• Background on Ben

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I've seen this a lot while out and about on my job and I'm tired of seeing it. People are thawing food out in there fridge and letting this food sit around for days or even a week in the fridge. Don't do that ****. It's not good for the nutritional stability of the food and it's basically a Nitrate and Phosphate bomb. I have one client who is, what I call, a psuedo-hobbyist. I don't intend that to come off as rude but these are hobbyists who get in deeper than they should have and are either too busy in their 9-5 job or just not able to go much further in the hobby and have hit a brick wall.
So this client has had me coming out every other week to turn his system around and it has been several months at this point. I've suggessted many things, some being carried through and others not acted upon. This is just how it goes and I tell these type of clients that I will gladly continue taking their money to the bank but that things would progress much faster and better if they listened to me. After a couple months of cleaning and changing things, I happened to ask him his feeding routine and habits. He showed me how many pellets he put into the tank....and I was ******* stunned. Snow globe effect with most food just going down the overflow and into the filtration. That wasn't helpful. Ok, how about how he fed frozen food? He thawed out several varieties of cubes in a cup that stayed in his fridge and fed from it during the course of a week.

NOOOOOOOOOOoooooo dude!

There is just no reason to do this, even if your excuse is laziness. He has two Ecotech MP40s on the tank so I told him, if laziness was the issue, just walk up and stick the frozen cube to the side of one or both of the MP40s and walk away. The cube will thaw and be dispersed by the pump. When you thaw frozen food and just let it sit in a cup in the fridge for days, it breaks down and rots....quickly. With the pellets, I got him one of those floating feeding rings with the magnetic mount from Two Little Fishies. I taught him to feed less pellets and to place that pinch into the floating ring. This way the food doesn't go floating right down the overflow drain.

This has been a month ago and his Nitrates are steadily climbing down. There are no corals in the tank because he had 50 ppm Nitrates. When I was there last week I had them down to 20 ppm and I suspect next visit will have the tank ready to start adding corals. If only I had thought sooner to ask him about his feeding habits, we could have saved some time. I had looked at and advised about everything else but it basically came down to how he was feeding his fish like a god damned Las Vegas buffet exploded in your kitchen.

So today, I was cleaning a different client's system and I hear his wife bitching at him on the phone about how the fish food stunk in the fridge. Before I left, I asked her about it. He was thawing frozen food in a cup in the fridge and used it for up to 3-4 days. That's just rotten water at that point. Now the wife will also be happy because I solved her issue of the stinky fridge.

Don't succumb to this lazy way of feeding. The only viable way to feed food that sits around in your fridge is Reef Nutrition foods. I know there are likely a few other brands that are like this but they are my favorite. Pre-thawed and in a squeeze bottle. If you are using frozen foods, stop thawing them out for days and you might even solve Nitrate and phosphate issues and algae issues thusly.

Or not and keep wondering why your tank is a mess.
 
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How about just thawing overnight? I’ve been doing this for months and have very low nutrients. I thaw a cube of mysis at the end of the day, and use it the following day. Rinse, and repeat.

My question to you would be, why? When it is so easy to thaw it in the tank, stuck to a powerhead, or even just in your fingers held under water, why leave it sitting in the fridge overnight?
 
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I have been doing this for a long time and my nitrates are 15 and phosphates are 0.10-0.12.. I am not noticing a rise in either.

Those aren't the greatest of numbers there. They aren't terrible of course but both would be nice to be half of those values. More importantly, thawing food out in the fridge and letting it sit there for several days is bad for the nutritional value of the food....so why do it?
 

XclusiveReef

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Those aren't the greatest of numbers there. They aren't terrible of course but both would be nice to be half of those values. More importantly, thawing food out in the fridge and letting it sit there for several days is bad for the nutritional value of the food....so why do it?
lol maybe but who really knows? do you have anyhting documented stating this? Not giving you hard time and I probably agree that doing it fresh daily would be best but not not 100% sure. I guess its like having fresh fast food vs 1-2 day old fast food that has been reheated.
 

evoIX_Reefer

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I take enough food for two feedings and then redo the process 2 days later. Between feeding, I refreeze what I do not use.

I personally have not seen an issue so any insight on how you feed and not waste frozen food without dumping everything into your tank causing leftover food, which in turn causes the NO3 spikes.
 
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I take enough food for two feedings and then redo the process 2 days later. Between feeding, I refreeze what I do not use.

I personally have not seen an issue so any insight on how you feed and not waste frozen food without dumping everything into your tank causing leftover food, which in turn causes the NO3 spikes.

Refreezing food is NOT GOOD. You are poking holes in the cell walls when freezing and thawing and you are left with less nutritional food.

When I feed frozen I do like how I put in the post; I either stick it to a powerhead or just hold it by hand and observe the fish as they eat. If another cube is need I just repeat.
 
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lol maybe but who really knows? do you have anyhting documented stating this? Not giving you hard time and I probably agree that doing it fresh daily would be best but not not 100% sure. I guess its like having fresh fast food vs 1-2 day old fast food that has been reheated.

There is a ton of info on Google about this as it applies to human food. Manufacturers of frozen fish food as well preach all this. Ask Larry from Larry's Reef Frenzy about this. He knows A LOT about the science regarding this.
 

evoIX_Reefer

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Ok, how about spot feeding for those who tend to spot feed vs global broadcast feeding.

I find it more productive for corals that can spot feed.

Again, my opinion.

Just like food you can refrigerate for a day and reuse next day. Day of decomposition shouldnt be too extensive.

I understand over that length but I will only reuse within 24 hrs of said method. Then i dispose any remaining which shouldnt be much.

In terms of the nutritional value etc, are you saying it will lose 20, 30, 50 or 80 percent of value in that time with method above?
 

Adamantium

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My question to you would be, why? When it is so easy to thaw it in the tank, stuck to a powerhead, or even just in your fingers held under water, why leave it sitting in the fridge overnight?
Because I like to add selcon and garlic guard, and only feed half the cube, two times a day. Working well for me so far. Keeping it in the fridge for more than a few days does seem ill advised, but I don’t see how keeping thawed frozen food in the fridge for less than 24 hours is any different from thawing and keeping frozen fish in your fridge.
 

Jamesmost

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I, 2 weeks ago got a gourmet defroster...
No more fridge thawing for me....

Love the thing...

Defrosts, meters out, no waste,
 

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Location
Houston, TX
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Because I like to add selcon and garlic guard, and only feed half the cube, two times a day. Working well for me so far. Keeping it in the fridge for more than a few days does seem ill advised, but I don’t see how keeping thawed frozen food in the fridge for less than 24 hours is any different from thawing and keeping frozen fish in your fridge.

Selcon is great but garlic has not been shown to do anything except MAYBE entice fish to eat. It definitely doesn't do anything for parasites. 24 hours is probably negligeble and fine but past that and things like HUFAs and vitamins degrade.
 
Location
Houston, TX
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Ok, how about spot feeding for those who tend to spot feed vs global broadcast feeding.

I find it more productive for corals that can spot feed.

Again, my opinion.

Just like food you can refrigerate for a day and reuse next day. Day of decomposition shouldnt be too extensive.

I understand over that length but I will only reuse within 24 hrs of said method. Then i dispose any remaining which shouldnt be much.

In terms of the nutritional value etc, are you saying it will lose 20, 30, 50 or 80 percent of value in that time with method above?

None of that seems like a problem in my experience. How I do that is use a shot glass and thaw a cube of say, P E calanus and just thaw it out real quick. Then I shut the tank pumps off and use a small baster to squirt food on spot feeders.
 

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