What would/do you guys feed sps?

[Kuli_Loach]

Hey fish guy..

How long have you fed your corals cyclop-ezee?

NLS is meant for fish, not corals.

[Fishguy2727]

I have fed them cyclop-eeze and DT's since I have had them.

I would like to respectfully and politely ask that at least in threads that I start that you respectfully keep your personal opinions (including objections to NLS) to factual statements and try not to allow your personal feelings to get through.

"Feeding NLS benefits corals no more than any other food you feed them."

If you have not even tried it I think this should have been worded differently. For example: 'I have seen absolutely no evidence for NLS being beneficial at all to any corals, so I stick with the tried, true, and proven methods used to get them to thrive. These include...' and then share the methods you use and recommend. The statement you made sounded lilke an absolutely true and unquestionable fact, which it is not. Until someone does a very formal and very scientific comparison between NLS and the classical coral foods, people should simply try what they think will be best and be willing to change their methods as needed. If someone tries NLS on their corals and their corals seem to do better or as good with it, then they can keep doing it and keep us posted. If they do worse then they should switch and share that experience with the rest of us.

I am really not trying to start anything, I would just like posts to be about the facts and not about our personal preferences.

[Kuli_Loach]

Ok well I am sorry I have not spent the money to just try NLS so they can be beneficial while others on here have tried it and seen no difference. I will leave you alone seeing as I can not type things to your liking. Sorry for giving my opinion.

[Fishguy2727]

Please share your opinion and experience with us. I think you know that is not what I meant. I explained why I did not feel your post was completely appropriate and even gave an example of how it could have been different without stepping on toes. I have tried to do the same for others here, I am asking others to do the same for me. All I am asking is that you (and anyone else) try and stick to the facts and try to leave personal feelings out of it so that information and not preference is spread.

[kaybee]

...Many corals are large enough to eat certain NLS foods...It is worth a shot to see how your particular corals take to it and respond to it. If they do better, go ahead and keep feeding it. If they don't take to it then just stop. As far as I know no one has done a truly scientific comparison of the two...

Fishguy, I'm willing to put NLS to the test, because I also believe it is worth a shot (and I have the corals and food available).

I believe I've got a good 'test coral' to run the trial on: a 3-branched caulastrea (right branch has two fused-polyps/2 mouths, the center branch has 1.75-fused polyp/1 mouth, and the left branch has two fused-polyps/2 mouths). The heads of the left and right branches are similarly-sized:


I'll run a year-long trial (01 sep 08- 31 aug 09):

- feeding the left 2-headed branch one mysis per head per week,
- and the right 2-headed one 3mm NLS Large Fish Formula pellet per head per week.
- I won't feed the center branch at all; it will only be provided light.

After 12 months of doing this I'll compare skeletal growth and polyp size, as well as do a 'head count', to determine if there's any significant difference between a) mysis shrimp, b) photosynthesis-only, and c) NLS only. I'll maintain a feeding record.

The branched-calaustrea is a single 'piece' so light exposure and depth beneath the lights (T5HOs) will be identical. Being in the same tank, nutrition and growth provided by trace elements, carbonates and calcium will also be identical.

Factors which may or may not effect the end result include:

1) the potential for any of the polyps to capture 'stuff' that I have not specifically fed them, such as 'pods, nocturnal live mysid shrimp and fish cr*p; food released by other corals that water flow brings to the 'test corals'. This will provide an unknown quantity of nourishment, but I figure over a year's time each branch will more or less have obtained the same quantity of this miscellaneous 'food'.

2) there is a 1mm thick/1cm long band of 'connecting tissue' between the left branch and center branch, potentially enabling the center ('light only') branch to obtain nourishment via 'dissemination'. Unknown how much nourishment will be transferred to the center branch. This may (or may not) give a slight edge to the NLS-fed branch. I expect the left and center branches to eventually separate as skeletal growth pushes the polyps apart. When I first got the coral, all three were connected via tissue, and the skeleton wasn't developed enough for the piece to even be considered 'branched'.

3) is one 3mm NLS pellet nutrionally-equivalent to a 1.5cm-2cm mysis shrimp, or vice-versa? Time will tell, I suppose. I haven't yet figured out what to do if I should feed additional heads additional portions or just provide 2 mysis or 2 pellets per respective branch regardless of the quantity of polyps which may form prior to the conclusion of the 12 months.

It will understandably be limited non-scientific trial because I am only testing one particular coral as opposed to several corals of the same species or even multiple species, as well as testing in one tank as opposed to in several tanks. So I guess the end result will be how NLS does in my tank with the particular coral I have chosen, rather than how NLS does universally.

If there are any input or suggestions let me know. The next 'scheduled feeding' is on or about 05 sep 08.