Home blended coral food, (used to be $5)

[SantaMonica]

Now feeding this 72 ml per day, plus 20 square inches of nori a day, plus one whole silverside a week for the eel.

[vk999]

I wonder, if I blend oysters as prescribed, poor into ice cube form and freeze it, would I need to add sodium alginate at all ? Certainly this would not work for continuous feeding, but if adding a cube a day manually is ok, then this seems to be an easier way. Am I mistaken ? Thanks!
Vadim

[SantaMonica]

Correct, the sodium alginate is only to keep it from settling after many days. If you are going to just blend it and put it in, you don't need it.

But, coral food does not do very good when you add it all at once. Coral polyps can only eat once, then they have to digest before they come out and eat again. So only the first amount of food gets eaten; the rest goes to waste. Coral polyps have adjusted to the constant amount of food particles in the ocean, especially at night.

[vk999]

you are right, but I need to get my SM100 first :-) Then I'll be able to consider continuous feeding.

[simon wright]

thought about just freezing it myself without the powder , easier and will keep longer frozen .
but say you put it in a drip feeder type of feeder mixed in with phytoplankton and oyster eggs , think it would all just settle to bottom of feeder without an airater or sumthing to keep it circulating .
any thoughts on this before i waste some food to see if it works just drip fed over a day .
i have read the food chiller feeder on here but i am trying to cut down on plugs and power usage , any ideas ?

[SantaMonica]

The why you use sodium alginate; it keeps everything in suspension so it can be pumped out.

[simon wright]

yes i agree with that but it has to be put in near some flow of water to disperse it , if you put it in tank that is totaly still it goes like stringy snot , marine snow of the shelf does the same thing if not put into the flow of a powerhead .

[SantaMonica]

You need to blend it more then. It won't do that if you blend it enough.

[SantaMonica]

Note: 72 ml/day = 22 frozen cubes/day

[SantaMonica]

Note 2: Real reefs have been measured to be fed 1 pound of food particles per day, per cubic meter (264 gal). This would be 144 cubes of food per day, or:

65 cubes in a 120 gal
49 cubes in a 90 gal
30 cubes in a 55 gal
22 cubes in a 40 gal
13 cubes in a 24 gal nano
6 cubes in a 12 gal nano