What is the best food for corals?

reef roids and reef chili are great foods. Personally I have been using alot of brightwell products because they are easily available to me through my LFS. I have never "not" fed my corals so I cant tell you how much of a difference it makes, but I feed coral food very heavily in my system, which does not have a skimmer or any mechanical filtration, so I have plankton suspended in my water constantly. I have great coral growth, but then again, I also have great lighting so I cant say if the food actually helps that much.

 

I think a good question to ask would be
"What king of coral are you feeding?"

I agree with peredhil, pertaining to SPS corals only. There is no need to feed them unless you just wanna see polyp extension (assuming you have and feed fish in the tank). Feeding LPS is worth it IMO because it does increase growth. NPS is required to be fed, usually constantly which can be a wreck on water quality. Anemone's also can be fed as this increases growth quite a bit.

So to recap, I don't spot feed SPS, (they get dissolved organic compounds (DOC) from fish pooping and feeding). I feed my 3 PHOTOSYNTHETIC gorgonia coral frenzy twice a week followed by a water change 2-3 hours later. LPS get Mysis every now and then (usually once every 2 weeks) and my 2 nem's get Mysis and some type of plankton (cant remember the name) that's bigger than Mysis once or twice a week, I will be moving up to bigger foods for them eventually.

 

I never saw any growth with a few of my LPS until I spot fed, then they took off like crazy. My Duncan really grows with feeding. I feed cyclopeeze and oyster feast. I can't say my SPS are that dramatic, but If I don't feed their color seems to fade after a week or so, but that system is normally 0.00 phosphate and undetectable nitrate that might have something to do with it. I am a huge fan of feeding if you don't pollute the tank.

 

"When an animal possesses an organ or set of organs which perform certain functions with perfect efficiency, it can be taken as axiomatic that such organs are used." C.M. Younge

IOW, corals did not develop stinging tentacles and a mouth to capture sunlight, although (again), they won't normally require spot-feeding if fish are being fed in the same tank.

Feeding Saltwater Aquarium Corals - Corals Need More Than a Lot of Light

 

With my bi weekly feeding, i have noticed that growth and color are very good.

Some people told me that i can use KZ Virtalizer, and the full set of this product. It is quiet expensive and i don't know if this is enough

 

Exactly!

Will most corals die a horrible death if not feed directly probably not. Do you want to provide a more natural environment for your corals (within reason) then you should probably feed them.

Feeding them the right stuff is the hard part.

 

The question wasn't whether or not spot feeding is beneficial. It was asking what the best food is.

You can spot feed all you want, take away the light and, being realistic, the coral dies. Take away the spot feeding, no biggy.

I don't really see any counter to that - the single best food is quality light. That should be the primary focus. Spot feeding is good and can be beneficial, but not best.

I agree spot feeding LPS (and even a lot of softies) encourages growth and color, but all that is secondary from their 'best' food source.

As far as 'what to spot feed', I'd say, by and large, it doesn't really matter (within reason of things already mentioned). Simply feeding fish will indirectly cover supplemental coral feeding. Spot feeding a coral specifically (in most coral cases) is third tier feeding (light, then fish food leftovers, then spot feeding). I don't really see why it's being spoken of in the list of 'best'. It's third down the list at best (there are of course exceptions to everything).

You feed your fish, you spot feed your coral, you stand a reasonably good chance (especially if new at this) of having dirty water. That's hardly 'best' for the coral. The light isn't going to muck up the water.

So I'll insist, 'best' is consistent quality light at good durations. I don't know what OP is running as a light source, but that's first (bc it's best ).

 

Can't argue with that.

I do believe, however, that most folks place light on a level all to itself, so that when coral food is mentioned, it's in reference to liquid or particulate organic matter (although light is, in fact, the most important food source).

 

My SPS are under 250 watt Phoenix bulbs with Hamilton ballast/reflector. They didn't grow for 5 months and were pale. I was feeding one fish every few days one pellet at a time. I was vinegar dosing, skimming and running a phosphate reactor. Needless to say, my organic content was very low. I temporarily pulled the skimmer and stopped dosing vinegar.

I then added 2 more fish and feed daily, multiple times. 6 weeks later, corals are vibrant and growing noticeably daily. I have more growth in the last 3 weeks then I had in a year prior.

Lighting is the key most important factor. Without great lighting, my efforts to increase my organic content probably would have gone unsuccessful. However, but even with great lighting, your success will be brief if not at all without the proper organics being offered to coral in my experience.

But as for the question I don't think dosing reef chili etc. is necessary and can ruin water quality as pointed out.

 

This is what I do, feed a slurry of Rod's Food and crush pellets every 3 days. Introduce a small amount of food, wait 20 minutes for a full feeding response and proceed to feed everything. LPS, sps...and fish.