Marty, a couple of points. I assume you are talking SPS by your description, right? Long thin growth is due to lack of strong current, not nutrition. The higher the flow, the thicker the branches.
Yes, corals are eating machines and I agree that they should be fed. Please look up the articles I mentioned for the full story, your book doesn't go into that detail.
Light provides the carbs for the coral thru photosynthesis. Plankton supplies protien. There is oftern sufficient detritus to feed corals in an established reef, along with naturally occuring plankton. Supplemental feeding is still needed, IMO.
The more light, the greater the growth. You can certainly keep SPS with 175w, I did for a long time. However, the color and growth I get with 400w is many times more than what I experienced with 175s. The amount of light a coral is actually exposed to in nature is so far beyond what we could provide in a reef that you can't even comapre it here. 400w is in no way anywhere near too much light.
Further to this, if you look at Jamie Cross' tank in the TOM on RC, you'll see how little zooxanthalae are actually present by the bright white branches and colorful pigments. Zoox are brown, not blue and white. Jamie uses 250DE bulbs, known to be as bright or brighter than 400w bulbs. He feeds if and when he gets around to it also and his corals grow like weeds. They get food from somewhere. Jamie also runs a large beckett skimmer and does frequent water changes. (Jamie, hope you don't mind me using you like this
)
Marty, you can't make blanket statments by reading part of a book. You need to read a lot more, and keep this critters for awhile. And I have to emphasize, read that 4 part article by Eric on feeding, you'll be glad you did.
