How often do you feed your fish?
 

So I have been feeding my fish one frozen cube of mysis shrimp once a day. I have been developing the purple slimy algae and have been told it is from protein in the water from excess feeding. I am wondering if I should be feeding only every 2nd day??? I have a 44 gallon tank.

You can always rinse your mysis before you feed. I use a tea strainer, put the mysis in there, into a glass of water for a few minutes and shake off excess water and then feed. Also lets me feed a little bit then wait a few minutes to make sure everyone comes out to get some food.

Rinsing your food first will definitely reduce nutrients that algae might feed on. Red cyano can also be due to low flow in some areas so you might want to think about that.

If your fish are nice and fat and you're not having to target feed anyone theres no reason why you can't cut back and feed every other day until the algae is gone then slowly ramp it back up. If you don't want to cut back, you can always increase water changes or increase skimming. Rinsing helps alot more than you'd think too :biggrin:

I usually feed my fish every second day. Doesn't seem to hurt them as they are all nice and plump as far as I can see...

Pellets in the afternoon if I'm home....Major feeding of assorted frozen foods each evening....but I probably don't have the type of super-clean system that most people seem to want. The filtration system seems to have evolved to handle it.

for me flow didn't help,when i first got cyano i had 1 koralia-3 in there and it was still spreading rapidly, so i added in a maxijet 900 and still nothing, at the end i just ended up siphoning out the majority of it and dosing that blue vet red slime control and never saw it since, for me it definitely came from over feeding, brine shrimp in particular.

Guess the amount you feed depends on the amount of fish but seen some big cubes. I feed daily usually flake, pellets and nori but if mysis use about 1/4tsp and that's with couple tangs, foxface, damsels, wrasse and clown.

Dealt with cyano in my 75g by increasing flow and changing to ro/di. The ro/di might be debatable but pretty sure the flow helped.

I feed three times a day. Pellets in the morning and evening (only what the fish can eat), mysis soaked in selcon/tropic marin equivalent, and I keep an algae clip with dried nori in rhe tank at all times (whatever the fish dont eat, the abalone eats at night).

i feed flake right when the lights go on at noon, then around evening i i put a garlic-soaked sheet of seaweed for the sailfin tang and feed the rest brine shrimp and krill soaked in garlic, and then an hour before the lights go off, 1/2 flake and 1/2 pellet

I'm with Harvey I'm all over the map every day every second sometimes I miss a weekend and by the looks of my fish thay are not starving

I'll pipe in here with that I think it probably depends on your fish whether you can get away with feeding every other day. I used to do this too. But I noticed with some of my fish they appear a bit stressed when they get too hungry (my tang and rabbitfish in particular). It manifests itself as aggression, which leads to fin nips and other artifacts of fighting (missing scales, bruising, that sort of thing).

Also some fish simply don't have the digestive systems to carry them over that long between feedings. Essentially they are pigging out, then starving, then pigging out, then starving. .. And their lifespans will likely be truncated as a result. Again, this just applies to some fish though, for others it may not be a big deal.

So basically in general I think feeding "less, more often", is better than feeding "more, less often." But ultimately, by observing your fish's behaviours you will notice if a particular schedule is "working" or "could be better."

Just my $0.02.. :)

Well said, I couldn't agree more. I think you can tell alot about how the tank is doing by just standing back and watching before you do anything to the tank.

This might be a stupid question, but when you rinse your frozen food, how do you then soak it?

I defrost the frzn foods, then rinse in a small net under the tap, then add water (often RODI) back into the container & release most of the food back into the container. I then add 3 drops of Selcon to that food but use the net for the first feeding. Really, it sounds more complicated then it is.

Essentially:

defrost
rinse
drop back into container
add drops
swish rinse net in tank to feed fish

Also with full bellies those corals and clams won't be looking as attractive.

Mseepan, for thawing mysis, I usually just put in a small cup (shot glass size) with tank water for a few minutes, then just pour into a tea strainer discarding the water and rinse the strainer back in the tank to free the mysis. If using Selcon, once thawed, just put the mysis back in the cup and add the Selcon to them to soak for a bit.

So do you think I should be adding another air pump to eliminate the algae as well as rinsing the mysis shrimp? I keep trying to syphon the algae off the rocks and sand but it seems it just comes back the next day. I don't want this stuff to start taking over my tank. I LOVE MY TANK. Can the lack of flow cause my sand to be dirty as well? Thank you everyone for your input. I greatly appreciate it!

I with Delphinus on this...less, more often for feeding. There are a bunch of good ideas mentioned in this thread, but I am wondering about your water. What kind of filtration are you using? It sounds like you are describing a cyano problem, if so that can be a nasty battle.

Scott

The increased flow helps the sand in that detritus is suspended until your filter/skimmer deals with it.

I Have an external filter Resun AE-806 as well as a coralife skimmer. Is this filter system not good? What is a good filter to buy? I have been running this filter for a year but maybe it is time to get a new one? Should I try running another powerhead? I just tested my water last night and everything was fine.
Does anyone recommend a really good external filter that I could perhaps order from J & L because I am sure they are way more money at Big Al's

filter
 

As for a good filter, Rena, Fluval etc. But check with a few places..sometimes you might be surprised. I have found a few things cheaper at Big Al's than J+L
and visa versa:biggrin:

Should have been a little clearer...are you using ro/di?

Scott