How to Target Feed Corals Without Polluting Your Tank

Target feeding is one of those things reefers overdo or underdo, rarely get right. Dump a scoop of frozen mysis in the tank and half of it drifts into the overflow before a single polyp gets a bite. The fix isn't feeding less, it's feeding smarter, right at the mouth of the coral, with the pumps and skimmer working with you instead of against you.

What you need

• A 5ml or 10ml syringe, or a turkey baster with the tip trimmed narrow
• A coral food matched to the animal, Reef Roids or Ocean Nutrition Reef Pulse for LPS and SPS, Vitalis Soft Coral Food for softies
• A way to pause flow briefly, either unplug the wavemaker or use a feed mode on your controller
• Container to premix food with tank water so it doesn't clump on contact

The method, step by step

1. Turn off the skimmer. Fifteen to twenty minutes is enough. Any longer risks a small ammonia bump if the tank is heavily stocked, so set a timer.
2. Cut flow near the target coral. You don't need dead water, just enough calm that food hangs in the polyp zone instead of blasting sideways. Pausing one wavemaker pump is usually enough in a mixed reef.
3. Mix the food. Take a small cup of tank water and stir in a pinch of Reef Roids or a squirt of Reef Pulse until it's a loose slurry, no dry clumps.
4. Draw it into the syringe. Load 2 to 4ml depending on colony size. Overfilling just means more waste drifting off target.
5. Feed slowly, close to the mouths. Release in short pulses a centimetre or two from the polyps. Watch for tentacle extension and feeding response before giving more.
6. Wait, then restart flow and skimmer. Give the coral 10 to 15 minutes to actually ingest before turning everything back on. This is the step most people skip and it's the one that matters most for water quality.

Which foods actually work without fouling water

Not all coral foods behave the same in the water column. Fine, quickly dissolving foods like Reef Roids stay in suspension long enough for LPS and SPS to grab a mouthful, then break down fast rather than sitting as sludge on the sand. Ocean Nutrition Reef Pulse works well for mixed reefs and doesn't cloud the water for long. For softies and gorgonians, Vitalis Soft Coral Food has a finer particle size that suits smaller polyp mouths.

If you're chasing growth and colour on SPS specifically, pairing target feeding with amino dosing from the Reef-Pure range gives corals the building blocks they can't get from particulate food alone, without adding bioload the way overfeeding does. Dose aminos separately from feeding sessions, not mixed into the syringe.

Common mistakes

• Feeding into strong flow and calling it target feeding when it's really just broadcast feeding with extra steps
• Leaving the skimmer running so food gets skimmed out before corals can eat it
• Overloading the syringe because