Your thoughts on feeding frozen cubes of food ?

[mat k]

Hi guys..



Can you all give me your recomendations on feeding frozen cubed foods like artemia brineshrimp etc?


I have got into the habit of disolving the cubes in a cup of tank water,and then feeding just the contents of the cube and ditching the water.

I have followed this routine for a few years now,but got into an argument with another reefer (local numpty) with supposedly 15yrs experience who told me i should be putting the cube straight into the tank along with the juice.


I personally disagree with this as i think the "juice"is high in unwanted "gifts".



Who`s right ?

[brianlena2000]

We have always thawed out our frozen cube food before feeding it as well. We usually place the cubes in a small net and then soak it in a cup of ro/di water to thaw before using the net to feed our tanks.

:bum:

[Highlander]

I thaw mine in RO/DI water to rinse any potential phosphates off then drain thru a net and transfer into a jug of tank water to feed.

[jayo]

I make my own frozen food cubes from supermarket seafood. To feed, I put a cube in a cup with some saltwater and thaw, then stir vigorously so the particles separate. I then dump the whole mess into the tank.

Does anyone just chuck a frozen cube into the tank while still frozen? I would think that your fish would go after it and have uncomfy mouths, or in my case it would float to my overflow and thaw there, with all the food going straight into the overflow where my fish cant get it.

jayo

[mat k]

Now thats the type of answers i am looking for.





His argument was that i should feed the juice as it would feed the filter feeders,but i feed phyto`s and every now and then chromaplex.

[stereomandan]

I like the net idea. It helps to keep the chunks and remove the water that is loaded with phosphates and nitrates.

I wonder if the water is good for the corals though?

I normally take some tank water in a cup and let the frozen food thaw, then break it up and dump the whole thing into the tank. I will be trying the net idea. I have a brine shrimp net that would be perfect.

Dan

[dc]

Depends on my time. Either just dump the cubes in frozen or dissolve in tank water. IMO if you are going to do brine, get enriched. Plain Brine is usually not very nutritional.

[Big E]

I just thaw it in a cup of tank water & throw it all in. My thought is the smaller particles & juice will feed the corals & other small critters. I don't feed any phyto & my tank is loaded with feather worms, pods, ect.

Not sure why there would be more phophates in the juice than the actual food? Nitrates in the food?

[ENS]

I place a piece of frozen food (sometimes simply store bought brine, but mostly a home made mix of froozen brine, squid, vegetable and vitamins) in a cup with a small amount of fresh water and wait a few minutes for the food to disolve -- every few days I also add polyp food and DT's in too. When I feed, I turn off my return pumps and pour in the food/water mix and wait for about 5-8 minutes before turning the pumps back on. This is what I've done for a few years without problem. Its easy and quick without any mess.

Besdies adding the DT's every couple days into the water that I simply pour in with the feeding, a couple times a week I also direct feed my corals and clams, etc., with DTs with a small dropper and all pumps/powerheads off. Seems to work well for me.

[Highlander]

Big E, my thought has always been that the manufacturer probably doesn't use RO/DI in making up the cubes and if the water is unfiltered you don't know what level of phosphates are in there. Better safe than sorry !!

[stereomandan]

There's nitrates or phosphates in the food and the juice, but the fish eat the larger chunks so it's not a worry. I just want to know what happens with the juice. Do the corals utilize it, or does the undesirable algae utilize it first?

I've always wondered that.

My tank did seem cleaner when I used to strain the food from what I remember and my corals grew well.

I did test the strained water once and of coarse it was off the charts for nitrates. It is not from the water used for freezing the food, but all the tiny food particles in the water left.

Dan

[LOTUS50GOD]

heat RO water in the microwave, then poor the warm water with thawed food into the tank. No stainer here. But I also have the clean up crew from hell. Not much stays on the bottom for long.

[Big E]

high,
Okay, I just assumed that they just ground all that crap up & the juice/water was from the seafood itself.......not worth the extra effort to me, but to each his own.

stereo,
Good question............ There were some good articles in the SPS section about feeding that were interesting..... seems the algae is a lot more efficient at absorbing this stuff.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=94874

& Borneman seems to be unearthing more info recently.
If someone was able to analyze a food that corals consume & algae doesn't, he'd become a millionaire quickly.

[oz]

I put cubes on a cutting board,
juice it up with SELCON,
cut it in bite size pieces
put them in the tank 1 quater of a teaspoon at a time.
I try to do all this pretty quickly.
If I wait too long the cubes without the gel binder will break up too easily so I feed while it is still somewhat semi frozen.

[Golly Gwiz]

I don't go to too much trouble with the frozen food .... shut off the return pump and pop in a couple of cubes, still frozen. They melt really fast. The fish nip at the cubes a few times, but then it starts to come apart and the power heads blast it and its all over the tank. I alternate days between frozen cubes, flake spirulena (sp?), and nori sheets on the chip clip for a variety of food. I'm thinking of going the home-brew Borneman method for frozen food though for a cocktail of everything to fish and corals. Tank is in great condition, fish are happy. :D

[ReefEze]

No matter how I thaw the cubes, I usually keep the juices. Sometimes I'll stick my hand in and thaw a cube right in front of a coral... it seems to entice their appitite, and consequentally their polyp expansion.


IME :D
RE

[lakerfan]

I thaw out Prime Reef in tank water then put it all in the tank. The juices help get the corals/fish to start feeding. (i.e. Tubastrea)

[Golly Gwiz]

ah ... you likea da juice .. he likes the juice ... da juice is good ... no?

old reference to a saturday night live skit of italian or greek restaurant ... always get brought up at my house when someone says "they likea da juice" :bum:

[jayo]

well, I just did an experiment - I just tossed a frozen cube of food straight into my tank.

It floated around the top for about ten seconds. One of my clown gobies (Gobiodon okinawae) attacked the cube (pretty cute - the cube was bigger than him!) but didn't manage to pull off any food.

At this point the cube got caught in an under current and was pulled around the middle of the tank. It then got itself firmly wedged into the live rock. I watched for the next few minutes and there were a few chunks that drifted from the rock but I have no idea what became of most of the chunk. I suspect the peppermint shrimps got to it first.

I will be pre-thawing my food from now on. :)

jayo

[JDS]

I can be on the lazy side at times. so I usually throw it in frozen. I've never had a problem. But I will say I've always had larger type finish. I think I would have to thaw it out with smaller finish.

[nk57]

Sometimes I just throw it in..And for a real treat... I toss it in with a DT's chaser. Hmmmm......phytoplankton....yum.

Nancy

[electric130]

i use formula one and formula two. i just place a cube on my sink and let it thaw for awhile, then break it up in my fingers underwater in the tank. i don't soak it in water first. been doing it this way for 3 years.

[Reefcherie]

I have a small cup with the frozen cubes in it and just hold each frozen cube in the tank, shaking it a little as the warm water dissolves it. Some of the fish come up and bite at the cube between my fingers, but I find it falls apart pretty quickly. I usually hold my hand in front of the Sea Swirl, so that disperses the pieces.

When I have time, I shut off the pumps and wait about 20 minutes before turning them back on. Then I'll try to get some food to fall on each of my open brain corals and the Sun coral if it comes out to feed. That's when I really see how many (and what size) bristleworms I have, as they come out to take care of any small pieces the fish miss. I guess this is kind of a time consuming method, but it's a great excuse to get my fish comfortable with my hand and I like spending the time watching them feed anyway!

Cheri

[ri]

I toss the frozen cube into a small "bloodworm feeder". If the pieces don't fit thru the holes, I empty the contents into the tank.

ri

[Papajin]

Am I the only one that after feeding my tank immediately goes and gets the next day's portion of frozen food, put it in a seal container of some sort and throw it in the fridge overnight until the next day's feeding time? It's fully defrosted by the next day, and doing this I don't have to remember to thaw it ahead of time or anything like that. It's waiting for me in the fridge when I go to feed.

[oz]

I find it easier to handle, cut, etc if it wasn't thawed out all the way. Also I add SELCON (http://www.americanmarineusa.com/selcon.html) to the cubes so being frozen, its easier.

I feed various different types of frozen, not all of them has the gel binder thing that keeps from breaking up to tiny pieces.

Even some that package says has gel binder doesn't always work very well.

Formula Two is very good.

Prime Reef says it has gel binder but still breaks up to tiny pieces too easily

[Kara]

Papajin, I do the same thing. Except my frozen cubes go into a tupperware with 50% selcon and 50% RO/DI water then into the fridge to thaw. I always pre-thaw the frozen stuff like that. Then I use a brine shrimp net and pour the liquid into the net (using a cup underneath the net to catch the selcon mix).. I feed the solids to my tank and the selcon mix goes back into the tupperware for the next days food. I use the selcon mix for about 2 weeks before making a new batch.