Need Feeding and Coral Input
by
, 08-20-2011 at 12:48 AM (4953 Views)
One of these days I'm going to go all out and post pictures and videos of my tank, but today is not that dayI have a few random questions to ask and would appreciate any accurate input. Unfortunately, some of these questions are rather long-winded, but as we all know, it's fun to talk about saltwater tanks and going off on random tangents is really just part of the hobby when you truly love it. As for the questions pertaining to the title of this post, here they are:
1) How much should I feed my freakin fish? Excuse the rashness, but I'm kind of frustrated as to how much food is the right amount. I've read conflicting statements on various websites and I've also heard many different methods. Maybe there is no definite rule or answer, but I at least wanted to throw it out there and ask. For background info, 3 months ago I upgraded from a 75 gallon to a 175 gallon bow front. Like I said, pictures and what not are coming later, but just to get an idea of the livestock....
Corals : big and small, SPS frags, softies, LPS, zoanthids, mushrooms.
Inverts: Rose bubble anemone, coral banded shrimp, peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, snails, conch, crabs, serpent sea star
11 Fish: Sailfin tang (biggest fish-about 5 or 6 inches), Yellow Eye Kole Tang, 2 Green Chromis, 2 False Percula Clownfish, Coral Beauty, Cleaner Wrasse, Longnose Butterflyfish, Longnose Hawkfish, Six Line Wrasse
Back to the question. How much should I feed on a day-to-day basis? I'm fond of the cubes. I'm sure some of y'all have heard of the brand names. Emerald Entree, Angel and Butterfly, Marine Cuisine, Omega, Spirulina and Mysis Shrimp. Right now I'm feeding 2 cubes twice a day. A veggie clip or clam every day. I suppose it's working well, but I am going off for college and have to "hand-off" the tank to my mother. I want to do as little water changes as possible since I won't be around, and they're also kind of a pain. I've heard the whole spiel about "you can't overfeed your fish, but you can overfeed your tank". I understand the concept, but if anyone has any expertise about what to feed 11 fish I'd be grateful. I don't want skinny starving fish, but I also don't want a ton of nitrates since i won't be doing many water changes and I don't have a reliable way to test for nitrates other than those basic testing kits. I've heard of people on the internet going 6 months without a water change but I also know of people who do water changes every week. My LFS suggested 2 cubes a day instead of 4 and a veggie clip every other day instead of every day. What do y'all think? And what about DT's?
2) When is reef addicts gonna get it's very own app for iPad?
3) What's a good looking "tree" coral that doesn't sprout little frags all over the place? I have some pulsing xenia, which I like, but I'm looking for another "tree-looking" type coral that basically just grows bigger like a toadstool mushroom. A long time ago I had a kenya tree, and all it did was make tiny little kenya trees ALL over the place. You get the point, that's not what I'm looking for. Maybe there isn't an answer to this question, idk. Answers along with pictures would be appreciated.
Thanks for reading and for any help. I figured if there was any place to ask random unrelated questions, it would be on this site. Sorry, I know this post is a lot of reading without any pictures.