Few Extra Days?

Okay daugherty...My LFS has some of that spaghetti algae in stock. I guess I grab a handful and put it in my sump. With so many fish...do you think I should cut back to once a day---or once every other day? How often do you feed your tang? Right now I have seaweed sheets? Could I just do a 1" by 4" piece every couple of days? My wrasses, angelfish and blenny eat off of it as well...
 
i would feed once every other day start by feeding once a day then cut it back. before i had all the fish i have i would only feed once a month but more fish means more food.
 
I actually give my tang a pretty small piece of the algae sheet....something like 1"x2". Tangs need a lot of greens in their diet to stave off HLLE and ich outbreaks.
 
From the reading I just did...does Cheato need light to live? My sump has no light. Maybe I can put it in a mesh bag and put it in my main tank for a few days? Thoughts?
 
...and my saga continues. My LFS is out of spaghetti algae. Great. They tried to sell me a chemical to reduce nitrates, but I passed. I guess I'll do another water change and cut down to once a day feedings?
 
Thanks Dennis. I just assumed with so many fish, I needed to do more. Once I change my feeding and get my nitrates under control...hopefully I can start doing 15% weekly...
 
Oh damn. Sorry about your clam Ursula. I have two of them but have lost 2-3 in the process of keeping them. I think they are pretty hit and miss.
 
Well...upon better inspection it's opened about a quarter inch. I guess technically it's still alive...but it 'fell' off of its rock and was face down in the sand. Ugh. Could something have eaten it's foot? It hasn't been very happy looking since I got it.
 
clams are one of the first indicaters of bad water quality. they are usually the first to start looking sad when water is not up to standards:frustrat:
 
Definitely consider putting a ball of chaeto in your sump. It'll take a while for the nitrates to go down and stay down, but it definitely worked in my 45g -- I had 0 nitrates all the time. Make sure you put that mesh around it, cuz I accidentally dropped some chaeto in my sump, and up it went through my return pump and into my DT...I was fishing out pieces of floating algae for a while.
 
I would definitely say that you're overfeeding. Like others have said, cut back to feeding once every other day. Your fish will always act hungry! Even if you feed them ten times a day! In a tank as large as yours, they will forage for food on the rocks in between feedings. This is what you want them to do.

I have 13 fish in my tank, and I feed 2 cubes of frozen food every 3 days or so. I give my tang a seaweed sheet once a week. My fish are constantly picking on the rocks and keeping them clean.

Pellet and flake foods contain preservatives that can also hurt your water quality. Only feed frozen foods (and seaweed sheets).
 
Thanks Biff. That's what I'm going to do. I didn't realize I was overfeeding until I started typing my meal schedule. YIKES! My LFS found some cheato that is supposed to be in on Friday. I'll definitely put it in a mesh bag. Hopefully that helps. Sounds like it will...so I'm aiming to keep my nitrates at 0? My LFS told me 10mg was really good...and 20mg is more than acceptable.
 
20 is fine for fish and most corals. It's the anemones that really don't tolerate any nitrates well. More sensitive corals like SPS also need nitrates at or close to 0.
 
Yeah, I mentioned to my lfs the other day that my nitrates are at around 20ppm, and since it's fowlr, they said it shouldn't be a problem, really.
 
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