Need opinion on feeding my tank.

[NanoCube-boy]

Hi everyone,

I been trying to solve this problem for awhile and I can't figure out. I have done tons of reading and researching trying to figure some best way to feed my tank. I have post this same topic on this other forums, but no help so far. I'm hoping to get some tips because I want to feed my corals, fish and inverts at best.

I recently having problem figure what are best ways to feed my tank. I currently have a 12g. My nitrate seem to creap to 5ppm a lot of time, but I heard it's best 2ppm or below.

Right now, I have a Frag of 2x2 Zoanthid, 2 frag of kenya tree, large Froqspawn with 6 head, large Sun Coral Colonies, one single polype of Bulleyes Mushroom, one large GSP, one large Button polyp colonies, one False p. Clown, 2 hermits, 3 tiny small unkown clams.

Right now I usually feed 4 flakes of Formula One, when the Sun Coral open, I feed one cube of Mysis shrimp and 1mL of Phyto... I feed every 2 days... I'm not even sure if the corals get's enough food, but it looks the same as usually...

Heres a picture of the Sun Coral, the do have some cavity before when I bought it like a year ago, and it looks the same, barely any growth, just look the same.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i293/Truelillink/My%20Corals/untitled.jpg

So guys, what do you think that creaps my Nitrate?

[spoiledcats]

What type of filtration, how often do you do water changes?

[Bebo77]

you feed every 2 days... that way to much.. maybe 2 or 3 time a week is fine.. how are your lights.. does no good to feed a coral and not light it up...

i feed reefroids and i get a great responce.. target feed your corals with pumps off for 30 -45 min....

[NanoCube-boy]

I have a sun coral that's why, so that's why I'm askng for help. Anyways, Sun Corals do eat alot though, but I'm not even sure if I over feed it or not. My lighting is a 48watts, 5050 with antic blue lighting. I only turn it one 4hours a day. Is that good enough lighting? Well I leave it more than 4hours, I tend to get a lot of algaes on my rock. NOt coraline though.

[spoiledcats]

Do you spot feed your sun coral? I feed mine with a pipette, so that it definitely gets food. Also fight off the fish with the pipette. I don't think sun corals eat phyto, so if you are dosing for that, I wouldn't bother. How about water changes? How often and how much?

[NanoCube-boy]

Well, i'm doing one gallon per 2 week of water change. Feeding... I spot feed with a turkey baster. Though, doesn't seem to work well, but at least the sun c. are eating it.

[onereefnotenuf]

try feeding the sun coral some frozen krill with a pair of tongs. one krill per polyp every 3rd or 4th day. some krill are too large so you will have to thaw a chunk to pick out the right size. the krill should help your nitrate problem because you will get much less non eaten pieces in the tank. you also might try changing water 25% every 2 weeks. I feed my gsp, zoo's, trees and shrooms cyclopeeze once a week.if you have an internal pump for circulation, leave it running when you feed but deficiently turn off any filters you have.
with only one fish in the tank I would only feed 1/2 cube of the frozen stuff every day. if the flakes are eaten quickly,keep feeding it but if it floats awhile I would stop feeding it.

[NanoCube-boy]

nice.

[RayD]

I take my sun coral out of the tank and put in a bowl of tank water. Then I pour in Brine Shrimp and sometimes some cyclopeez and start a storm of food swirling in the bowl.

The coral loves it and eats very well. I do this once a week. My sun has a bunch of new growths.

Lighting is nit a concern with Sun Corals. They are not photosynthetic. Ther prefer shaded and darker areas.

[NanoCube-boy]

i know about the lighting, of course they are not photo...

Changing 25% every two week is a lot. Don't you think. Thats up to 50% of inpurity water left. That is a lot of water change. Wouldn't that Stun growth of corals?

Check this thread I made about water changes. Maybe you can understand what I mean. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=882960

[onereefnotenuf]

most corals get nourishment from lighting/the sun. the sun coral is a rare exception. what little amount of beneficial organisms removed by water change can't offset the benefits of reducing nitrates. try it for a couple months and see how the corals do. in that amount of time you won't kill any corals and you might find an increase in growth(imo). I don't understand the 50% impurity left. let me try to explain like this. the first 25% change you leave 75% of the old water. to make it visual, let's say before any water change was made you had one pound of dirt in the water(I know impossible but stay with me, also lets not go into how much new dirt is produced as you go along). when you change 25 % the first time you remove 1/4 pound of dirt leaving 3/4. when you change 25% again, you only remove 18.75 percent of the original dirt because of the dilution from the original change. the third change takes out 14.06 percent of the original.the fourth is 10.55 percent of the original and so on. so after 4 changes you would have removed 68.36 percent of the original pound of dirt. most people think if you make 4 25% water changes you remove 100% of the original water along with it's contaminants but that isn't the case.

[NanoCube-boy]

Well, i mean, my corals look the same since months. I usually do 18percent water change before, and i barly see growth. I tried changeing 4 gallon once and my corals didn't like it. I upsetts alkalanity, calcium, and ph. It's pretty weird though.

[NanoCube-boy]

I mean 100% in a month is a lot. Don't you think?

[onereefnotenuf]

Try 25% every other week. if you need to add buffers(I use b ionic it works great) add it right after the change to keep the levels close. I use oceanic salt. it has a lot of calcium in it. my water stays pretty stable after a 25% change.

[NanoCube-boy]

wow, for a nano tank? I use Oceanic Salt too, and for buffer, I use Kent Marine Dkh Buffer. It helps a lot.

[jpmcca01]

If you are getting algae growth from your lights being on more then 4hrs then you probably have some sort of nutrient problem. Might want to check your tank for phosphates since algae will not grow if you keep your nutrients low to nonexistant. Also if you are getting a ph/alk/cal imbalance when you are doing water changes then you may not be mixing your salt correctly. (Not letting it dissolve enough, to much, or to little) Most popular salt mixes will should bring your water up to the acceptable levels for a reef tank and should not cause this. If you can post your alk/cal parameters that would be great.
Also remember that with LPS in the tank you may need to buffer cal, your last post doesnt say anything about buffering it but your salt may provide enough for the nano. Although I doubt it if you are not seeing ANY coraline algae.

My number one concern here is the statement that says leaving your lights on more then 4 hrs causes algae. Most reefers have their lights on for 2-3x this long per day, I run mine for about 10 hrs and have no algae in the tank except coraline.

[jpmcca01]

Oh btw, since your original question was about feeding your tank then here is some advice: Feed your tank only as frequent as you can keep your nutrients low to nonexistant. You could feed it every day if the tank had a way to export all the nutrients.

BUT if you dont have enough calcium in the tank, feeding your coral isnt going to help much. The coral will not grow without a way to build up its skeleton which will in turn lead to more polyps.


GOOD LUCK!

[NanoCube-boy]

Leading to more polyps? I'm sorry I don't get what you're trying to say.

[jpmcca01]

More polyps = the coral is growing. As the coral's skeleton expands it produces more polyps which make the coral colony bigger. If you do not provide calcium to a coral that has a stony skeleton, then it will not grow more. If you need more info on how sps and lps corals grow, then you may want to go read some of the articles on this, it will explain alot more then I probably can about how this happens. As I said before GOOD LUCK!

[NanoCube-boy]

I see, I see. Yes, I do keep up with my calcium, Alk, and Magnesium for better growth. So far, i seen baby polyps of Sun Coral and my button polyp are getting much larger.