Acropora food

[TatumFan]

Hello fellow reefers,
I am interested in learning more about acropora feeding, specifically what foods are best to provide in captivity for maximum growth and health. I currently culture tetraselmis phytoplankton and feed it to my tank by the gallon. I've had pretty good survival of acropora in my system through some ups and downs, but I don't have the rapid growth that I've seen others achieve. This has me wondering about providing bacteria as food and if there is any easy and inexpensive way to cultivate helpful bacteria for feeding. I have heard of zeovit rocks to culture bacteria in a tank as well as vinegar dosing, and I wanted to know if anyone here had experience with these or recommendations on how I can increase my coral growth using food.

 

[SteveDola]

I feed a mix of phyto, reef roids, goni/acro power 2-3 times a week at midnight. I mix up a bottle and put in the fridge to squirt in when they need it.

 

[dz6t]

+1 for Reefroid, Reef Chilli, both of these are scientifically proven.
I use Newlife Spectrum Reef cells (small) along with the two mentioned above, it has the smallest particle size among dry food and may be better for SPS.

https://a.co/d/2UtOSGf

 

[afboundguy]

I dose phyto heavily about 125-150 ml three times a day and feed frozen cyclops and frozen baby brine shrimp every few days so there's plenty of food for corals to munch on...

 

[TatumFan]

What about fermented foods like fish sauce? I saw a study on google scholar that shows explosive growth of millepora frags (and unfortunately a high mortality as well) when dosing fermented anchovies (fish sauce). I also saw this video and wanted to know if the PSB/PNSB/GSB grown would be useful as acropora food even if the culture isn't necessarily a selected single species lab culture:

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[TatumFan]

Link to fermented anchovies study: https://jssm.umt.edu.my/wp-content/...M-Volume-18-Number-1-January-2023-UPDATED.pdf

 

[dz6t]

you can feed PolypLab’s polyps booster, it is similar to Budu.

 

[TatumFan]

What do you think about a home culture of photosynthetic bacteria? I've experimented with feeding Red Boat fish sauce, but never for a long enough period to observe changes in coral growth. The bacteria culture seems like a free-for-all with no way to verify what species you end up with, and I'd be worried about adding contaminants. The ability to generate a lot of food relatively quickly and cheaply is more appealing to me than commercial coral foods.

 

[SteveDola]

I never noticed any difference when dosing Polyp booster. It would get a coral response sometimes but no color or health difference. I stopped. Reefroids tho is great.

 

[TatumFan]

Any updates on your fish sauce feeding @dz6t? I saw your appearance on a recent podcast discussing it!

 

[dz6t]

It is great. Now I solved my 0 nitrate issues and keep nitrate at 2 to 5 ppm by dosing fish sauce. Phosphate doesn’t move at all, possibly fish sauce is super rich in nitrogen.

 

[dz6t]

An “side effect” I noticed as well as several other “fish saucers”, fish color especially yellow tang and blue hippo tangs are more vibrant.

 

[Kymot]

Dong and Steve, do you guys just mix phyto, reef roids together? My phosphate is on the high side, 0.2, worried about reef roids causing the PO4 higher?

 

[dz6t]

I don’t mix them, feed separately

 

[TatumFan]

It is great. Now I solved my 0 nitrate issues and keep nitrate at 2 to 5 ppm by dosing fish sauce. Phosphate doesn’t move at all, possibly fish sauce is super rich in nitrogen.

How about coral growth rates? Any particular species that have taken off since you started dosing it?

 

[dz6t]

It is hard to tell the growth rate change of sps, as they already growing extremely fast.
I do notice zoas exploding in growth.

 

[dz6t]

the primary bacteria in fish sauce is lactic acid bacteria from fermentation, it is reported that these bacteria are taken in by coral as food with beneficial effects.

 

[SteveDola]

Dong and Steve, do you guys just mix phyto, reef roids together? My phosphate is on the high side, 0.2, worried about reef roids causing the PO4 higher?

I follow the Polo Reef mix it up and dose it at 10-11 pm every other night. works well for me.

 

[Triggerfish2]

the primary bacteria in fish sauce is lactic acid bacteria from fermentation, it is reported that these bacteria are taken in by coral as food with beneficial effects.

Any particular brand? Dosage amount per gallon?

 

[dz6t]

The brand I am using is currently sold out.

https://a.co/d/9WwMGG0