Acropora Care/Feeding – 04/23/08
Hello again Crew,
<<Greetings>>
Well, I've decided to not go with the clownfish-anemone-tank plan and rather create a peaceful community of Gobiodon citrinus with a pair of Stonogobiops nematodes
<<Both neat little fishes>>
and maybe another peaceful fish. Anyways, I have a few questions.
1. As you might know, I've been planning on culturing phytoplankton and copepods. My tank is 86g with a 35g sump. Starting out with, say, a 4" Acropora frag, how would I feed it phyto? Target feed? Dumping bottle of phyto into the tank?
<<Phytoplankton is of no direct benefit to the Acropora as they are decidedly carnivorous…though it can be beneficial in small doses to feed those organisms upon which the Acropora will feed. Better to feed the Acropora foods like Rotifers and Cyclops-Eeze (can simply be the “leftovers” from feeding the fishes), and install an inline plankton-generating refugium>>
2. How would I feed copepods to the prawn gobies? Target feed? Dump them in tank?
<<These can be simply “dumped in the tank” as you state>>
3. Would I ever have to feed the clown gobies?
<<Yes>>
4. Approximately how many coral heads should I have per goby? I'm thinking about having four pairs of gobies in my tank. I have around 125lbs of LR.
<<Mmm…will take several LARGE colonies. My experience with these fish and Acropora is not a good one. While these fish are found in association with Acros in the wild, the confines/limitations of captive systems do pose problems re. Maybe yours will be different, but in my experience these fish tend to nip and irritate the Acropora to the point they will not extend polyps and slowly decline in color/apparent health>>
Well, that's it for now. I sent an email titled "copepod culture" to you on Thursday and have yet to get a response. Just a reminder.
<<Hmm, this should have been returned by now…you may want to resend>>
Anyways, once again, I love your site. It's simply awesome.
<<Thank you…a collective effort>>
Thanks in Advance,
Random Aquarist
<<Happy to share. EricR>>

Monti Cap Question... gen...  - 2-13-08
Hey there guys. I am back!
I recently bought a Montipora capricornis at the LFS for a good deal.
I was wondering what kind of special stuff it would need.
<Proper water flow, water conditions, lighting>
I know the lighting is not a problem. I feed DT phyto plankton and Cyclop-eeze.
<Neither of which an 'SPS' coral such as this will eat, at least not directly/for the most part>
Anything else in particular that this coral will need? it is my first SPS, so I am trying to start off right!
<This is a very basic question that can be answered by a perusal of WWM's respective archives. Also, please use proper spelling/capitalization in the future! Start here http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/index.htm in your quest for 'SPS' related knowledge!>
Thanks guys, Jake
<Anytime - M. Maddox>

SPS feeding   7/12/07
Hello again Crew
So I was at a friends house over the weekend, and he kindly gave me several frags, as well as a dinner plate size Montipora Capricornis.
<How do you know it's Montipora capricornis? Not that it matters much, but how do you know it's not Montipora aequituberculata or Montipora foliosa? Granted, chance is in your favor and it is likely to be Montipora capricornis. But please be cautious of assuming you know the specific species of any given coral. Identification down to species is quite difficult and requires close examination of the exposed skeleton.>
All in all he gave me 5 corals. They are Montipora Capricornis, Montipora Digitata, Echinophyllia, a green starburst colony, and a type of Sinularia. I normally do my research before introducing new livestock into my tank, but not this time. May because they were free?
<Bad excuse, but I'll forgive you.>
My tank is a 210 gal, 55 gal Sump/Ref with Chaeto (not growing for some reason), 200# LR, AquaC EV240, Aquamedic 4x39 watt T5, 3x250 watt MH.
In addition to the above, Livestock consists of
9" Volitans Lion
1" Yellowtail Damsel
5" Harlequin Tusk
4" Emperor Angel
4" Sohal Tang
<The emperor angel might nip at some of your corals once it's an adult.>
1 very large Devils Hand Leather (I think)
3 smaller colt corals
1 large zoanthid colony
1 small open brain
I want to add 2 more corals to finish off my tank. Hopefully an Acropora of some kind, and a frogspawn.
The tank is 6 months old, and has been doing great!
<That's good, but Acropora shouldn't not be added to tanks less than a year old.>
I do weekly water changes of 40gal with RODI water. Nitrates are around 2-5ppm, Nitrites/Ammonia are 0, PH is 8.3, Alk is 4.5 (This is a tad high),
<Assuming units in meq/L, that Alk is fine.>
and Cal is 340 (a bit low). The high Alk seems to be the result of Kalk dosing which I just started 2 weeks ago. My Alk has risen (used to be 3), PH has risen 0.1, but Cal has remained unchanged. I'll be adding Reef Calcium from Seachem to bring the Cal number up. Hopefully this will balance the alk/cal figures a bit.
<Generally I'm a fan of SeaChem, but I don't know about their "Reef Calcium." It says it's "bioavailable polygluconate complexed calcium." Which to me means that it's some kind of organic calcium. You want inorganic calcium. So please find some calcium chloride. This should lower your alk and raise your Ca levels. But add this carefully. You don't want your alk to plummet either. ;) >
I also just started dosing Magnesium about 1 week ago. Readings were at 900 before, now at 1125. I've just bought some Selcon to replace my Kent Zoe as a food additive.
My question is regarding the feeding of the SPS corals. If I am able to complete my setup, this would consist of 3 SPS corals. M. Capricornis, M. Digitata and the Acropora ( I don't think the Echinophyllia is an SPS).
<The term "sps" is probably meaningless anyway.>
I understand that these SPS corals will consume zooplankton as supplemental feeding. I have no room for a gravity fed refugium, and fear that feeding the Eric Borneman recipe may pollute my tank over time.
<Why? I'd stick with this recipe. It's a good one. Just take care in its preparation. Soak what he says to soak and make sure you chop, mince and blend well. You can pollute your tank with too much of any kind of food. Oyster eggs are also great for "sps" corals.>
I've had nuisance algae issues before that I'd want to avoid like the plague. Even if it didn't pollute my tank, aren't the particle sizes much too large for SPS corals?
<Not if you add oyster eggs and blend well. Yes, you'll have some chunks that are way too big for sps. But you'll also get a lot of very fine food particles too.>
I've read on your site that feeding bottled zooplankton like Sweetwater, or Liquid Life Marine/Bio Plankton is not enough, and that Cyclopez (sp?) is too large.
<Cyclop-Eeze is great and I recommend using it for your other corals and your fish. But it will likely be too big for your sps corals.>
Is it worth using my pump driven refugium to try growing zooplankton?
Or will the pump just demolish everything?
<This is probably more a matter of opinion. I think a pump driven refugium is an excellent thing to have, but it's not necessary for the most common types of sps sold for aquariums.>
Will a combination of Selcon, Sweetwater Zooplankton and Liquid Life do the trick?
<Hmm... I'd stick with the Selcon. Liquid life BioPlankton is pretty useless for feeding corals. Sps corals don't eat algae. Liquid life coral plankton has rotifers and algae. Corals do eat rotifers. I'm not sure if they eat dead rotifers as much as live rotifers, but it probably wouldn't hurt to add them to the mix. The same goes for Sweetwater Zooplankton. The listed ingredients look like things that corals would certainly eat if they were alive. How much corals will feed on these things after they've been collected and packaged, I'm not sure anyone knows for certain. Lee Goldman recently conducted a study that supports the notion that at least some corals have a strong preference for live food. If you really want to do right by your corals, culture Artemia nauplii and feed them live to your tank. I'm a huge fan of the hatching disk sold by Brine Shrimp Direct. It just makes it so easy.>
What are the chances that my tank has enough "stuff" in it to self support the food needs of these SPS?
<Hard to say. But even if they could get enough to just survive, they'd probably do better if you fed them.>
If there is a chance, do I wait until the corals to display unhealthy symptoms as a sign to start supplemental feeding?
<Look, you don't need to specifically feed them a separate set of foods. Just keep them in mind when you mix up the food you make for the whole tank. Add some oyster eggs and blend the food well.>
If I need to feed, what should I feed these 3 corals? and how often?
I've read your site extensively on this topic, and have not come up with a clear answer to this question.
<This is a hotly debated topic in our hobby and everyone will likely give you a different answer. However, given what's known about how much food is available to corals in the wild, I can't imagine that they don't need to be fed in our tanks. My suggestion to you is to use Borneman's recipe (with the oyster eggs he also suggests). All this should feed your fish and everything else too. And if you can, culture some Artemia nauplii too.>
Thanks a ton! My tank is so satisfying to my family and friends. I owe many thanks to the great service you provide.
<De nada. Thanks for writing.
Best,
Sara M.>
Wayne

Monti Feeding
Hello Bob and Crew:
I was looking for your advice for target feeding my only SPS a Montipora capricornis (my favorite).  I lost a Hydnophora.  I do not want to get into a refugium so I have been direct feeding ESV's Phytoplankton and Daphnia.  I have been considering Cyclop-eeze, is that too big?  I tried to find liquid life's Coral Plankton but it's not anywhere (LFS) and I do not want to pay $25. for overnight shipping.  I would appreciate any suggestions, I love this coral and want to do all I can (besides refugium).<Rich, I've heard a lot of good things about Cyclop-eeze.  I am using it at the present time, mainly for my Percs, but my soft coral sure seems to be looking better since I've been using this.  Other product that is good for this is DT's Phytoplankton.  You might call around in your area for this, otherwise you will have to order direct from DT.  They tell me if you keep it refrigerated it has a shelf life close to six months.  Keep in mind this is live phytoplankton.  I don't think DT would charge you 25 bucks to send it to you, just normal UPS charges unless you want it overnight.  I wouldn't worry about the Monti while waiting since corals do produce most of their own food. James (Salty Dog>
Thanks for the help!
Rich

Feeding and nutrients for across
Great site! Thanks for all the help. My questions are as follows: what
nutrients, other than calcium and bicarbonate, would you recommend for the healthy
growth of across? Secondly, what food would you feed your across and at what
amount and time? Thirdly, is feeding essential? Again thanks for the great info.
                                                        Joey
<Please read here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/corlfdgfaqs.htm
and http://www.wetwebmedia.com/acropt3.htm
and the Related FAQs (linked, in blue, at top). Bob Fenner>