mossanimal
Active Member
Several weeks back I thought that I was bottomed out on nutrients (0 readings for nitrates and phosphates) in my 90 gallon tank so I started to overfeed my two clownfish. In retrospect I now know that I was feeding my GHA problem and they were taking up phosphates as soon as they were becoming available. By overfeeding I mean that I was feeding homemade frozen in the morning (whitefish and shrimp blended with nori) and flakes a few times per day. And I also started using ReefRoids once per week (direct feeding with syringe). I eventually added a sinking mysis based pellet to switch with the flakes every other feeding.
I've stopped the ReefRoid and am only feeding flakes/pellets twice a day. And my frozen every other day.
I now have 0.5 phosphates (as read by Salifert) and 10 nitrates after a 20% water change. I'm going to keep trying to get that phosphate number down... but in the meantime... how do I set up a feeding schedule that won't spike phosphates? Those sinking pellets are a pain because they sink so fast that the clownfish barely have time to get to them before they are down on the bottom. I have a Skunk cleaner shrimp but it never goes to the bottom... and I also have a Reticulated hermit crab that came along with my Gulf liverock but I have no idea what that thing eats. It's so lazy!
I filter with a protein skimmer in a sump. I have a macro fuge and a mangrove fuge but neither of them have started actively growing. My macro is Graciliaria and Caulerpa. The caulerpa was growing too fast in my display so I removed it and put in the fuge but it hasn't started growing yet.
Anyway... how should I manage my feeding to get those Phosphates down? It could be that it was just the ReefRoids and it will balance out now that I've quit using those.
I've stopped the ReefRoid and am only feeding flakes/pellets twice a day. And my frozen every other day.
I now have 0.5 phosphates (as read by Salifert) and 10 nitrates after a 20% water change. I'm going to keep trying to get that phosphate number down... but in the meantime... how do I set up a feeding schedule that won't spike phosphates? Those sinking pellets are a pain because they sink so fast that the clownfish barely have time to get to them before they are down on the bottom. I have a Skunk cleaner shrimp but it never goes to the bottom... and I also have a Reticulated hermit crab that came along with my Gulf liverock but I have no idea what that thing eats. It's so lazy!
I filter with a protein skimmer in a sump. I have a macro fuge and a mangrove fuge but neither of them have started actively growing. My macro is Graciliaria and Caulerpa. The caulerpa was growing too fast in my display so I removed it and put in the fuge but it hasn't started growing yet.
Anyway... how should I manage my feeding to get those Phosphates down? It could be that it was just the ReefRoids and it will balance out now that I've quit using those.
