Phosphates too high :-(

its a good question armyfishguy

water quality is key to this whole situation IMO
If you can maintain 0 phosphates and 0 nitrates feeding your fish 2 or 3 times every day , then although I cant say for certain what the long term effects would be on that fishes health, there is no reason not to do so IME

feeding sparingly is an attempt to control water quality = less food = less waste = less work for your biological filter/skimmer etc

I feed 6 days per week once per day - I run GFO and Purigen, do 5% weekly water changes and test my water weekly

providing my numbers stay where I am happy. I will continue doing what I am doing.

if my numbers go wrong - then I will 1st renew my chemical media and if that does not solve the issue, Ill look at my feeding regime

Steve

 

The way I see it is it would work, but not as great as planned.
You would start to feed a small portion (dividing what you'd normally feed in a week into each day) and the quicker livestock would end up gobbling up most of the food, leaving the slower ones with naught. The next day is the same, and the day after that. After realizing that your slower critters cant get enough, you end up feeding more...then more and more until you realize you're back with the same high phosphate and dirty water problem as before.
That why I feed a nice quantity all at once, scoop the rest and wait a day. Then I feed again. That way no one starves and I dont have to keep feeding more and more food, mucking up my system.
Very good point for those whose live stock are equally fast/slow. For my seahorses I will have to feed several times a day just because not only are they slow, but their digestive systems require them to eat many meals a day to get the nutrients their bodies need.

 

Steve,
What kind of food do you feed your tank?

 

I mix it up
frozen Mysis, occasional brine
FD - white worm, blood worm, Cyclopeze
pellets - Ocean Nutrition
flake - same brand

variety being the spice of life

Steve

 

That's how my Strawberry Psuedo is, he could eat until he pops. I've never seen such a greedy fish. My Yellow watchman on the other hand will eat her fill and then just stare at the rest as if its a foreign object.

 

I will put it like this, I'm def. learning more from this post than any other post! It's very interesting. I have 2 clowns, a spotted cardinalfish and a lawnmower blenny. I don't have pods or anything special. I have some coral, but I don't spot feed. It's been set up for about 6 months (well, two tanks were combined into one, so technically only a few weeks?)

What would the overall advice be about feeding my tank? For now I'm going with the every other day technique. I will see how that goes. The food will be some flake, frozen and pellets in roatation. Thanks!

 

your fish will be the judges, but it sounds good to me
if they are looking thin - adapt
if they look like me - your over feeding

Steve

 

As long as you do not foul your water you can feed as much as they will eat to be happy. regarding frozen - give that stuff a good rinse befire using it as it is known to have phosphates and nitrates in it.