Feeding corals

[Drfu]

As I'm new at corals i have been reading a lot about feeding and see their is much debate on dosing with iodine, trace elements, etc. i have added quite a few coral frags, 2 a week for the last month, more or less done and now want to see them grow & be happy. So i went to my lfs asking what i need to keep them happy and instead of selling me all the additives for everything they said to use a combination of Copepods, rotifers, phyto plankton. They are suppose to create a controlled cycle of food that will not crash my tank and keep my corals fed along with my standard weekly water changes to take care of all the trace elements, etc that my coral need.

Does this sound right as i have not seen much on the subject of all three together before? Would love some advice on feeding, i will list what i got below & a pic to help with the explanations, thanks in advance for all of your help!

Tank:
IM Nuvo 8 w/upgraded pump w/ spinstream, extra marine glo bulb on top of stock LED lighting. Ff, pce&purigen in custom caddy & live rock in stock media basket. Cuc, snails only & no fish as of yet.

Corals:
Corky finger gorgonian. Devils hand, toadstool mushroom leather, hairy orange/green mushrooms. Orange montipora digiata, birdsnest, green montipora plate SPS. Various colony polyps. White pop pop xenia. Colt tree. Various ricordia mushrooms & small rock with some polyps.

[Magickiwi]

It's what I do. I'm lucky that I can get my hands on all three and feed them slog with some powdered foods occasionally. I still dose some elements but not to the extent that some do.

[Aquattro]

I feed my fish, that's it. Don't really see any point to adding extra stuff that won't directly get to corals. And my corals do pretty good without any feeding.

[MitchM]

Drfu, if your objective is to grow corals, I would concentrate only on keeping your water clean and chemicals balanced.
You have corals from one spectrum to the other. By that, I mean that you have corals that thrive in a low sediment environment and ones that thrive in a high sediment environment. Not all corals require the same conditions.

Your devils hand is going to secrete a waxy substance that helps keep it's surface clean. That waxy substance will irritate your SPS corals.
You have corals that require high water flow and corals that require low water flow.
Your tank is not big enough to create both environments effectively.

What have you read so far on the subject of coral feeding?

[Myka]

I do not recommend feeding corals via the water column in a small tank. The reason being that it is very easy to pollute a small tank. When feeding the water column, most of the food doesn't even get to the corals - it ends up getting lodged in live rock and sand. Some corals benefit from water column feeding, but I don't suggest it in your tank. You can target feed corals by physically putting the food into the tentacles with feeding tweezers or dropping food through rigid tubing aimed at the coral, but I don't see any in your list that would benefit much from that. Corals like Open/Closed Brains, Plate Corals, Acans, Scolymia, Candy Canes, etc LOVE target feeding. Keep in mind that ANY food that goes into the system no matter what delivery method are nutrients that need to come out via skimming or water changes. It is very easy to overload a nano and end up with algae troubles.

[Drfu]

Originally Posted by MitchM

Drfu, if your objective is to grow corals, I would concentrate only on keeping your water clean and chemicals balanced.
You have corals from one spectrum to the other. By that, I mean that you have corals that thrive in a low sediment environment and ones that thrive in a high sediment environment. Not all corals require the same conditions.

Your devils hand is going to secrete a waxy substance that helps keep it's surface clean. That waxy substance will irritate your SPS corals.
You have corals that require high water flow and corals that require low water flow.
Your tank is not big enough to create both environments effectively.

What have you read so far on the subject of coral feeding?

I didnt see much in term of "sediment" when it came to coral care. I have been using liveaquaria as a guide in terms of lighting & wager flow, have my pumps placed accordingly as well as placement for lighting. Where the feeding came up is the mention of dosing of trace elements.

Good to know about the Devils hand, when i have seen it shed, twice now, i have removed the gunk from the tank but should it ve removed to a bigger tank that i have?

As for the trace elements, i was thinking that my weekly water changes should have taken care of it. I have my calcium always over 450, alk @ 200, ph is 8.0, magnesium @ 1350. I have seachems fuel if needed but have not been using it that much.

I have a larger 15 gallon column that is done its cycle and will be moving some of my corals to it, the devils hand could be one of them.

I have looking for a PAR meter from Apogge to rent but no luck so far.

[Drfu]

Originally Posted by Magickiwi

It's what I do. I'm lucky that I can get my hands on all three and feed them slog with some powdered foods occasionally. I still dose some elements but not to the extent that some do.

And do you think its beneficial?

[Drfu]

Originally Posted by Myka

I do not recommend feeding corals via the water column in a small tank. The reason being that it is very easy to pollute a small tank. When feeding the water column, most of the food doesn't even get to the corals - it ends up getting lodged in live rock and sand. Some corals benefit from water column feeding, but I don't suggest it in your tank. You can target feed corals by physically putting the food into the tentacles with feeding tweezers or dropping food through rigid tubing aimed at the coral, but I don't see any in your list that would benefit much from that. Corals like Open/Closed Brains, Plate Corals, Acans, Scolymia, Candy Canes, etc LOVE target feeding. Keep in mind that ANY food that goes into the system no matter what delivery method are nutrients that need to come out via skimming or water changes. It is very easy to overload a nano and end up with algae troubles.

Good advice, i have a tube coral that i spot feed it omega one reef formula frozen cubes once a week.

I agree that most of my corals are photosynthetic and the water column should do with whats in he oceans reef crystals.

This is where the extra feeding comes in, do the polyps need spot feeding too? This is where the mix of three might come in handy i thought?

[Drfu]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I feed my fish, that's it. Don't really see any point to adding extra stuff that won't directly get to corals. And my corals do pretty good without any feeding.

I don't think their is anything wrong with that, I'm just making sure they are all happy, i have added some others too, like a orange digi, monti plate and thought they may need more as they are listed as not being beginners corals

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Drfu

I don't think their is anything wrong with that, I'm just making sure they are all happy,

If you're polluting the water in the attempt to make them happy, it's not going to make them happy Especially if they don't actually eat any of what you dump in.