ryangrieder
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- Northern Jersey
well, a few people were asking awhile back on how i make my food, so i decided yesterday while i was making it to snap some pictures and show step by step on how i do it. its pretty much just mixing a bunch of types of foods/vitamins together to have a nice mixture for your fish. for some of you, im sure you already know how to do this, but some of the newer people might like it. so, here we go...
this is my reef tank mix that i make for my reef tank...
things i used to make it...
egg crate
plexi glass, or some sort of smooth thick sheet. plastic, ect.
super glue
fish food
vitamins
a very fine net
a mixing bowl or container.
another wide bowl
RO water
maybe a flat head
some hungry fish
and thats about it...
first thing i did was take that white crate stuff, egg crate or whatever, and super glued it to a peice of acrylic. i used IC gel to glue it so i could take my time dabbing each spot i wanted to glue, which was the whole backside of the egg crate, and it would not dry until i pressed down and soaked it in water. then let it sit for a bit until it has dried.
then, one you do that, you now have to figure out what food you want to use. i was making food for my reef tank, so i used smaller shrimps since none of my reef fish are large. my list of food i picked up was...
hikari krill
hikari spurlina brine shrimp
hikari mysis
hikari jumbo mysis
hikari large plankton
san fransisco bay reef plankton
san fransisco bay rotifers
san fransisco bay brine + (omega fatty acid)
san fransisco bay spurlina baby brine
san fransisco bay Reef Multi-Pack (clam, squid, sponge, nori)
kent marine c
kent zoe
kent zoecon (groth stimulator)
kent MAXX phytoplankton
kent Zooplex
coral frenzy
Vita chem
Seaweed or nori
you obviously dont need to use all of that, but i do. usually from DR. foster smith because they have good shipping sales for frozen alot of the time and there frozen food starts at around 2 bucks.
for my aggressive tank, i use more of a fish marketplace instead of frozen food. raw shrimp, scallops, clams, mussles, fish, squid, ect... i just throw it on a cutting board and cut the food up into nice size peices that my fish could eat.
then i pop all of the cubes out, except the krill, into a container and soak them in RO water. this takes awhile to break down because the RO water is not warm, so it takes some time, but after 10 minutes or so i start to mix it and they begin to break apart...
the krill by hikari is kind of large, so i soak the krill seprate and cut them up with sissors into small peices. usually ocean neutrition sells krill and they are smaller peices of krill, almost perfect size, but drfostersmith was out of stock.
i also do this with the seaweed and/or nori. usually you can just rip it up with your hands, but i chop the seaweed up into small peices.
then its time to get messy. pour all of the food into the fine net, with the krill as well. if its not a fine net, half your food, like the plankton, rotifers, ect. you will lose. then i rinse it under some water or RO water. i do this until the color of the water under the net is clear, then do it for another minute or so after that.
keep squeezing the net as well. feels nasty and smells nasty but deal with it lol. then give it one final good squeeze. try and get most of the water out. if you did it right the food should ball up. once it balls up throw it back into a container.
once its in the container, this is when i add all my liquid foods/vitamins/seaweed ect... dont use too much though because you dont want it back to being able to drain it again and soaked, you want just the right mixture of it all so that its almost in the gel form. i also add some more RO water.
next you take your egg crate and back peice you glued and lay it flat down and pour your food into each square. push it down good so each cube is even. if you do it quickly some of the squares will have not a good mixture in each square or it will be uneven.
then once it is even, i pretty much wrap it up in a bag so it does not get freezer burned or smelly. once its wrapped it, the next day or so your food should be frozen.
then, take it out, flip it upside down over a wide bowl, and bang them out. if they dont come up, you can give it a few minutes to defrost and then try to knock them out. if they still will not come out, use a flat head to pop them out.
after you pop them out, throw them in a zip lock bag, throw them in the freezer to freeze up again since it probably took 5 or so minutes to get them out of the egg crate, and then your ready to feed!
this is my reef tank mix that i make for my reef tank...
things i used to make it...
egg crate
plexi glass, or some sort of smooth thick sheet. plastic, ect.
super glue
fish food
vitamins
a very fine net
a mixing bowl or container.
another wide bowl
RO water
maybe a flat head
some hungry fish
and thats about it...
first thing i did was take that white crate stuff, egg crate or whatever, and super glued it to a peice of acrylic. i used IC gel to glue it so i could take my time dabbing each spot i wanted to glue, which was the whole backside of the egg crate, and it would not dry until i pressed down and soaked it in water. then let it sit for a bit until it has dried.
then, one you do that, you now have to figure out what food you want to use. i was making food for my reef tank, so i used smaller shrimps since none of my reef fish are large. my list of food i picked up was...
hikari krill
hikari spurlina brine shrimp
hikari mysis
hikari jumbo mysis
hikari large plankton
san fransisco bay reef plankton
san fransisco bay rotifers
san fransisco bay brine + (omega fatty acid)
san fransisco bay spurlina baby brine
san fransisco bay Reef Multi-Pack (clam, squid, sponge, nori)
kent marine c
kent zoe
kent zoecon (groth stimulator)
kent MAXX phytoplankton
kent Zooplex
coral frenzy
Vita chem
Seaweed or nori
you obviously dont need to use all of that, but i do. usually from DR. foster smith because they have good shipping sales for frozen alot of the time and there frozen food starts at around 2 bucks.
for my aggressive tank, i use more of a fish marketplace instead of frozen food. raw shrimp, scallops, clams, mussles, fish, squid, ect... i just throw it on a cutting board and cut the food up into nice size peices that my fish could eat.
then i pop all of the cubes out, except the krill, into a container and soak them in RO water. this takes awhile to break down because the RO water is not warm, so it takes some time, but after 10 minutes or so i start to mix it and they begin to break apart...
the krill by hikari is kind of large, so i soak the krill seprate and cut them up with sissors into small peices. usually ocean neutrition sells krill and they are smaller peices of krill, almost perfect size, but drfostersmith was out of stock.
i also do this with the seaweed and/or nori. usually you can just rip it up with your hands, but i chop the seaweed up into small peices.
then its time to get messy. pour all of the food into the fine net, with the krill as well. if its not a fine net, half your food, like the plankton, rotifers, ect. you will lose. then i rinse it under some water or RO water. i do this until the color of the water under the net is clear, then do it for another minute or so after that.
keep squeezing the net as well. feels nasty and smells nasty but deal with it lol. then give it one final good squeeze. try and get most of the water out. if you did it right the food should ball up. once it balls up throw it back into a container.
once its in the container, this is when i add all my liquid foods/vitamins/seaweed ect... dont use too much though because you dont want it back to being able to drain it again and soaked, you want just the right mixture of it all so that its almost in the gel form. i also add some more RO water.
next you take your egg crate and back peice you glued and lay it flat down and pour your food into each square. push it down good so each cube is even. if you do it quickly some of the squares will have not a good mixture in each square or it will be uneven.
then once it is even, i pretty much wrap it up in a bag so it does not get freezer burned or smelly. once its wrapped it, the next day or so your food should be frozen.
then, take it out, flip it upside down over a wide bowl, and bang them out. if they dont come up, you can give it a few minutes to defrost and then try to knock them out. if they still will not come out, use a flat head to pop them out.
after you pop them out, throw them in a zip lock bag, throw them in the freezer to freeze up again since it probably took 5 or so minutes to get them out of the egg crate, and then your ready to feed!
