[quote=“logans_daddy, post:15, topic:2938”]
i just dont like the delivery system!![/quote]
By this do you mean clips? Or just feeding sheets vs in frozen cubes or pellets?
I completely agree on the variety being important including some meaty foods as well. Some species of tang prefer, long term may require, more algae then others.
my collection of tangs have hardly ever seen a piece of nori, or romaine lettuce. They munch down on what i feed the tank. flake, pellet, frozen mysis and Brine shrimp. sometimes treats like cyclopeze type arctic pods. They are FD&H fat dumb and happy. I still have the big yellow tang I got from Al, when he took down his 75 a couple years ago. but he lives in a 40 breeder that is mostly fuge, with a bristle tooth tang. both happy, as is the hippo above, and the other bristle tooth and scopas tang in the 75. I like tangs.
Of course, the flake food i buy local from Ed at Almost Natural Tropical Fish Food has a good percentage of greens in it anyway. so they get their fiber and vitamins too. I never coddle them with salad greens. those are low nutrient anyway. they can pick at the tank and find enough roughage on their own. That’s their job.
Ken you have a fuge on every single one of your tanks full of more algae(both in quantity and diversity) than any other tank I have EVER seen. And at the same time your corals aren’t always over run with it. Your algae without a doubt would over take your entire tank and 100% of the coral if it wasn’t for your tedious cleaning and your tangs help. I have no question at all as to how you can keep tangs healthy, but also would say I’ve never seen anyone maintain a similar system or a similar manner of maintenance.
When I asked you once how often you fed your clown fry you said something along the lines of, “Oh I don’t know. I check an e-mail, feed a little, watch a 30 minute program on TV, feed a little, so I don’t know. I just drop in a tiny little bit every time I walk by.†You also keep a mixture of frozen food in your refrigerator that you randomly sprinkle in your tank throughout the day.
I believe one of the largest benefits of feeding dried sheets of seaveggies is in the fact that it allows tangs to graze on it randomly throughout the day. In a pristine reef with little algae to graze on this is a huge bonus. Many literature says tans should be fed 10-20 times a day. If you drop a sheet of algae in once a day and they can feed off it all day long your essentially feeding them infinite times during the period it is in the tank.
That being said Ken you have enough alga( in diversity and quantity) constantly reproducing in your system and you feed enough times a day there isn’t much question at all as to why your tangs are healthy, lol.
Note: For those who do not know at times Ken has brought in at times multiple full buckets of algae per week into LFS filling some of their tanks for both filtration and sale! If anyone wants to copy Ken’s procedures for keeping his fish healthy they should consider the difference between their tanks and his.
Perhaps Shawn maintains tanks similar to Ken. It’s been over 2 years since I have seen a full tank shot of his tanks or seen them in person. Actually on that topic I am glad he has Marchingband John asking for volunteers for tank tours because I think it would be a shame for Shawn to push anyone to when we haven’t seen his, especially now that he has canceled the BBQ at his house. I volunteered for this month, but was bumped to allow someone else to present who wouldn’t be able to later, was glad to wait for this reason. I volunteered for Sept, but was also bumped out of that spot, so I am going in Oct.
Perhaps Shawn maintains tanks similar to Ken.Unlikely. My 265g has a 40g BB "fuge" with no sand, about 10# of LR, and two strains of macro.
I did volunteer Jon! Im scheduled to do the VTTOTM in Feb 2015 ;D
[quote author
I did volunteer Jon! Im scheduled to do the VTTOTM in Feb 2015 ;D
[/quote]
I think we need to bump ya a little earlier then that. Like maybe MAY 17th 2010 
the guy that was just in my house yesterday should know better than that!!
BTW. i posted in the LED thread. i found the link you were talking about. i think we can probably make it even cheaper than that. i should be able to build and fabricate the entire unit for you in a weekend. just let me know how many LED’s you want, the size of the fixture(heat sink), the spectrums, and the lense angle you want and ill make you a shopping list! i have all the tools and supplies(wiring, solder, gun, etc).
edit i quickly looked through some of the electronic sites i used just to price the power supply and believe it or not the site that you linked to is actually VERY cheap. usually when buying electronics through a third party hobby site the mark up is insane. i did find several open chasis supplies cheaper but the savings is probably not worth the simplicity of dealing with an enclosed supply. im not sure if you saw the link yet but i think we should run the supplies remotely like i do my ballasts to keep the look super clean. we can mount the ball bearing post mounts directly to the heat sink and suspend it from the ceiling. im excited man!! lets get this done!!! ill build it for you and only ask one thing in return. do the build thread on our site and hotlink it to reef-geeks so they have to come here to follow it! ;D