Over feed for happy fish, or under feed for happy tank?

EakTheFreak

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I feed consistently. Have the following stocking list which totals 19 fish in a 131 Gallon DT with 40 Gallon Sump. I have LPS & Soft corals as well.
* Copperband Butterly
* Magnificent Foxface
* Yellow Eye Kole Tang
* Yellow Tang
* Coral Beauty
* Flame Angel
* Mandarian Goby
* 3 Blue Star Leopard Wrasses
* 3 Black Mollies
* 2 Bimaculatus Anthias
* 2 Designer Clownfish
* 2 purple filefish

Feeding schedule - Feed from 11:00 -2:00 pm window - *Large frozen chunk of LRS Reef Frenzy and 1/2 Nori Sheet on 2 clips**
Feed from 5:00-7:00 pm window - Frozen clams that were cut live and mix in fish eggs or Mysis shrimp cube plus 2nd 1/2 Nori Sheet.

I run GFO for phosphates, have refugium with Chaeto & Caulerpa. I run the Maxspect Aeraqua Duo AD600 Protein Skimmer which is a beast.

Phosphates normal in range of 0.03 - 0.08
Nitrates normally in 10-15 ppm

Do water changes once a month @ 25% & carbon dose if nitrates eclipse 15 ppm.

I suppose you could say heavy input and heavy output or filtration.
 

Koty

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How much to feed is indeed an issue. In nature, the reef is essentially a very colorful desert. Many years ago I dived with a hard-boiled egg in a bag. the second I took it out I was surrounded by hundreds of fish from all over the reef. It was scary! The message is that the fish are very very hungry in their natural habitat. Their physiology is probably tuned for that so overfeeding may be harmful in the long run. On the other hand, if your fish are young they need sufficient food in quantity and quality to support growth. The timing of giving them 2-3 min to finish whatever they are getting is safe TMO and IME from freshwater tank experience. Sometimes I don't feed the entire day and in the evening throw in a single chunk of half a mussel for them to fight on. the leftovers go to the Elegance and Cynarina. I currently have no issues with nutrients as I have a large fast-growing Cheato refuge. My nitrates are stable around 2ppm and my phosphate is undetected. Having said all that I guess I feed a lot:cool: . But I do try to have one day in the week where they get very small amounts. My fish are all young specimen and my tank is only 70 days old :
Pterapogon kauderni x 5; Halichoeres melanurus; Ptereleotris evides x 5; Amphiprion ocellaris x2; Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura; Nemateleotris magnifica x3; Genicanthus melanospilos x2

2021-03-05 18.02.41.jpg
 

Kevin_Mac

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I am curious about the timing of feeding ( same time every day or more random feeding schedule )
I feed with auto feeder at 2 pm and frozen food randomly throughout the day
not sure if this is a good plan or not, but my thinking is in the wild feeding is random
 

Treefer32

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Seems like a ‘false’ choice to me. Fish wall ALWAYS act as if they’re starving, my suggestion is to not fall for it. Feed your fish so that they maintain a healthy weight. It’s one of my pet peeves that people equate fat with healthy. If you cannot feed your fish to healthy weight because of nutrient problems keep less fish. Fortunately there are a great many ways to manage nutrient expert, thus the ‘false’ choice.
I agree with this except for Blennies. My Lawnmower blenny doesn't know when to stop eating and I don't feed him.. LOL. He is constantly eating algae off the glass as his stomach expands. . . He's my fattest fish and I don't directly feed him anything he likes....
 

Treefer32

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I have 3 large tangs. about 8 inch in diameter each. I have an 8 inch Dragon wrasse that will eat around 1-2 cubes of frozen food by himself a day... Then a wide variety of other smaller fish totaling 15 fish in a 350 gallon tank. I would say I feed on average 1 sheet of nori a day and then around 1-2 oz of home made frozen food per day. I would say 80-90% of it gets eaten and the rest is for the corals. There's a balance between keeping fish fed enough that they're healthy and not aggressive and over feeding.... That should be the goal. That balance has to be what the tank filtration can handle.... I admit I don't have this perfect yet and I've been running my 350 for 3 years.
 

beginner_reefer

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How much to feed is indeed an issue. In nature, the reef is essentially a very colorful desert. Many years ago I dived with a hard-boiled egg in a bag. the second I took it out I was surrounded by hundreds of fish from all over the reef. It was scary! The message is that the fish are very very hungry in their natural habitat. Their physiology is probably tuned for that so overfeeding may be harmful in the long run. On the other hand, if your fish are young they need sufficient food in quantity and quality to support growth. The timing of giving them 2-3 min to finish whatever they are getting is safe TMO and IME from freshwater tank experience. Sometimes I don't feed the entire day and in the evening throw in a single chunk of half a mussel for them to fight on. the leftovers go to the Elegance and Cynarina. I currently have no issues with nutrients as I have a large fast-growing Cheato refuge. My nitrates are stable around 2ppm and my phosphate is undetected. Having said all that I guess I feed a lot:cool: . But I do try to have one day in the week where they get very small amounts. My fish are all young specimen and my tank is only 70 days old :
Pterapogon kauderni x 5; Halichoeres melanurus; Ptereleotris evides x 5; Amphiprion ocellaris x2; Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura; Nemateleotris magnifica x3; Genicanthus melanospilos x2

2021-03-05 18.02.41.jpg
Completely off the subject, but when did you add your Chaeto?
 

Bitcoin Reefer

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I am looking for an answer to this question also, but in the context of... I have LOW nutrients no matter how much I feed, so I have to dose phosphate and nitrate (too many coral I suppose)

In this case, is it possible to overfeed my fish? Will they get too fat? diabetes? my Naso tang is starting to look real plump , which is great I think, since when I bought him he was very skinny, like 4 months ago.

Oh also, my fish eat everything I put pretty quickly. I feed many times a day

360g tank, 23 fish, 2-4.5" average sizes

1 Nori Sheet in morning
1ml of pellets 3 times a day, during the day
3 mysis/blended feed cubes at night
 

UtahReefer

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I have always been a fan of heavy import and heavy export.
On the money with that thought... Heavy in heavy out. I feed my fish 3 times a day, only a frozen mix dosed with vitamins and garlic. I feed my corals (SPS system) every night plus dose AF Power Elixir 24/7. Fish and corals are fat and happy. Despite all this my PO4 and NO3 remain at nearly undetectable levels. To dose / feed this much you must have great filtration, both mechanical and biological. This is an AF System, dosing their bacteria / carbon daily. In addition I have and Ultrareef Skimmer and an Algae scrubber. Both are pulling constantly so you know nutrients are always available. Wonderful to see the polyps "flying in the breeze" 24/7.
 

Treefer32

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I am looking for an answer to this question also, but in the context of... I have LOW nutrients no matter how much I feed, so I have to dose phosphate and nitrate (too many coral I suppose)

In this case, is it possible to overfeed my fish? Will they get too fat? diabetes? my Naso tang is starting to look real plump , which is great I think, since when I bought him he was very skinny, like 4 months ago.

Oh also, my fish eat everything I put pretty quickly. I feed many times a day

360g tank, 23 fish, 2-4.5" average sizes

1 Nori Sheet in morning
1ml of pellets 3 times a day, during the day
3 mysis/blended feed cubes at night
I have a 340 gallon mixed reef, with around 20 fish. 3 large tangs. The largest is around 10" In diameter. I feed 1-2 times a day with my home made frozen food that contains shrimp, scallops, and tuna, 1-2 bottles of selcon, several sheets of nori, some pellets and flake mixed in, as well as Benepets coral food. This used to raise my nitrates daily, but now my nitrates never venture above 10-13. I have problems with phosphates at times, but I've also got large fish.

I also feed 1-2 sheets of nori per day. Which the tangs devour daily.
 

Greybeard

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I'd debate the validity of the initial question. Who says 'under feed for a happy tank'? IMHO, the whole low nutrients thing has been debunked. Natural reefs are very HIGH nutrient regions of the ocean... with an equally high consumption rate. Nutrients are plentiful, but consumed rapidly by the myriad of creatures feeding there.

I'm not saying to pollute your tank with uneaten, rotting foods, but feed plenty, and often. My auto feeder dumps PE pellets 4 times a day, and I feed Rod's food, Seaweed Extreme, and any of a variety of other foods manually each day.
 

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