polyps start to appear and feed?

i ask as i go to bed when my halides go off , and wonderd if i feed at that point would the corals still get a good feed before the skimmer pulls it out,

or would it be better in the morning when ive noticed the polyps are fully exposed. the lights then dont come on for a few hours.

[chriss]

I try to feed every night, but in all honesty it probably ends up being 5 out of 7. I try to vary what I feed each night making a 'cocktail' from the following selection..

Coral vibrance - 1/3 tspn
Coral Frenzy - 1/3 tspn
Cyclopeze - 1/4 tspn
Amino acids - big squirt
Gamma Nutra - 2ml on it's own or 1ml if added with something else
Pappone - 1/3 of a ice cube block
Sugar - if no Pappone used
Frozen mysis or marine mix

I've also started occasionally added a little extra A & K.

I try to wait as long as possible after lights out before feeding, but it's usually no more than half an hour. I don't turn my skimmers off or anything since they are outside in the sump tho recently I have thought about putting some sort of remote switch or a time switch on them.

Of course feeding of the corals happens in many other ways eg by what you feed your fish and any additional supplements/minerals you add, so if you want to include that as well...

Nori - 2 sheets/week
Ocean nutirition pellets 4 times a day
Various frozen cubes - 4 or 5 a week (could be more)

Bio-Strontium - 1/2 tsp daily
Pro-Coral mineral - 1/2 tsp daily
Bio-Calcium 1 tsp daily (main ca supplement via ARM media)
A & K - 5ml daily
Magnesium via Grotech Mag chips in CA reactor
Kalk


If I had any of the following I would include it as well just to mix it up...

Salifert coral food
Red plankton
Pro-Coral Phyton
Pro-Coral Zooton


Nitrate 0.2
Phosphate 0 (Salifert)

Chris

[Si Clark]

Crikey thats alot I don't feed anything apart from FM bak and Amim also what comes off my reactor when it cleans itself.