feeding corals

[abrahamavelar]

hey today i noticed that ive been doing something wrong. and i wanted to see if its bad , and if it is how bad, or is it good or neutral, what i have been doing every day i feed my fish and coral in the morning mysis shrimp with zoe, garlic, plankton, zooplex (zooplankton) and fuel. and i new i had to use fuel 3 times per week or as needed and i actually have been doing it every day. will that kill my coral or help them?????????????

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Not exactly sure what "fuel" is, but if it's some type of coral food then you probably don't need it at all. Of course the bottle will tell you that you need it, and you need it X times per week... but what well marketed product doesnt' say that!

Sounds to me like you're dumping a bunch of extra stuff in there that you don't need, which is just fouling your water.

To answer your question though... assuming it's just some type of food, and not a chemical of some sorts, adding more won't kill them directly. But it could cause your water parameters to become too nutrient rich, fueling algae, and eventually causing secondary issues with the coral.

 

[abrahamavelar]

oh ok thanks also fuel is made by aqua vitro and it suppost to be protein and vitamins and so on, this is what the web site says it is: fuel™ is a comprehensive carbohydrate, vitamin, amino acid, polyunsaturated fatty acid, and trace element

 

[melosu58]

I agree with Kurt that most likely it fouling your water. You dont need that.

 

[pat8you]

There are not very many coral the NEED extra feeding. Most of them will pull enough nutrition out of the water column and from your lights. It won't hurt you to feed them every once and a while though. You will often see better growth rates with occasional feedings. That being said, i agree with the others that you are probably feeding to much and it will send your nutrient levels to high. I would think a little extra food for your coral once a week would be fine though depending on how often you do water changes and your filtration set up.

 

[abrahamavelar]

oh ok thatnks i do pwc once a week or as needed, i also have a fluval 404 canister with a uv steralizer inline and i have a protein skimmer too

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

oh ok thanks also fuel is made by aqua vitro and it suppost to be protein and vitamins and so on, this is what the web site says it is: fuel™ is a comprehensive carbohydrate, vitamin, amino acid, polyunsaturated fatty acid, and trace element

Ahh... I take back what I said. I would NOT use more than recommended since it has "trace elements" in it. Reading up on it, it contains iodine which can be overdosed if used too much. The old "...a little is good, so more must be better..." thinking doesn't work when it comes to trace elements.

 

[abrahamavelar]

oh ok thanks alot, you guys might think that im stupid for asking this questions, but what are trace elements????? and what is the function of iodine??? or what does it do???? sorry about my stupid questions

 

[pat8you]

Not a stupid question at all. Trace elements are all the things found in natural sea water that we need to replicate in our artificial salt water like calcium, magnesium, iodine, and a bunch of others.

Iodine is uses by i'm sure a ton of ocean life in a variety of ways. The ones i know of are crustaceans like shrimp use it in the process of molting, soft corals apparently use it but i'm not sure in what way. The problem with iodine is that it is easy to over dose and can fuel algae and cause all sorts of problems if you do. The proper level of iodine is built into your salt mix. So by doing PWC's you will maintain the correct level. I would be very careful about dosing iodine unless you get some test kits and are very careful about monitoring the level. I would just skip it altogether.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Not stupid questions at all! However... I'd ask the questions before putting it in my tank!

 

[abrahamavelar]

oh ok thanks, i will be more carefull with it!!!!!!!