DIY food

[NewbReefer]

Im curious to know who here if anyone does make there own reef food. I've been thinking of trying to make some so i'd like to see any tips and suggestions any of you may have. even if you just take a few of the already fozen foods like mysis, cyclop-eeze, formula one and two etc, and just blend em together.

I know you can go buy uncooked table shrimp and scallops and squid and stuff, also i've heard of people taking a clove of garlic and putting it through a processer to get it really fine and adding that to there "slurry" along with Nori, broccoli, and many other things.

 

[cgoodman381]

Not sure if its in her build thread or not, but I saw a thread a while bakc where biff made her own food with lots of different stuff in it. Used eggcrate if I remember right, but i dont think it worked out well.

Anyways check out her build thread. As for my I just mix different types of frozen food and add garlic.

 

[Bifferwine]

I've made my own food before. I bought mini ice cube trays off of Ebay to freeze them in (they are gumdrop sized). I used some of my existing frozen food, like mysis cubes, krill, emerald entree and cyclopeeze, and I used fresh seafood from the grocery store too (oysters, shrimp, scallops, clams, etc). I also threw in several sheets of nori, garlic extract, phytoplankton and Selcon. Put it in the blender, then froze it into cubes. It worked great and was really cheap.

 

[NewbReefer]

Thanks for that info Biff. How did you like the ice cube trays? i've heard of people using those. Also heard people really like putting the stuff they've blended up into a plastic freezer baggy just full enough so that when it lays flat it's only about 1/8"-1/4" thick and then they freeze it, seems like it would be easy to break off the disired amount to feed the tank.

 

[Bifferwine]

Rod's food does that, it comes in a flat plastic bag, and it works great. The mini ice cube trays are nice, because you can set out exact portions if you are picky about how much you feed your tank. These are similar to the ones I bought:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mini-Ice-Cube-T...egoryZ82QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[NewbReefer]

Those look like the perfect size. did you not have any luck find any around at grocery stores? it would be nice if i could find some around close so i don't have to pay for shipping. also what do you use to rinse the frozen foods? I thought maybe a coffee strainer would work nice to just dump all the cubes into that to run the water over it before putting it into the blender.

 

[Bifferwine]

I use a little plastic strainer that I got at the grocery store. I've seen the sets of 5 at Walmart and Target too. Like 5 different sized plastic strainers.

I wasn't able to find the mini ice cube trays locally, but the brand I bought off of Ebay was Martha Stewart, so I assumed it was also sold at KMart, but I didn't check there.

 

[NewbReefer]

cool, thanks again for the info Biff.

 

[jhnrb]

https://www.livingreefs.com/articles/fish/coral-food-home-made-t414.php

 

[NewbReefer]

Thanks jhnrb i read that article about an hour after I created the post. looks like a good recipe. I've heard spinach can be hard for the fish to digest, know anything on that?

 

[Bifferwine]

From what I've read, you need to cook the spinach/broccoli/lettuce first. Either boiled or steamed.

 

[jhnrb]

I do not use earth vegetables for the system. I use only marine fare such as seaweed select. all three types green, red, brown.

 

[NewbReefer]

I do not use earth vegetables for the system. I use only marine fare such as seaweed select. all three types green, red, brown.

That sounds good, the whole broccoli, spinach, etc thing just doesn't seem right. Not that there not good for the tank but if it's not part of there natural diet in the wild i don't see the need for it over seaweed/nori. kinda the same thing with people adding GNC vitamins to there DIY food, if your giving your tank critters a balanced diet there really shouldn't be a need for them.