Well, I have been home for a couple of weeks on vacation, so I decided to do a little test. A few months back, I had a major turn around on my corals. Things started to grow very well, colors blossoming, etc. Although I had done some major changes in my habits at the same time, I always suspected for some reason that the pellet food I was adding 4 times per day with a feeding timer was a major culprit if not THE culprit. However, how to test that was another story. Since then, I stopped feeding those pellets altogether and now feed every 2-3 days with nothing but PE mysis and maybe once per week some cyclopeeze in addition to the frozen foods. I may also add once per week a bit of decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. The last 2 mostly for the anthias despite not being able to tell a difference from multiple daily feedings to every other day.
These past two weeks I fed nothing but the pellets again. The fish simply love this stuff . With everything else being equal, including water changes, the coral color have gone to the crapper in several of them. A couple of corals even began to RTN for no particular reason while they had been doing very well and coloring for months. Was that a direct effect? It would be too much to assume it was I think. Not all corals seem affected. LPS do not seem to care as much, but acros certainly do. Some montiporas seem not so bright too. The puzzling thing to me is that PO4 by a Hanna colorimeter and nitrates by salifert test kits remains exactly the same as before. However, what has been drastically convincing for me at least is that these pellet foods is not something I will continue to add ever!!!
This brings up many questions in my mind though. What could be in the food affecting the corals? Was this simply an extraordinary case of coincidence? I don't know, but since I stopped feeding this food today, I am hoping my colors will come back over the next 1-2 weeks. I am due for MH bulb changes, but I will wait for a couple of more weeks before changing them not to add any more confounding factors.
I am sure you all are wondering what food it was. Although I am a little hesitant to say the name, I think I will in 2 weeks when I see what, if any difference, has occurred without using it. I would hate to give these people some bad publicity if it is unwarranted. Especially since I have never read anything bad about it.
So, what foods have you noticed to affect your tank??
These past two weeks I fed nothing but the pellets again. The fish simply love this stuff . With everything else being equal, including water changes, the coral color have gone to the crapper in several of them. A couple of corals even began to RTN for no particular reason while they had been doing very well and coloring for months. Was that a direct effect? It would be too much to assume it was I think. Not all corals seem affected. LPS do not seem to care as much, but acros certainly do. Some montiporas seem not so bright too. The puzzling thing to me is that PO4 by a Hanna colorimeter and nitrates by salifert test kits remains exactly the same as before. However, what has been drastically convincing for me at least is that these pellet foods is not something I will continue to add ever!!!
This brings up many questions in my mind though. What could be in the food affecting the corals? Was this simply an extraordinary case of coincidence? I don't know, but since I stopped feeding this food today, I am hoping my colors will come back over the next 1-2 weeks. I am due for MH bulb changes, but I will wait for a couple of more weeks before changing them not to add any more confounding factors.
I am sure you all are wondering what food it was. Although I am a little hesitant to say the name, I think I will in 2 weeks when I see what, if any difference, has occurred without using it. I would hate to give these people some bad publicity if it is unwarranted. Especially since I have never read anything bad about it.
So, what foods have you noticed to affect your tank??
