How much food is too much

[lcstorc]

Every place I look I read or hear about not overfeeding. How do I know how much to feed? The closest to an answer I have found is what they will eat in 3-5 minutes.
There is no visible food in my tank after about a minute forget 5 minutes, but I am still having nitrate issues. I have to assume I am overfeeding somehow, but I also don't want my critters to starve.
I feed mostly frozen food of a wide variety. brine, misis, plankton, blood worms, krill and a couple of mixes. No I do not use all of this at once. In my 125g tank I generally give 2 cubes a day. One of brine and one of something else. I also feed my anemones and serpent star pieces of silverside once a week and occasionally put in some pellets or flakes but that is pretty rare at this point.
I do have a couple of other potential issues that I am working on thanks to advice from the forum. I am slowly removing my bio-balls (20% a month) and have just discovered several threads about the negatives of crushed coral which is about 50% of my substrate. I will start removing that a bit at a time as well since I don't want to do anything very fast and freak the tank out.
Would separating the feeding into one cube in the morning and one in the evening help?
BTW I do have an overflow, sump, and protein skimmer.
Thanks for any info.
Lynn

[Woodstock]

I think your nitrate problem is from your cc and the bioballs. Any type of trapped ditritus will create trAtes. Do you have any mechanical filtration (sponges, floss, etc.)? If so, make sure to clean/replace them every few days. Don't forget about cleaning out your overflow and sump too. What % of water changes are you doing and how often? You should increase the amount and frequency until you get the trAtes down. Adjust your skimmer to skim wet if possible. Do you use ro/di water? Tap? Make sure you test your newly made salt water for trates prior to using it just to eliminate that as a source..

As far as feeding, I feed WAY more than you per day and my trates are 0-5ppm. Feeding my fish takes about 15-20 minutes... I will slowly feed small amounts allowing the fish to eat evrey bit, then repeat. I do this 3 times per day... more on the weekends. I do not think you are overfeeding yours....

HTH

[lcstorc]

Well, at least it sounds like I'm working on the right things. I was taking it slow on removing the bioballs and cc. Should I speed it up? I just added some additional live sand and cleaned the sump and they did go down some, but still way high. I have a sponge in one tank and and another (don't know what but seems to be the same purpose) in the big tank. Haven't been cleaning or replacing them that often but about once a week. I'll increase that. I have been doing about 20% once a week. Mu husband hates the once a week. Not because of the work but because he is afraid we are taking out the good stuff. We have RO water but it is not DI. I have tested the new water on most changes and it has always come up at 0.
Sounds like you like the idea of morning and evening feeding since you say you do 3 times a day, so I'll try that as well.
The only bad thing is that I am changing so much I won't really know what does it. Oh well, as long as they go down, I'll be happy.
Thanks for all of your help.

Peace
Lynn

[Woodstock]

You mention that you added more sand... You should remove the cc before adding sand. Maybe you're replacing it one section at a time?

A loooong time ago, I too had crushed coral... when I switched it out, I did it all at once. I used a hang-on-tank canister filter with a micron cartridge to help filter out all the muck... and several water changes.

[lcstorc]

I had just added the sand the night before I found a thread about not using crushed coral. Then I did a search on it and it seems pretty much everyone agrees that it is a bad idea.
Unfortunately it is one of the pieces of bad advice we got from the lfs before we set up the tank.
Should I increase frequency or volume of the water changes? While the trates are high, I am (knock on wood) not losing anybody and haven't for some time.
I've been doing the once a week for about 2 months now and have seen improvement, but would love for it to be faster if I can do so safely.
Thanks
Lynn

[Woodstock]

Sure, you could do one everyother day. Just be sure the temp, salinity, etc is the same as the tank water.

[lcstorc]

I won't be able to make water fast enough for every other day, but twice a week would be not bad. Is it better to do 20% changes more frequently or do a bigger change (maybe 40%) once a week?
I read an article that suggested doing a major change since it would reduce the percentage of nitrates more dramatically. Sounded scary to me so I've stuck with more standard amounts and just doing it every week.
Might be best to up the frequency now that I think about it more, but you guys know a lot more than I do so I'ld love your opinion.
Thanks again.
I finally feel like I am headed in the right direction. I just need to be patient and know that it is going to take a while.
Lynn

[Witfull]

doing one 40% change will lower the level more that 2-20% changes.

[gimpy]

Hi, Lynn, I hope everything is going well. I have a couple of questions. You said your nitrates are high, but I did not see what they actually are. Just how high are they? What do you have in your tank that you feed two cubes a day. I think that I would slip in some dry flake every once in a while. I only feed three small fish, but two cubes seem like a lot to me.

As far as I can tell, your tank is actually doing well, except for "high" nitrates. You don't list any specific problems that I read about. I think I would try to enjoy the tank more than what it sounds like to me you are doing.

Well, I hope you get everything straightened out.

Frank

[lcstorc]

Thanks Frank!
Actually I spend hours upon hours enjoying the tank, but your point is well taken. It is there to enjoy. I am just afraid for all the wonderful lives I have in the tank and want to make sure I am doing the best I can for them. I actually have quite a lot in my tank. Particularly since it is only about 8 months old. The nitrates are at about 20 now, but were much higher. I'm taking that as a sign that I am on the right track. All other tests I have done look good. No amonia, no trites, ph and calcium both good. I'm doing another water change today and going to try to talk my husband into making it 40% of the volume instead of the 20% he ususally lets me do. With that and continuing to remove the bio-balls, starting to remove the crushed coral, running the protein skimmer wet, and spreading out the feeding hopefully things will continue to improve.
Fortunately, even with the high trates, everything in the tank seems pretty happy except my anemones. One looks pretty lousy and another keeps splitting which I am told is a sign of stress. The fish, and corals all look good. I have been told I don't have enough light for the anemones so I am light shopping. Here's a list of what I have. I also have a couple of pics in the gallery if you want to take a look. I'm going to try for some better ones today. I just have trouble getting the fish to stay still.

Main tank is a 125g reef tank w/1 Yellow tang,1 gold stripe maroon clown,1 flameback angel,1 fire fish (sometimes called fire gobie),3 yellow damsels,3 yellow and black damsels,4 bluegreen chromis damsels,1 peach damsel,1 black and white striped damsel,3 purple w/yellow tail damsels,1 red serpent star,1 sand sifting star,2 fire shrimp,2 peppermint shrimp,1 cleaner wrasse,1 strawberry basselet,1 scooter blenney,2 orange spot blenneys,1 red sea cucumber, 1 green bubble tip anemone, 3 other bubble tip anemones, 4 beadlet anemones, Lots of snails (Narcisus, turbo and Margarita, perhaps some others that I have forgotten), red and blue leg hermit crabs, 2 colored tube worms, Purple bush gorgonian,Yellow finger gorgonian, Cabbage leather, Green frogspawn, Green stripe mushroom, Hairy mushroom,Several other mushrooms.
Attached to the 125 is a 25g seahorse tank w/2 seahorses,1 sand sifting star, 12 narcisus snails and 3 turbo snails.

Yes, I have a lot of damsels. Most are leftovers from the original tank we set up that got me sucked into this whole adventure. They certainly keep the tank looking full and active.
Both tanks share water and both have live rock and live sand.

[Woodstock]

You have a very large bioload at approx 51" (adult sized fish). Keep in mind that a high bioload ultimately creates more nitrAtes. It is doable but requires a lot more cleaning maintenance and water changes to keep the water good. The rule of thumb when stocking an aquarium is 1" (adult size) for every 5gal of water. My reef has a high bioload also but I compensate with large weekly water changes (20 gal), strong skimming and chemical filtration (carbon & polyfilters).

With that said, it sounds like you are taking the necessary steps to get the water in good shape..... your reef is BEAUTIFUL!!

[gimpy]

Woodstock is right. You do have a beautiful tank. Personally, I don't think 20 ppm is "that" high. But, I'm no expert. Lower is better, I'm sure. You do have a lot of inhabitants, but I think that makes for a nice, active, enjoyable-to-watch type of tank. Lots of different things to look at and enjoy.

Frank