Mysis, a complete diet??

[rickh]

The fish/coral/nuisance algae in my tanks love the Emerald Entrée(EE) that I have been feeding for over a year. I started rinsing the EE to reduce the PO4, but after rinsing all the good stuff is gone, only krill is left. My LFS has recommended PE Mysis as a replacement for Emerald Entrée for my Clown/Blenny tank.
There was a long thread last week about washing food. Consensus--washing reduces the PO4 in the thawed food, but reduced the nutritional value.
So is it better to feed the rinsed EE or the rinsed Mysis??
R

[graveyardworm]

What are you using to filter the food when you rinse it? I use a 53 micron rotifier screen. Its fine enough that I can rinse cyclopeeze. That way you're only rising the juice away, and saving all the small bits.

[virginiadiver69]

A variety of food is better than one kind.
I feed:
mysis, large mysis, clams, spirulina brine, krill and 1/2 sheet nori at night.
rotifers, cyclopeez, baby brine, daphnia, reef chili and nutra mar ova in the morning
FWIW...I've never rinsed my food in over two years in this hobby and have never had an algae problem and phos. and nitrates are always undetectable.

[rickh]

The PO4 in my tanks is also undectable. Put your rinsed frozen food or some flake/pellet food in a cup of water. Let it stand for a few and measure the PO4. It's there.

[Anemonebuff]

I do not rinse either, never have. I also think that the vitamin supplements add more PO4, as well as the seaweed sheets. Skim wet and use GFO. If they are happy with EE, then feed it. Like stated above, I feed a little of everything.

[BuddhaKiss]

Well I do agree its best to feed a varied diet, but I do rinse all frozen food. Anytime we add food to our tanks, we are always adding PO4 to our tanks, rinsing at least reduces it somewhat. After rinsing, I do soak it in selcon just in case some nutrients is lost in th rinse. Selcon is suppose to be nitrate and phosphate free.

[Anemonebuff]

Originally posted by BuddhaKiss
Well I do agree its best to feed a varied diet, but I do rinse all frozen food. Anytime we add food to our tanks, we are always adding PO4 to our tanks, rinsing at least reduces it somewhat. After rinsing, I do soak it in selcon just in case some nutrients is lost in th rinse. Selcon is suppose to be nitrate and phosphate free.

Test some selcon and get back to us. It will add vitamins, which are good, but it certainly contains PO4.

[BuddhaKiss]

That's a good idea, next time I feed mysis, i'll run a phosphate test on the rinsed water and compare that to selcon. Will test a drop of rinsed mysis water against a drop of selcon in RO

[graveyardworm]

Selcon claims on the side of the bottle to contain no PO4 or Nitrates so it'll be interesting to see the results of the test. Buddhakiss, what brand kit are you using to test for PO4?

[pjewett]

Originally posted by graveyardworm
What are you using to filter the food when you rinse it? I use a 53 micron rotifier screen. Its fine enough that I can rinse cyclopeeze. That way you're only rising the juice away, and saving all the small bits.

Of topic but I grew up in Dover...used to have friends in Nottingham including the nudist colony...assuming it's still there.

cheers

[graveyardworm]

Yep the NC is still there. Both of my kids went to Dover high school. Did you go to school there, how long ago?

[pjewett]

Originally posted by graveyardworm
Yep the NC is still there. Both of my kids went to Dover high school. Did you go to school there, how long ago?

I graduated in 1988 (DHS) and 2 months later moved away to OH for college. Now I'm in NYC. Still have a ton of family in the Keene area so make it back to NH a few times a years. You?

[virginiadiver69]

Originally posted by rickh
The PO4 in my tanks is also undectable. Put your rinsed frozen food or some flake/pellet food in a cup of water. Let it stand for a few and measure the PO4. It's there.

I agree. I'm sure that rinsing the food helps reduce the Phos.
What I'm saying is, in a well balanced tank that's maintained with good husbandry practices... it may not be necessary to go to that kind of trouble.
I feed very heavy and skim wet with good flow and can get away with not rinsing the food.

I also spray Windex right onto my glass. No going into another room to stealthfully spray the rag.

[BuddhaKiss]

Originally posted by graveyardworm
Selcon claims on the side of the bottle to contain no PO4 or Nitrates so it'll be interesting to see the results of the test. Buddhakiss, what brand kit are you using to test for PO4?

I use API. I know, I know...as mentioned here on RC, its not the best for PO4, but its all I got right now.

Anyway, so I did a test of just plain RO, another one of RO and two drops of Selcon, and a third of RO and two drops of the rinse water from the mysis, in this instance, its Hikari. I'd also want to mention that when I rinsed, I only used about half a cup of RO water....that is what I used for the third test. And this pics are kinda crappy, its from my iphone, the batteries for my camera need to be recharged.

So on the left is RO, the middle is with Selcon, and the right is with Mysis rinse water. Its tough to see according to the chart, but that's due to the crappy iphone pic. I'll let everyone else make up their own conclusions...



I realize this is hardly scientific, but at least it gives an idea.

[rickh]

So the 3rd tube is 2 drops of the rinse water added to a tube of RO water? Imagine how high it would be if it was straight rinse water. R

[Reef Stallion]

A better picture would probably help. From what I can see, it looks like your RO is showing PO4.

[virginiadiver69]

Originally posted by rickh
Imagine how high it would be if it was straight rinse water. R

That's not even comparable...your tank isn't filled with rinse water. You would normally be adding a couple OUNCES of rinse water to MANY gals of balanced tank water.
BuddhaKiss...it does look like you straight RO water is showing Phos. Can you give us what #'s you actually got? If your Ro water is testing high...the test with the rinse water is skewed.

[jimroth]

I sure hope PE mysis is a complete diet; I have couple fish who won't eat anything else (except pods)!

[rickh]

Tonight I thawed 1 cube of Emerald Entrée in 1 gallon of RO water and tested the PO4. The sample was between 1 and 2 on the PO4 test.

Sure your PO4 reactor and refugium will remove PO4, but feeding 1 cube per day in a 50 gallon system is a lot of phosphate to remove. R

[graveyardworm]

I notice some things when I feed rinsed food as opposed to unrinsed, and I think they're important, but not sure exactly what it means.
1) Unrinsed the head on my skimmer crashes and takes hours to recover. Rinsed I never lose the head on the skimmer.
2) The food added to the tank is clear, it doesnt have the unrinsed milky look. I can see every tiny bit of food.


Keep in mind also that acceptable PO4 for a reef tank is less than .05. Thats to the 100th's. So while 1-2 ppm in the food bowl doesnt sound like much, it doesnt take much to increase the level in the tank beyond acceptable and lead to nuisance algae.

[snorvich]

Yes, I agree with graveyardworm.

[Reef Stallion]

Originally posted by graveyardworm
What are you using to filter the food when you rinse it? I use a 53 micron rotifier screen. Its fine enough that I can rinse cyclopeeze. That way you're only rising the juice away, and saving all the small bits.

Where do you get a 53 micron rotifer screen?

[graveyardworm]

Originally posted by Reef Stallion
Where do you get a 53 micron rotifer screen?

I got it fromFlorida Aqua Farms. The small dia 4 inch 53u. Its sufficiantly small enough for rotifiers, but large enough that fluid passes through without alot of clogging.

[Reef Stallion]

Thanks. $11 for a polyester screen? I wonder if there are stainless screens for sale somewhere else. I would think that would last longer.

[LobsterOfJustice]

I just use a brine shrimp net from petsmart to rinse my cubes, they are like $3.

But back to the original question - I dont think any food is a complete diet. I try to feed my fish as much variety (especially frozen) as possible. I literally have bought every single type of frozen food I've seen, some I dont use anymore because I didn't care for them, but I currently rotate through about 10 different types of frozen food and about as many types of dry food as well.