Coral Food

[sagent3000]

i was looking a some recipes for my corals and ran across this one, you guys tell me what you think

6 fresh mussels
6 fresh clams
6 fresh oysters
3 whole shrimp (fresh or frozen)
1/2 package frozen sea urchins (aquarium pack)
1/2 package frozen fish roe (aquarium pack)
4 oz. decapsulated Artemia nauplii
1/4 cup of red, green and brown seaweeds after soaking
1 tbsp Liquid vitamins (Selco, or other vitamin/amino acid supplements)

 

[jessezm]

It's close to the one I use, and I get great results. It doesn't use urchins, artemia, or roe, and the aminos are left out but dosed separately before feeding the rest. The other difference is 2 tbsp of sugar in the recipe I use ("pappone" if you want to do a search). The sugar is an added carbon source to feed bacteria which help control nitrates and phosphates as long as you have a good skimmer.

I dose at night with the skimmer off for a while.

 

[ericmcj31]

what so you just blend them and freeze?? Or what?

 

[jessezm]

use all live/fresh ingredients, add a cup or two of RO water, blend for 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes, blend five minutes, let stand 5 minutes, and blend for 5 more minutes. It's critical that you 1) don't let the mix overheat and cook the ingredients, and 2) get down to the right particle size. Blending so much is thought also to break up the chains of proteins making amino acids more readily avaiable to the corals.

Freeze immediately in cube trays or flats in ziplock bags. Thaw in tank water at night and feed after dosing some sort of amino acids.

At least that's pretty much what I do...

 

[gwhiz]

I use a similar mix Sagent--no artemia, roe, or urchins--but some additional ingredients, including high quality flake food & frozen reef food. I blend it for a few minutes, then remove half and blend it again. That way I leave some larger pieces for the finned critters.

I alternate this with frozen brine shrimp, mysis, etc. I leave the skimmer and return pumps off for an hour or so after feeding this.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

I use a simular food source that I make. I use fresh fish (What evre is cheap and contains no additives, usually Mahi or Talipia), shrimp, clam, oyster, octopus (sometimes), To that I add selcon, garlic, reef plus, nori, Prime reef flake, reef chili, and what every else I have laying around that I would not normally feed. I try not to add H2O to the mixture, instead I think with DTs of some other type of phyto. You do not want it to have tto much moisture IMHO because it freezes too hard. I make about 2 gallon bag sizes, layed flat and about 1/4" thick. To one half batch I might add some medications for QT tanks in the future. I have been feeding this way for about a year and love the results. Everyone in my tank gets a chice of what they want to eat. It is a pretty well balanced meal for them. I have never added sugar to the mix, I know people who have, I just have never liked the idea myself.

 

[ericmcj31]

Brandon,

Do you add it when the lights are out too??And how often?

 

[xyzpdq0121]

I add it about 1 hour to 30 min before lights out.... SOmetimes, I will add it at lights out to feed my mysid colony in my sumps/fuges. Right now, i only feed it about once a week because I have been slacking over the holidays. Normally I feel normal prime reef or formula two one day and my mixture the next and every once in a while I skip a day of feeding all together. For my 55 gal (about 90 gallon total water vol) I just break off a 1" chunck and drip it in a shot glass of tank water do dethaw it. then just pour it right in.

Three things I have learned:
Make your feezer pasck about 1/4" thick because it is easier to break
Use as little liquid as you can to make it easier to break.
And when using "leftovers" from other types of food to make your mixture, make sure they do not have any gel binders in there. I used some old gel food I had and now the stuff is hard to break up!


Then next mixture I make will contain PR Mysis in it and a batch (two gallon bags filled 1/4" thick lasts my tank about 5 months.