Should i wash my frozen food?

[snaza]

im feeding a mix of frozen and flakes. i heard the frozen food contains phosphates and i should wash it. is this true? what is the correct way to feed frozen foods? is frozen better than flakes or is a mix good?

thanks

aaron

[capn_hylinur]

Absolutely rinse off frozen food with r/o water. I use a small brime shrimp net--put the cubes in there and run tank water through it and down the drain. Tank water also melts the cubes.
then I just dump the net into the sump or into the tank--doesn't matter.

Its the mix you want--not a question of one better then the other

[capn_hylinur]

here's a good thread on feeding:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...5&pagenumber=1

[tmz]

A mix is the way to go in my opinion. I use Prime reef flakes, Spirulina flakes, minced krill, dried seaweed on a clip and a mix of frozen food.

I also rinse my frozen food. I place some blood worms,brine shrimp, mysis shrimp and cyclopese in a small plastic coffee can and fill the can with chlorinated tap water. When the food thaws it is poured through a fine mesh net(brineshrimp net). The mush left in the net is dumped back into the empty coffe can and aa couple of inches of ro/di water are added along with a bit of garlic. I dispense the food into the tanks with a small turkey baster.

Thawing and rinsing accomplishes two important things. First, it removes the packing water which is full of unwanted nutrients. Second, the rinse in tap water is likely to kill off any harmfull bacteria that may be on the food.

[Rustylugnuts]

Yes+1 although I cant explain it better than it already has been.

[BangkokMatt]

Do you think you should still rinse frozen if you have made it yourself and know that all water / ingredients used are safe. I tend to thaw mine out in a bit of tank water and add to water column.

[Myrddraal]

What about foods like Hikari that are supposed to be phosphate free?

[dileggi]

I feed a mixture of frozen and flakes. I feed each every other day. I let my frozen food thaw in a dixie cup with some water in the cup. Once thawed, I drain the contents of the cup into a net and then just pour the food into the tank from the net.

It's possible that the frozen food can contain phosphates because you don't know what kind of water was used to "freeze" it.

[stingythingy45]

"a fine mesh net(brineshrimp net)."

Ok.........where do you get something like this?
I've not seen anything that will hold back mysis shrimp and alow water to drain through the mesh.

[BangkokMatt]

Originally posted by BangkokMatt
Do you think you should still rinse frozen if you have made it yourself and know that all water / ingredients used are safe. I tend to thaw mine out in a bit of tank water and add to water column.

So...is it just because of the unknown water source that people rinse frozen.

[seapug]

Phosphates are in all foods, but pellets/dried/flake foods are generally considered to be a more significant source. Regardless, I do rinse my frozen foods before putting it in the tank. I thaw it in a cup with RO water, then pour off the water, add more water, then pour that off until the "debris" is gone and the water I'm decanting is clear. Then I add some Selcon and let it sit for about 15 minutes before feeding.

In general, higher quality foods will also reduce the amount of crap that gets introduced with the food. Hikari and Piscine Energetics Mysis are much higher quality and far more nutritious than SF Bay Brand (PE Mysis is 69% protein, SF Bay Brand is 6%-- so that's a no brainer). If I use my decanting technique on a cube SF Bay Brand, there's hardly anything left after all the floating junk gets poured off.

[dileggi]

Originally posted by stingythingy45
"a fine mesh net(brineshrimp net)."

Ok.........where do you get something like this?
I've not seen anything that will hold back mysis shrimp and alow water to drain through the mesh.

My net is very very fine. I purchased mine at my LFS. But, I really don't know how it would work on mysis. I use mine for brine.

If the net won't work, try putting it on a paper plate and use a turkey baster to drop the water onto the food. As the plate soaks up the stuff, keep moving the food around to cleaner part of the plate. That's what I was doing until I found the net. I would then use a platic knife to scrape the stuff off the paper plate.

[tmz]

Originally posted by BangkokMatt
So...is it just because of the unknown water source that people rinse frozen.

Mostly but not the only reason. In th4e nov issue o CORAL magazine a study was summarized where frozen fish foods from various manufacturerw were cultured for bacteria and vibrio bacteria which arm harmful were found even when the continuous frozen state of the food was verified. They recommended rinsing with tap water.

[tmz]

You can find the net you need by looking for a brine shrimp net. Many on line vendors cary them for 2 or 3 dollars. They are fine enough to hold even cyclopese in the net.

[stingythingy45]

Originally posted by tmz
You can find the net you need by looking for a brine shrimp net. Many on line vendors cary them for 2 or 3 dollars. They are fine enough to hold even cyclopese in the net.

Really?...........thanks.
I'll look for one.Thought maybe there might be something similar at one of the cooking stores.

[tcilmo]

Wow, I have not heard that before about rinseing the cubes. . . , I am going to have to read that thread. I have just been droping the brine cubes in for a couple of years now. Time for some reading.

[Engine 7]

I feed Rod's Food and do not rinse and have not needed to. Rod adds oyster eggs, cyclopeez, and other ingredients that would pass thru the netting. I also add frozen mysis and daphnia I feed this very heavily twice a week to thousands of coral polyps in my tanks.
I have never had a phosphate problem but do run a Phosban reactor.

[capn_hylinur]

I think the reason for rinsing frozen mysis and brine shrimp is that there is a certain amount of die off in the holding tanks and that is absorbed when the cube is frozen.
If it is frozen flake food---IMO--this doesn't occur so they don't need to be rinsed