Frozen fish food? Do you drain?

[EyeReef]

How many of you guys thaw fish food and drain the juice? Or do you add it directly into your tank?

 

[toomuch420]

I thaw the frozen foods and drain and sometimes add silicon or vita chem

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[Instigate]

I don't bother with rinsing or even thawing for that matter. My fish don't seem to mind if it's frozen and the liquid from frozen foods is not a significant source of po4 according to Randy Holmes-Farley:

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.

https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry

 

[adayrit]

none of the above. thaw the frozen then put frozen into a small amount of conditioned freshwater and then serve.

 

[christian7144]

I take a shot glass, add a cube, and add a bit of tank water and after 5 min or so I pour in front of power head.


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[Poseidon]

Two cubes in a cup with purified water from my fridges water dispenser then
Let it melt
Pour off the "juice" and rinse once more in purified water

 

[Smite]

Rods Reef/Reef Frenzy I hold frozen in tank and let them nibble

Mysis/brine ect thaw in tank water with garlic and selcon.

 

[reefes pieces]

I used to thaw in a cup of water then dump it in but after forgetting about it so many times and coming back to a small cup of stinky stuff, I went to just tossing it in straight. Fish don't care. Used to add selcon and all that stuff too but I think as long as the diet is varied then there's no need for it.

 

[BeanMachine]

I thaw it but no rinse. I add selcon here and there .

 

[adayrit]

Dang reefes!you not worried about contamination?

 

[orbela]

I thaw the frozen food then mix with fats and vitamins

 

[five.five-six]

Pop-n-drop

 

[Vahanyos]

I break a piece off rods reef frenzy blend and thaw it out in my handy dandy clear container, and once it’s thawed out I turn my return off and just dump it into the tank. Let it sit for about 20 minutes until water clears up again and I turn my return on

 

[EyeReef]

Some great insight on this thread! Thank you all for participating

 

[Arcadiareef]

No rinse

 

[russ13]

I have always drained the juice out. I think someone told me to do this a long time ago and I have always done it. Just less waste in the water. Though I wonder if that’s stuff that the coral would eat?? Maybe I have been dumping coral food this whole time. Cube in a shot glass. Little bit of tank water. Two drops of vita chem. Then strain in a small fish net and serve. What frozen food are you guys using?? I cut the cubes in half and do half Mysis half brine.

 

[LesPaulPlayer73]

I don’t rinse either.

 

[gumbii]

i try to drain into a napkin... sometimes it gets onto my shorts or pants, and it ruins my day...

 

[antsypants]

I thaw some reef frenzy in a cup of tank water. Fish get the larger chunks, the residual liquids I'll pipette at my zoas

 

[CoralNerd]

Thaw rinse and drain. It makes a difference in my p04 readings.