So am I overfeeding my fish?

[Austinvines]

Brief history. Tank was running for two years before 3 weeks ago when I bought it from its owner, moved it 250 miles, ditched the sand bed and 60# of rock, added new aragonite and did a 50% mud change on the miracle mud filter - 24" long, 10" wide tank with 3 sections: 1) overflow with bioballs. These are mostly submerged and may keep the splashing from the overflow to a minimum. I have a Precision Marine HOT skimmer in this section. 2) The second section is the mud/macro section. It is the largest section by far. The "miracle" mud is about 2 inches deep and it came with chaeto as the macro. It is illuminated at least 12h/day by a 6500k cf bulb that I saw on Melevs site. I have a piece of LR in this section as well. This section leads to an overflow baffle which leads down, through more chaeto-covered bioballs (covered by small pieces of the chaeto that break off the main bunch), into 3) the return section which stays fairly clear that houses a mag7.

Here is a picture of my tank 3 weeks ago

I have 7 fish. Most are small sized currently. Pair of oc. clowns, 2 blennys, a purple tang, a flame angel and a 6 line wrasse.

The fish were being fed Formula 2 flake, nori and cyclopeeze (rarely). I have no idea what a small pinch means (I cook and a pinch of salt to me is 1.5 teaspoons and know it isn't that much) and I started measuring my feedings.

Morning: 1/8 t Dainichi Marine pellet; 1/8 t Dainichi Marine Herbavore pellet; a 2x3 piece of nori.

Evening: Alternate between 1/2 cube of frozen mysis (either the larger freshwater variety or the tiny marine variety) and a 1/4t of the Dainichi and a pinch of the F1 (prob 1/16th tsp?)

Is this too much? They seem to finish in about five minutes but some will hit the ground. I also have a large brittle star, 5 peppermint shrimp and 2 skunk cleaners with around 35 dwarf blues (from very small to medium), 15 ceriths and 15 nassarius and prob 4-5 turbos. The two dwarf hermits that were in the tank when I got it immediately killed the two new snails when they arrived and someone thought that they could have been starving (or perhaps outgrowing their shells).

I feed with all pumps on and the fish like to eat it out of the column. I tried with the pump and PHs off but the fish seemed confused and the bubble coral started spewing zooxanth, so I don't want to do that again. Maybe turn off the main but leave the PHs on? I have a serious cyano outbreak and nitrates are at around 30ppm after 2 days of 10g water changes each day. I have been advised to just keep up with WCs and let the tank break-in but the red slime with bubbles underneath it is not pleasant to look at. I use RO water for my waterchanges and topoff. I just got a TDS meter that I will use on the RO water I get to see if that could be an issue.

Thanks for the tips

[fishypets]

I would feed that amount three times a week. After the feeding wet skim for a few hours.

[Austinvines]

I would feed that amount three times a week.  After the feeding wet skim for a few hours.

Whoa. Would you really feed a tang only three times a week? I am new to this but I thought more regular smaller feedings were better than larger irregular. Am I doing regular large feedings?

Thanks!

[GKarshens]

That does sound to be a bit much. I feed a pinch of Formula 1 flake in the morning and a cube of marine Mysis with a 1/2 cube of blood worms soaked in garlic in the evening. Every other day I add a squirt of cyclopeze and alternate with an 1/8th of a sheet of Nori. I have a slightly higher bioload than you but not by much. I can't do the skip days feeding program. I know alot of people have had success with it, but I don't like going a day without food and I doubt fish do either. I have had Cyano outbreaks in varying amount in all 3 of the tanks I have set up. They all went away after awhile. I would syphon it out as much as possible every other day. I also cut back on my lighting period for a few days. I haven't had any now in months. HTH.

[Austinvines]

Ok. I am resolved to cut down on the feeding then. A clip of nori at daybreak and then the regular nightime ritual.

Also, I just received a Hanna atc TDS meter that I got off of Ebay for $15 shipped and it says that the "Glacier Water" RO that is available at local grocery stores is at 72ppm while my City of Austin water is at 145. A little better I guess but not good enough. I am going to RCA today and get 25 gallons of straight DI and try and set up my RO/DI filter that came with the tank (it is a coralife I think).

Thanks again

Dylan