So many questions about food. Let's call this a lightning round.

[Fresh2Salt95]

Okay. I'm just gonna fire off these questions because I have a ton of them, lol.

Some backstory: I've kept freshwater fish for 26 years. I just got into saltwater in the summer of 2021 and now am on my 3rd (4th counting the quarantine) tank.

Here goes so bear with me:

1. Any downside/upside to feeding only flakes/pellets or only frozen?

2. I have a flame fin Tomini tang and a Foxface rabbitfish. I have never seen them eat the algae sheets I put in.

Is it okay to feed them solely flakes and mysis/spirulina/brine shrimp cubes?

3. I have put around 70,000 copepods of varying types in my tank in the last week. But I have a high flow gyre pump and an FX6 moving the water around.

Should I be worried they won't make it to my rocks and substrate to reproduce?

4. My McCosker's Flasher Wrasse is eating my copepods, I was told this species would not eat pods.

What is the truth?

5. Does anyone know if Two Little Fishies pouch feeder is any good?

6. Does the Two Little Fishies Magnet Ring actually work well for flakes and pellets in your opinion?

7. Will my 27W IceCap UV sterilizer kill my copepods or phytoplankton?

8. Is it okay to dump a whole thing of OceanMagik into your tank at once?

9. Should I feed once, twice, or three times a day? Or once in the morning and once at night? What about mid-day feedings?

10. Is it better to turn my gyre pump off while feeding, or better for the food to get all around the tank?

Upsides/downsides to feeding in one place VS circulation feeding?

11. I recently killed all my algae with a combination of Reef Flux and Vibrant and am treating my tank with Chemiclean to kill red cyanobacteria. Are my Turbo Snails in danger of starvation?

Should I add algae wafers to the tank?

 

[J1a]

1. No, provided the pellet used are of good quality.

2. The alage sheets is not something they see in the wild. They probably need to learn how to bite off small pieces. You can try cutting for them. Or well, stick to good pellets.

3. I guess some will survive. It's good to temporary turn off the return pump and wavemaker when adding pods to DT; of course, best do it when the fishes are sleeping.

4. My Madagascar flasher also take food from the sand bed. Well. If they learn and identify the food, they will eat them.

5,6. No experience. I use a simple feeding tube.

7. Copepod unlikely, phytos maybe.

8. No experience with the product.

9. You can/should feed sufficient food to the fishes. I feed 5-6 times of pellet per day. The key is to ensure the fishes eat every single one of them.

10. Not a big issue. When the fishes are used to the feeding. The pellets won't last long at all once it hits water.

11. My bigger concern is the damaged biodiversity at this point. Imo, having food sit in the aquarium (for a long time) is not gonna help towards your algae issues.

 

[powers2001]

Hello @Fresh2Salt95 . TLF feeding products work good but I broke my feeding ring really easy. Had to buy another.

 

[Idech]

Does anyone know if Two Little Fishies pouch feeder is any good?

I just bought one and my Tang and blenny like it. Even my clowns sometimes nibble on it. It was a transition from a regular nori holder so it took about 3 days for the Tang to be 100% comfortable with it.

Should I feed once, twice, or three times a day? Or once in the morning and once at night? What about mid-day feedings?

I like feeding once in the morning, once at night and a sheet of nori in the pouch every other day.

I feed mainly frozen (spirulina and mysis, brine), as I was having too high nitrates and flakes are more messy. They get pellets once in a blue moon.

 

[fishmonkey]

Pellets and flake seem too sterile. Live worms clams and even frozen shrimp are better than pellets imo

 

[J1a]

Pellets and flake seem too sterile. Live worms clams and even frozen shrimp are better than pellets imo

True. Because of that, I flood my system with bacteria plankton daily.

Live worms and live clams are great! Frozen shrimp though, there are probably quite a bit of preservatives inside.

 

[Fresh2Salt95]

True. Because of that, I flood my system with bacteria plankton daily.

Live worms and live clams are great! Frozen shrimp though, there are probably quite a bit of preservatives inside.

By worms, what kind of worms are we talking about?

Tubifex? Bloodworms? Earthworms?

 

[J1a]

By worms, what kind of worms are we talking about?

Tubifex? Bloodworms? Earthworms?

Black worms

 

[cocoReefer]

Ive done just flakes and pellets for many years, with many tangs and a rabbitfish. With great results.
For the last few years I make my own frozen food.
Ive always fed only once in the evening. I have like 15 fish, 5 blue chromis, 5 tangs, tomato clown, gramma, blenny, and others. Never had an issue, all fat. I even skip one day a week or so.
I never use “potions” to rid any issues. Manual removal and water changes is my go to.
I never add microfauna, but if i did, i would shut off flow pumps for at least a few minutes and do it with lights out. Hope that helps.

 

[Acros]

6. They work really well in my high flow tank. I feed pellets.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Okay. I'm just gonna fire off these questions because I have a ton of them, lol.

Some backstory: I've kept freshwater fish for 26 years. I just got into saltwater in the summer of 2021 and now am on my 3rd (4th counting the quarantine) tank.

Here goes so bear with me:

1. Any downside/upside to feeding only flakes/pellets or only frozen?

2. I have a flame fin Tomini tang and a Foxface rabbitfish. I have never seen them eat the algae sheets I put in.

Is it okay to feed them solely flakes and mysis/spirulina/brine shrimp cubes?

3. I have put around 70,000 copepods of varying types in my tank in the last week. But I have a high flow gyre pump and an FX6 moving the water around.

Should I be worried they won't make it to my rocks and substrate to reproduce?

4. My McCosker's Flasher Wrasse is eating my copepods, I was told this species would not eat pods.

What is the truth?

5. Does anyone know if Two Little Fishies pouch feeder is any good?

6. Does the Two Little Fishies Magnet Ring actually work well for flakes and pellets in your opinion?

7. Will my 27W IceCap UV sterilizer kill my copepods or phytoplankton?

8. Is it okay to dump a whole thing of OceanMagik into your tank at once?

9. Should I feed once, twice, or three times a day? Or once in the morning and once at night? What about mid-day feedings?

10. Is it better to turn my gyre pump off while feeding, or better for the food to get all around the tank?

Upsides/downsides to feeding in one place VS circulation feeding?

11. I recently killed all my algae with a combination of Reef Flux and Vibrant and am treating my tank with Chemiclean to kill red cyanobacteria. Are my Turbo Snails in danger of starvation?

Should I add algae wafers to the tank?

1. Everyone is convinced their solution is correct, but it mostly comes down to dubious claims and not much evidence. I've not noticed any observable difference in any fish (health, energy, color, behavior) I kept when I was feeding only flakes vs when I added in mysis and nori. Not even a tang, which I had for several years then had to let go due to downsizing. I think a high quality flake is probably more efficient but I don't know. Some of the frozen people think their food is better for immunity (to what? how?) or has some vitamins that aren't in the flakes. On the other hand, flake diehards say frozen food creates unhealthy fatty deposits or increases waste. Maybe just feed a mix if you're on the fence.

2. That's okay. Like I said, many people claim nori is very important to their health, immune system, etc. But I think a high quality flake + normal passive grazing is going to give them most if not all of what they need... The tang above didn't like to eat nori often, it was something I could get him to eat maybe 2 or 3x a week and he would not take much. His favorite food was whatever live amphipods he could catch and after that frozen mysis.

3. Don't worry, they will survive. And they likely will come in on corals or anything else wet anyways.

4. Who told you that? Nonsense. Pretty much anything that is small enough to see a copepod and big enough to fit it in its mouth will eat them. Also, copepods come in many forms, and all the fairy/flasher wrasses are pelagic planktivores meaning they mostly eat swimming plankton. Certain types of copepods like calaonids as well as some life stages of other types of copepods are a major component of that swimming plankton.

5. I don't know, but I have other two little fishies stuff and it's generally good. I don't see how a feeder pouch could really be done poorly.

6. Probably, I just feed by hand usually but those can help if you have some more aggressive and some more shy eaters.

7. Phyto, maybe but not enough to matter. Copepods, almost surely not. The rate at which water is typically pumped through a hobbyist grade UV is not enough to kill things larger than bacteria, and even some bacteria will not be killed by it. The UV in most cases simply sterilizes them meaning they can't reproduce as much. Most of the copepods will never go through the UV and if you are running a UV to handle something like dinos or ich swimmers then the pros outweigh the cons for sure.

8. I would not. That sounds like it could either cause a bloom or a nutrient spike, maybe even both. The phyto will not survive enough to reproduce in any useful numbers in your tank, just to be honest, and all of that at once is too much for anything to eat so most will just end up in your mechanical filtration/skimmer if you have them. If you want to feed phyto you will have to culture some away from your tank and harvest it.

9. Everybody disagrees. I have fed once a day for years. The fish are healthy and the microfauna are still flourishing. Recently I am feeding more simply because I am home more, but smaller amounts per feeding. I don't think it matters so long as the fish get what they need. With some fish like anthias and chromis it's important to feed more frequently due to their metabolism and also curbing aggression issues. IMO if you have a lot of trouble lowering nitrate/phosphate in a reef you are probably overfeeding in some way.

10. Depends on how you want to feed. I like for some food to spread and feed the microfauna and inverts but I feed slowly so the fish can catch most of it. I don't turn off flow. But if you prefer to throw several cubes of frozen food in at once it can be messy with the flow on.

11. Maybe, but usually there is some algae somewhere. They will graze the green and brown films mostly anyways. Sure algae wafers are good if you don't see them eating anything and your tank is really clean.

 

[Mark Gray]

I rarely feed flakes or pellets. I do provide Nori, I buy live clams I freeze them and slice them thinly fish love them. I feed black worms and white worms, and Rods food.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

8. Is it okay to dump a whole thing of OceanMagik into your tank at once?

How large is your aquarium and what kind of tank inhabitants do you have?

 

[Fresh2Salt95]

How large is your aquarium and what kind of tank inhabitants do you have?

125 gallons. I have quite a lot of inverts, not so many fish.

My tank build page has my most current population on it.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

I wouldn't recommend putting the entire bottle in there especially since you do not have any filter feeders or coral. I would dose 30 ml daily ( on the bottle you will see we recommend 5ml per 20 gallon of tank volume daily) and the OceanMagik should last you around 2 weeks at that dosage

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

I wouldn't recommend putting the entire bottle in there especially since you do not have any filter feeders or coral. I would dose 30 ml daily ( on the bottle you will see we recommend 5ml per 20 gallon of tank volume daily) and the OceanMagik should last you around 2 weeks at that dosage

You guys rock. A lesser company may say "Dump that badboy in there and then order a new bottle" ;Joyful

 

[AlgaeBarn]

You guys rock. A lesser company may say "Dump that badboy in there and then order a new bottle" ;Joyful

Thank you for the kind words! We are here to help people set themselves up for success -Raven