Feeding Corals

[tg062468]

I am still getting into having coral, so I have a question about feeding coral. I currently have an open brain coral, a Frogspawn and a small frag of zoos. (I am trying to unbleach the zoos right now due to bad lighting when I first got my aquarium)

So, my question is this, Do I have to do anything special to feed these guys, or will the food that I feed my fish sustain them. I am currently feeding my fish frozen cubed food that includes mysis, brine and krill. I have some Marine One ffod, but I don't like it because of the gel that holds it together. For me it's a pain during feeding time because it clumps up and sits at the bottom of my tank.

If I di feed them, do I just need to use a dropper or baster?

on a differnet subject, if I want to add some new live sand, how would I do that without stirring up the bacteria at the bottom of the tank?

Thanks for all of the help.

Trent

 

[mr_X]

you don't have to do anything special. they get all they need from the lighting.
if you want to feed the brain, when the lights go off and it's tentacles come out just reach in and drop a few pieces of food on the tentacles.
if you start enjoying feeding it, and want to do it more efficiently, i find a feeding syringe works much better than a turkey baster.
something like this:

you can google "syringe" and find all sorts of online vendors.

buy dry aragonite sand and just pour it on top (after rinsing thoroughly). it will become live on it's own and not cause any spike.

 

[tg062468]

Thanks Mr. X. I haven't seen it with it's tentacles out yet. That may be because I leave my lights off during the day and on at night, when I am home, so I can see the tank. I will try and keep an eye on it and see if i can see it open.

Trent

 

[Fishguy2727]

Try to figure out what type of 'open brain' you have, that could refer to many different genera of corals.

I would feed LPS (the brain and frogspawn) pellets. I would hand feed mine NLS Thera+A 3mm pellets and they would gobble them up. Even with the lights on they were more than happy to open up their feeding tentacles any time anything hit the water.

 

[melosu58]

I have had my Reef for almost 13 yrs now and I have never fed my reef. They get all they need from the lighting and water column. I`ve had some good growth.

 

[rush]

Yes I would hand feed them LPS pellets, or once you have the pellets in the water just crush them up with you finger tips so the powder hits there tentacles. You can also buy cyclops-eese. I feed my tank one pinch of cyclops-eese once a week and once with pellets. Then anything else that eats shrimp i feed them twice a week.

 

[Fishguy2727]

Every tank is different. One tank that has a lot of fish and is fed a certain food may not need any food specifically fed for or to the corals. Other tanks will definitely need it, or certain corals will do better with spot feeding. It can depend a lot on the fish (type, size, and number), corals (types and numbers), tank size, food being fed to the fish, etc. There are many factors that will determine the need (or lack thereof) for coral foods.

Try different things, including stopping those things. See what happens. If you feed pellets to your LPS and they seem to grow a little faster, or be a little more robust, keep feeding it. If you start feeding them, then stop, and don't see a difference, then that food wasn't making a significant difference. You can try this with different foods, feeding methods, etc. until you find what works best for your tank. Remember that more nutrients in to the system means more nutrients to for algae.

 

[rush]

very well said fishguy2727