# Feeding the tank



## Paul B (Aug 4, 2009)

I purposely didn't call this "feeding the fish" or "feeding the corals"
because we all know we have to feed those. 
I use an automatic feeder to feed the "tank" itself. 
Much of the livestock in a well established tank is not fish or corals. There are all sorts of things living in there that came by accident that we should strive to cultivate. I have always felt that most tanks are much too sterile. I know a lot of people like that look but IMO it is not healthy. I also know about nitrate but that is a different thing for a different thread.
In "my" tank at least there are hundreds or maybe thousands of brittlestars, tube worms, amphipods, copepods, spaghetti worms, bristle worms etc. I like these creatures as much or more than the animals I paid for. A healthy population of "free" organisms provide food and filtration for a tank with the added benefit of making it much more natural.
When I feed my tank, I see numerous arms poking out of every crevace. Tiny snails that I can hardly see start slinking around and the spaghetti worms
come to life. Of course the larger hermit crabs have excellent odor receptors and head straight for the food.
In my automatic feeder I put some flakes and pellets. Of course the fish eat some of it, but the rest manages to make it to all the crevaces to feed these other, (more interesting in my opinion) animals.
If they were larger and we could see them better, they are many times more interesting than fish. Much of this stuff is right out of science fiction.
If it were not for these organisms I would not be able to keep tiny clown gobies, blue stripe pipefish and mandarins.
They grow naturally in the sea and I feel theuy should populate our tanks.
They, of course have to be added from somewhere and a portion of them come on good quality live rock but they must be fed.
Just my opinion of course. How do you feel about this? *old dude


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## drhank (Aug 3, 2009)

Paul, it's great to hear from you again. I completely agree. Personally, I've gone low tech. Gotten rid of my SPS and gone to easy LPS and softies. I skim during the day but turn the skimmer off at night and feed my tank in the evening so that everything gets fed. It's much less work for me, my tank is thriving, and all my critters seem happy.

I've subscribed to the less is best philosophy.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

I think you guys are awesome.


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## Paul B (Aug 4, 2009)

> Personally, I've gone low tech.


My tank is "no Tech" I still use a reverse UG filter and would not change it for anything.
My skimmer is home made as well as the lights, auto fill, surface skimmer and many of the rocks.
I also only have two SPS corals and they are thriving and growing for a few years now. They don't realize their tank is not pristine.
I also stir up the gravel occasionally just to put some crud in the water. If I look close, I can see each polyp smiling.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

I decided to try an experiment with FW. I added a small amount of substate from a stream to my sunfish tank and it's now bursting with copeods, hydra etc. My sunfish would eat the normal clean up crew like shimp so I think it helps keep the tank balanced. I was worried about adding parasites but so far don't seem to have problems and I think it makes the tank more interesting also.


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## Sandsifter (Feb 22, 2009)

Well I have to agree that less is better and lo tech is just fine. I have a 50 gal reef tank, run a protein skimmer and test the tank every week, and it is pretty much self sustaining (no crisises in over a year); I have an algae eater who handles the algae, everyone gets once per day ( mysis and brine shrimp), they are treated to live shrimp once a month. And the red scooter blennies are finding plenty of food in the substrate.

My one major addition was a blue / white LED strip for night time. The corals have thrived since I added that.


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