Coral Feeding

ggmichael · 02-02-2007, 02:06 PM

I was at my LFS today and he sold me some ChromaMax (phytoplankton) and he told me to mix it with my cyclopeze to feed the coral. I previously bought one of those handy real long feeders to spot feed the coral. Question, should I turn the pumps off for 5 minutes or so during feeding or does it matter? What do ya'll do for feeding corals? Thanks for your help! GG

ggmichael · 02-02-2007, 02:10 PM

Ok our water is running real low on KH and Calcium. We are working on that, but I asked the LFS if the reason maybe it was dropping so low was because we have added several corals and are not supplementing. I do put Cyclopeeze in every couple of days but that's it. So I asked them about a coral bath/dip and he recommended Kent Marine Iodine (which I bought). He explained how to use it after acclimation but before I put the coral in the tank. I was planning to use this with new corals but when I read the bottle of iodine it talks about actually supplementing the tank once a week with it. Do ya'll supplement reefs that have alot of corals with iodine? Any help is appreciated, thanks! GG

Tommy Gun · 02-02-2007, 03:18 PM

GG,

I am just starting to do the same things as you right now and I also bought the handy dandy extendable feeder tool and I love it! (I use it for every reason that it was not designed for) Anyways, I have been feeding phytoplankton to my brain coral (which I have no idea how to tell if it is eating or not though) and I just release a bunch of it sort of 'up wind' from it. I did the same thing with my flame scallop (but it died in a tragic rock slide accident yesterday) and it worked well.

I LOVE the Kent Marine Essential Elements and dose it once a week. It is a calcium and iodine suppliment (among a couple others like the strotium that is always recomended) and is helping out my coralline algae and I can literally see my corals perk up just after I dose it. I think it may be similar to what you have right now, if not the same thing but a different name, but I have come to the conclusion that it is great and I have stopped using purple up for now. (makes my cannister filter go crazy)

Radom · 02-02-2007, 05:52 PM

Iodine = add it once per week then cutthe dosage in 1/2 after 3 weeks if i recall. It will cloud your tank for few hr so add it in the evening.

As far as normal coral feeding goes I do not direct feed but add into the tank right by my pumps discharge nozzle so gets mixed pretty fast and leave my skimmer off for few hr (skimmer will remove it from water).