Late Night Feeding

[PacificEastAquaculture]

We do a late night feeding daily, several hours after the light are off and the sun is down. It's quiet and peaceful and my favorite time to lurk with a little flashlight.

 

[PacificEastAquaculture]

The best time to feed many corals. We make a blend of live rotifers and phytoplankton, plus fish eggs, enriched brine shrimp, assorted pellets, etc.

 

[User1]

Have to say it looks like you really enjoy what you do. I think that is amazing. It is the small things America doesn't see like this with small business owners or risk takers. Big thumbs up to you and yours.

 

[PacificEastAquaculture]

Have to say it looks like you really enjoy what you do. I think that is amazing. It is the small things America doesn't see like this with small business owners or risk takers. Big thumbs up to you and yours.

Thank you, I appreciate your comments. I've been a marine aquarium hobbyist since 1965 and built and running Pacific East Aquaculture since 2000. I'm still passionate about this and still learning daily. Little things like lurking at night with a flashlight since bring awe. I spend hours just puttering around. I'll bag up a fish for a customer and just hold up that bag and be in amazement at the incredible colors. I am a veterinarian and board certified pathologist and the more I see and know the more God's creations fascinate me. I look at it as our responsibility to be good shepherds of animals and this is why I have traveled around the world setting up aquaculture facilities and why I do what I do every day.

https://pacificeastaquaculture.com/blogs/coral-farming-in-the-solomon-islands

 

[Leadfooted]

I was just wondering about this. Thank you for sharing. In your experience have you found that particular corals like Chalice and Favia have a better feeding response in the middle of the night?
I’m thinking they would eat faster at night since there mouths and tentacles are open and out. This would allow my “no flow” feeding period to be a shorter time frame versus the day time waiting for evening to open. What are the other benefits you’ve found feeding at night?

 

[PacificEastAquaculture]

Just after lights out--top pic, middle of night--bottom pic

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Thanks for sharing, may your business continue to be successful. The creation is beautiful

 

[PacificEastAquaculture]

Thanks for sharing, may your business continue to be successful. The creation is beautiful

Thank you, that's very kind of you!

 

[PacificEastAquaculture]

This is what I feed. A blend of ingredients. We use it at our facility and sell it at our retail outlet, sorry--we do not ship it.

Includes TDO pellets--assorted sizes--astaxanthin, assorted phytoplankton, assorted pods and rotifers including live, fish and oyster eggs, enriched brine shrimp and baby brine shrimp.

 

[PacificEastAquaculture]

Same coral--top pic during the day lights on, bottom pic night feeding.

Dealing with excess nutrients from feeding very nutrient dense food in large quantities--DIY algae screen (simple to make, very cheap, very effective), plus in the display lots of small blue leg hermits eat leftovers and scrounge for algae.

There are many variations of this type of device, it works well as in this situation where we have limited space and no area in sump for macro algae. Chaeto reactors, etc. are also effective---many variations on the same theme of using algae to reduce nutrients.

 

[PacificEastAquaculture]

This is one tank I use the DIY algae screen on (one display at our facility I sorta treat as my personal tank since I don't have any at home--but who's ever at home anyway!), 210gal mixed softies, SPS, LPS, non-photosynthetic Sun Polyps. 3 Ocean Revive Artic T-247 fixtures 10 hours all blue and 1 hour with full spectrum. Huge amount of flow--3 return lines with one on rotating Sea Swirl all with rotating flow eductors--8000gph pump on each plus MP-40, bare-bottom. Tank was revamped 6 months ago after running for 15 years--just for the heck of it because I got bored. Rock is about 25 year old Tongan with some Real Reef branch mixed in. Everything from Acros to Zoas grow well. Tank is fed twice during lights on with our blend, about 1-2ml each feeding. Middle of night feeding is about 4ml. Dosing is continuous freshwater top-off drip with kalkwasser. No other supplements used. Once weekly bottom siphon for 5 gallon water change, ESV salt. No controllers or automation, testing is manual daily salinity and alkalinity check and every so often checking of magnesium, calcium, and nitrate. Pretty much can tell how chemistry is doing by observing coral health and growth and responses to feeding. Photos in this thread are from this tank. We also have many other tanks and large coral growout systems.

Space Monkey Branching Cyphastrea

 

[PacificEastAquaculture]

Class Clown Chalice

When Planets Collide Chalice

Plating Monti Mix

Way Over the Rainbow Chalice

Patchwork Rainbow Chalice

 

[PacificEastAquaculture]

Neon Finger Leather, Purple Plating Photosynthetic Sponge, Bubble Gum Pleiastrea

Assorted Acros--no that's not cyano its coralline

 

[PacificEastAquaculture]

Its pretty basic and old school. I'm not much into the equipment side of things and am cheap when it comes to crazy bells and whistles type of gadgets. On our big coral systems the pumps and skimmers, etc are 20+years old.

 

[PacificEastAquaculture]