Feeding, Supplements, Coral

[amc23]

I have a 167 gallon reef tank with live rock, 7 blue green chromis, one racoon butterfly, one powder blue tang, one gold spotted rabbitfish, one flasher wrasse, a mated pair of percula clowns, pair of fire shrimp, pair of skunk cleaner shrimp, and a reef cleanup crew.

 

I have a few questions that I think would benefit many new reefers-answer any that you feel strongly about, and thanks!

 

FEEDING

1. Which of the following do you use, and what is/are the best product(s) on the market for:

A.) frozen cubes

B.) flakes

C.) pellets

D.) seaweed (for tangs/herbivores)

 

2. If I am not up to making my own mash of vitamins and fresh seafood etc, but would like to drop a treat in every now and again, what seafood is safe to buy from Whole Foods and is there any preparation besides cutting it to the right size?

 

3. Is there an automatic feeder that people are happy with for short vacations?

 

4. How much (in number of frozen cubes) would I feed 3 large fish (3-4 inches) and 10 small fish (1-1.5 inches) each day, assuming i can do a feeding at morning and at night.

 

 

SUPPLEMENTS

1. I have a doser for Kalkwasser Mix (lime water)-what else do I need for the invertebrates and eventually coral?

 

2. What are good brands to buy?

 

3. How do I dose them?

 

4. I know I need Iodine for sure, what is a good brand and how do I add it and how often?

 

CORAL

Just getting into coral and I have 2X250 metal Halide lights and 4X54 T5 lights and good water flow. Any suggestions on how to begin? My water perameters are all good (calcium just getting to 400 now and nitrates very close to 0)

 

1. What are an ideal few species with which to begin?

 

2. Do i have to decide between doing LPS or SPS or can I do both by separating aggressive LPS from the acroporas, etc?

 

3. Are most zoas and mushrooms a threat to SPS?

 

Thanks so much for all of your help, I really do appreciate it. Hopefully in a few years I can give back to some helpless rookie.

Best

Alex

[Smoothtriqueter]

First off this is just my 2cents and others will chime in with theirs. You should filter through all of it and ultimately you will fall upon what you thin is best for what YOU not anyone else is trying to accomplish. Feeding all I can say is just dont over feed, feed what they can completely eat in a few min (adjust as you go) additives will guide you on how to use them (Most are not needed at all and can be maintained through steady H2O changes) I have SPS and LPS and Shrooms, zoas, pallys..........just dont keep anems next to sps and read up on aggressiveness of all your corals and you should be fine.

 

Have fun and hope this helps some.

 

Do you have a dedicated tank thread yet? love to see some pics!

[zygote2k]

Feed a variety of foods- don't overdo it with the frozen as excess nutrients can trigger a cyanobacteria bloom.

If a short vacation is the weekend, just wait till you get back to feed them. Otherwise have someone else do it if the vacation is longer.

Feed your fish whatever they can eat in 5 mins. or less. Once a day is plenty, sometimes every other day. Many of your fish are grazers.

 

Your kalk doser is fine. I use kalk, turbo calcium, and Purple-Up to maintain my calcium, alk, and ph. You'll find a combination that's suited to your tank.

Other trace elements can be replenished with 10% weekly water changes. If you have heavy coral stocking, you'll need additional trace elements.

 

Ask your fellow WAMAS'ers to give you beginner SPS until you get the hang of it, virtually everything else is easy. Most corals emit toxins that are irritating to other corals. Allow plenty of space between species and they'll be fine.

 

Get a refugium.

Good Luck!

[Origami]

1. Which of the following do you use, and what is/are the best product(s) on the market for:

A.) frozen cubes

B.) flakes

C.) pellets

D.) seaweed (for tangs/herbivores)

 

I use mostly flake, but occasionally add frozen commercial preparations (rinse first to reduce phosphate impact), pellets, and frozen home made foods.

 

2. If I am not up to making my own mash of vitamins and fresh seafood etc, but would like to drop a treat in every now and again, what seafood is safe to buy from Whole Foods and is there any preparation besides cutting it to the right size?

 

I've not bought stuff from Whole Foods, but if it's on the counter, it's probably alright. I'll tell you, though, I was once in an Asian grocery (right next to Marine Scene as it were) and found that they had 1 pound bags of mixed seafood. It had fish, shrimp, squid, mussels, crab ... a bunch of stuff. I wound up buying a couple of bags of it and using it as the base for some home made fish food using basic recipes that can be found here and in other forums.

 

3. Is there an automatic feeder that people are happy with for short vacations?

 

I have an Eheim feeder that I picked up from BRK. I've been very happy with it whenever I've used it. I only use it if I'm going to be away for 3 or 4 days or longer. For shorter trips, I just feed a little more heavily a day or two before, and resume feeding upon my return.

 

4. How much (in number of frozen cubes) would I feed 3 large fish (3-4 inches) and 10 small fish (1-1.5 inches) each day, assuming i can do a feeding at morning and at night.

 

Look out. It's easy to overfeed. I would not feed more than the fish will consume in 3-5 minutes. If at the shorter end of this time, you might want to feed them twice an hour or more apart. This is just an opinion. Watch your water quality and algae situation - that's where overfeeding will show itself.

 

SUPPLEMENTS

1. I have a doser for Kalkwasser Mix (lime water)-what else do I need for the invertebrates and eventually coral?

 

Unless you have much in the way of corals or shell-producing organisms, you may not have much of a need to dose if you're performing regular water changes. Kalkwasser is a balanced additive. That is, it delivers a balanced amount of calcium and alkalinity (carbonate/bicarbonate) to your system. These are required for the formation of calcium carbonate skeletons in corals and other invertebrates. Measure and track your alkalinity over several weeks and you'll see whether or not your additions are in line with, fall short of, or are in excess of consumption. This will change over time as you get more in your tank. If you find yourself falling short of matching demand, alternatives include running all of your top off through a kalk stirrer, dosing two-part, and running a calcium reactor. There are other approaches less used in this country (the Balling method), too.

 

 

2. What are good brands to buy?

 

There are brands and non-brands that can give you good performance. If you want to get something prepackaged, drop dschflier a PM and see where you can pick up some of his kalk. He's a local guy just now expanding his business. There are other options that you can research.

 

3. How do I dose them?

 

You can use a create a slurry and just pour it into a high flow area every morning (I've never tried it but overheard Anthony Calfo describe this method as simple and more than adequate); you can manually dose more slowly; you can use a drip doser; you can use a peristaltic pump; or, you can dose it as part of an automatic top off system, running all your top off water through a kalk stirrer, for example. There are many ways of getting it into your system. Be careful, kalk is caustic and kalk overdoses happen. Before you start dosing kalk, make sure that you understand the risks and at least give some thought to mitigating the risk of an overdose. (An overdose is something like accidentally dumping a quart of kalk into your system over a couple of hours when you'd intended to dose that amount over months of time. This scenario is more likely when something goes awry in an automated system.)

 

4. I know I need Iodine for sure, what is a good brand and how do I add it and how often?

 

Most of us don't dose iodine at all. If you're performing regular water changes, you are in all likelihood just fine. As a general rule, if you're going to dose anything, you need to test for it.

 

CORAL

Just getting into coral and I have 2X250 metal Halide lights and 4X54 T5 lights and good water flow. Any suggestions on how to begin? My water perameters are all good (calcium just getting to 400 now and nitrates very close to 0)

 

The best advice to start with is, if you haven't already, join WAMAS as a paid member. It will be the best $20 you'll ever spend in this hobby as you'll make it up in your first buy of equipment or frags from some member.

 

The second piece of advice is read, read, read! There's a lot of science in this hobby. Get a handle on water chemistry, important parameters, and the biology of the organisms that you want to keep. Get an understanding of the equipment options that support maintaining water quality, water chemistry, temperature and lighting. Don't expect lighting and water quality maintenance to be cheap. Expensive mistakes can be made if you don't match your needs to your purchase. (It's easy to buy something that's cheap and undersized in an effort to save money, only to find that a few weeks later you're needing to upgrade the equipment.)

 

Another piece of advice is to get to know your system. If you watch it every day, you'll begin to notice the changes. Sometimes the changes are good (such as growth), sometimes you'll see things that are indicators that something is out of sorts (retracted polyps, tissue death, algal blooms, etc.). If you "listen" carefully, you're tank will "talk" to you. When I started out, I tested way too much (at least once a day) and tested about everything that I could measure. You'll find that once you're in tune with your system, you'll test far less.

 

As for lighting, both T5's and MH lighting are options. How deep is your tank? That will at least provide some indicator of whether 250's are going to be adequate (you'll also have to consider what you want to grow). Make sure that you consider heat loading your system with your lights. 4x54 T5 lighting might be a bit undersized for SPS.

 

I'll leave it at that for now. I'm sure you'll get lots of feedback on your questions.

 

Again, though, the BEST FIRST ADVICE is to join WAMAS. I'll guarantee you, it's an investment that you won't regret.

[amc23]

Awesome, thank you everybody for your quick and thoughtful responses. I will surely sign up for Wamas and add my details pronto!

Best

Alex

[Origami]

Awesome, thank you everybody for your quick and thoughtful responses. I will surely sign up for Wamas and add my details pronto!

Best

Alex

 

Alex, where are you located anyway?

[Boret]

Great post Origami2547!!!!

[Origami]

Great post Origami2547!!!!

 

Wow. Thanks. It's probably my longest, too.

[Origami]

As for lighting, both T5's and MH lighting are options. How deep is your tank? That will at least provide some indicator of whether 250's are going to be adequate (you'll also have to consider what you want to grow). Make sure that you consider heat loading your system with your lights. 4x54 T5 lighting might be a bit undersized for SPS.

 

I just realized that you (amc23) said that you already had a lighting system with 2x250W MH + 4x54W T5. I misread that as a question between one or the other. In re-reading it, it looks like you have a pretty decent light already to get started with and that SPS is definitely within your reach.

[amc23]

I'm in Rosslyn VA just across Key Bridge. Thanks for your help before, very much appreciated

Alex