Coral foods...?

[dartfrog]

Whats the best food for the corals in a mainly soft coral aquarium? What do you feed yours?

 

[slinky]

and just tag along, do people turn off skimmer when feeding coral? and for how long? when is the best time to feed coral? morning, midday, night?

Thanks.

 

[rolo65]

BIGGQ00;506288 wrote: i feed phytochrome, zooplankton, and one other i cnt remember the name of. each plankton comes in diff sizes for consumption so make sure you find out what works best for the softies you have. as for time, the best time ideally is night when all the polyps are exteded, but you can train some corals to open at earlier times when you feed. for the skimmer i would suggest turning it off for 15 minutes, IMO after feeding so that the food can mix in well since most corals are filter feeders. hope this helps, and good luck!!!

if anyone has any other info, please feel free to add or correct me if im wrong!

+1....i also use cyclopeeze as well.....everything loves it!!!

 

[smoothie]

+1 to cyclopeeze

 

[dartfrog]

So this is what I just ordered:

Liquid Life Argent Deep Frozen Cyclop-eez
DT`s Live Marine Copepod
DT`s Premium Reef Blend Phytoplankton
Piscine Energetics Inc. PE Freshwater Mysis Shrimp
Rod`s Food Coral Blend

Some of it is for the fish too, and the copepods are to give my fuge a jumpstart...can y'all think of anything else. Oh I got some nori too...

 

[mockery]

If I could I would feed my coral in the mourning. Right before the light kicked on. If you've ever looked at your tank with a flashlight corals espically my zoas/palys and lps have long feeder tentacles.

 

[dartfrog]

what size is the phytoplankton?

Um, I don't know...My list was just a starter for things I thouht would work. Anybody know the answer to this. Is there a chart somewhere that could tell me the appropriate size food for differant size mouths of soft corals.

 

[dartfrog]

Thank's i'll try that...unfortunately my "local" shop is not too knowedgable on this type of subject. I live atleast 45 minutes from a decent LFS, and it still doesn't compare to any of the shops in the Atl. area

 

[rolo65]

Usually anything around 1 micron or less is small enough for 99% of corals we have in our tanks.....plus when you feed the fish mysis or brine or any other foods.....it'll usually get chopped up by the PH's or the fish themselves when they're having their feeding frenzy

 

[rolo65]

Pretty sure the DT's will be just fine

 

[curtis mitchell]

dt's, fuel. the rest they do also the fine parts of the frozen foods aka "the reef snow"

 

[jeffh]

Careful about feeding your tank excessively. If you don't have the system/skimmer to handle the extra nutrients, you can end up with higher nitrates and all the macro algaes that go along with them.

 

[dartfrog]

Thanks for the info. I'll keep my eye on everything.