Am I feeding too much?

[Nikki777]

I have a 80 gal. reef tank with a 30 gal refugium, skimmer, and filter sock to deal with waste. I do a 20 gal. water change every other week. For fish I have:

1 lyretail anthias
1 sunburst anthias (they do not fight)
1 bi color blenny
1 golden pygmy angel
2 pistol shrimp gobies

I feed one cube of mysis and about a 1/4 tsp. of formula one pellets twice a day. About every 3-4 days I feed about 1/4 tsp. of cyclopleeze and rotifers. My nitrates have always been high, around 40-60ppm. I've gotten them as low as 20ppm and have seen them go off the chart. I use the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc Saltwater Master test kit and have even bought the Salifert nitrate test kit and it gave the same results. I would like to cut back on feeding but I'm just worried about the anthias. I do very well with soft corals and my LPS (euphyllias) are doing great also, full expansion and have split several times. In the recent past I did buy two blastomussas and a cynarina (owl eye) and unfortunately they slowly died. I'm reluctant to try more until I get my nitrates down. So my question is for anyone out there with around the same amount and type of fish I have how much do you feed and what have been the results? Thanks in advance for any input.

[Tang Salad]

Sounds like you may be feeding a little too much, but not necessarily.

How is your skimmer running? And are you using RODI water?

It's perfectly fine to have dirtier water with most LPS and soft corals, though.

[Nikki777]

I do use only RODI water and my skimmer is working great I think. I clean it about every three days from the scum all around the side and bottom. Not sure how much it should be taking out but it's definitely skimming something.

[Tang Salad]

Good! :)

How much live rock do you have and how long has the tank been running?

With your good water change schedule, something does seem amiss...

[Nikki777]

I have about 100 lbs. or so of live rock and it's been running about 9 months.

[roper512]

I feed a ton compared to most I would say.. I have a 45 gallon that's fairly heavy stocked..

I feed twice a day. Once at lights on that is mainly for the meat eaters, and then once in the evening after lights have been out for a few hours which is mostly for the filter feeders/pods..

My lights on mix is as follows:

I soak all dry ingredients in half a dropper full of selcon:

large pinch of formula one
large pinch of prime reef
dash of GP reef 5-50 micron
dash of spirulina powder

I then mix in the wet ingredients:

Few squirts of Arctipods
Few squirts of Phytofeast Live
Few squirts of Rotifeast
Squirt of Liquid Life MarinePlankton
Squirt of Liquid Life BioPlankton
Squirt of Liquid Life CoralPlankton

Lastly I add in some frozen:

Cyclopeeze
Oyster eggs
Finely chopped/minced frozen shrimp


This is all done in a glass dish, I then take two turkey baster fulls of my tank water and add it to the dish.. I suck it all up into the baster and squirt it out into the dish repeatedly to get it mixed up well..

Lastly, I squirt it into the tank and watch all the inhabitants go nuts.



My lights out mix is much much less and is mainly just the 'green' stuff as well as some phytoplankton:

BioPlankton
Phytofeast
DT's Premium Blend Phytoplankton
Tiny amount of oyster eggs



I turn the skimmer off when I feed for about 1-1.5 hour..


I do feed my tank a lot, but I would rather overfeed than underfeed and cause stress.. My skimmer is strong for my tank volume (deltec mce600) which is why I get away with how much I feed..

I think how much you feed all just depends on your filtration and ability to keep nitrates and phosphates in check. If your nitrates or phosphates are high'ish without feeding for a couple days there may be a different source of the problem.