Do you wash your frozen snacks?

[DBarsotti]

I've recently been picking up several new fish for my new upgrade.

Typically I only feed my fish a few varieties of high protein pellets and flakes. But now that I have some new picky fish I am having to feed frozen to start them off..

Do you rinse your frozen foods? Seems there's lots of wasteful crap in between the good meaty nuggets that's ending up in the water.

Anyway, wash? Rinse? No? Yes?

How do you feed, what do you do, let's hear your routine.

 

[Troylee]

I avoid it all costs.. But when I have to use it I rinse it...

 

[fletcher2007]

i just get a cup fill it with tank water break a piece of frozen food off put it in and let it melt then dump it in what the fish dont eat the clean up crew will and all the coral

 

[DBarsotti]

Yeah I think I am going to start to rinse it because I'm some what of a neat freak haha. How are you rinsing it?

 

[Dowtish]

I take a frozen cube out and place in a tea strainer, let it completely thaw out and let the juices(phosphates) run down the sink, then I place it in a bowl with some tank water and rinse it. then I take it out of the strainer and add some more tank water and some pellets, then I use a baby turkey baster to squirt it in. Sounds like a lot of work but once you do it a few times, it's just a normal routine.

here is the kind of strainer I'm talking about: tea strainer - photo/picture definition at Photo Dictionary - tea strainer word and phrase defined by its image in jpg/jpeg in English

 

[Troylee]

Well I don't actually rinse it I thaw it in a cup of tank water and drain the water before adding the food to my tank... I had to many issues with po4 when I used it every day or other day... I haven't used it now in months my fish are happy on flakes and pellets and corals are also...

 

[KLR]

I let the frozen cubes or whatevers float in a plastic cup filled with fw for (insert time it takes for them to melt) minutes.
Then I pour the cup into a small fish net over the sink / drain.
Then I put more fw on the melted food in the net.
Then let it strain a little.
And feed.

It sounds like it takes forever but it takes like 10-15minutes max.

 

[donfishy]

Personally I thaw out frozen stuff and put it into a brine shrimp net, and rinse with fresh RO water

 

[M@!]

Personally I thaw out frozen stuff and put it into a brine shrimp net, and rinse with fresh RO water

I do this also. Unless I'm feeding Rods food, then I just thaw and dump it.

 

[Gamble]

I throw the frozen cube in a cup of RO water and let it thaw. Then just pour out the cup into a brine net to strain it, then pour another cup of RO through the strainer to give it a final rinse.

 

[Acropora52]

I'm pretty lazy. I throw whatever the frozen food dejour is into a cup of tap water. Let it melt over the next 10-? minutes (depends on if I forget). Pour it into a small net. Get a cup of tank water and rinse as much of the net as I can into it. Then whatever is in the net gets fed to the tank. The remainder gets some selcon added and I then add whatever dry food they're getting that day (spirulina flake, nls pellets, reef chili, etc) as well as selcon. Feed that over the next 3-5 hours until lights go off. Takes 2-3 minutes of work.

 

[btkrausen]

I feed almost all frozen food to my fish right now.

I use a 1/2 measuring cup, and put a small metal strainer on the top of it. I put my frozen food in the strainer and fill up the measuring cup and wait til it thaws. I throw out the water in the cup, rinse it one more time, and then feed.

Frozen food is full of stuff that puts extra phosphates in your tank...which is the best reason to strain and rinse it out. The only thing I don't strain out is Rods, but I'm thinking about doing it since I don't have tiny fish that would benefit from the ultra small particles.

 

[markak]

I buy a 16oz each of flat frozen mysis & brine. Put both together in a strianer, and put the strainer in a bowl and let it thaw and drain. After all thawed, dump out the water and put both mysis and brine in the bowl and add vitimans, and dry coral grow, mix together. Then I put into ice cube trays and freeze. When frozen, I take out of the ice trays, and cut the cubes in half,(because the cubes are to much to use at one feeding). I have a cone feeder in the DT and I drop the frozen cube into it, and as it thaws and falls out slowly and the fish wait for it and eat it. Hardly any is wasted. I feed half a cube in the morning and half a cube at nite. They get flake food in the afternoon. I do the making of this fish food once a month.

 

[cdness]

I make my own frozen food with stuff from the asian market. After it is all blended up I rinse it at least 3 times with RO water before freezing it in a deep freeze. When I want to feed I just break off a piece, thaw, and feed. No issues with phosphates this way because it is rinsed at least 3 times.

If I am feeding stuff "off the shelf" of course I rinse it before feeding. Same way as others with the net.

 

[Acropora52]

Markak,

Do you have a link to this cone feeder? Sounds like a good way to get my fish more continual food during the day.

 

[btkrausen]

I buy a 16oz each of flat frozen mysis & brine. Put both together in a strianer, and put the strainer in a bowl and let it thaw and drain. After all thawed, dump out the water and put both mysis and brine in the bowl and add vitimans, and dry coral grow, mix together. Then I put into ice cube trays and freeze. When frozen, I take out of the ice trays, and cut the cubes in half,(because the cubes are to much to use at one feeding). I have a cone feeder in the DT and I drop the frozen cube into it, and as it thaws and falls out slowly and the fish wait for it and eat it. Hardly any is wasted. I feed half a cube in the morning and half a cube at nite. They get flake food in the afternoon. I do the making of this fish food once a month.

Great idea on the cone feeder. I have been looking for some mini ice trays so I can do the same thing, thaw it all out, mix together, and then refreeze for an easy one stop mix of goodies.

+1 on pics or links to the cone feeder.

 

[btkrausen]

Is it something like this?

 

[SDguy]

I rinse if I use something like PE mysis. Otherwise I usually feed seafood meats like shrimp, scallop, clam, etc from the grocery store. No rinsing needed.

 

[dnov99]

I rinse my PE mysis, as it always seems like there is alot of stuff I dont want to dump in my tank. I use a small metal strainer that I got from Bed bath and beyond. It only cost a couple of bucks