Feeding a nano tank (portions and schedule questions)

katsreef

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I have a 20g with livestock as follows:
-2 clowns
-yellow watchman goby/ pistol shrimp
-blood shrimp
-turbo
-2 hermits
-2 nassarius snails
-sea urchin

I have 3 types of food: new life spectrum pellets, frozen mysis, frozen brine shrimp

Now for questions:
1. How many times a day would you feed these guys? I am currently doing one
2. On the days that I feed frozen, should I still feed pellets at some point during that same day too?
3. How much of a frozen cube should I put in my tank at once for 3 fish and clean up crew? I was thinking half but is that too much? (Using eshoppes ez feeder)
4. How often should I feed frozen? Every other day? Every 3rd day?
 

Spare time

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Twice a day is my recommendation as a starting point. Feed every day. When they stop eating, stop adding more food. Add small amounts at once
 
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katsreef

katsreef

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Twice a day is my recommendation as a starting point. Feed every day. When they stop eating, stop adding more food. Add small amounts at once
So for example, on some days I feed pellets twice, other days I feed pellets once but then frozen food as well?
 

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So for example, on some days I feed pellets twice, other days I feed pellets once but then frozen food as well?


That could work. The main thing is to make sure everything eats and to avoid leftovers. What filter does the tank have?
 

Tathamet

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I’m finding on my 13.5 it really depends on what your nutrients are like and how they’re reacting to what you’re doing. you may have to adjust to find the balance between the two.

in my case I found I’m having to feed a lot more than I was originally comfortable feeding lol. My tank looks like a blizzard when I feed and I feed once or twice a day. Usually twice a day with a pinch of dry brine/flakes and once a day with half a nickel size chunk of frozen (reef frenzy or mysis) swapping days between frozen and dry. but my nutrients still keep falling slowly even with an excess of food. I still have to dose a little nitrate and phosphates periodically (less so as things mature and balance).

Even though I’m adding an excess amount of food, the amphipods and other cleanup crew take care of the rest of the leftover food very quickly for me. I even stopped using filter floss to collect the leftovers and I’m having way less issues than I was with feeding in smaller amounts.
 
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katsreef

katsreef

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I’m finding on my 13.5 it really depends on what your nutrients are like and how they’re reacting to what you’re doing. you may have to adjust to find the balance between the two.

in my case I found I’m having to feed a lot more than I was originally comfortable feeding lol. My tank looks like a blizzard when I feed and I feed once or twice a day. Usually twice a day with a pinch of dry brine/flakes and once a day with half a nickel size chunk of frozen (reef frenzy or mysis) swapping days between frozen and dry. but my nutrients still keep falling slowly even with an excess of food. I still have to dose a little nitrate and phosphates periodically (less so as things mature and balance).

Even though I’m adding an excess amount of food, the amphipods and other cleanup crew take care of the rest of the leftover food very quickly for me. I even stopped using filter floss to collect the leftovers and I’m having way less issues than I was with feeding in smaller amounts.
Thank you for the suggestions! I'll have to keep an eye on the nitrate and phos and see how the feedings effect those two. I'll try feeding twice a day for a bit. Sometimes I see my fish going for things floating by and I feel like they may be hungry. Although maybe they are just piglets and will eat nonstop haha. My cleanup crew seems on point with taking care of the leftovers too thankfully
 

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It's a 20g aio. I'm running filter floss and chemipure


I think you can swap or rinse the floss at the end of the day to help with possible leftovers. Chemipure elite would be nice to counter phosphate issues that may arise (albeit you can make a diy one for less money).


The thing to always remember is to adjust the filtration according the the fish, rather than adjust the fish (i.e. how often they eat) according to the filtration.
 
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