Rinsing Frozen Brine Shrimp?

[ALRUI]

Hi Folks - I was having issues with green hair algae & had a couple cyano outbreaks an while looking for solutions I read here someone talking about the rinsing of frozen foods as they are a possible cause of algae issues if all other causes have been remedied or dont exist. After reading that I attempted to rinse my defrosted brine shrimp and all I got was a bunch of shrimp stuck to my net that even when rinsed were hard to get into the tank. Is there truly a need to rinse the frozen foods and if so whats a good method of doing so? I will say after stopping feeding of anything frozen & using just flake food the cyano is gone and the hair algae is under control. Please advise & THANKS!

 

[Ludders]

Buy one of these for straining

 

[ALRUI]

Thanks for the image (nice photo!). I dug a lesser strainer from the back of the drawer and strained about a weeks worth of shrimp then put them in a covered bowl in the fridge. Do you think the straining is of benefit or a waste of time?
Thanks Again!

 

[mfinn]

Buy one of these for straining

I use something very similar

 

[Jason mack]

I defrost my frozen food in tank water and add garlic essence , I don’t rinse just strain and add too tank , I have no algae issues

 

[John3]

It does help keep nitrates and phosphates lower.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Rinsing does virtually nothing. Dr. Randy wrote a paper on this. Hopefully I can find it and link it here.....I'll be back.

Found it HERE. Now I know you don't want to read all that gobbly-gook, so here's the good part from that article:

Rinsing Foods and the Effect on Phosphate
Now that we have some information on the phosphate in foods, we can critically examine the concern that many aquarists have about foods, and specifically their rinsing of frozen foods before use. A typical test you see is someone taking a cube of fish food, thawing it, and putting it into a half cup of water. They then test that water for phosphate and find it "off the charts". Let's assume that means 1 ppm phosphate, which would give a very dark blue color in many phosphate tests. Bear in mind this is a thought problem, not an actual measured value, but it is typical of what people think the answer is.

Is that a lot of phosphate? Well, there are two ways to think of the answer.

The first way is as a portion of the total phosphate in that food. A half cup of water at 1 ppm (1 mg/L) phosphate contains a total of 0.12 mg of phosphate. A cube of Formula 2 contains about 11.2 mg of phosphate. So the hypothetical rinsing step has removed about 1 percent of the phosphate in that food. Not really worthwhile, in my opinion, but that decision is one every aquarist can make for themselves.

The second way to look at this rinsing is with respect to how much it reduces the boost to the aquarium phosphate concentration. Using the same calculation as above of 0.12 mg of phosphate, and adding that to 100 gallons total water volume, we find that phosphate that was rinsed away would have boosted the "in tank" phosphate concentration by 0.12 mg/379 L = 0.0003 ppm. That amount washed away does not seem significant with respect to the "in tank" target level of about 50-100 times that level (say, 0.015 to 0.03 ppm), nor does it seem significant relative to the total amount of phosphate actually added each day in foods (which is perhaps 50-1000 times as much, based on input rates from Table 4. Again, the conclusion I make is that rinsing is not really worthwhile, in my opinion.

 

[ALRUI]

Rinsing does virtually nothing. Dr. Randy wrote a paper on this. Hopefully I can find it and link it here.....I'll be back.

I'd be very interested in reading that if you find it. Thanks!

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'd be very interested in reading that if you find it. Thanks!

Found it....above.

 

[falconut]

I rinsed my frozen mysis & brine through a tiny fish net a while back, but never noticed a difference in levels. I stopped doing it years ago & have seen no I'll affects.

 

[mfinn]

Rinsing does virtually nothing. Dr. Randy wrote a paper on this. Hopefully I can find it and link it here.....I'll be back.

Found it HERE. Now I know you don't want to read all that gobbly-gook, so here's the good part from that article:

Rinsing Foods and the Effect on Phosphate
Now that we have some information on the phosphate in foods, we can critically examine the concern that many aquarists have about foods, and specifically their rinsing of frozen foods before use. A typical test you see is someone taking a cube of fish food, thawing it, and putting it into a half cup of water. They then test that water for phosphate and find it "off the charts". Let's assume that means 1 ppm phosphate, which would give a very dark blue color in many phosphate tests. Bear in mind this is a thought problem, not an actual measured value, but it is typical of what people think the answer is.

Is that a lot of phosphate? Well, there are two ways to think of the answer.

The first way is as a portion of the total phosphate in that food. A half cup of water at 1 ppm (1 mg/L) phosphate contains a total of 0.12 mg of phosphate. A cube of Formula 2 contains about 11.2 mg of phosphate. So the hypothetical rinsing step has removed about 1 percent of the phosphate in that food. Not really worthwhile, in my opinion, but that decision is one every aquarist can make for themselves.

The second way to look at this rinsing is with respect to how much it reduces the boost to the aquarium phosphate concentration. Using the same calculation as above of 0.12 mg of phosphate, and adding that

Does he say what all these measurements would add up over a year? 2 years?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Does he say what all these measurements would add up over a year? 2 years?

I believe he does, primarily in the bold text within the article.....a mere fraction of the total phosphate from the food you are feeding. If you are concerned about this small fraction, just don't feed your fish 3 - 4 days out of the year. This doesn't take into account water changes and any other export you might be doing to your tank. To quote, "does not seem significant."

 

[Bob Escher]

I have never rinsed any of my frozen food and have never seen and changes at all

 

[mfinn]

I believe he does, primarily in the bold text within the article.....a mere fraction of the total phosphate from the food you are feeding. If you are concerned about this small fraction, just don't feed your fish 3 - 4 days out of the year. This doesn't take into account water changes and any other export you might be doing to your tank. To quote, "does not seem significant."

IDK, there is alot of fluid that gets rinsed out that is of no benefit to the fish, so I will continue to rinse my frozen foods.
Every small step I can do to eliminate possible algae food in my tanks is useful IMO.

 

[ALRUI]

Found it....above.

Cool, Thank You

 

[ReefHog]

I wonder about the tiny bits of brine shrimp, mysis or whatever that get rinsed down the drain instead of entering the water column uneaten and then breakdown. If there’s phosphate locked up in the “bits” that is released when they breakdown as uneaten food, then rinsing is worth it for me. On a mature reef probably doesn’t make a difference as there’s plenty inhabitants to take up the “bits”

 

[redfishbluefish]

The small micro-bits are coral food. Nothing gets wasted.

 

[HB AL]

I put 8 to 10 cubes in a small container and thaw them in a little tank water, I then squirt it in until it's al gone. Maybe my corals are digging the liquid. I have no algae problems that come up.

 

[jwt1603]

I rinse / thaw more to make it easier to feed the fish, corals and shrimp. I use a fine net to thaw it out then feed with a pair of long SS tongs to the various inhabitants that want to be "hand" fed. And my wife gets a kick out of watching the shrimp go nuts as they get fed.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

IDK, there is alot of fluid that gets rinsed out that is of no benefit to the fish, so I will continue to rinse my frozen foods.
Every small step I can do to eliminate possible algae food in my tanks is useful IMO.

IMO, one of the potential contributing factors to depleting potassium is rinsing frozen foods, washing away the potassium. Normally, potassium is loose inside cells, held inside by the cell membrane.

Freezing tends to damage cell membranes by ice crystals distorting them. That can lead to release of ions inside of cells, and rinsing would then wash away the potassium.

If you then use the remaining organics to regenerate new tissues (corals, fish cells, etc.) then more potassium must be sucked up to fill in the new cells.

Membrane leakage of solutes after thermal shock or freezing
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0011224073900187
"There was extensive loss of cell potassium and uptake of sodium at all cooling rates, the cation concentrations across the cell membrane approaching unity."