Thoughts on Heavy Feeding

[jason604]

I use to overfeed but that lead to a algae outbreak that I didn't fix right away n turn my tank into crap n smothered many zoas n sps to death. Tried to add some Gfo to soak up the extra baddies in the water but added too much and destroye my tank. It's now in the process of recovering. Tricky hobby

[Coralgurl]

I feed some sort of algae in the morning and then feed my fish a mix of frozen foods in the evening until they stop eating (and they actually do) and their bellies are fat!!! That can be 5 mins or 10. My system does not like pellets so I stay away and only use as a last resort (out of frozen) but won't add on an auto feeder.

Based on this thread, I think I'm underfeeding and should be adding more. Just not really able to do so.

[Masonjames]

Originally Posted by Steve...

What does everyone think of heavy feeding for our fish? I have slowly increased the amount of feeding in my tank and noticed my fish are happier and of course fatter. Are there any possible issues with heavy feeding if proper filtration is in place? How much feedings would you guys consider heavy?

Whats proper filtration? What's heavy feeding? What type of environment are you trying to maintain?
We can feed a 100% of whatever we have the means to remove. If we could remove 100% of what goes in we could feed pails of food as many time as day as we'd want to. If efficiency is not 100% then what's added needs to reflect that. If feedings are heavy in the sense they are greater then the rate of removal, then yes there can be very real possible issues with doing so depending on the type of envioroment you wish to maintain. If you don't want but have nuisance algae and/or you need to clean your glass daily or every second day, chances are additions are far more then you and your system can effectively remove/process in a timely fashion. But if fish are starving and we can't add what they need because the system cannot handle it then we really need to re examine our current husbandry practices.

Feed as much and as often as you wish based upon what you and your system can remove and process effectively in a timely fashion. You may find your once thought of idea of heavy feeding is easily maintained by you and your system, or you may find keeping happy fish could turn out to be unhappy you with and algae farm.