Feed and Water changes

[C_of_Discus]

Ok I am asking for trouble but here goes the question.

Hypothetical Lets say I have 10 Juvies in a BB 100 gal tank and I work all day.

If i were to put in a 1 pound pack of Frozen Bloodworms in the tank in the morning and leave them to eat all day long.

What problems would I have?

Could I not leave the food in all day and even the next day?

What effect would it have on the water quality for the day or even 2 days?


Would this not maximize growth?

Would they not be able to eat all day?

I would have to use a sponge filter so no food was sucked up or rotting in the filter.

Just a question to get some opinions.

[Graham]

Remember while they are getting around to eating that ton of food that you just put in, the bacteria in the system are starting to decay it and the result is bad water with an ammonia spike through the roof...

Small amounts many time a day is a the best way.... no rotting food

G

[majik]

hi there i have the same problem i work all day i had 10 days off at christmas and was able to feed small ammounts through the day ,my fish loved it and grew like mad.so i havenow invested in an eheim auto feeder that can be set to administer the ammount i choose at intervals that i choose 1 that i looked at could not be set and only fed every 12hours so i went with the eheim more expensive bot worth it i also do 50% w/c every day after work cuz with all that feeding theres alot of poop:D
Tanya

[Don Trinko]

Dry food and auto feeder will help. Feed the FBW in person and set an auto feeder for flakes or pellets etc. Don T.

[C_of_Discus]

Well I expected this response but I guess what I wanted to know was how fast is the water quality affected?

Can a day's amount of food really effect the water that quickly?

[MSD]

1 LB is an enormous amount, all your filters will be well fed. :D

[C_of_Discus]

Also with Water changes, I was always under the impression that hormones from the fish was a growth inhibitor and Large water changes where as much for this issue as for health of fish.

[Graham]

The second that food hits the water there are bacteria starting to break it down,decay/rot it. That produces ammonia.......

take a glass of aquarium water, remember what it smells like and test the NH3, toss a good size cube of BW into it and set it somewhere that the temps will stay constant...wait 24 hours....smell and test again...:vomit:

[Graham]

Also with Water changes, I was always under the impression that hormones from the fish was a growth inhibitor and Large water changes where as much for this issue as for health of fish.

Water chnages control a lot more than just the Pheromones given off by the fish....they replace minerals and trace elements used by the fish and plants, dilute nitrates, lower DOC's and TDS, help balance GH and KH and just make the water better

[C_of_Discus]

Well that is a little extreme.

I understand that issue but a glass of water and a cube of food would be like putting the same ratio of food to water in a tank. So by that reasoning I would be adding aprox 25 pounds of food to a 100 gal tank

[Graham]

Well that is a little extreme.

I understand that issue but a glass of water and a cube of food would be like putting the same ratio of food to water in a tank. So by that reasoning I would be adding aprox 25 pounds of food to a 100 gal tank

I didn't mean a 1 pound cube:D try something that's 1'' x 1'' in 8 oz of water

[Don Trinko]

There is another problem: If discus like it enough they will eat untill they get sick.
What do you have against an auto feeder? Don T.

[phidelt85]

I work 12 hour day as well and don't have an auto feeder. What I do is: get up in the morning feed bh, 20min. later 50% WC, toss in some FBW and go to work. When I get home I feed them small amounts of flakes, pellets, FBW about every hour or so. I then give them a 50% WC and toss in some more FBW. The FBW they clear out in less than 5 minutes so I always end up giving them a bit more afterwards. Then, lights out

[C_of_Discus]

You can get a 1 pound cube! lol

I meant the ratio food to water

I have nothing against Auto feeders but I do wonder about all the fuss regarding water quality and the amount of time it would take to foul the water.

I understand the importance of water quality and would like to find an alternative to an Auto feeder like some type of live food like guppies or raise Brine shrimp and feed.

something that would be more healthy than an Auto feeder because the food that is disbursed into the tank Auto feeder or one large lump sum or ever small portions a day
will foul the water if uneaten so the problem would still exist and unless I become a full time fish keeper I don't have the resources to feed every 4 hours

They "Discus" are suspects in the killing my 2 inch Rainbows I had 12 for 4 months and I have recently added Adults to the tank and every week one goes missing well a portion of him

[C_of_Discus]

I work 12 hour day as well and don't have an auto feeder. What I do is: get up in the morning feed bh, 20min. later 50% WC, toss in some FBW and go to work. When I get home I feed them small amounts of flakes, pellets, FBW about every hour or so. I then give them a 50% WC and toss in some more FBW. The FBW they clear out in less than 5 minutes so I always end up giving them a bit more afterwards. Then, lights out

I do the same, well almost I sometimes am late in the morning and will forget to feed I have a 2 hour commute and then once home they eat every hour or so and I only do 35% twice a week.

I may not be dedicated enough. I really don't need huge monster Discus but I do want to have the healthy and happy thats my main goal.

[majik]

i also have a brine shrimp hatcher that sits in the tank and the bbs swim out into the tank when hatched ,this works well and the fish soon learn where the wee yummys are coming from but i dont use this much as its a pain moving it up and down with the daily water changes:)

[KJoFan]

I'm not sure an autofeeder would produce massive amounts of uneaten food. From my experience you can set the amount of food fed. So, fine tune it to what you know they'll consume in a couple of minutes, or if you're worried about overfeeding, just feed a small amount. It may not fill them up but it's better than no feeding at all, IMO.

I use an autofeeder on my challenge fish and haven't had any issues. I even let it feed it's set 4x per day when I'm home. That way if I'm busy or have to be gone I know they still at least get 4 feedings per day. With these guys there's generally not any leftover food for too long but getting anywhere from 6-8 feedings per day makes for alot of waste and it is hard to keep the tank free of any debris.

I don't worry myself too much over it because I don't think what's left in the tank or accumulates in a day will really deteriorate water quality that fast. They get a 90% change daily on their tank and I'm confident that keeps things pretty well in line water wise.

[korbi_doc]

;) I've used the Eheim feeders now for >4 yrs....they are especially important when I'm away, but I use them daily even when I'm at home...the last thing at nite they get H. FBWs & will actually be swimming 'round waiting for'm....I prefer pellets over flakes in the feeders so I don't get any "mulm" from them.....when I'm away, my friend feeds the cubes of FBWs, & each tank has a fluorescent green card with the #of cubes on it...lol....now, when we both are away, ......LOVE THOSE EHEIMS!!! JMO!

Dottie :rolleyes2::rolleyes2:

[Graham]

C of D...the simplest experiment...Sat morning toss that 1 pound block into the tank and see what happens by the end of the day....it should be interesting

G

[phidelt85]

Goodness Gracious, 1lb? That's a crap load of worms

[GrillMaster]

Goodness Gracious, 1lb? That's a crap load of worms

LOL!! It takes my 24 fish a week to eat that!! :D

Yer gonna make nitrate/phosphate soup in that tank bud! In one day your N03 and P04 will increase dramatically with that much food!

Hypothetical situation...Drop all that food in there in the morning. Your P04 and N03 will start climbing lets say 5 ppm by the end of the day. You do a 50% wc. That cuts the P04 an N03 in half. Now ya have 2.5 ppm of both in the tank. You drop the same amount of food in the next day. It climbs 5ppm during the day. Now ya have 7.5 ppm. 50% wc and it is now 3.75 ppm. Well ya see where this is going.

Unless you are doing 100% wc's everyday, this practice just isn't gonna work!

tc
Mark

[phidelt85]

LOL!! It takes my 24 fish a week to eat that!! :D


tc
Mark

That's about the same here and i feed the little melted scraps to my dwarf cichlids.

[C_of_Discus]

Well everyone is getting stuck on the pound of food I stated.

Lets say i have found out they will eat x amount of food in a day.

I put x amount of food in the tank at 9 am then at 9pm that night I do a 50% water change and by doing this with a BB tank and sponge filter I clean up all the excess food and waste because that is the main point in doing a water change in the first place.

The next day I repeat

would this not be a easy and efficient way of feeding?

[Graham]

If it was everyone would do it...must be a reason we don't.

Try it on Sat and Sun, doing water tests along the way, both days...what happens with you water quality?

G

[Don Trinko]

Again I say: If they like it they will eat too much! This will lead to problems such as bloat . I have heard of discus killing themselves on live CBW. You need to control the amount you feed any tropical fish. They are just not smart enough to know when to stop. Don T.

[Seecher]

Greetings C_of_Discus,

Most of the advice that you are getting is well-meaning but
substantially incomplete to really answer your question. .

The single most important thing that you can do to determine
what the results of a feeding régime are is to the actually
MEASURE the water parameters. So much of a percent water
change is meaningless unless you know WHY you have to change
the water. As Graham said overfeeding will have a grave effect
upon the water parameters in your tank, however, all of this can
be measured, it's no mystery, its scientific fact. Get yourself a
water testing kit whether it be the easy to use sticks or one of
the test tube kits. If the water you start with is within proper
parameters that is pH, hardness etc. your biggest concern will be
with ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite should be
zero or very close to it, nitrate should never be over 80 parts per
million preferably in the area of 40/50 parts per million for adult
discus 20/30 parts per million for juveniles.

Make water testing a frequent event, water changes based on
their readings. By the way, modern auto feeders are absolutely
fantastic, well worth the bucks. Good luck with your project

[Tropical Haven]

I understand what you are talking about here but the thing is with FBW it doesn't take long at all to start polluting you water reguardless on how long they stay in there. The best way of doing this is to get an enheim auto feeder set it for cetain times of the day when you aren't home and then feed FBW when you are home. Just ask yourself this question, is it worth it for my fish to be sick because I don't want to use an alternative method?

[C_of_Discus]

I said in the post to begin with I was just looking for trouble. I guess i found it!

[Graham]

:) No we're just trying to prevent you from getting into trouble;)

[phidelt85]

:) No we're just trying to prevent you from getting into trouble;)

:D