The Garden -- Rakies shallow SPS cube
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So as I struggle to keep nutrients with a Bare Bottom tank, I've turned towards feeding corals a bit. There's a lot of food on the market, so here's what i've been trying.
Reef Chili -- So this is where I started with coral feeding years ago.. And it failed. My zoas and palys won't take it. My SPS never wanted it. The only thing in my tank that I know wanted any of this stuff was my Acans. They liked it, and as far as I'm concerned, if you're a Acan person, and you want to spot feed acans a much more varied diet of a broad range of food, Reef Chili is hard to beat. but the rest of my corals couldn't care less.
So a few months later...
AcroPower (Aminos) -- I definitely got a decent response from these. This was about the time I ditched the ole "nutrients are the devil" idea. Because of that, I stopped after two bottles. The stuff was so weak, I went through it like water, and I figured after upping nutrients I won't really need this anymore.
So a year later...
ME Amino Acids -- Supposedly significantly more concentrated than AcroPower, and with some carbon which could also be useful.. Why not.. But I haven't noticed ANYTHING when using this. Especially when compared to AcroPower, which I never revisited.
So after another year, I redid my rockscape and went Bare Bottom. I finally made my first food purchase at saltwateraquarium.com so I could grab a few samples of the Fauna Marin Zoa/Ricordia food, and LPS/Mushroom pellets... Why not, right? If I'm gonna try food again, I may as well get the $2.50 samples of the $50 bottles before I throw a hundred bucks into the wind again.
So starting with the tried and true...
PolypLabs Reef Roids -- WOW. I gotta first preface this by saying that I'm now again forced into lower nutrients, and unable to keep nutrients where I like them, I decided to get back into feeding. After writing off feeding and doing zero research, I was surprised to learn PolypLabs was derived of 100% planktons... Rather than, say, reef chili, which is basically 'marine snow' and a mix of everything. PolypLabs is specifically and only what corals eat in the wild... Okay, so that sounds good. Back to the review...
WOW. Nearly everything loves it. I will first say this got a rapid response from all my zoas and palys except just a single one. They LOVE it, and for the first time ever, I caught my zoas pooping.
Zoas love it, Acans love it, Lobos love it, and it looks like my SPS might even by trying it... Most of my mushrooms couldn't care less, except one or two which turned inside out sucking up as much as it could.
Fauna Marin LPS Color/Grow pellets -- My shrooms ate it. Maybe I should have waited longer to write this up.. Because I was shocked that PolypLabs was eaten readily, but this is being eaten by my mushrooms. All my mushrooms refused any other foods except for one of them which took PolypLabs, so I have high hopes for this.
Fauna Marin Zoa/Ricordia Powder -- Not used yet, because PolypLabs is smashing so far.
Reef Chili -- So this is where I started with coral feeding years ago.. And it failed. My zoas and palys won't take it. My SPS never wanted it. The only thing in my tank that I know wanted any of this stuff was my Acans. They liked it, and as far as I'm concerned, if you're a Acan person, and you want to spot feed acans a much more varied diet of a broad range of food, Reef Chili is hard to beat. but the rest of my corals couldn't care less.
So a few months later...
AcroPower (Aminos) -- I definitely got a decent response from these. This was about the time I ditched the ole "nutrients are the devil" idea. Because of that, I stopped after two bottles. The stuff was so weak, I went through it like water, and I figured after upping nutrients I won't really need this anymore.
So a year later...
ME Amino Acids -- Supposedly significantly more concentrated than AcroPower, and with some carbon which could also be useful.. Why not.. But I haven't noticed ANYTHING when using this. Especially when compared to AcroPower, which I never revisited.
So after another year, I redid my rockscape and went Bare Bottom. I finally made my first food purchase at saltwateraquarium.com so I could grab a few samples of the Fauna Marin Zoa/Ricordia food, and LPS/Mushroom pellets... Why not, right? If I'm gonna try food again, I may as well get the $2.50 samples of the $50 bottles before I throw a hundred bucks into the wind again.
So starting with the tried and true...
PolypLabs Reef Roids -- WOW. I gotta first preface this by saying that I'm now again forced into lower nutrients, and unable to keep nutrients where I like them, I decided to get back into feeding. After writing off feeding and doing zero research, I was surprised to learn PolypLabs was derived of 100% planktons... Rather than, say, reef chili, which is basically 'marine snow' and a mix of everything. PolypLabs is specifically and only what corals eat in the wild... Okay, so that sounds good. Back to the review...
WOW. Nearly everything loves it. I will first say this got a rapid response from all my zoas and palys except just a single one. They LOVE it, and for the first time ever, I caught my zoas pooping.
Zoas love it, Acans love it, Lobos love it, and it looks like my SPS might even by trying it... Most of my mushrooms couldn't care less, except one or two which turned inside out sucking up as much as it could.
Fauna Marin LPS Color/Grow pellets -- My shrooms ate it. Maybe I should have waited longer to write this up.. Because I was shocked that PolypLabs was eaten readily, but this is being eaten by my mushrooms. All my mushrooms refused any other foods except for one of them which took PolypLabs, so I have high hopes for this.
Fauna Marin Zoa/Ricordia Powder -- Not used yet, because PolypLabs is smashing so far.
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I am not sure if you followed "biggles" over on RC but he has a close up video of the sps ingesting Reefroids. He said of all the things he fed he got the most response from the roids.
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Yep, I remember his videos of it too. So far it seems to be the only food that has been worth my time and money. Except the Fauna Marin pellets... My shrooms like those.
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Nice write up
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Wow really nice looking system might need a bigger tank soon
Yeah I definitely do... I would love a 36x24x24 as that would max out my available space, but it doesn't look like it's in the cards lol
Great reviews Rakie.
For the feeding itself, do you target feed the zoas and acans or just toss it in with good flow?
Would you mind elaborate a little more?
I used polyplab roids before but stopped for some unknown reason (probably I ran out of it...)
For the feeding itself, do you target feed the zoas and acans or just toss it in with good flow?
Would you mind elaborate a little more?
I used polyplab roids before but stopped for some unknown reason (probably I ran out of it...)
Aminos acids and coral food is not really the same. You can have a lack of amino acids with a full of nutrient tank.
ReefRoids is a blend of food like fauna marin grow pellets or ricordea powder. Adding Amino acids can supplement your food if you have a lack of it but can't replace it.
I personnaly make a mix of different food and add some amino acids in the mix before feeding for 1 hour once a week. With excellent results.
ReefRoids is a blend of food like fauna marin grow pellets or ricordea powder. Adding Amino acids can supplement your food if you have a lack of it but can't replace it.
I personnaly make a mix of different food and add some amino acids in the mix before feeding for 1 hour once a week. With excellent results.
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Honestly, it's suggested to target feed, so with my zoas, acans, shrooms, I've been target feeding with flow on. I will note in my frag tank, I'm only pushing 200gph in a 10g frag tank (750 LPH) so very low flow. I will turn it off next time I feed and see if my mushrooms react with a pile of it sitting on them. Who knows, maybe they just need straight up zero flow.
I mix it exactly as described. 1/2 TSP per 50g water volume, mixed with some tank water.
As for my SPS I don't target feed, I just dump a little bit in. In truth I didn't try to get any in my SPS display, BUT, it's connected to my frag tank so it made it there anyways.. And I noticed a reaction. I may put on the feed timers and turn one pump to low flow and see how they do, or I may try target feeding a few to see how it goes.
You are correct. I've thought about trying another amino acid, but I'm going to be adding sand back in. Maybe it wasn't the fact that I had nutrients that made the aminos have no effect -- maybe it was the ME Aminos vs the AcroPower aminos. Conditions were different at the time of each brand. Seeing as I've had stellar results with PolypLab i'm very tempted to try their aminos.
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Definitely sounds like something worth trying! I'll give it a go and see if my shrooms go for it.
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hahaha...
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That's actually my target. Nitrates at 20-25, po4 at 0.15-0.30 -- I'm happy with that range, and my SPS color up well and grow great.
So! Flow off definitely does make a huge difference. Even with almost zero flow in my frag tank, the difference between nearly zero and literally zero was pretty significant. So much so that I would say those who don't spot feed are just throwing away their money. Only a couple mushrooms weren't immediately feeding (neptunes) and only a few zoas didn't gobble up the foods immediately as well.
Also, most of my SPS reacted very well to Reef Roids. Not all, but most.. Slightly less than mushrooms/zoas.
I threw away money as target feeding was not in my booklet... good that I did not buy another ReefRoid pack yet.
Next try, pumps will be off!!
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I honestly wish I had filmed it.. Watching the mushrooms flip inside out and look like a giant closed zoa was kinda cool. They started closing up immediately.. I mean within seconds. They loved it...
If you have one particular coral, or a couple corals you really want to grow quickly... It may be worth giving another shot.
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