Overfeeding?

[sregnar35]

Hello all, I have a 75g, stocking as follows:
1 royal gramma 2-3 inches
2 false percs 2-3 inches
1 yellow tang 4-5 inches
1 hippo tang 4-5 inches
1 madarin dragonette 3-4 inches
1 green star polyp
40lbs live rock2 peppermint shrimp
various other inverts ( crabs,snails, 1 cucumber)

My question is this, I feed approximately 10-20 formula 1 or formula 2 pellets daily (the size of a bb each ) and the fish go insane to get them. There is never any that settles out to the bottom, my blue tang nearly comes out of the water to feed. Yet I have a slight diatom problem on the bottom of my tank, clumps of it in low current areas as well as brownish sand in other areas. I also noticed syconoid sponges covering probably 30 to 40% of my live rock, they are all over dark overhangs and holes. These are signs of high nutrients in the water. My CPR bak pak 2R pulls probably 3 to 5 cups of dark green skimmate a week, and I use 75 to 80% RO water for topoff and water changes(weekly 5 gallon) The rest of the time i use tap water, though my tap water is very good. Could or should I cut back feeding? All of my fish look healthy, the blue tang is nice a full as are all the rest of my fish, but maybe it's still too much. Anyone have any recommendations?? Thank you very much!

 

[Anonymous]

I think you have a bit high bioload for your tank, along with fairly light skimming. Using solely RO/DI water would certainly help as well.

 

[sregnar35]

Understandable about the RO/DI usage, but am I overstocked? I have 20 inches of fish in my tank, and I know they will grow some, the clowns and gramma are about fully grown, and the tangs stand to each double possibly, from all the reading I have done that's not overstocked.But would you recommend cutting back on the amount I feed?

 

[Anonymous]

Tangs are eating machines, and MUST be fed enough to maintain weight and grow. While at the moment I don't think the amount of food you are introducing to the system is a huge problem, you will only be adding more food as they mature. I think you'll be fine, just don't add anything else.
I think the diatoms you are seeing now are a result of the tap water more than anything. I would however add a better skimmer to the system.

Jim

 

[sregnar35]

Thanks JimM, as the masses of diatoms build on my dsb, I manually remove them, and each time less and less come back. I just today found out what the sponges in my tank are. There are lots of them, and they are a harmless filter feeder as I understand it, but having so many is a sign of high nutrients in the water. Could a gallon of tap water a week effect my water this much? I've thought of upgrading skimmers, my cpr has the preskimmer and it seems to do a pretty good job. Could I keep using it and supplement some other way?

 

[Anonymous]

Well if your fish eat it all right away you're not overfeeding. I guess after looking again at your list you don't really have all that much in there.

I would think about a skimmer upgrade if you have a sump. What kind of water circulation do you have? Do you really only have 40# of live rock? Have you thought about adding a little more?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks JimM, as the masses of diatoms build on my dsb, I manually remove them, and each time less and less come back. I just today found out what the sponges in my tank are. There are lots of them, and they are a harmless filter feeder as I understand it, but having so many is a sign of high nutrients in the water. Could a gallon of tap water a week effect my water this much?

Sponges are a sign of a healthy system. Don't consider them an indicator that something is wrong. I have tons of them under my rocks, in no small part because I feed lots of phyto in that tank.

Jim

 

[sregnar35]

Words of encouragement, thanks again Jim. I do only have 40# of lr, I also have about 35-40# of base rock that has begun it's transformation into lr. All of my base rock is now covered in at least a little coralline algae, tubeworms and the like. I originally purchased 30# of lr from friend to "seed" my base rock, and I then bought another 10# from my lfs. SO I actually have 40# of great, real lr and another35-40# of home cultured live rock. My tank was set up 11/03. For circulation I have 3 maxijet 1200's and 1 HOB filter with nothing in it, used to break up the surface a bit. NO sump unfortunately.

 

[hopdude]

I have a 75 gallon that's stocked very much like yours. I just have one yellow tang, though. I have 100 pounds of live rock. I have a problem occasionally with cyano, and I don't think I overfeed either. I think it's the tang. Those things eat like horses and poop about the same. You might try reducing your lighting period. The star polyp will do fine with only 8 hours of light. You may also just need to up the water changes. Tangs are just messy, but I love 'em!

 

[sregnar35]

Thanks, my yellow dumps out big green logs all the time!! I'll try the lighting recomendation, I need to get timers! I do a 5 gallon water change weekly, that's not enough?? What do you recommend?

 

[hopdude]

OOPS! I didn't see your water change comments initially. That's probably okay. I bet the lighting change will help out a lot. You don't have anything that needs a lot of light. Just keep the star polyps near the top of the tank.

 

[sregnar35]

I've got them currently almost on the bottom, I've read they aren't a species that needs alot of light, so I figured 12 inches down, under 260w is good, but I could move it if you think it's necessary?

 

[hopdude]

No, if they seem to be doing okay I wouldn't mess with them. Just keep an eye on them if you reduce the hours of lighting. They will probably do fine. They are really hardy.

 

[sregnar35]

Awesome, will do, thank you!