Feed my reef?

[hobobob]

Soliciting opinions on how to best feed my reef please.

I've got a 75 gallon tank with 75lbs sand. 150 lbs of rock. The are some gorgonians, sea fans, 3 condy anenomes, 3 rock anenomes,a knobby star coral, a big clean up crew (hermits, snails, cukes, serpents, peppermints, some mushrooms and yellow polyps and a bunch of barnacles, tree sponges and encrusting sponges. (oh and a tiny tiger goby and an orchid dottyback, I haven't fed them at all yet)

I've got a 6 bulb NEP over top.

How should I feed it? I, of course don't want to introduce unneeded nutrients but would like evrything to be happy.

Is it OK to give the anenomes a piece of shrimp. Does that contibute negatively to the nutrient cycle?

How about dosing with commercially prepared phytoplankton? How much, how often? Should I turn off powerheads, pump and skimmer while feeding?

I hope this question is not redundant to what's been covered before and look forward to hearing opinions (there always seems to be a few different ways to skin the cat, so to speak)

Thanks

[Zestay]

you gotta feed your fish and your nems
and probably your corals

your thinking well though. anything you add isint taken out unless you remove it food is removed with a skimmer.
never turn your skimmer off

[sharky_steve]

Most bottled plankton solutions are good for polluting your tank and little else. If your gorgonians are of a species that MUST be fed, then be sure to target feed with a turkey baster. Do NOT just dump liqued reef foods into the tank.

[hobobob]

OK, if not the bottled stuff, then what?

I was hoping that the fish would be able to "scrounge around". Maybe pods or algae. They don't dither about that much which gives me pause about just adding food hoping they'll get it later.

I've screwed up in the past, I'm sure by adding too much food. I want to be conservative and prove that I've learned my lesson.. I'm hopeful that with the new skimmer (which really seems to kick butt), I'll be able to feed without guaranteeing myself an algae bloom. (or other negative effects on the water quality)

[returnofsid]

Phytoplankton will be worthless for your tank inhabitants and will contribute to excess nutrients. Most corals and anemones are meat eater...phyto is algae. Zooplankton would be the food of choice. I feed my RBTA pieces of shrimp once in awhile, but with enough lighting, anemones don't need fed. I feed my SPS and LPS Coral Frenzy and they go nuts over it!!! Shortly after feeding, they are totally expanded and polyped out like never before. However, once again, with proper lighting, photosynthetic organisms don't need feeding. You'll need to check out if your Gorgs and Sea fans are photosynthetic or not. If not, direct feeding will be needed. Some are and some aren't.

I'd also recommend getting rid of the Condylactis anemones. They aren't a natural host for any fish at all and are more likely to eat your fish than host them.