Frozen food

[Piggy]

I read when some defrost the food and use it that way. Where others just drops the cubes in frozen. Here is the question. I defrost mine in the fridge then add a little bit of garlic. Should I be using the liquid from it or discarding it?

 

[yote]

Piggy,I've thought about that myself.
I think that with our tanks best interest that we should rinse the food with RO water before we feed.I bet doing that will help the water quality and hopefully help the algae wars.

 

[Piggy]

I've been trying to figure out where the nutrients are coming from to cause my algae. I went from one item to the next so I thought I would ask about the food. I don't want to add anything to my tank to get rid. I want to find the cause.

 

[yote]

To my way of thinking,The water thats frozen with the food,will contain high amounts of nutrients.And since its in water,the fish cant take it out.Some corals MIGHT feed on it.But either way,I think the excess moisture is full of unwanted stuff thats bad for the tank in general.

 

[Bifferwine]

Conventional wisdom says that frozen food should be thawed, then rinsed off before added to the tank. Preservatives and whatever the stuff is that binds the food together supposedly can lead to algae problems.

But my laziness trumps conventional wisdom. I don't rinse my food.

 

[RyanG]

Could the liquids be beneficial to corals and other filter feeders?

 

[Altohombre]

if you were to rinse it what would you use. Much of the food is very small.

 

[Bifferwine]

Use RO water.

 

[Altohombre]

I mean what do you use to strain the food after it is thawed. I use my tank water to thaw the frozen food then I turkey blaster it by the powerhead.

 

[Piggy]

I'm going to try a brine shrip fish net to see what happens.

 

[Bifferwine]

I used to strain my frozen food using a small strainer that I got at the grocery store. It's about as big around as a coffee mug.

 

[reeffreak]

I don't rinse the fish food either.I dump the milky Selcon and all into the tank.A brine shrimp net will work for anyone who wants to rinse the food.And to answer your question Ryan,its possible that the liquid does feed some corals.

Piggy,do you think your skimmer is doing an adequate job?

 

[Piggy]

I haven't had this skimmer for long. But I'm getting lots of gunk. I think I finally have it right.

 

[sen5241b]

Did you test for phosphates?

 

[reeffreak]

I was just checking Piggy.

Sen did give me an idea.Perhaps running a phosphate remover might help.

 

[LionFish]

I know for a Fact that Sallys uses RO water in their process.
So i just drop in the Cubes. I believe that there is some fresh TAP water used somewhere in the begining but ultimatly it is RO on the frozen product.

 

[Piggy]

I was just checking Piggy.

Sen did give me an idea.Perhaps running a phosphate remover might help.

Already am.