Feeding advice and water quality

[FB]

2 Clownfish
1 BTA
1 Peppermint Shrimp
5 Turbo Snails
8 Blue leg hermit crabs.

30 gallon
30 lbs LR
1 Maxi Jet 400
1 Maxi Jet 600
1 Fluval 200 Canister Filter (just filter pad nothing else)
Temp 80
Salinity 1.024
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ammonia 0
Phosphate 0.25 (0 two weeks ago)
Calcium 360 (Went down when the phosphates went up. Are these linked)
KH 210

I woke up one morning and had an explosion of hair algae (Since then the cyano has come back). I'm assuming it's the phosphates that are fueling the fire. The only thing that had changed was the amount of food I had been using trying to feed my new BTA. I've been feeding the tank frozen brine shrimp. Nothing else. I did a test on the frozen food and found that it is loaded with phosphates. I would like to find a food that does not contain as much phosphates.

I have also been doing some reading and I now know that I should not be feeding just brine shrimp. I am looking for some food(s) to feed that will give a variety of nutrients to the fish and other inhabitants in the tank.

Any advice on what to do for water quality and maybe a feeding schedule I can follow would be great

Thanks

FB

 

[Omni2226]

This is a cut and paste of formula I use for my tanks. Just modify it a little if you find you need the food to have larger or smaller bits/chunks in it.

It also may a good idea to use paper coffee filters to strain out the solids and discard the juice before feeding if you dont have a lot of filter feeders or soft corals who like the liquid nutreint part. Add selcon or other vitamins a minute or two before feeding if desired, or maybe a small pinch of quality flake food for "roughage"

Here is a great coral food, cheap and easy.

Look in your deli/seafood department at the grocery store.
Buy a 10 or 12 oz bag of "Fresh Frozen Seafood Mix"
It usally has raw Squid, Octopus, Shrimp, Clam and Fish.
Put this in a blender with NO water. (Drain the juice in the bag.)
Place blender on high/puree and forgot about it for 10 minutes. You want a liquified mush with little tiny bits and peices.
Pour/scoop into freezer bags and lay them flat and thin in the freezer.
To feed break off a peice about the size of your thumbnail and thaw it in a cup with some tankwater. Turn off all pumps. Dribble across the top of the water so it can sink slowly.

To target feed simply use a turkey baster and squirt a small cloud of food just above/around the animal.

Now the hard part....go watch TV or take a shower, eat dinner play games or whatever for 45 minutes.
Turn the closedloop/powerheads on for a few minutes, then turn the sump/filter pumps back on. Easy and simple and 12 oz of seafood mix makes enough coral/fish food to last for a long time.
Supplememt with vitamins like selcon once a week and see if that dont perk ya corals up.

 

[Omni2226]

As a side note addon its not a bad idea to drain/strain any food that has "juice" in it before feeding. This will go a long way in reducing excess nutrients like phosphate and organic compounds. ( When you see the word nutrient being used, think liquid fertilizer for alga)

 

[Omni2226]

As for feeding schedule some people feed twice a day. Some feed once a day. Some feed every other day and some never add food ( these people usally have very large established tanks with a lot of rocks for the fish to graze off of )

Maybe start with one small feeding once a day to start? Then see how it goes. Remember fish dont need nearly as much food as most people think.

Here is an example : Place the amount of food you think your fish need in the palm of your hand. Now divide it in half and put half back in the can.

Take whats left and mix it with a small amount of tank water. Now pour half of this down the drain. Take half of whats left and feed the fish.

Its hard to say "feed x amount this many times a day or week" because every tank is a little diffrent. But the fish should always eat all the food within 5 minutes or less. If they dont you are feeding too much, or maybe feeding the wrong types of food.

 

[FB]

Any suggestions on a good type of food. All I've been feeding is brine shrimp and I know this is not good for the fish. Is there some kind of premade food that has a variety of "healthy" food in it.

Thanks

FB

 

[Anonymous]

I'm a big fan of the Formula One, and Formula Two foods. The fish seem to really like it too.

 

[FB]

Formula one frozen, flake or pellet.

Which is better. Do they contain phosphates.


Thanks

FB

 

[Anonymous]

Formula one frozen, flake or pellet.

Which is better. Do they contain phosphates.


Thanks

FB

While I haven't tested them, I'd bet that they do. But the trade off is nutrition instead of just feeding your fish brine shrimp. The other issue is that you should skim like crazy, and/or find a good way to export the nutrients too.

 

[WRASSER]

If you add fresh water to the tank to top the tank off, this could possibly be the problem too. most grocery stores fresh water is high in phosphates.

 

[Anonymous]

If you add fresh water to the tank to top the tank off, this could possibly be the problem too. most grocery stores fresh water is high in phosphates.

I didn't catch this. Are you using RO/DI, or tap water?

 

[WRASSER]

distilled from the store

 

[Anonymous]

distilled from the store

Oh Dude... use RO/DI. That's your major input of po4's.

 

[WRASSER]

yea i know i am in the process of finding an r/o unit for the house to kill two birds with one stone. i also herd of phos b gone that i can use with my nitragone on my denitrator

 

[FB]

I use culligan. I have tested the water and it contains no phosphates or nitrates. I'm currently in the process of looking for a good RO/DI unit. Getting tired of lugging bottles of water around.

FB