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HDAlien
09/12/2007, 08:58 AM
I've been reading about frozen food packing phosphates. I've been just dissolving the food in tank water and then feeding, is there a better method? Is this still a problem if you make your own food? I've been considering Melev's recipe.

Bebo77
09/12/2007, 09:00 AM
there are some things that you cant control.. from my understanding flake food has the most phosphates... but hey.. fish have to eat...

RichConley
09/12/2007, 09:03 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10749964#post10749964 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bebo77
there are some things that you cant control.. from my understanding flake food has the most phosphates... but hey.. fish have to eat...

Bebo, I keep hearing that flake has tons of phosphate, but no one can ever point me to anything credible that says so. I'm of the opinon that its no more than "reef myth" at this point.

I dont wash food. If you wash it, you're washing away all the stuff that corals can eat. I also feed about 5 times what your average reefer does.


Run a big skimmer, and don't worry about washing food.

SDguy
09/12/2007, 09:04 AM
I thaw all food in water (tank or DI, doesn't really matter. Pour off/drain. Repeat. For really messy stuff like PE mysis, I'll repeat this several times. I prefer this method over simply rinsing in a net because this way I also pour off small pieces that probably wouldn't be eaten anyway, but that a fine net would still not allow to pass.

As for flake, I just add it to a large cup of water. Stir. Let sit for a few minutes. Use airline like a straw to suck up just the flakes, very little of the water, and add to tank. Leaves behind a lot of pink colored water :) I do this same thing even if I soaked the flake in selcon or vitachem first.

hth

Edit...I'm not a fan of *hoping* some coral in my tank will *eat* PE mysis juice.

Gdevine
09/12/2007, 09:11 AM
I don't rinse my frozen food as this will wash away a lot of the added vitamins that the mfg adds to the food.

Instead I use a decanting method. It's simple really, I just place the frozen food in a non soap cleaned glass and let it defrost.

I then take the underside of a spoon and drain (or decanter) the juice that runs off the defrosted food. I will even use the spoon to press the defrosted food against the side of the glass to get even more juice out of the food.

I then dose the food with some garlic and additional vitamins and let sit overnight in the frig.

Feed the next day by adding a little tank water to the glass to suspend the food and pour into the tank...and fish go nuts!

No phosphate problems and happy and healthy fish:)

HDAlien
09/12/2007, 09:15 AM
Run a big skimmer, and don't worry about washing food.

Sweet! I just justified the Reeflo Orca skimmer I ordered :)