"Natural" Reef

[Guest clownfish4]

Is it possible to make a reef so natural that you don't have to feed the fish?

[Lee Stearns]

Yea, one small six line wrassse type fish might make it in about 150 gallons with lots of pod growing areas and Macro, or a strict herbivore in a macro growing large fuge, but wouldn't be much to look at. Most corals will require something other than light and the sparce spawning of pepermmint shrimp for feeding.

[michaelg]

Not feeding tanks is really an old philosophy (part of the original "berlin" method).  The concensus now is that unless you are directly pumping water from the ocean, unfiltered, or have a refugium 10X the size of your tank, then you should feed.  Simply put, it is extremely difficult to have enough live foods of all different sizes needed to keep all the animals well fed.