food and nutrients for coral

[NanoreefChris]

Is there a product that you can buy to keep your corals strong with nutrients? Like something that you can put in with weekly water changes that adds all the essential nutrients they need? I have mostly LPS and soft. Is there one of those products that come in bottles that takes care of everything?

I have some zoas, Blastomussa, frogspawn, monti, and GPS. What can I feed them directly?

 

[mr_X]

as far as trace elements go, most everything is already in your salt mix.
blastos and frogspawn can eat meaty foods and won't benefit from much in the water column.

feed your fish. they will poop and that will enrich the water with nutrients. they don't completely digest what they eat.
corals benefit from it.

to answer your question- no. there is not one thing you can add to the water that will take care of everything.

you are better off not adding anything but fish food and keeping your water that much cleaner.

 

[Nickjr000]

I had a mixed reef for 2 years that did fantastic and I never directly fed any of the corals or anemones. I fed a lot of frozen foods twice a day. I probably overfed but my fish were always very healthy and fat, plus I compensated with more water changes than normal. I like to feed plenty of frozen stuff of all different varieties. When you dump it in you can notice all the small particles the fish don't bother with cause they are so tiny.... I think that is plenty to feed my corals twice a day. They grew a lot in 2 years. My Monti tripled in size and the frags I broke off here and there quadrupled their size at the least. I got a toadstool leather at 5" and when I broke the tank down it was easily 9" As far as trace elements I always used a 2 part cal, Mag, Stro, And iodine

 

[john90009]

look up two part dosing and testing your water- you might soon run into calcium problems when those corals take off.

 

[mr_X]

look up two part dosing and testing your water- you might soon run into calcium problems when those corals take off.

unless it's a nano...i disagree.
i have never dosed calcium and i have kept stony corals to the point of being giant colonies. i do nothing more than weekly water changes.

 

[Nickjr000]

This is why I love this hobby. Everyone's way of doing things are different. Everybody's theory is different. A big part of this is.... Something that works in one persons tank might not work at all in your tank, or as well. I learned this over the years. Tried some stuff out others were swearin by and some of it worked some of it didn't. Some stufff is hit or miss. I agree with X though, frequent water changes are a good pratice. I believe it will stabilize your water better and get it closer to optimal parameters. Also restores your elements

 

[NanoreefChris]

i thought that RO/DI water didnt have any nutrients in it ?

 

[john90009]

ro-di water has simple elements but the main ones you need is in the freshly made salt water(its in the salt mix mainly). I was just saying look into two part because if you ever run into alk spikes from the water change a two part might be good to use in between water changes- just trying to get him to read on dosing because i know its not only gonna stay to a few corals .

 

[njstillwell]

I couldn't agree more with changing water once a week...I know its hard to keep up with, but if you can you will be saving your self from lots of additives. On my 120 I change about 14 gallons weekly using tropic marine salt, its pricey but has everything you need instead of using additives. I must say once corals start to boom you will have to add supplements in the form of calcium or whatever to keep up unless your levels can sustain an acceptable level for you...If your coral population is not that high your levels will take much longer to diminish.

 

[john90009]

it may be alot to digest and think about with the hobby but once you read some articles on everything you learn allloooootttttt an some stuff seems easier but the number 2 rules is dont give up- and only thing that happens fast in a fish tank are bad things.