Using Phyto-Feast

[LunaReef]

I picked up a bottle of Phyto Feast to feed our corals. The directions on the bottle say to feed 1-5 drops per gallon per day (1-5 tsp per 100g per day). Our tank is a 29g, aside from feather dusters on the live rock it has a small-medium stock of corals in it;

1 large green star polyp colony
2 monti cap frags
1 medium pineapple coral colony
1 small green toadstool
1 small lemnalia frag
1 med-large zoanthid colony (probably more than 75 polyps)
1 small zoanthid colony (about 20 polyps)
1 ricordea rock (3 polyps, all appear to be starting to split)

I have been feeding the tank at a rate of 1 drop per gallon (29 drops) every other day. I know the directions say to do it every day but I have never used this stuff before and was afraid of mucking up the water. Is this a good feeding schedule for our tank? I was wondering how some of you may be using Phyto Feast with your tanks...

 

[Andy O]

Phyto is very concentrated so I would be careful about how much you are dosing. You might want to consider dosing 15 drops to start and they going up from there. I would think that 2 to 3 times a week, at most, should be fine. If you dose too much you can easily get unwanted algae growth.

 

[Moe_K]

From your coral list, I would say why even bother dosing this stuff?
IMO and IME, it'll just lead to an unwanted nutrient increase.

 

[LunaReef]

Oh really? It was recommended to me by an LFS employee who was shocked that I wasn't dosing in any food for my corals. If I don't need it though, I'd rather skip it.

 

[Liam]

As Moe mentioned,most of those corals on your list eat zooplankton,not phyto plankton.
I would still dose it though but only at the rate of a few driops a week.

 

[LunaReef]

Ok, thanks.

 

[aquafarmer]

superfeeding

i make a mix of phytofeast, arctipods, and rotifers and feed my corals directly with a syringe. kicks a** - corals love it. I have no water trouble.

 

[LunaReef]

I checked the product website and noticed they also make Roti-Feast. I thought I may try trace amounts of that instead, but thats a good idea to make a small mix. I don't want to just throw the Phyto away, I'm sure at least the featherdusters are still loving it.

I have stopped using it for now because I was probably over-using it before, so I wanted to give it some time. It has not changed the chemistry of our water at all either.

How much and how often do you feed your corals that mix?