Under Feeding

[SSalty]

I never thought there was such thing. Ever since I was in the hobby I remember hearing about DO NOT OVERFEED. Well, I was doing the opposite. I have (55g sps/lps tank: yellow tang, wm goby, clown, wrasse, yh jawfish) and a (10g softie tank: 2 clowns) both tanks have a good amount of coral. I would only feed every second or third day (about a cube of mysis) and I noticed my corals weren't growing and was losing color. I then figured out that I was under feeding. I now feed a cube of mysis everyday between both tanks and now my corals are full of life and nice and colorful.

With my observations, the only thing that can determine if you are OVER feeding is if you have an algae problem.

 

[Bifferwine]

If you target feed your corals when you feed your fish, there's less of a chance of overfeeding. I target feed my "hungrier" corals every night with a turkey baster, and I target feed them the same stuff my fish get, so the fish just eat any leftovers that the corals miss. I used to never target feed ANY of my corals, but I've been having nitrate problems and am doing what I can to keep the corals healthy and growing until the nitrates go down again.

 

[reeffreak]

I never quite understood feeding fish once every three days.Wouldn't lack of nutrition be just as bad as water quality problems for our inhabitants?I feed about 4-6 cubes total three times a day.I have quit direct feeding some corals like the brains,candy cane and a few others.They seem to do just fine without any intervention from me.I say if you're not having water quality problems than feed and make the corals/fish fat and happy.

 

[Doc]

I feed 2 cubes a day in my 90. I have about 10 fish. I do not target feed anything. I melt one cube and drop in a frozen one first to allow the tank to get his fill (greedy bastard) then I quickly dump the melted cube into the water so the other critters and corals can get their fill from the water column

-Doc

 

[cthegame]

I think if you have a mature reef tank, once every other day or third day is not going to be under nutrition. and the only reason i say this is because of pods. Im sure larger fish cant go about looking for pods all day long so daily feeding might be required. I guess im trying to say that it really comes down to the live stock in the tank.

 

[Doc]

agreed.... to a point. the more fish you have, regardless of age of tank, the more food they need to sustain themselves, corals, etc.

-Doc

 

[Bifferwine]

I have started using Rod's Food primarily. I used to put four or five different types of cubes all together in a cup and then feed, but Rod's Food has everything I could possibly want in a food, all in one. It's great, it contains pieces small enough to target feed my corals, and in the same chunk pieces large enough to feed my big fish like Tangent the trigger. I'm slowly phasing out all my other random frozen foods that I rarely ever use (tubifex worms, daphnia, bloodworms, etc) and am using about 75% Rod's Food every night now.

What does this have to do with under/over feeding? Absolutely nothing. But I have to reach 10K posts somehow.

 

[fatman]

You measure your post lengths, gads I am glad I do not know how to!

 

[yote]

A lot of how often to feed depends on the type of fish and just how much of its natural food you have growing.
My Foxface and LMB are always eatting algae off the rock.My Red Fairy Wrasse is always hunting pods.The flame angel is eatting something off the bottom side if the rocks,I assume its sponges.
I guess what I'm saying,Is let your tank guide you.If the fish look skinny and underfed,feed them.

 

[Rcpilot]

I feed every day. Sometimes a snack around 6pm, but not as much food as the morning feeding. I turn off my pumps so that food isn't caught in the skimmer or blown around the tank needlessly.

I feed 1 cube or Marine Cuisine in my 30g tank. There's only 2 fish. The majority of it gets spot fed, via turkey bastor, to my corals. I've got zoas and palys that love to eat this stuff. I feed my yellow polyps, brown, and black polyps the same Marine Cuisine. Recently started spot squirting my acans and blastos too. They love it.

My 6-line wrasse is in his own 5g tank now, and I feed him a pea sized amount daily. Sometimes more. There is a nessarius snail and a couple crabs in that tank and they gotta eat too.

I've never been a fan of starving a tank to try and control nitrates. That's gotta be one of the worse excuses for skinny fish. I think a good reefer will use a DSB or cheato or both to control his/her nitrates and feed the damn fish as much as they can eat.

 

[fatman]

I over feed my coral, over circulate, over light and over filter (live rock, two skimmers (ozone fed) and a 5-6 inch deep sand bed in both tank and in refugium/sump). I also over monitor. If "over" means more than is typical. I feel though that I am doing things at ideal levels for performance desired.

 

[Rcpilot]

I'm the same way. I run a DSB in the tank AND the refugium. I run a huge chunk of cheato in my refugium. I overskim, overcirculate, overfeed, and overmonitor.

I am REALLY starting to enjoy the results.