DIY (Foods & more!)

At CapitalCorals, Doc has been blending his own coral and fish foods for over 20 years. All batches vary a little depending on ingredients available. The recipe was based on the Coral food recipe published by Eric Borneman, our Chief Coral Scientist, in the book Aquarium Corals. A good blender of a food processor is needed along with a cutting board and sharp knife. Ziplock baggies are used for portioning the mix into 1 cup amounts which are laid flat to freeze. Others have used ice cube trays for the initial freezing, and then bag afterwards.
Ingredients:
1L water
2 dozen raw shrimp (tail cut off but leave rest of shell)
½ Lb Squid tentacles and tubes
½ lb small whole fish (minnow sized)
6 sheets of Nori (algae sheets used in Sushi rolls)
BRS/Brine Shrimp Direct ingredients
Dried Rotifers- 4 tbs
Dried Copepods-4 tbs
Anularus powder-2 tbs
Paracocous powder-2 tbs
Dried or frozen mysis shrimp
ESV freeze dried phytoplankton (or substitute live phytoplankton for the water
component if you grow it)- 4TBS
4 tbs CoralFeast dry coral food
10 mls Selcon
10 mls Amino Acid Cocktail (We mix our own at CapitalCorals- soon to be on website)
Take half the frozen ingredients and blend in the 1L of liquid.
Chop the remaining frozen ingredients to be bite sized for your fish and add to the liquid
puree. Add dried ingredients and mix well. Add final liquids and mix. Portion 1 cup
(500ml)/ zip lock sandwich bag. Lay flat and freeze.
To use, break off chunks and thaw in DI water, phytoplankton, or tank water. Feed to
fish and corals with a baster or just pour into tank near high flow. You may want to turn
pumps off to feed slow eating corals. REMEMBER to turn them back on after 20-30
minutes or use a timer function if your pump has it.