"Heavy in - Heavy out". How heavy is heavy? :-)

KGV

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 9, 2021
Messages
218
Reaction score
109
Location
Belgium
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Feeding is extremely important to supply food to both corals, fish and inverts. But we don't often post how much we feed. With my current export capacity, I can only feed 8 grams of frozen (mostly mysis) and 0.5 gram of flakes/pellets per day, or my NO3 will rise. I have a 170 gallon Acropora tank with 14 fish, half of which are tangs. I have a 2-3" sandbed, skimmer, fleece and small 10 L refugium with chaeto, 10% weekly water change. The tank is 1,5 years old. I don't dose anything but kalk and 2-part.

How much can you feed without sending PO4/NO3 through the roof? How large is your tank? Somehow, I feel my export could be higher. Particularly interested in the acroholics among you. @jda @Big E @therman @TUSI @tenurepro @bubbaque @SBB Corals ?
 

J1a

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 14, 2021
Messages
666
Reaction score
945
Location
Singapore
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I would consider myself a heavy feeder, I have a 200G aquarium, feed about 3 teaspoon of coral food per day, in addition to fish food.

My (little) export is mainly thru Clarisea fleece (I'm too lazy to turn off the return pump). Other than that, nothing much. Seems that the utilisation is very good.
 
OP
OP
KGV

KGV

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 9, 2021
Messages
218
Reaction score
109
Location
Belgium
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I would consider myself a heavy feeder, I have a 200G aquarium, feed about 3 teaspoon of coral food per day, in addition to fish food.

My (little) export is mainly thru Clarisea fleece (I'm too lazy to turn off the return pump). Other than that, nothing much. Seems that the utilisation is very good.
That sounds an impressive amount of food. Is that a deep sand bed doing most of the work to get rid of N?
 

J1a

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 14, 2021
Messages
666
Reaction score
945
Location
Singapore
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
That sounds an impressive amount of food. Is that a deep sand bed doing most of the work to get rid of N?
I don't have a deep sand bed. Corals (including quite a bit of nps) and clams takes care of much nutrients for me.
 

Koh23

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
May 23, 2021
Messages
1,306
Reaction score
1,049
Location
Croatia
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Really no matter i try, cannot get no3 above 5, that is maximum......

3-4 times a day, and one time at night (lights off). This i introduced recently, so no real results, but 3-4 times a day is regular routine.

I have only 4 fish.... Yes, 4. I tuned down skimmer, increase chaeto light time, i leave filter socks until last second to prevent overflow.... 5l plastic bowl full of chaeto harvest weekly.

10% water changes monthly, no dosing, just 200ml of activated carbon in reactor.

And still nothing, 2-5 no3....salifert test.

No explanation other than my "heavy feeding" was not heavy as i think, will see what more fish will do to raise nitrates a bit, but for now.... i probably only feed fish with 20% of food, with rest i feed chaeto ;)
 
OP
OP
KGV

KGV

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 9, 2021
Messages
218
Reaction score
109
Location
Belgium
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Really no matter i try, cannot get no3 above 5, that is maximum......

3-4 times a day, and one time at night (lights off). This i introduced recently, so no real results, but 3-4 times a day is regular routine.

I have only 4 fish.... Yes, 4. I tuned down skimmer, increase chaeto light time, i leave filter socks until last second to prevent overflow.... 5l plastic bowl full of chaeto harvest weekly.

10% water changes monthly, no dosing, just 200ml of activated carbon in reactor.

And still nothing, 2-5 no3....salifert test.

No explanation other than my "heavy feeding" was not heavy as i think, will see what more fish will do to raise nitrates a bit, but for now.... i probably only feed fish with 20% of food, with rest i feed chaeto ;)
Nice. Any quantitative description of how much food you add?
 

Koh23

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
May 23, 2021
Messages
1,306
Reaction score
1,049
Location
Croatia
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Nice. Any quantitative description of how much food you add?

Cubes are 2x2x1cm for comercial food, for diy cubes are bigger, at least 3 times bigger. Also i have some diy food in block, i simply grate some, really dont know how much, probably good eating spoon of grated frozen food. Flakes or pellets once per day, small spoon....
 

tenurepro

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 17, 2017
Messages
844
Reaction score
1,308
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
On my Reefer 250, I did a cube of frozen shrimp in the morning, 3 x pellets via the autofeeder during the day, and usually a cube shrimp or some reef frenzy At the end of the day
 

Acros

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 6, 2020
Messages
2,061
Reaction score
1,882
Location
Greenville, SC
Rating - 100%
3   0   0
Tank - IM 25 lagoon (~1 year old started with live rock from the ocean).

I feed a small amount of reef nutrition tdo pelleted (one rotation of the Eheim auto feeder at the smallest setting, every morning) and 1/2 cube of mysis or brine shrimp everyday (spread across 4 small feedings). Is that heavy feeding for a nano with 4 fish, decent amount of CUC, SPS dominant?

Only filteration is filter pads changed twice a week and 20% water change once a month. Nitrates stay at 7ppm and phosphates stay around 0.03ppm.
 
OP
OP
KGV

KGV

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 9, 2021
Messages
218
Reaction score
109
Location
Belgium
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
On my Reefer 250, I did a cube of frozen shrimp in the morning, 3 x pellets via the autofeeder during the day, and usually a cube shrimp or some reef frenzy At the end of the day
And with great results! :)
 
OP
OP
KGV

KGV

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 9, 2021
Messages
218
Reaction score
109
Location
Belgium
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Tank - IM 25 lagoon (~1 year old started with live rock from the ocean).

I feed a small amount of reef nutrition tdo pelleted (one rotation of the Eheim auto feeder at the smallest setting, every morning) and 1/2 cube of mysis or brine shrimp everyday (spread across 4 small feedings). Is that heavy feeding for a nano with 4 fish, decent amount of CUC, SPS dominant?

Only filteration is filter pads changed twice a week and 20% water change once a month. Nitrates stay at 7ppm and phosphates stay around 0.03ppm.
I have no clue what "heavy" means. Hence the thread :). Thanks for sharing!
 

J1a

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 14, 2021
Messages
666
Reaction score
945
Location
Singapore
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
To make sure we are comparing apples to apples: dry food such as pellets and freeze dried phytoplankton are much more nutrition dense than frozen food. This ie because there is little moisture content in the dry food.
 
OP
OP
KGV

KGV

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 9, 2021
Messages
218
Reaction score
109
Location
Belgium
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
To make sure we are comparing apples to apples: dry food such as pellets and freeze dried phytoplankton are much more nutrition dense than frozen food. This ie because there is little moisture content in the dry food.

Correct. I even made an input budget for my feeding so I could appreciate the max possible produced NO3 given a certain amount of food. For both dry food and frozen, the mass % of protein is given on the label of these foods.


Screenshot 2022-04-28 at 16.41.41.png
 

ReefGeezer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
1,972
Reaction score
2,849
Location
Wichita, KS
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have 14 mostly medium sized, fat & happy fish in my 90. I feed at least a cube of gut loaded Brine Shrimp and a 3/4" to 1" chunk of LRS once a day during the week, sometimes I add a second chunk of Brine Shrimp or Mysis. I add a second feeding of Brine Shrimp and LRS on Saturday & Sunday. I also feed some finely diced clams and a little frozen Cyclops a couple times a week. Finally, I dose 30 ml of Red Sea Reef Energy AB+ 3 times a week.

If phosphate gets too low, I add feedings of ReefRoids and pellets.
 

ArachnoJoozt

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 1, 2021
Messages
111
Reaction score
170
Location
Purmerend, Netherlands
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I consider myself quite a heavy feeder, feeding small pellets (Aquaforest) on the auto feeder twice a day, and most of the days 3/4 cube of frozen (mostly mysis), sometimes also coral food. This on a mixed reef, about 130 liters cube, with 9 small fish. No idea about the total protein content added to the tank ;)
I try to adjust my feeding based on the weekly testing I do. Parameters up > feed less frozen and/or coral food. Parameters down > Feed more frozen and/or coral food. I tend not to mess with the auto feeder since its on the lowest setting and still dumping quite some pellets in the tank ;)

My theory is this:
Everything is interconnected, take one thing out of the equation and the system is out of whack.
For instance: my potassium was low, probably because the refugium was sucking up more than the ATI Essentials Pro was adding. As a result my low nitrates and phosphates (+/-5 and +/-0.04) started rising because the growth of the algae (and corals) was restricted. Restored the potassium and the system is doing fine again.
The system (fish/corals/cuc/bacteria) adapts to your style of feeding. When you start feeding more you will see your nitrates and phosphates rise, I think when you keep the increased feeding up, over time your system will adapt to this, more bacteria (if you have enough rock/biomedia) and cuc will develop and the nitrates and phosphates will drop to the normal levels again, or at least find a new equilibrium.
 

Ancient Mariner

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
May 31, 2021
Messages
305
Reaction score
828
Location
Atlanta
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
100 gal/380 liter display (150 gal/570 liter total) SPS dominant with 18 fish:

3 cubes of mysis (about 10 grams) and 5X7 cm sheet of nori/dry seaweed DAILY

I run skimmer 24 hrs/day with low amount of skimmate produced. No other export.

Nitrate and phosphate are ZERO.
 

Rams

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 1, 2019
Messages
1,897
Reaction score
642
Location
Edison,NJ
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
265g display.10 fish and 35 acro frags..I feed around 20-25 times frozen food to keep no3/po4 available in water.my export is skimmer/chaeto/miracle mud/siporax
 

Jedi1199

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 16, 2021
Messages
4,597
Reaction score
10,229
Location
Mecred, CA.
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I don't have an exact amount to apply here. I mix up my food weekly. Mostly frozen, with a couple good pinches of flakes and a 1/2 teaspoon of Benepets.

I put 15-20 cubes of various frozen foods in a half pint mason jar, add in some flakes and the Benepets. I feed this to my tanks once a day about 3-4 Tbs for the 55, and a fat teaspoon for the 32g.

The 55 has 15 fish, and over 100 corals. The 32 has 3 fish and about a dozen corals. The fish and corals are happy, my nutrient levels are within accepted tolerance.
 

mdb_talon

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 6, 2010
Messages
4,938
Reaction score
7,753
Location
Illinois
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
In a 250g system i feed 12-18 assorted frozen cubes(or flat pack equivelant), fish pellets and some sort of powdered coral food(1-2 teaspoons) daily along with acropower and about 1/3 liter phyto. Every couple days in addition to that i spot feed using lps pellets and mysis.

Export is cheato and oversized skimmer.
 
Back
Top