tank feeding

[reefradder]

I know this may come off as cheap or somewhat harsh treatment of animals. dont tell PETA. I do know that some food sources will produce in themselves, but the question is here, who does not feed their tank with frozen, flake or pellet food. Or if you have attempted this what were the results. THis question is simply to please my mind and take a poll to possibly obtain results which may lead to a interesting discussion. ALL comments welcome on any variation of the topic.

[ginger7286]

What? Are you saying the tank can self-produce food for the inhabitants? That's like saying which came first the chicken or the egg. Maybe I don't understand your question or point.

[cl800]

When I first got into reef tanks, the owner of my LFS used to say that a healthy reef tank feeds itself. I never really thought about that until about two years ago when I had to make a trip to NY for 9 days and had no one to watch the tank. So I figured it was testing time and I took off. Everything was fine when I got back.

Since then, I've taken two more 9+ days trips and the only thing I do to prep is make sure I have about 18 gallons of to off water available. I have a 120g with 6 chromis, 5 threadfin cardinals, 2 yellow eye blennies, one peppermint shrimp, and a bunch of snails and scarlet hermits. FWIW

[JohnnyB in SD]

My tank doesn't get fed when I leave town either, but I feed heavy when I am home. A glass box in your house with hand picked livestock isn't the same as a self sustaining habitat in the wild with native populations of creatures.

[LouH]

I've been feeding my tank the Borneman recipe for years. Actually, I should say that I've been feeding my FISH the Borneman recipe for years. Because of my fear of nuisance algae, I turn off all of the pumps and make sure that the fish eat every piece of food that hits the tank. I've actually been wondering if my SPS corals aren't thriving because none of the food that I put in the tank gets distributed throughout the tank. I don't actually believe that the food added to the tank is small enough to be taken by SPS directly, but I do believe that the microfauna and bacteria populations would increase and they would feed the SPS. So, with this thought in mind, I've been considering altering my feeding regimen to get more food into the tank. I’m definitely hesitant to do this though in the event that my system's nutrient removal mechanisms aren't up to the task. Once bitten twice shy as they say.