proper feeding for corals and fish

[ssimon15]

Thanks for your responses to my calc and alk question. Right know i have 4 fish 2 small clowns 1 watchman goby 1 purple firefish ,and some softees(shrooms ,zoo's,soft tree coral,star polyps,) and 1 small hammer coral. All finished with fish,will get a few more corals in time. Ifeed fish 2 times a day ,morning and evening turning off pumps for 2 or 3 minutes while feeding. food split between fr brine shr,marine flakes and small marine pellets that sink slowly. Do you think my diet ok or is there something better on the market i should feed them,also what to feed corals also . Thanks Stuart p.s. 24g aquapod 25 lbs lr all fish and corals are small

[Frogfish]

IMO, there is no need to feed the corals. They will feed on "stuff" in the water column and photosynthysis. In general Brine shrimp have no nutritional value, the fish love it but it doesn't do them much good. I would switch that to mysis shrimp or another frozen mix.

Be careful of overfeeding. Depending on how much you put in at a time, feeding that twice a day can be a lot of food.

[Garrett]

Just as a question of interest for myself since i'm new at this. Why do you turn off the filters when you feed? Just wondering

Thanks

[ssimon15]

Hi GARRET , i'm also new to reef keeping ,kept salt water fish in the stone age 34yrs ago. I read somewhere to let non-aggressive fish a chance for food to reach them by turning off power heads for a few minutes so the food wouldn't swirl around to much , seems to work for me . I have 2 maxi -jet 900 swirling the water pretty strongly. Stuart

[Frogfish]

I know that some people turn off the pumps, I personally do not. The fish are typically faster than the water and can catch anything they want.

The only reason I can see to turning off the pumps would be to ensure that the food does not go over the overflow and get wasted. My opinion is that so little would do this that it is not worth the PITA that turning off all the pumps means.

[mad_dog01]

Frogfish, where in Cincinnati are you, I'm about 10 miles south of cincy! Where do you shop for fish?

[Frogfish]

I am in Loveland on the north side. I mostly trade/buy from people in the local club. For corals I will also go to Marine Solutions or Just Coral

I will be down your way tomorrow... I do some work in Florence/richwood

[Garrett]

Everyone,

Well i guess this is an all Cincinnati thread then. I live just next to NKU in Highland Heights. I know of some good places to go fish shopping. One is Aquatics and Exotics It's on Hamilton Ave. It's pretty cool they don't have a huge selection, but i got a Yellow Tang there and he's done really well. Also there's House of Tropicals on River Rd. I have not been here yet, but i hear that its the one of the better fish stores around and they have a lot of different things, alligators etc.

Links:
Welcome to Aquatics and Exotics Online

House Of Tropicls has all your freshwater & saltwater fish needs. Lighting, filtration,Metal Halide,water additives,joes juice, purpleup, and more...

Oh, and Aquatics and Exotics has a shark tank as well which you can see on the website above.

[mad_dog01]

Garrett, I shop at those places also, the shark tank is pretty cool for such a small store. House of tropical is a very big store with good selection of fish.....not alot of corals but the owners of the store are willing to talk to you. If you all are willing to drive a bit World of pets is in Florence KY on Houston rd....also very informative personel there and good selections on fish and corals.

[Frogfish]

If you want a link of local stores, check out my web page. I have a ton of links and about 1/2 way down are some of the local stores. Steve Rumberg's Home Page

I personally do not think that a store should have a shark tank. It looks good and attracts people but I believe that they should be limited to the ocean or a public aquarium.

As for House of Tropics... well I'll just say I won't go in there again. Been there 3-4 times and no one ever said so much as hello to me.

BTW... sorry for highjacking the thread! but hopefully your question was answered ssimon15.

[ssimon15]

No problem, wish we had some more lfs's that were worth going to, all the good ones here in the phoenix area are at least 100 miles round trip from where i live ,almost worth ordering online. Any body know any good online stores on the west coast.(maybe the fght wont be so much. STUART