Rinsing food before feeding

[JPags]

I have seen a few threads on this subject. I saw a bunch of people say they used RO/DI water to rinse, but I also saw Greg Hiller mention that he just used cold water (he may have left out the RO part). I am going to start rinsing my food before feeding and was going to use just regular water but was thinking that this will cause problems.

Just wanted to see if others are rinsing in regular water or if everyone is using RO water to rinse their food.

John

 

[Cherokee_Dude]

I use regular water then tank water.

 

[Blueflu1]

I just use regular water, then use a net to strain it. I figure the tiny bit of tap water that might get in wont harm it.

 

[stingythingy45]

I have a ro/di with drinking water.
So I rinse right from that faucet with ro.

 

[Amazon]

I grab a scoop of what's handy..tank water or RO water. I don't use tap for it though.

 

[Blueflu1]

Now that I think of it, I usually use tank water then strain the food out. Lately I have been using tap but thats only recently.

 

[snowmaker]

Tank water here.
I notice if I don't rinse (PE Mysis), the foam head in skimmer crashes in a matter of seconds after feeding. Must be oils doing this.?

 

[JPags]

Thanks everyone. I may use RO but just wanted to see if anyone was using tap, just in case. I also have filtered water (not full RO) next to my faucet, maybe I will use that if needed.

John

 

[Liam]

I would never recommend using tap water or ro/di,when frozen food thaws it will absorb a certain amount of the water that it is defrosting in.
Why would you feed a marine creature a food that contains freshwater??
Especially coral.I may seem to be being over the top with this line of thought but the way i look at it,why use freshwater when tank water is right on hand and will give a more natural food source.

Using tap water could also be adding phospahtes,again in miniscule amounts but why add any when the food itself contains more phosphate than we desire.

Somefolks complain that there skimmer will shut down for a while when they feed and some even claim a good skimmer won't shut down when feeding,IMO i would rather my skimmer does shut down when i feed,after all its the inhabitants that need a chance to get the food ,not the skimmer.

Its the little things in this hobby that can add up to a more successful reef IME.

 

[Joel A]

do you guys strain the food after you rinse?

I've gotten into the habbit of just taken tank water and thawing the food in a small cup then dumping it all back in... but i should probably be straining it before adding it back in, correct?

 

[RiverReefer]

hmm....how about flake...isn't it going to turn into a clumpy mess...i rinse my frozen stuff like silversides with tank water...but what about flake anyone rinse that????

 

[Joel A]

i don't ... but flake already contains phospate, not the best food for a reef it seems.

 

[Liam]

do you guys strain the food after you rinse?

I've gotten into the habbit of just taken tank water and thawing the food in a small cup then dumping it all back in... but i should probably be straining it before adding it back in, correct?

i pour it through a brine shrimp net and then add it to another cup of fresh tank water

 

[Liam]

i don't ... but flake already contains phospate, not the best food for a reef it seems.

yes best avoided if possible IMHO

 

[Dave McReeferson]

do you guys strain the food after you rinse?

I've gotten into the habbit of just taken tank water and thawing the food in a small cup then dumping it all back in... but i should probably be straining it before adding it back in, correct?

That's what I do, I defrost the food in a generous portion of tank water then give it a stir before straining all the water down the drain. Every little bit counts in this hobby IMO.

 

[Dave McReeferson]

i don't ... but flake already contains phospate, not the best food for a reef it seems.

My thoughts as well, though to be honest this isn't based on any research of my own, perhaps some are better than others...

 

[KSC]

I don't know if you realise this but most food is phosphate....and a few other things.

 

[Joel A]

I don't know if you realise this but most food is phosphate....and a few other things.

Not sure i follow? If you look at the concentration of phosphate in foods it's much higher in flake foods than in frozen foods. It still exists in frozen foods of course, but not to the same extent.

 

[afboundguy]

I rinse in either RO/DI or tank water but after Liam's post I think I'll do it in just in tank water...

 

[KSC]

Just trying to point out that living things need phosphates, they're not that bad...http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/AP_Biology/The_Chemical_Building_Blocks_of_Life

Organic Elements
Of the 96 natural elements, 25 are essential for life. Of these, there are six main elements that are the fundamental building blocks of life. They are, in order of least to most common: sulfur, phosphorous, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen. An easy way to remember this is SPONCH - a nice mnemonic. The remaining 19 elements are defined as trace elements, which are important, but required only in very small quantities. The basis of life is carbon. Carbon's importance comes mainly from the enormous variety of structures that it can form due to its unusual four valence electrons. Most important of these structures is the carbon chain, which forms the "backbone" of fatty acids and carbohydrates, among other organic molecules. Other elements do share properties similar to carbon, in this regard. However, they are not as prevalent on earth as carbon.