What are U feeding your SPS's?

[andestang]

Seeing I might be starting over with SPS's I thought I would ask what everyone is feeding their SPS's. I might give that reefresh from polyp lab a try. I have been just using Kent Phytomax for a couple of Acro's & birdsnest that I have left. Any input appreciated.
cheers,

[digital-audiophile]

I was using dt's oyster eggs/phyto/cyclopeeze but now I am using reefroids.. the corals really like the reefroids.

[OCDP]

I feed mine roids as well, stuff like cyclopeeze is far too big for SPS... roids on the other hand, well.. they're micro sized.

[Bob I]

I have never fed my corals diddly squat:mrgreen::mrgreen:

[OCDP]

I don't think that answers the question Bob :razz:

[Willow]

I don't think that answers the question Bob :razz:

i think it says volumes on how bob takes care of his tank.

[G1GY]

I don't think that answers the question Bob :razz:

What this say's is that corals can live with the food that is available.(Without adding anything.)

While Bob's corals may not be growing like weeds, they're not shrivelling up and dying either.

[christyf5]

Mine get the detritus that kicks up when I accidentally bump a powerhead off its moorings :razz:

[OCDP]

Oops, I should have rephrased my post perhaps, I didn't mean to come off as rude by any means.. I apologize if I did

[Gools]

2-400w 20K, 2- 175w 10K, and 4 - 54w T5's

[Aquattro]

If I feed my SPS, I use cyclop-eeze.Most of my SPS have been seen consuming it, although I went years without feeding them at all, and they grew like weeds. I do not think additional feeding is required. If you want to though, use cyclop-eeze, newly hatched BBS, or my favorite, a regularly spawning pair of cleaner shrimp!!

[j83]

Aren't reef roids meant more for zoas and lps etc. I didn't think it was meant for SPS.

[Snappy]

I feed mine on a rotational basis a variety of Phytoplanktons, also reef-roids, cyclopeze, "combo-vital", and oyster eggs. I often mix up a batch of the works and store it in the fridge and give them a little squirt of that. I generally feed every second night or so.

[StirCrazy]

LIGHT, is what I feed my SPS. everyonce and a while I jump on the fad bandwagon and try some food, but I have neever seen it make a difference.

Steve

[vanreefer]

Light Ca and ALK... occationally cyclopeze, rotifers etc

[Snappy]

If sps only need to feed on light, why do they ( acro's for example) extend their polyps when the lights are out? I just assumed they were feeding. Why do some of the other sps (mycedium (spelling?) for example) send out sweepers? Is it only to attack other corals? I thought they are trying to feed as well.
I have experimented with feeding and not feeding and it seems my coral's get brighter, look healthier and grow faster when I feed. Is it my imagination? Please tell me if I am wrong. If I am wrong I'll not bother feeding them and start saving some loot.

[StirCrazy]

If sps only need to feed on light, why do they ( acro's for example) extend their polyps when the lights are out? I just assumed they were feeding. Why do some of the other sps (mycedium (spelling?) for example) send out sweepers? Is it only to attack other corals? I thought they are trying to feed as well.
I have experimented with feeding and not feeding and it seems my coral's get brighter, look healthier and grow faster when I feed. Is it my imagination? Please tell me if I am wrong. If I am wrong I'll not bother feeding them and start saving some loot.

Mine extend theres during the day and retract them at night so who knows.. maybe your not giving them enuf light:wink:

anyways they will also eat bacteria and such they can get from the water column so maybe thats why they are out.

Steve

[Psyire]

They can and will survive on light alone. (if it's bright enough)

However in the wild they actually recieve more energy from 'eating' than from light.

[andestang]

I am surprised from the overall consensus.:eek: I was was like Greg (Snappy) and was feeding mine or so I thought. So money wasted by the sounds of it.

[McNasty]

I started feeding reef-roids and have noticed a huge difference from not feeding, my corals were healthy and bright before in two weeks since i started reef-roids the colors are brighter and the corals in general seem even healther .

I have used cyclopeze to feed my smaller fish, clown ect love it but never noticed any feeding reponse from corals like i do with roids.

[albert_dao]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't there been controlled experiments AND research to back up the importance of feeding corals? I'm pretty sure there have been.

[StirCrazy]

They can and will survive on light alone. (if it's bright enough)

However in the wild they actually recieve more energy from 'eating' than from light.

thats a pretty blanket statment.. I think something like depending on the depth and there location they may get more from eating than from light.

there are actualy several tests done in different areas and a few have showen that some SPS domanant areas actualy have very low nutreant levels in the water. So I would say thoes ones are getting more from the light.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't there been controlled experiments AND research to back up the importance of feeding corals? I'm pretty sure there have been.

Only ones by coral food manufacturers :wink: Most seam to use selective species for the test to inorder to get the results they want.

Steve

[Snappy]

Only ones by coral food manufacturers :wink: Most seam to use selective species for the test to inorder to get the results they want.

Steve
I find this discussion quite interesting so I was hoping to see something on the link attached to your signature but when I click it a window pops up that doesn't open. I would love to see some pictures of your sps and if you have any that show the growth rates it would be a nice touch.:smile:

[albert_dao]

I'm gonna whip out the Coral magazine when I get a chance (when I remember to at work) and pull out the girl's name. She did a lot of research on phytoplankton and corals though. Hell, if it merits it, I'll pull some borderline copyright infringement and patch together a quick knockoff edit of the article.

[HimSelf]

I feed my SPS and LPS liquid life coral food and have noticed brighter colors and better extension of polyps. Feeding makes a big difference in my tank since my lighting is not up to par. The only problem I run in to is the alge bloom I get when I feed liquid life.

I look at feeding with a very simple mind. If the corals don’t need it then why do they eat it? The nutrients must be doing some thing! Just like when I walk down the street I can’t tell the difference if that person is taking Omega 3 or not but for that person whom is taking Omega 3 they might be feeling better inside. Some times positive effects are not always visible to the eye.

[Quagmire]

Here's an interesting view on the subjuct from Borneman.The 3rd post from the bottom.
http://www.marinedepot.com/FORUMS/Topic20086-9-2.aspx

[StirCrazy]

Here's an interesting view on the subjuct from Borneman.The 3rd post from the bottom.
http://www.marinedepot.com/FORUMS/Topic20086-9-2.aspx

you missed his first post on the first page a couple interesting statments.

"1. relatively few rigorous gut analyses of coral species have been done.
2. Stony corals are almost exclusively carnivores, despite some evidence that a few have been noted to either take up or ingest phytoplankton (notably Acropora and Goniopora). However, these may have been later ejected as a pellet or not utilized. To my knowledge, no one has done radioacive tracer studies to label phyoplankton for incorporation into scleractinain biomass."

Just goes to show how little research has actually been done on eating habits of SPS, or even corals in general.



Snappy, I have my website on a server that is down, even if it wasn't all it is, is a work in progress, one day maybe I will finish it, and one day I might even start making things again.. until then I have a few things to finish building for a guy in town and a few for myself then my page might get finished.

Steve

[Bill]

I just keep calcium and alk high, good light (250W MH), feed the fish regularly, once a week I use a small pump to blow the detritus from the rocks. I sometimes feed the Marc Weiss Combi Vital. Some of the sps seem to injest it but I don't know if it's actually digested.

[Snappy]

I just keep calcium and alk high, good light (250W MH), feed the fish regularly, once a week I use a small pump to blow the detritus from the rocks. I sometimes feed the Marc Weiss Combi Vital. Some of the sps seem to injest it but I don't know if it's actually digested.
I use that product as well as other items I mentioned in a previous post.
Here is an interesting thread on the same topic.
http://www.aquariumpros.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=18337

[albert_dao]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-03/cj/index.php

As far as food goes, corals with small polyps eat, and there is no question about that. To reach the conclusion that feeding these corals is not important requires a reversion to the time before C.M. Yonge's studies in the 1930's on the Great Barrier Reef (or earlier), as well as complete ignorance of the past 75 years' worth of research. While it is true that some of these corals eat more than others, the species that are least reliant on food are not those that hobbyists believe are. In particular, study after study after study has found that corals such as Acropora are highly efficient predators, and that they eat large amounts of prey including a lot of zooplankton and particulate material every night in nature (Anthony, 1999; Anthony, 2000; Bongiorni et al., 2003; Bythell, 1988). Corals such as Porites cylindrica tend not to eat quite as much food as most corals, but they are the exception and not the rule (Anthony and Fabricius, 2000). They have merely circumvented the need for large amounts of food and can subsist on very little. Just to put some numbers on things, as aquarists tend to resist tooth and nail the idea that these corals eat things and need to be fed, Bythell (1988) found that Acropora palmata (the ultimate "SPS" coral) gets 70% of the nitrogen it needs for health, growth and reproduction from eating things such as zooplankton and particulates. These corals have to eat to be healthy! A recent study by Ferrier-Pages, et al. (2003) that was later confirmed by further testing found that corals that are fed grow their skeleton 30-75% faster, grow tissue 2-8 times faster, have more protein, have more chlorophyll and are in every way healthier and doing the things we want them to do faster than those that are not fed. Conversely, corals that are not fed suffer a precipitous drop in the amount of protein in their tissue and in their chlorophyll a concentration (Shick et al., 2005). A study by Sebens, et al. (1996) examined the differences in prey capture between two corals (Montastraea cavernosa and Madracis mirabilis). The Montastraea (relatively larger polyps) is known to catch a lot of food and to be very heterotrophic. The surprise is that the same sized colony of the Madracis (relatively smaller polyps) in a flume caught and ate 36 times as much food in the same span of time! Hmmm, seems to me like they need to be fed. Please do not take this information to mean that corals with small polyps need more food than corals with large polyps (let's not overcompensate now!), or you'll be missing the whole point. My intention is to illustrate that different species of corals show different food preferences, and that these preferences are not based on polyp size but rather on differences in each species' niches. It must also be noted, however, that a single species of coral can and will adapt to higher rates of heterotrophy or autotrophy depending on the conditions in which it grows (Anthony, 2000; Anthony and Fabricius, 2000). Corals often thought of as requiring bright light and little food can, and do, adapt in nature to conditions of low light with high food availability all the time.

[StirCrazy]

thats nice, but who is the author and who are the authors he is referring to?? we have a study by one of the foremost marine biologist saying that it has been found that SPS do not eat algae and now this one going on old studies says it eats algae... who knows.. as for that article I would not take any of it at face value with out being able to read the actual studies.

the problem with this is two people can take a group of the same studies and come to two totally opposite conclusions by there interpretation of the data. This has been repeated several times by names I won't mention.

so while it is good reading it doesn't have the info needed to make an informed decision in it.

I know from the 5 or 6 times I have tried feeding, I did not get an increase in growth, or color, or anything. each time I fed for two months so in that time frame I would have hoped to notice something.

Now I do agree that you do not need nutrient void water as I also believe that my over feeding of the fish does contribute to some of the corals nutrients, but with a highly over skimmed tank you can over feed and strip out the excess before it breaks down and becomes a problem.

Steve

[albert_dao]

I've just always taken the feeding responses as a sign of feeding. And hell, if they're going to eat it, I'm going to feed it. That said, I don't see the harm in feeding provided you're running a stable tank.

[StirCrazy]

I've just always taken the feeding responses as a sign of feeding. And hell, if they're going to eat it, I'm going to feed it. That said, I don't see the harm in feeding provided you're running a stable tank.

hehe, yup, and I have seen other tank where they catch the food at least.. I have just never been able to see it in mine :mrgreen: Mind you any Tang I seam to get is allergic to algae also :lol:

Steve