what type of food do you use?

[Astrivian]

I am curious about something. I just recently switched from a 100 gallon to a 30 gallon and now have massive algae problems. I suspect I am feeding too much and perhaps the type of food that i use is the problem. I have been feeding frozen brine shrimp to the tank, most of which goes uneaten by the fishies.

Does anyone else use frozen food in their tanks? I suspect this is the problem and maybe switching to flakes will solve the problem.

[CarmieJo]

Hi Samuel,

Good to see you! I feed frozen mysis and cyclopeeze on some days and flake or granulated foods on other days. I average feeding 5 days a week. Sometimes on weekends I feed twice a day. Everything gets soaked in garlic and vitamins before it gets fed. I use the ubiquitous turkey baster and just squirt a little at a time into the tank. When the fish stop attacking the food I quit feeding even if it means wasting a little bit.

[saltaddict]

I feed frozen brine, mysis, reef plankton, veggie flakes and Formula 1 flakes. I mix together and soak in vitamins and feed with a teaspoon until all is eaten then they get more. I usually throw away about a cube a day but I always thaw too much.

I feed every night at 9 and usually about an hour after the lights come on in the morning. I never skip a day because every time I walk by the tank the poor fish will gather in the front of the tank and pace until they are fed. They really make me feel guilty for not feeding more than I do. They are worse than kids!!

[THEJRC]

if uneaten food is lying about for a while it's most likely the source of your problems. Do you have an adequate cleanup crew as well as a good established population of planktonic goodies (amphipods, etc) or is the tank still in early stages?

As far as food goes in the land of the copepod geek the list is pretty long for me. Sinking pellet such as formula one and spectrum for the sand sifters / bottom dwellers, flake daily for mainstay of the fishies, frozen mysis and brine for the fishies and corals (rinse with RO to reduce phosphates / contaminates), Frozen krill (rinse again) for larger corals and the anemones, live phytoplankton from cultures for the zooplankton and filter feeders, live rotifers (to cull my cultures when I'm not trying to raise fry of something or another), live copepods (once again to cull cultures as well as feed the live food only critters), cyclopeeze for all, etc. etc......

I dont use supplements such as selcon or garlic as I prefer to obtain nutrition through the live feeds however I will occasionally take finely crushed pellet food and soak it in RO adding ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) to the mix to feed the bacterioplankton, this is more of a experimental deal anyhow.

[CarmieJo]

Joe mentioned it but didn't really emphasize it but rinsing frozen foods is really important. The binders often have phosphate in them which is a nutrient and feeds the algae.

[Astrivian]

Ah ha! I don't rinse. I bet that is the problem. I will start doing that.

The tank has been up for a year, with the fishies, corals, water and rocks coming from my old 100 gallon which was up for about 8 months before that. So it has been up for a while. I have lots of copepods and amphipods on the glass and rocks. My dang RO/DI unit is leaking really bad so i haven't been able to do a water change in a while, which is part of the problem i am sure.

It is good to be back!

[THEJRC]

he he I probably should have emphasized it! If you feed heavy with frozen it actually makes a very noticeable difference in nutrient levels!!

[Amphibious]

Anyone who is present while I feed my tank, insists I'm over feeding. Guilty! At least according the THEIR standards. Not according to mine.

On the reef, most of the things we keep, would be grazing, scavenging, searching throughout the day looking for tidbits to eat. They pretty much eat on and off all day long, when the opportunity presents itself, they eat. You never see a skinny fish on the reef. BUT, I see them all the time in tanks of reefers that say, "Oh I only feed one cube a day and a pinch of this or that". Anyone doing that is compromising their fish's immune system. I choose to have FAT HEALTHY fish.

My regimen goes like this. I mix seven containers at a time to save time. One container is food for one day. Keep in mind, I'm feeding a 135 stocked with big voracious fish and lots of CUC plus all the corals.

The mix consists of Hikari frozen brine shrimp (brand specific), Hikari frozen Mysis, Selcon, Vitamin C, Reef Nutrition's Ocean Pods, Phyto Feast, Roto Feast and lastly frozen Cyclopeze. I do not rinse any of the food. I fill the container to near the top with tank water, let the frozen foods thaw out, swirl the mix to thoroughly mix the ingredients with the vitamins. Once thawed and mixed, it's frozen until needed. Here's what a day's portion looks like...



Hmmm, yummy.



When I pour some in, they come en masse to chow down.



Even the timid ones come out of hiding. Notice the Marine Beta on the left.



Within minutes, corals whose polyps are normally closed during the day open up for the feast.



This gives me the opportunity to "target feed" those corals.

As far as not rinsing the frozen food first adding nutrients, I'm not convinced. If you take care when buying frozen foods and only buy QUALITY brands (Hakari in my opinion!), you shouldn't be adding any unwanted nutrients, in my opinion. The juices in frozen food, I think, are body juices from the shrimp. It seems to me those body juices would benefit our filter feeders as much as does the Phyto Feast.

In addition to the above "menu" I occasionally (once a week?) soak a mixture of various brands of pellet and flake food in the vitamins mentioned above and substitute that for the frozen mix. Plus, 3 or 4 times a week I feed Nori to the Tangs and the Orangespotted File fish.



The Orangespot's habits have been a total surprise to me, as reported elsewhere in TR.

Anyway, that's my take on feeding.

Happy fish are fat fish and they thrive in Amphibious' 135. He,he,he!

Dick

[saltaddict]

Dick - is that a urine specimen cup???????

Cool idea!

[Amphibious]

Well ummm, errr, yes BUT, I can explain. Oh but, I'm not going to.

Thanks, yeah I've been using them for frozen food storage ever since I married a nurse, 21 years ago.

Works great. I'm running low and she doesn't have access to them any more.

[CarmieJo]

Maybe you could just take your urine sample with you the next time you go to the doctor!

[ryandlf]

Much like most of the others here I feed a mixture of frozen mysis shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, frozen formula 2, and regular flake food. Generally I feed a pinch of flake in the morning about 45 minutes or so after I cut the lights on, and then at night usually about an hour before I cut the lights off I feed the frozen food by take a small amount of tank water into a shallow plastic cup, letting the food thaw and then pour it directly into the water. I like the turkey baster idea Carmie! I'm definately going to try that one. I would like to prepare my food like Dick, but I am only feeding a small nano at the moment, so basically I just cut my cubes into about 8 small pieces and pull 2 of those out for each feeding, and store the rest. I also feed frozen cyclopese to my corals twice a week, and I do target feed with the baster on those ones.

[THEJRC]

Dick had a good point on the rinsing... Higher quality foods are better packed and will cause less problems for sure. This applies to dry foods such as flake and pellets as well! The better ingredients and smaller amount of "fillers" makes a noticeable difference. Hikari's frozen products are some of the best on the market and as far as flake and pellet I've had real good luck with ocean nutrition.

[CarmieJo]

Dick & Joe, I found that phosphate remains in Hakari mysis even after rinsing. http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/general-marine-discussions/7643-what-foods-contain-0-phosphates.html
Do you think the benefit of juice outweigjhs the disadvantage of phosphate?

[saltaddict]

I don't rinse per say either - I thaw out the food in RO/DI water but the use a spoon to scoop out the actual food. I don't pour the whole mess into the tank.

I guess it is like straining.

[CarmieJo]

I thaw mine in a strainer and then pour RO/DI through it.

[Astrivian]

when i wasn't lazy in this hobby i used to do that too Carmie.

I don't get it Dick, how can you feed that much food and not have algae issues? Do you have some super skimmer? Actually, that might be a factor here as well. I am skimmerless in my nano, although i am thinking about getting a good one for the back.

[Carty]

I feed Marine S pellets, frozen mysis, frozen algae cubes, frozen seafood cubes (krill, clams, algae, vitamins etc etc) and algae strips

I usually feed about 2 cubes worth in the morning, I put a mix of foods into a glass and add some tank water to thaw it out. The mix tends to vary every day. Then after about 5 minutes when everything is thawed I dump it into the water, this is about 3 hours after "sun up" I let the fish fend for themselves and never directly feed my corals, I have noticed that the fish will eat pretty heavily at first and then let the remaining food float around which is when my corals will grab it, and then over the next hour or so the remaining food will get picked up by CuC and fish nibbling... 5 hours after feeding there is no food in the tank and I have very little algae (except for the back glass which I would prefer anyways to insure my snails have something to eat)

[mysterybox]

I only use Hikari frozen foods, however, their shrimp products still should be rinsed as It can eventually cause a nutrient issue.

[Astrivian]

I just switched my food over to the frozen Formula 1. I cut it up in to little cubes for the fish so that most of it is eaten, not floating around the tank like the brine shrimp. I will test this for a while and see if this reduces the algae growth in my tank. I also think a good skimmer wouldn't hurt but i don't have the money for one at this time.

Thanks again for the rinsing suggestion; I think i will start rinsing my brine shrimp from now on.