Is 1 Gram Of Dry Fish Food Per Day Too Much?

[Dan_P]

Question : If I have a 40 gallon aquarium and add one gram of fish flakes (dry fish food) per day, would that be considered a heavy or light feeding?

From left to right, a pinch (70 mg), 0.5 g and 1 g.

How many grams of dry food per gallon do you add per day? If you feed wet food, how many grams per gallon?

Background. I am ghost feeding experimental aquaria to grow nuisance algae. I have been using the above rate which results in a nutrient depleted system, i.e., no detectable nitrate, ammonia or phosphate. I started to push the amount up to as high as 16 timed that rate, but still no detectable nutrients. i want to keep my study relevant to the hobby aquarium, hence the above question.

 

[KStatefan]

I have no Idea what I use beside my feeder runs 30 seconds three times per day with a mix of freeze dried and pellets.

 

[Tired]

You may want to post some pictures of what that looks like, since most people don't weigh their food.

Also, 1 gram of food that's all eaten by fish will have a different impact on the tank, as far as I know, than 1 gram rotting.

You're probably better off simply dosing nitrate and phosphate directly.

 

[Miami Reef]

1 gram of dry food in a 40 gallon seems insignificant to me.

I have sodium phosphate, sodium nitrate, and ammonium chloride. Would you like me to send you some for your experiment?

 

[Dan_P]

1 gram of dry food in a 40 gallon seems insignificant to me.

I have sodium phosphate, sodium nitrate, and ammonium chloride. Would you like me to send you some for your experiment?

Thanks for the offer. I have a supply of those reagents

I agree 1 g in a 40 gallon system seems tiny.

 

[twentyleagues]

I'd assume with your post count and the idea behind this you'd have covered the question i'm about to ask and points ill try to "make" but you know..... assume.
Is the tank cycled?
It takes time for the food to break down and get turned in to the stuff you are looking for.
How long has the tank been running?
I'd guess not but water changes?
Seems the better way would be to add the nitrate and phosphate directly like others have said but that may not be what you are after.

 

[rhitee93]

I'm a little surprised that folks feel 1g of flake food is insignificant to a 40gal tank. Makes me wonder if I'm underfeeding my fish.

As a visual exercise, this is 1g of flake food that I just measured out. (Well, it is 1.05g, but I wasn't being too picky with the lab scale) Is this really a small amount of food? I'm not being snarky, just trying to learn.

 

[Dburr1014]

Well, I had to pull a quarter from my pocket and imagine I'm feeding my 75.

That looks like 2 of 4 feedings per day in my tank.
I would say for a 40g it looks like a daily serving of food.

 

[fish farmer]

A couple of years ago when I had rid my DT of GHA and my chaeto growth had stalled. I started feeding a full cube of Formula One or similar to a 29 gallon tank with three fish and moderate coral load. Had a hard time getting any numbers on my nitrate and phosphate kits. I added a tiny amount of reef roids and that shot up the nitrates.

Currently doing similar feeding one cube every couple days, pinch of pellets on alternate days, nitrates are registering under 5 ppm and when I measure phos it is under 0.1 ppm.

I do have in tank GHA, but no chaeto in the fudge currently.

 

[twentyleagues]

A couple of years ago when I had rid my DT of GHA and my chaeto growth had stalled. I started feeding a full cube of Formula One or similar to a 29 gallon tank with three fish and moderate coral load. Had a hard time getting any numbers on my nitrate and phosphate kits. I added a tiny amount of reef roids and that shot up the nitrates.

Currently doing similar feeding one cube every couple days, pinch of pellets on alternate days, nitrates are registering under 5 ppm and when I measure phos it is under 0.1 ppm.

I do have in tank GHA, but no chaeto in the fudge currently.

I noticed every time I feed reefroids my phosphates shoot up. Nitrates have been steady 10-15 since tank set up.

 

[fish farmer]

I noticed every time I feed reefroids my phosphates shoot up. Nitrates have been steady 10-15 since tank set up.

I know based on what everyone says, phos will jump. I use salifert kit for N and a hanna LR for phos. It was a significant jump from 5 to 20 ppm over a couple of weeks of adding reef roids with no other changes. I actually wanted it to bump my phos at the time, I think my tank might have utilizing the phosphates quicker.

 

[twentyleagues]

I know based on what everyone says, phos will jump. I use salifert kit for N and a hanna LR for phos. It was a significant jump from 5 to 20 ppm over a couple of weeks of adding reef roids with no other changes. I actually wanted it to bump my phos at the time, I think my tank might have utilizing the phosphates quicker.

not sure if this matters I used all cycled rocks and media so all live. Maybe my rock already has all the po4 it can handle and yours still absorbs some? I dont know seems like a lot has changed in the 12-13 years I was gone but chemistry shouldnt have lol.

 

[exnisstech]

I feed frozen with a few drops of selcon and vitachem added and a few times a week stir in some reef roids. I pretty much just flood the tank so it looks like a snow storm. I feed that 3 times a day and give pellets in between for snack to fish that beg.
To be honest tho I have no idea the amount of food I'm adding. I never really thought I needed to know. Keep the fish fed and healthy and hopefully they live long lives. I guess if I were having problems with water quality I may pay more attention but I really don't have those problems in any of my tanks.

 

[Dan_P]

I'd assume with your post count and the idea behind this you'd have covered the question i'm about to ask and points ill try to "make" but you know..... assume.
Is the tank cycled?
It takes time for the food to break down and get turned in to the stuff you are looking for.
How long has the tank been running?
I'd guess not but water changes?
Seems the better way would be to add the nitrate and phosphate directly like others have said but that may not be what you are after.

Some background. I am running a study with multiple small, 0.2 L aquaria. These systems are either started with live sand or inoculated with aquarium water. Sometimes, they are started with dead sand that has been treated with BioSpira to establish a community of nitrifying bacteria. They are fed daily with fish flakes, some with ammonium chloride and sodium phosphate. They all get a weekly water change of 25% or 100%. So far these little aquaria have grown nuisance algae but have failed to accumulate nitrate or phosphate. Something about these model aquaria is not right or how they are fed is “off”.

As a start to figuring out why these systems don’t accumulate nitrate, I wanted to establish that they are being fed approximately like real aquaria. I agree there will be a difference between rotting food and bacteria digestion of fish poo and ammonia, but come on, how hard can it be to generate nitrate?

 

[Koleswrath]

Following with great interest! My 9 gallon system doesn't accumulate Nitrate either and I am stumped as to where it's going.

I think 1 gram is a realistic amount of dry food to feed a 40. My scale doesn't have the resolution to allow me to weigh my food but I've weighed out a gram of pellets and its a quite a lot.

 

[Dan_P]

I'm a little surprised that folks feel 1g of flake food is insignificant to a 40gal tank. Makes me wonder if I'm underfeeding my fish.

As a visual exercise, this is 1g of flake food that I just measured out. (Well, it is 1.05g, but I wasn't being too picky with the lab scale) Is this really a small amount of food? I'm not being snarky, just trying to learn.

Thanks. Like the aluminum dish.

 

[Dan_P]

I feed frozen with a few drops of selcon and vitachem added and a few times a week stir in some reef roids. I pretty much just flood the tank so it looks like a snow storm. I feed that 3 times a day and give pellets in between for snack to fish that beg.
To be honest tho I have no idea the amount of food I'm adding. I never really thought I needed to know. Keep the fish fed and healthy and hopefully they live long lives. I guess if I were having problems with water quality I may pay more attention but I really don't have those problems in any of my tanks.

I feed the fish until they don’t go nuts when I add food. That little bit of slowing down is my cue to come back later with. The question about food amount is in support of an experiment.

 

[Dan_P]

Well, I had to pull a quarter from my pocket and imagine I'm feeding my 75.

That looks like 2 of 4 feedings per day in my tank.
I would say for a 40g it looks like a daily serving of food.

Great thanks!

 

[Miami Reef]

After seeing the picture of how much a gram of flakes is, I change my mind: that looks like a lot of food in a 40 gallon. I have no idea why you aren’t registering nutrients with 1g of food per day.

Is the food decomposing at all?

 

[Miami Reef]

If you are using a skimmer: is it possible it’s removing whole pieces of the flakes, which would theoretically filter all the nutrients that the flakes would release?