Hard coral diet - What are you "feeding" them?

I

Ivan

[I am starting to build up my SPS Coral inventory (6 pieces thus far), and I wanted to know from those with more experience, what are you routinely feeding to your tank to enhance the growth of these animals (in terms of food and additives)? I know I'll get a bevy of answers, but the more the better. Thanks!]
 
[Pristine water conditions, great flow and tons of light is the prefered diet of SPS corals.

I've tried a few things, such as Cyclop Eeze and Golden Pearls, but to be honest these corals don't appear to be eating these foods. Just keeping healthy parameters is what makes these corals do well, and keep nuisance algae at bay.]
 
[Hmm I have to disagree with marc on this one... I think SPS are one of the most voracious eaters out tehre, thing is most people dont feed the right size food.

I dont target feed my SPS, I feed the whole tank a slurry of homemade food I get from the Asian Market.

5 Tiger Shrimp minus the shells (eyes and heads are good)
5 Fresh Oysters - minus shells
6 Live Fresh Water Clams - Minus Shells
6 Whole Smelt
1 Lbs frozen sea food meddly (has baby Octopus, crap meat, shrimp, etc) this is no Bagged, its fresh-frozen?!
3 sheets Roasted Nori Soaked in Distilled water
6 Capsule Contents Cod Liver Oil
2 Cups of your preferred Flake Food
1 Bottle Cryo-Plankton
As Much frozen cubes of Food as you want
Cheap 10$ food blender

The last time I was at the market, a customer was having some fresh fish cleaned and gutted. I asked for the innards (Stomach, heart, all that gross stuff). But I know that the internal organs are VERY high in Fatty acids and Iron. It was free and am sure contributed to the nutritional value of the mix.

Basically - Blend each item and then add the next, I get a soupy slurry from this which I put in Ziplock Baggies flattened out. Then Freeze for easy breaking apart. The food is very liquidy and I can see the SPS polyps grapping something when I feed.. Some of the larger polyped SPS I can see activelly grabbing pieces of food. My corals do great and I can say Ive seen colors get better after feeding for a week. The fish love the food and I think this activelly feeds the whole tanks ecosystem. The water is cloudy for about 30 minutes, but it clears fast.

Once I bought the Food Chopper.... This cost me about 7$ to make a months supply of food. I feel much better feeding a mostly natural source of food then all flake food which is high in ash and other non-food items.

IT is smelly, expect to take about 45 minutes preparing the foods, cleaning the shrimp, shucking the oysters.

I dont think you can get any better for your tank though, feeding corals, fish and the small animals in your eco-system all at the same time.

Hope that helps some.]
 
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