Best food for corals???

Hectorg214

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I have been using reef roids for a couple of months now and really haven't noticed much growth. Just wondering what some of y'all are using to promote growth and spread.
 

andrewey

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This is one of those questions that doesn't have one single answer.

Some swear by fish poop, others by amino acids, reef roids or similar products, carbon sources, certain element additives, not putting your hands in the tank, and others by nothing at all!

I think the thing everyone can agree on is that coral grow best when their lighting, flow, and nutritional requirements are being met and their environment is stable. This is largely the solution that is least likely to be focused on for a very simple reason. It's much easier to put something into our tank as opposed to fine tuning flow, renting a par meter, testing our water, removing nuisance algae, etc.

After that, the question gets complicated as certain corals have different nutritional requirements/percentage of energy is obtained from "stuff" water column as opposed to photosynthesis.
 

Bryknicks

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What type of corals do you have? What are your nutrient levels?

I run a mixed reef and target feed my lps with coral frenzy and fuel twice a week. It made all my LPS grow rapidly and color up better. But I ran an ultra low nutrient tank when I started feeding.
 

James M

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I’ve heard nothing but good about red sea ab+ for getting corals to grow but can increase your nutrients fast.
 

footgal

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I 100% believe in feeding as follows. I made this feeding schedule myself, and have seen my growth rates triple. Not saying it’s perfect or fool proof, it just works well for me. Be forewarned, this does require a lot of dedication and a good CUC. I recommend a mix of turbo, astrea, stomatella snails along with at least 1 larger shrimp per 20 gallons (fire, peppermint, skunk, etc). This is also assuming that the corals are happy with their lighting, flow, and water perams. This will not help a coral suffering from a bad environment, but I have used it to save a lot of abused corals that needed that extra bit of TLC.

GENERAL MIXED REEF
Going a little bit overboard when feeding is crucial. You can only do this if your tanks is COMPLETELY cycled and mature, if it’s not, then you will experience one of the worst algae blooms you’ve ever seen. For this purpose, I use LRS reef frenzy foods, but any variety of frozen food should be just fine.
Fish are a big part of this, and shrimps are a must. The fish eat the ‘getaway’ particles and the shrimp eat the stuff that falls to the bottom of the tank. Without a good CUC, algae blooms will happen and the leftover food will fuel bad critters such as bristleworms Rub the cube/frozen piece in your tank until it begins to melt and great apart, at this point, remove it from the tank and place it in your palm/paper plate/easily cleanable surface. Here, pick apart the frozen food and isolate larger chunks such as scallops, shrimps, etc. Pour the remaining smaller bits into the tank with the flow on, close to the powerheads or pumps so the particles swirl around the tank. Your fish should’ve eaten and gotten full during this step, if they have not, then feed more. Hungry fish steal food from corals which is traumatic to them. As a general rule, with corals that have a clear mouth (anemones, fungia, etc) try to feed foods that are half the size of the mouth at maximum. These corals are able to physically choke to death on foods that are too large, so please take caution!

LPS/ANEMONE/EUPHYLLIA
Remember those larger chunks you isolated? Grab those back. Using your fingers or a pair of tongs (I prefer fingers because the food is less likely to get stuck) stick the food directly into the coral.
For LPS, it’s crucial to wait until feeder tentacles are extended then feed directly, if these tentacles are not extended then the coral cannot eat and the food will be wasted. This is why it’s important to allow the small particles to circulate before attempting this, the ‘smell’ of food in the water activates the feeding response. I suggest smaller, squishy things such as half mysis shrimp for LPS like acans, Favia, Blastos, and trumpet/candy canes. This method also works well for rhodactis mushrooms, please use only in low/no flow so the shroom has time to eat.
For anemones and elegance coral you’re going to want those firmer chunks such as bits of scallop. Give these directly to the tentacles of the coral, they will feed themselves. Be very careful when feeding because the tentacles are very sticky and if care is not taken, they can be ripped off and cause damage. Personally, I feed BTA anemones every day, they split and bubble better when very well fed.
For all other euphyllia (hammers, torch, frogspawn, etc) the technique differs by location in the tank. Since these are not as sticky as an anemone/elegance, they need time to eat the food properly. If the current/flow is too strong, then the food may be blown away before it has a chance to eat it. Feed softer chunks, not as soft as the LPS but not as firm as the anemones, kind of in the middle. The euphyllia will swallow these in 5 minutes or less, remove uneaten food or turn the flow back on to remove it.

SPS
I use reefroids for this purpose, about 2x weekly. They are also getting food from photosynthesis and the ‘particle’ step so please adjust as needed. Locate a 10 cc syringe without a needle, you can get these on amazon cheaply. You only need one, as they can be reused. Get yourself a container, solo cups, Tupperware, pee cups, if it holds water, it works. My recipe for a 20 gallon tank is 40 ccs of water (4 syringe fulls) mixed with a pinch of reefroids, enough to tint my water an orangeish/peachy color. Stir vigorously until incorporated then immediately suck up in the syringe. Turning off your pumps is very important here so please do that. Target feed SPS gently, hold the syringe about 2 inches away from the coral and push the plunger slowly, if looking from the side of the tank, you will see a cloud surround the coral. They only need a light coating, almost a dusting. The coral should not retract any polyps or show signs of distress, if it does, then you pushed the plunger too hard and triggered a defense response. Gentle. Leave the pumps off for
10 minutes to allow the coral time to eat.

ZOAS/PALYS/GSP/CLOVE/DAISY/GLOVE/GONIOPORA/ALVEOPORA/TOADSTOOL
Use mixing instructions above for mixing reefroids. Again, pumps are turned off. Use your syringe to broadcast feed these. Hold the syringe about 6-8 inches above the zoas and push with a little bit of force towards the zoas. They should not close or show signs of distress. Allow 10-13 minutes for the reefroids to sink into the zoas. Target feeding zoas is difficult and more often than not, leads to a defense response and the reefroids only added nutrients to your tank without providing much benefit. VERY IMPORTANT! Please remove all hermit crabs from the immediate area, they will crawl all over your coral eating the reefroids and stress them out.

SCOLY
Scolies are different and very special, they require specialized care that dedicated reefers may provide. The best time to feed is at night, however if you notice feeding tentacles extended during any part of the above steps then please feed it! I feed my scoly anywhere from 1-3x a week, and I do see a difference! Scolies enjoy larger foods, much like the anemones. Using your finger is the best method here because of their extremely sticky tentacles. Simply introduce the food to the tentacles without touching them yourself, the barest contact is enough for the coral to grab ahold of the food and begin moving it towards the oral disk. Please don’t try to force feed a scoly EVER, this is very traumatic to it, like if you were sleeping and someone tried to cram a hotdog in your mouth. The stomach will extend if the coral is given a substantial amount of food so do not panic! It’s okay.

I think this is it! The ultimate guide. If there’s a coral I missed, please let me know! I have one of just about everything so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I will post my feeding regime for that as well! Cheers!
 

vetteguy53081

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I also feed coral frenzy, reef roids and coral cuisine by hakari
 

hllb

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I will swear by Brightwell coralamino. I don’t keep acros, my zoas, LPS, and encrusting SPS all grow much faster since I’ve been using it. For example, 6 months with a 3 head trumpet, start feeding aminos daily and within 3 months it has 8 heads (though not all have completely separated yet. 6+ months with a 5 head Duncan and 3 months of aminos have yielded at least 5 new baby heads, if not more. I did not have good results with reef roids.



5B66A7A3-AFC4-4B81-B93F-4AADF24FC797.jpeg
E93D19B1-A3B2-4D8A-9BBF-9F08E97BCC2B.jpeg
 

Ms. Mermaid

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I 100% believe in feeding as follows. I made this feeding schedule myself, and have seen my growth rates triple. Not saying it’s perfect or fool proof, it just works well for me. Be forewarned, this does require a lot of dedication and a good CUC. I recommend a mix of turbo, astrea, stomatella snails along with at least 1 larger shrimp per 20 gallons (fire, peppermint, skunk, etc). This is also assuming that the corals are happy with their lighting, flow, and water perams. This will not help a coral suffering from a bad environment, but I have used it to save a lot of abused corals that needed that extra bit of TLC.

GENERAL MIXED REEF
Going a little bit overboard when feeding is crucial. You can only do this if your tanks is COMPLETELY cycled and mature, if it’s not, then you will experience one of the worst algae blooms you’ve ever seen. For this purpose, I use LRS reef frenzy foods, but any variety of frozen food should be just fine.
Fish are a big part of this, and shrimps are a must. The fish eat the ‘getaway’ particles and the shrimp eat the stuff that falls to the bottom of the tank. Without a good CUC, algae blooms will happen and the leftover food will fuel bad critters such as bristleworms Rub the cube/frozen piece in your tank until it begins to melt and great apart, at this point, remove it from the tank and place it in your palm/paper plate/easily cleanable surface. Here, pick apart the frozen food and isolate larger chunks such as scallops, shrimps, etc. Pour the remaining smaller bits into the tank with the flow on, close to the powerheads or pumps so the particles swirl around the tank. Your fish should’ve eaten and gotten full during this step, if they have not, then feed more. Hungry fish steal food from corals which is traumatic to them. As a general rule, with corals that have a clear mouth (anemones, fungia, etc) try to feed foods that are half the size of the mouth at maximum. These corals are able to physically choke to death on foods that are too large, so please take caution!

LPS/ANEMONE/EUPHYLLIA
Remember those larger chunks you isolated? Grab those back. Using your fingers or a pair of tongs (I prefer fingers because the food is less likely to get stuck) stick the food directly into the coral.
For LPS, it’s crucial to wait until feeder tentacles are extended then feed directly, if these tentacles are not extended then the coral cannot eat and the food will be wasted. This is why it’s important to allow the small particles to circulate before attempting this, the ‘smell’ of food in the water activates the feeding response. I suggest smaller, squishy things such as half mysis shrimp for LPS like acans, Favia, Blastos, and trumpet/candy canes. This method also works well for rhodactis mushrooms, please use only in low/no flow so the shroom has time to eat.
For anemones and elegance coral you’re going to want those firmer chunks such as bits of scallop. Give these directly to the tentacles of the coral, they will feed themselves. Be very careful when feeding because the tentacles are very sticky and if care is not taken, they can be ripped off and cause damage. Personally, I feed BTA anemones every day, they split and bubble better when very well fed.
For all other euphyllia (hammers, torch, frogspawn, etc) the technique differs by location in the tank. Since these are not as sticky as an anemone/elegance, they need time to eat the food properly. If the current/flow is too strong, then the food may be blown away before it has a chance to eat it. Feed softer chunks, not as soft as the LPS but not as firm as the anemones, kind of in the middle. The euphyllia will swallow these in 5 minutes or less, remove uneaten food or turn the flow back on to remove it.

SPS
I use reefroids for this purpose, about 2x weekly. They are also getting food from photosynthesis and the ‘particle’ step so please adjust as needed. Locate a 10 cc syringe without a needle, you can get these on amazon cheaply. You only need one, as they can be reused. Get yourself a container, solo cups, Tupperware, pee cups, if it holds water, it works. My recipe for a 20 gallon tank is 40 ccs of water (4 syringe fulls) mixed with a pinch of reefroids, enough to tint my water an orangeish/peachy color. Stir vigorously until incorporated then immediately suck up in the syringe. Turning off your pumps is very important here so please do that. Target feed SPS gently, hold the syringe about 2 inches away from the coral and push the plunger slowly, if looking from the side of the tank, you will see a cloud surround the coral. They only need a light coating, almost a dusting. The coral should not retract any polyps or show signs of distress, if it does, then you pushed the plunger too hard and triggered a defense response. Gentle. Leave the pumps off for
10 minutes to allow the coral time to eat.

ZOAS/PALYS/GSP/CLOVE/DAISY/GLOVE/GONIOPORA/ALVEOPORA/TOADSTOOL
Use mixing instructions above for mixing reefroids. Again, pumps are turned off. Use your syringe to broadcast feed these. Hold the syringe about 6-8 inches above the zoas and push with a little bit of force towards the zoas. They should not close or show signs of distress. Allow 10-13 minutes for the reefroids to sink into the zoas. Target feeding zoas is difficult and more often than not, leads to a defense response and the reefroids only added nutrients to your tank without providing much benefit. VERY IMPORTANT! Please remove all hermit crabs from the immediate area, they will crawl all over your coral eating the reefroids and stress them out.

SCOLY
Scolies are different and very special, they require specialized care that dedicated reefers may provide. The best time to feed is at night, however if you notice feeding tentacles extended during any part of the above steps then please feed it! I feed my scoly anywhere from 1-3x a week, and I do see a difference! Scolies enjoy larger foods, much like the anemones. Using your finger is the best method here because of their extremely sticky tentacles. Simply introduce the food to the tentacles without touching them yourself, the barest contact is enough for the coral to grab ahold of the food and begin moving it towards the oral disk. Please don’t try to force feed a scoly EVER, this is very traumatic to it, like if you were sleeping and someone tried to cram a hotdog in your mouth. The stomach will extend if the coral is given a substantial amount of food so do not panic! It’s okay.

I think this is it! The ultimate guide. If there’s a coral I missed, please let me know! I have one of just about everything so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I will post my feeding regime for that as well! Cheers!

Wow this is great information. I am following here. I can never keep SPS but I sure can grow those I think it is a Hollywood Chalice. Mine has tripled in size and I do very little in feeding my corals.
 

ELOSAmerica

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using a good Food is the key .
we did a laboratory test with the use of amino acids and plankton, which showed a real growth of zoa polyps.


ELOS SVC and ELOS Omega made without any PO4 added in your system .
 

Snoop_90

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I believe the key is mostly on finding the right flow/light/location. I have a 250g mixed reef. It definitely takes time and patience getting it down. I've struggled with some corals growing and bleaching while others have grown rapidly. For instance in the last 7 months my birds nest has tripped in size, I've had about 50+ new hairy mushrooms. Paly and zoas colonies have more than doubled. My montipora has grown the slowest and my favia, lepto and some others have bleached on me. But moving them around has helped.

I target feed my corals every Wednesday with a mix of reef roids, coral frenzy and reef chilli once week. And I'll use coralvite every Friday.
Anemones I will feed once a week either a cut up piece of shrimp or frozen food I feed my fish. I've found feeding them shrimp has worked the best for me. And just recently I started using phytoplankton
 

trido

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After 15 years in the hobby, the best coral food I've found is Benereef. You can feed until you cant afford to feed more and it wont cause cyano or algae blooms of any kind. When I first started using it I accidentally fed a whole large jar into my system over three weeks. My thought was "no way can anyone afford this food, at $60+ a month, thats outrageous". I fed my system over three months worth in three weeks with zero side effects. I rarely target feed so it was almost all broadcast into the system. My pod population exploded like I've never seen before benefitting all of my rock pickers, mandarins and wrasses included. I was able to save the life of a sun coral colony that was struggling and is still thriving. the feather dusters love it too. I could go on, but will stop there, take a look at my build thread and the proof is in the pictures that this is part of my success.
untitled (3 of 3).jpg
 

rcillig

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I’ve heard nothing but good about red sea ab+ for getting corals to grow but can increase your nutrients fast.

Ive seen some good sings from Red Seas AB+ and im in my first month of using it, a lot of corals recovered from before when I wasn't stable and are coloring up nicely.
 

clicfacil

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[QUOTE = "Snoop_90, publicación: 7671371, miembro: 111564"]
I believe the key is mostly on finding the right flow/light/location. I have a 250g mixed reef. It definitely takes time and patience getting it down. I've struggled with some corals growing and bleaching while others have grown rapidly. For instance in the last 7 months my birds nest has tripped in size, I've had about 50+ new hairy mushrooms. Paly and zoas colonies have more than doubled. My montipora has grown the slowest and my favia, lepto and some others have bleached on me. But moving them around has helped.

I target feed my corals every Wednesday with a mix of reef roids, coral frenzy and reef chilli once week. And I'll use coralvite every Friday.
Anemones I will feed once a week either a cut up piece of shrimp or frozen food I feed my fish. I've found feeding them shrimp has worked the best for me. And just recently I started using phytoplankton
[/ CITAR]
could you tell me how are you using or adding the fitoplancton
 
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