Feeding frequency?

[Jenz]

hi.
I have a 40gal system with 5 fish and 5 corals and a snail cleanup crew. There is also a huge vol of invertebrate life unidentified which came with the live rock.
Anyway my question is how frequently should I feed them partic as ALL my fish could double for Labradors with their insatiable appetite and desire to get my attn on walking in the room.
Fish: 2 clowns, 2 clown gobies and a Tang (nb I am aware the Tang will fast outgrow my tank; it was obtained to manage the hair algae etc until that time)
I offer food 2 - 3x daily and supplement the tank algae with algae sheets.
Also feeding corals, I feed majority of the corals e2-3d with "Reef roids"; nowI have a nocturnal Lobophyllia who's polyps only come out after dark and since its become a roost for a clown goby I've not seen it open up allowing target feeding whilst I'm awake. I'm not sure how to manage it so it doesn't starve.
Nb I do a 5-10% water change weekly, and until the last 5ds my nitrate levels 0 which the corals now seem to love but my snails hv gone into hiding.
I guess am asking from those in the know, how do you balance and manage feeding such that everyone is happy.
Thanks
Jen

 

[Frop]

hi.
I have a 40gal system with 5 fish and 5 corals and a snail cleanup crew. There is also a huge vol of invertebrate life unidentified which came with the live rock.
Anyway my question is how frequently should I feed them partic as ALL my fish could double for Labradors with their insatiable appetite and desire to get my attn on walking in the room.
Fish: 2 clowns, 2 clown gobies and a Tang (nb I am aware the Tang will fast outgrow my tank; it was obtained to manage the hair algae etc until that time)
I offer food 2 - 3x daily and supplement the tank algae with algae sheets.
Also feeding corals, I feed majority of the corals e2-3d with "Reef roids"; nowI have a nocturnal Lobophyllia who's polyps only come out after dark and since its become a roost for a clown goby I've not seen it open up allowing target feeding whilst I'm awake. I'm not sure how to manage it so it doesn't starve.
Nb I do a 5-10% water change weekly, and until the last 5ds my nitrate levels 0 which the corals now seem to love but my snails hv gone into hiding.
I guess am asking from those in the know, how do you balance and manage feeding such that everyone is happy.
Thanks
Jen

My two clowns get fed several pellets once a day. I know my oscar (freshwater) always looks hungry even after eating three fish. He will look at me and point to the surface of the water for food. Some fish just don't know when to quit I guess. They say fish are always hungry since food is scarce in the ocean.

P.s. The only time the oscar didn't look hungry was after my wife fed him 9 fish. Then he looked like he was about to die,,, but... he lived.

 

[erk]

I feed 2-3x daily with pellets. I mix the pellets I feed just for variety. I have 4 fish currently, nothing big. Every other night I feed BRS reef chili. I currently dose 4ml of vodka for ~25g of water volume. This keeps the nuisance algae at a reduced growth rate that the CUC can keep up with maintaining. I have a small amount of macro algae slowly growing.

I don't really check NO3 anymore. It can be misleading if it reads 0ppm. If you have nuisance algae growing, then your feeding isn't balanced with the consumption levels of the corals and macro algae. This is why I prefer visual cues over straight testing. If you can balance nutrient import/export, then the nuisance algae will VERY slowly fade away. Don't take this as a sign to stop feeding. Continue feeding, but explore more efficient methods of nutrient export or combine methods.

 

[Jenz]

I feed 2-3x daily with pellets. I mix the pellets I feed just for variety. I have 4 fish currently, nothing big. Every other night I feed BRS reef chili. I currently dose 4ml of vodka for ~25g of water volume. This keeps the nuisance algae at a reduced growth rate that the CUC can keep up with maintaining. I have a small amount of macro algae slowly growing.

I don't really check NO3 anymore. It can be misleading if it reads 0ppm. If you have nuisance algae growing, then your feeding isn't balanced with the consumption levels of the corals and macro algae. This is why I prefer visual cues over straight testing. If you can balance nutrient import/export, then the nuisance algae will VERY slowly fade away. Don't take this as a sign to stop feeding. Continue feeding, but explore more efficient methods of nutrient export or combine methods.

Erk thank you for bringing carbon dosing back to my attn; it was something I had read about awhile back but had completely forgot about.
Just a question, are you dosing daily?

 

[Jenz]

My two clowns get fed several pellets once a day. I know my oscar (freshwater) always looks hungry even after eating three fish. He will look at me and point to the surface of the water for food. Some fish just don't know when to quit I guess. They say fish are always hungry since food is scarce in the ocean.

P.s. The only time the oscar didn't look hungry was after my wife fed him 9 fish. Then he looked like he was about to die,,, but... he lived.

That's funny re. Oscar; am sure my girls will do something similar because although the fish associate me helping with feeding, they go nuts when they see the girls as they actually provide the food ie am already constantly have to remind them to put the food back away

 

[erk]

Erk thank you for bringing carbon dosing back to my attn; it was something I had read about awhile back but had completely forgot about.
Just a question, are you dosing daily?

Yes, I dose daily. Currently I dose by hand, but in the future I plan to dose daily using a pump and timer. I used this article from Reef Keeping Magazine. I used to dose vinegar, but when I was dosing 40ml a day, I decided that was too much. Vodka is super cheap and I only have to dose a fraction of the amount of vinegar.

A lesson I learned about carbon dosing. It is very easy to deplete the nitrate in your tank. If this happens, your corals will starve and eventually bleach out.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/

 

[FirstContact]

I feed once a day every other day. But the algae wheel and nori I put out can be picked at for hours.

 

[Roy 9121]

I feed once a day, sometimes twice if I'm home.

 

[Jenz]

Thank you all for your help :)

 

[40B Knasty]

40B, 6 fish, corals, and inverts. 40lbs LR, HOB skimmer and filter. 4x39w T5s ATI B+,C+,B+, True Actinic.
I feed 3x a day. A little pinch of flakes and a quarter of a frozen cube of brine & a quart of a bloodworm or mysis. Vita chem 2 drops only in the morning.
A pinch of flakes in the afternoon.
Same thing for night feeding that I do in the morning except the opposite of what I did for bloodworms or mysis. Less than a quart tsp of reefroids every other day.

 

[ReeferMadnessfragandco]

hi.
I have a 40gal system with 5 fish and 5 corals and a snail cleanup crew. There is also a huge vol of invertebrate life unidentified which came with the live rock.
Anyway my question is how frequently should I feed them partic as ALL my fish could double for Labradors with their insatiable appetite and desire to get my attn on walking in the room.
Fish: 2 clowns, 2 clown gobies and a Tang (nb I am aware the Tang will fast outgrow my tank; it was obtained to manage the hair algae etc until that time)
I offer food 2 - 3x daily and supplement the tank algae with algae sheets.
Also feeding corals, I feed majority of the corals e2-3d with "Reef roids"; nowI have a nocturnal Lobophyllia who's polyps only come out after dark and since its become a roost for a clown goby I've not seen it open up allowing target feeding whilst I'm awake. I'm not sure how to manage it so it doesn't starve.
Nb I do a 5-10% water change weekly, and until the last 5ds my nitrate levels 0 which the corals now seem to love but my snails hv gone into hiding.
I guess am asking from those in the know, how do you balance and manage feeding such that everyone is happy.
Thanks
Jen

Fish twice a day, coral once a week. But with scolys I like too keep them happy. So I'll feed every night / chance I get! When the feeders are out