Do I need to feed my corals?

[CEverii]

Sorry about all the questions as of late. The reef thing is still new.

Anyway, am I supposed to be feeding my corals? I'm rigging up a Kalkwasser drip system tonight. I tested my calc levels and they were good atm. Right around 400 I think.

Also, the new Hammer Coral/Frogspawn thing; should I place him in a corner somewhere? I read that they are one of the most aggressive corals you can buy . I dont want him hurting my other corals or fish.

 

[melosu58]

You`ll get plenty of answers on the feeding. I personally have never fed my corals except my orange sun polyps. Most corals get all they need from the lighting and water column. The few corals that cant like the sun polyps need to be target fed. But for all other corals I do not target feed and have never done so for twelve years now. Most of my corals are from 8-12 yrs old.

 

[CEverii]

Awesome. Thanks for the answer! Going to chop up my Hammercoral tonight and cut off the dead branches. Home it goes smoothly lol

 

[thincat]

The Jury is still out on the question of feeding. The problem with feeding is that allot of reefers get carried away and overfeed. This causes lots of algae problems. Some corals, like the "Duncan" will really reward you with lots of growth if you feed it.

 

[melosu58]

And even though I dont doubt that Derrick I believe I`ve got just as good of growth as those that feed. My corals are 4-6 times bigger then we first started. Nothing wrong with feeding though. I just want to make that clear. I just dont think you "have" to do it.

 

[Jimbo7]

This is how I have always understood it; coral can switch between carnivorous, photosynthetic, or both. If you have some acro under a big 400w or something, chances are it won't really benefit from supplemental feedings, if you have something lower in a tank, which doesn't get much PAR, it very well may benefit from something like weekly spot feedings of say Rod's coral food. These are the extremes and can be inversely applied at any point in between.
But everything above is correct, its really a personal preference. No one really knows what corals prefer/grow better under. Some people swear by feeding their deepwater corals, because that would be there main source of energy in nature, but who is to say they wouldn't prefer the 1000+ PAR of the sun in the shallows?
The long and short being, if you have adequate lighting, no they will still grow like Mike said, and outstanding even. IMO, some experimentation is the best part of the hobby.

 

[cabezon]

hmm, I never thought to feed my duncan, but after a quick google I think I will tonight just to see what happens.

 

[melosu58]

Let us know how it goes.

 

[thincat]

And even though I dont doubt that Derrick I believe I`ve got just as good of growth as those that feed. My corals are 4-6 times bigger then we first started. Nothing wrong with feeding though. I just want to make that clear. I just dont think you "have" to do it.

I agree with Mike. I just wanted to make a point that if you decide to feed, don't over do it.