Feeding LPS
An LPS tank that gets fed grows at two or three times the speed of one that does not. Feeding is also the fastest way to foul a tank, so the technique matters as much as the food.
Who eats and who does not
- Feed weekly or more: Duncan, acan, scolymia, blastomussa, favia, chalice, trumpet and candy cane, goniopora, alveopora.
- Feed occasionally: torch, hammer, frogspawn. They take food but they get most of what they need from light.
- Do not target feed: SPS, leathers, mushrooms, GSP, xenia. They filter what is already in the water, so feeding the fish feeds them.
What to feed
| Food | Good for | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Frozen mysis, rinsed | Duncan, acan, favia, trumpet | Rinse the pack water off, it is pure phosphate |
| Small marine pellets | Duncan, acan, scoly | Soak them first so they sink instead of floating away |
| Reef roids and fine powders | Goniopora, alveopora, zoas, chalices | Mix with tank water into a slurry, never dry |
| Chopped raw shrimp | Large scolymia, anemones | Pieces smaller than the mouth |
How to do it without wrecking the tank
- Feed after lights out, when tentacles are extended and fish are settling down.
- Turn the pumps down or off for ten to fifteen minutes. Set a timer, because a forgotten pump is a dead acro.
- Use a baster or a feeding syringe to place food directly on the polyp. Do not blast it, the coral retracts and you have just fed the sand bed.
- Give the polyp ten minutes to close over the food. If it spits it out, the piece is too big or the coral is not ready.
- Turn the pumps back on and remove anything that was not eaten.
How much is too much
Watch phosphate and nitrate for the two weeks after you start a feeding routine. A rise in nitrate to 10 or 15 ppm with algae appearing on the glass means you are feeding more than the system can export. Feed less, or export more with a skimmer, macroalgae or larger water changes. Coral food that ends up in the sand is not coral food, it is fuel for the next cyano outbreak.
A note on aggression
Feeding brings out sweeper tentacles. A favia or a chalice that behaves during the day will reach for a neighbor at night with the smell of mysis in the water. Feed the whole tank, not one corner, and keep the spacing rules from the coral warfare guide.