Your Thoughts on Coral Feeding?

[Nathan Milender]

Reef chilli seems like a good product. I think it is more useful for lps and has questionable benefit for sps. There is one component of it that floats in a somewhat annoying way and does not seem to hydrate very quickly. The fish also like it. A small jar of it seems to last a long time as it is very nutrient dense.

 

[Coralsdaily]

Reef chilli seems like a good product. I think it is more useful for lps and has questionable benefit for sps. There is one component of it that floats in a somewhat annoying way and does not seem to hydrate very quickly. The fish also like it. A small jar of it seems to last a long time as it is very nutrient dense.

the part that floats, by chance it is oil or grease in any way?

 

[Nathan Milender]

No, there is no oil or grease in this product, it is dry. It is some sort of white chunk. Sometimes the fish get from the top of the water. You don't see it every time you use it.

 

[Coralsdaily]

No, there is no oil or grease in this product, it is dry. It is some sort of white chunk. Sometimes the fish get from the top of the water. You don't see it every time you use it.

got it, I'm currently experimenting instant plankton from Nyos, the fat content is so high it actually clumps up and super hard to get it to dissolve!

 

[ichthyogeek]

got it, I'm currently experimenting instant plankton from Nyos, the fat content is so high it actually clumps up and super hard to get it to dissolve!

Are you sure it’s not that you mixed it wrong? I commented in your thread about a different way that might let it mix better.

 

[Ike]

Glad to have your input. This is not meant to be a journal entry of professional study, simply my opinion on the topic based on personal experience. Hence I made the disclaimer that everything is a personal opinion, and also stated that this is certainly a controversial topic as there are many polar opinions. Also, that's why I put here for discussion so that people with different experiences can chip in and share! Someone has to open the pandora's box right?

I appreciate you taking what I said in stride, and for starting a thread in the first place!

While I understand you feel you presented as opinion, but there are some strong opinions in there that are presented as being factual. There's a lot of misinformation floating around the ether these days and this hobby is full of it, so just presenting a counter point to some of what you said.

Have a good night, and hope all is well out west

 

[Coralsdaily]

Are you sure it’s not that you mixed it wrong? I commented in your thread about a different way that might let it mix better.

I am not sure if there is necessarily a "right" or "wrong" day to mis powders with water- long story short, I've mixed Reef Roid the exact same way and it dissolves readily into tank water with very simply agitation. If Nyos powder requires a specific trick for perper mixing, would be nice for some additional context on the box, or a quick sheet of instruction to be included. but I find the product description and instruction to be both vague and unhelpful.

 

[Coralsdaily]

I appreciate you taking what I said in stride, and for starting a thread in the first place!

While I understand you feel you presented as opinion, but there are some strong opinions in there that are presented as being factual. There's a lot of misinformation floating around the ether these days and this hobby is full of it, so just presenting a counter point to some of what you said.

Have a good night, and hope all is well out west

Always good to have different perspective in a topic. Thanks for the input.

 

[C. Eymann]

1.) You're oversimplifying and corals are not divided into two groups, nor can you accurately make the statement that "nps" corals tend to be from deeper or deep water.

2.) Many corals are highly autotrophic, and while feeding may be beneficial, direct feeding for corals is often not necessary for them to thrive. It's also very important to consider micron sizes and what the "food" is made up of. Most foods in the hobby, even many promoted to be for "SPS" corals, are too large for corals like Montipora and Acropora. Most small planktonic foods and finely ground food is still too large. This is a VERY important factor when considering what to feed what coral and requires more research than most people are willing to do.

3.) Zooxanthellae is brown or green.

4.) Corals are not humans, you can't put their needs and energy requirements in a human perspective...

5.) All that said, I'm all for feeding corals the appropriate foods. My approach has simply become broadcast feeding large amounts of flake food, some ground in my gingers. It's very scientific!

I'll stop there, but your thread is full of misrepresentations and misinformation and you're presenting yourself as some type of authority and making some very bold statements that are simply not 100% true. Please don't take this personally or as an attack in any way, I just think it's important that we not continue to perpetuate repeating some of the mistaken beliefs in this hobby.

Cheers!

I was wondering when you were going to show up.

Did you ever get a chance to read those peer reviewed studies I linked in that other thread regarding feeding?

Must have because your tone has changed a bit on the subject.

 

[adtravels]

Both examples you have are from another locale to your tank, I just wonder if it's simply due to the better water quality and lighting?

could easily be the lighting and water conditions for the acros changing. I don't think they need specific feeding per se. The montis have been in the tank from day one and have gone from almost bleached to vibrant. I think at the very least they prefer some higher nutrients given by extra feeding. The playtgyra, Favia, chalice and hammer corals i have readily eat the food. So do my Aiptasia!

 

[Ike]

I was wondering when you were going to show up.

Did you ever get a chance to read those peer reviewed studies I linked in that other thread regarding feeding?

Must have because your tone has changed a bit on the subject.

No, I haven't changed my tone, you're just seeing things that aren't there. No, I didn't read the peer reviewed articles, and you don't see to take a hint very well

 

[C. Eymann]

No, I haven't changed my tone, you're just seeing things that aren't there. No, I didn't read the peer reviewed articles, and you don't see to take a hint very well

Ah, so you don't have an interest in educating yourself via peer reviewed studies done on coral metabolism and food utilization, yet here you are making ultimatum statements based on " your experience" in threads?

All while calling another poster out for making such statements, questioning why they have authority to do so?

I see


What are your sources? credentials? because majority of what I have seen is you ranting about misinformation, pot calling the kettle black my friend.




OP, I would take the "advice" given in this thread by certain posters with a very large grain of salt.

 

[Ike]

Ah, so you don't have an interest in educating yourself via peer reviewed studies done on coral metabolism and food utilization, yet here you are making ultimatum statements based on " your experience" in threads?

All while calling another poster out for making such statements in another thread, questioning why they have authority to do so?

I see


What are your sources? credentials? because majority of what I have seen is you ranting about misinformation, pot calling the kettle black my friend.




OP, I would take the "advice" given in this thread by certain posters with a very large grain of salt.

My credentials are my tanks and my corals. Now you're just being a troll and you're not worth my time. Take care

 

[C. Eymann]

Now you're just being a troll. Take care

Nope, just calling it how it is.



See you around

 

[Ike]

Nope, just calling it how it is.



See you around

Lets hope not

 

[ichthyogeek]

I was wondering when you were going to show up.

Did you ever get a chance to read those peer reviewed studies I linked in that other thread regarding feeding?

Must have because your tone has changed a bit on the subject.

I read “peer reviewed studies”, I reply.

Can you PM me those studies? All I know is based off of observations....

 

[C. Eymann]

My credentials are my tanks and my corals. Now you're just being a troll and you're not worth my time. Take care

Lets hope not

Oooooooh Im shaking, nice ninja edit btw


Tanks and corals of some random guy on the interwebz > accredited peer reviewed studies.

 

[C. Eymann]

I read “peer reviewed studies”, I reply.

Can you PM me those studies? All I know is based off of observations....

You can see them in this thread.

SPS feeding on phytoplankton

Sounds like a good idea for an experiment. Keep a full blown sps tank healthy with no feeding or fish but dosing N an P to keep levels up. While it wasn't controlled, I tried something similar years ago after losing several fish from a power outage. It went very poorly and things didn't get...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Arabyps]

I found this video very helpful on feeding my coral. Amazing to watch the coral respond to this method.

 

[jda]

We are in the SPS section, so I am going to limit my responses to just acropora. Feeding does nothing, but it also does not seem to hurt unless you already have high residual levels of N and P. Each new food bring hope and optimism over products of the past that have become punchlines of the current reefers, but none of them seem to offer any tangible benefit in our tanks. All that Reef Roids (3 containers of it that I won in a local club auction) did was to raise my P where I had to export more of it. Acro power did nothing either. The friends that I have that grow coral the fastest and with the best color do not feed anything. These are all anecdotes, but they are as helpful as some studies of creatures in/near the ocean - my tank has filters nor I do not have access to vast varieties of live ocean zoo plankton.

The acropora can catch and consume non-matting cyanobacteria that are waterborne - they can keep nearly all of the energy in the bacteria. They catch and assimilate through their slime coat and not the polyps. The issue is that these bacteria need a lot of surface area to multiply and our filter systems keep their numbers low. Another issue is the low surface area or most acropora to be able to catch these bacteria - especially frags. Carbon dosing, ammonia and some types of amino acids can get these numbers up, but the carbon dosing and aminos have other unintended consequences, so dosing these is not for those who do not understand everything involved. This is real science and also works in tanks - a good blend of academia and real-world. Even in the ocean, this is how most acropora get any supplemental "food."

Lighting is still provides the vast majority of energy to the corals, yet I am amazed how so many stray so far away from nature, full spectrum and high intensity with edge-case reasoning, false-equivalent "studies" and just message board parroting. If people spent as much time trying to get a good spectrum and output as they did worrying about putting supplements in their tanks, nearly all would be a lot better off. This is overly simplistic, but all of the people who you see adding T5s and getting much better results have done just that, even if they did not think of it as a "food/energy" thing in this context.

Ammonia/Ammonium dosing with high quality/quantity lighting is likely the best thing that people can do if you mush supplement something. You can get the nh[3,4] from just feeding fish more.