Considering Brewing My Own Water

[Derek]

How often do you feed?

I feed once a day at night.

[Derek]

that's probably enough for you to feed a whole cube. Just keep an eye on it to see that you aren't over feeding.

The easy way to tell how to feed is if the fish are eating all the food before it can hit the sand bed. You've got a good cleanup crew that will take care of any pieces that get away.

Should I even bother with the brine shrimp or just stick with one block of mysis?

[+mcallahan]

I feed once a day at night.

That's fine. Go with one cube on the alternating schedule and your nitrate issue will get resolved.

[Derek]

That's fine. Go with one cube on the alternating schedule and your nitrate issue will get resolved.

Ah sweet, okay. I'll alternate mysis and brine.

[+mcallahan]

Should I even bother with the brine shrimp or just stick with one block of mysis?

One block of mysis or brine a day. I personally only feed mysis but there is no problem with feeding both as long as you alternate them.

So your schedule might look like this:

Mon: block of algae

Tues: block of mysis

Wed: algae

Thurs: brine

Fri: algae

Sat: mysis, etc

You could probably get away with making Sunday a no feeding day.

[Derek]

One block of mysis or brine a day. I personally only feed mysis but there is no problem with feeding both as long as you alternate them.

So your schedule might look like this:

Mon: block of algae

Tues: block of mysis

Wed: algae

Thurs: brine

Fri: algae

Sat: mysis, etc

You could probably get away with making Sunday a no feeding day.

You can skip feeding days? The fish won't get mad or anything?

[+mcallahan]

You can skip feeding days? The fish won't get mad or anything?

It'll just make them more aggressive eaters the next day. They'll be fine.

[muddybluewater]

Yes you can skip a day most fish will find something to eat in your tank, algae or pods.

[+mcallahan]

Yes you can skip a day most fish will find something to eat in your tank, algae or pods.

that too. Plus it'll make your cleanup crew cleanup more as they won't have the easy meal

[barderer]

You can skip many days. I keep my fish on a really low feeding schedule. I usually feed the reef fish every three days. My puffer tank every other day. One time I went on vacation, my friend was supposed to feed the fish...he forgot and the fish didn't eat for 7 days. When I came back I thought I was going to see some distressed fish. They were just fine. The meat eating fish can go a long time without meals. The veggie guys are the ones that need to be fed more regularly. Not a good idea to let a tang,for example, go without food for a long time. The long and short of it is, keep your fish lean and your tank shall look supreme.

[GKarshens]

If you are OK doing that large of water changes that often I say keep it up. Anthony Calfo, a well respected expert in the hobby, does 95% water changes weekly on his tanks. His theory is try to emulate the ocean. Feed a lot, skim big, and massive regular water changes. When my tank was SPS driven I did a 25g weekly water change and had great results. As my tank has been since a rebuild, I have really slacked on water changes and have the nuisance algae to prove it. All that being said, get an RO/DI. While you are at it set up and auto top-off if you don't have it already. The only regret you will have is that you didn't do it sooner.

[AlexKilpatrick]

I read some stuff on RC about doing effectively 100% water changes by changing 1 or 2 gallons of water every day. There was a big analysis about it, and it wasn't as ineffective as I would have thought. One 30 gallon water change is more effective that 30 one gallon changes, but not by a huge amount. And lots of smaller water changes are less stressful than big water changes.

You could mostly automate that, I expect.

[medi]

I maybe crucified for this, but i only feed 1/4 cube every 4-5 days. Granted I have a 1/3 of the tank size, but I also have too much of a bio-load as well. I have one ocellaris clown, one pink spot goby, one coral beauty angel, one orchid dottyback, one mcCosker's wrasse, one pep' shrimp, one coral banded shrimp, and a general CUC. Plus I am attempting mixed reef with SPS dominant. My fish are always fat and happy, and my corals are doing great. I have been feeding this way for over a year with not a single fish loss, other than suicide from jumping. The fish do a good job of keeping my rocks clean, and I have no problems with nuissance algaes. My nitrates are undetectable, and I do a 5G water change every two weeks.

[medi]

oops...double post