Supercharge your Reef

[Lazys Coral House]

Thought I would share the Recipe I am using to feed Coral, Inverts, Fish & Macrofauna. I have been using this for past couple months and noticed some positive change; Increased pod population, enhanced coral growth, color and polyp extension and generally healthier looking fish. It probably isn't much different from what most are using today with the exception of some smaller micron ingredients for the smaller polyps stoney's and macrofauna.


These are the ingredients I used for today's batch. Ratio's may be different for you depending on your reef tanks inhabitants

First thing I do is prep all the food. Cut up the NORI and remove the frozen food from it's packaging.

I put the Frozen food in a fish net and rinse under cold water to thaw out. Careful not to damage the mysis/krill as they can break open and all the good stuff will go down the drain. Copepods and Rotifers I just let thaw. They are so small that unless you have a specialty designed sieve they will all go through the net and down the drain. You can toss them in a ziplock and put it in your tank to thaw out quicker.

This is what it looks like once everything is thawed and prepared for mixing.

At this point it is just a matter of mixing everything together

Last step is to pour it in a zip lock bag flatten it out and put it in the freezer.

 

[jleblanc26]

No problems with thawing out and re freezing frozen food?

 

[reeflover]

How long does it stay good for?

 

[Rob.D]

Nice mix, you should send me a sample to try out

 

[KoleTang]

I really wish my LFS would stock rotifers or copepods.

Where did you get the brine shrimp net?

 

[Lazys Coral House]

It is a standard net from my local fish store. You can buy a brineshrimp net, rotifers, copepods and powders from Brine Shrimp Direct. Frozen Fish Food | Brine Shrimp Direct

 

[JFrar]

That's awesome , I'd love to try something like this. Maybe instead of getting a big ziploc bag get "pill" bags from a pharmacy and freeze them individually, then put those in a big bag to freeze.

 

[Diesel]

Thanks.
That's the pointer of the weekend and on the to do list for next weekend.

 

[ReefFrenzy]

Lazylivin, thanks for the photo plug and using our foods but as the manufacturer I have to advise against thawing and re-freezing any LRS products. This will cause a severe degradation in quality, texture and palatability. There is a process called "protein denaturation" which occurs anytime seafood (or any food) is thawed and frozen a second or subsequent time. Basically the food is degrading each time it is re-frozen which causes things like lipids, fats and amino acids to deteriorate. I'm not being critical of your efforts, since I also have to explain this to consumers who like to thaw a weeks worth of food out on a Sunday and keep it in the fridge for 5-7 days. Another example is when a customer emails to ask if it is OK to use their pack of food which they placed back in the freezer after going to sleep and leaving it on the kitchen counter all night to thaw out by accident. The answer is no. As you noted smaller organisms like krill can literally fall apart before your eyes since the freeze/thaw has ruptured cell walls and membranes.

In a perfect world we would have a manufacturing facility located right at the dock so each and every ingredient would only be frozen one time after harvest. However certain ingredients such as Mysis and squid have to be shipped in frozen, then processed and added to the blend before final packaging. It is not optimal, but still far ahead of the norm for "fish food" standards.

In your example above some of the ingredients will be thawed and frozen three times before you feed them which I don't think is optimal. Let me know if this makes sense or if I can clarify anything further.

 

[reeflover]

Lazylivin, thanks for the photo plug and using our foods but as the manufacturer I have to advise against thawing and re-freezing any LRS products. This will cause a severe degradation in quality, texture and palatability. There is a process called "protein denaturation" which occurs anytime seafood (or any food) is thawed and frozen a second or subsequent time. Basically the food is degrading each time it is re-frozen which causes things like lipids, fats and amino acids to deteriorate. I'm not being critical of your efforts, since I also have to explain this to consumers who like to thaw a weeks worth of food out on a Sunday and keep it in the fridge for 5-7 days. Another example is when a customer emails to ask if it is OK to use their pack of food which they placed back in the freezer after going to sleep and leaving it on the kitchen counter all night to thaw out by accident. The answer is no. As you noted smaller organisms like krill can literally fall apart before your eyes since the freeze/thaw has ruptured cell walls and membranes.

In a perfect world we would have a manufacturing facility located right at the dock so each and every ingredient would only be frozen one time after harvest. However certain ingredients such as Mysis and squid have to be shipped in frozen, then processed and added to the blend before final packaging. It is not optimal, but still far ahead of the norm for "fish food" standards.

In your example above some of the ingredients will be thawed and frozen three times before you feed them which I don't think is optimal. Let me know if this makes sense or if I can clarify anything further.

What do you recommend for people who want to make their own blend using different frozen products?

 

[ReefFrenzy]

I would try and source as many fresh ingredients as possible. If that cannot be done due to location I would buy the highest quality frozen ingredients you can find. Keep an eye out for preservatives designed to make the seafood hold water and look "plump" in the display case. Sodium Tri-phosphate is a common one, known as STP. Process everything as quickly as you can while keeping it below 55 degrees and get it packaged and refrozen ASAP

Many of the "seafood medley" products have imitation crab and other poor quality ingredients so read the label. There are a lot of ways to do DIY food and I'm not implying the above recipe is harmful, just not optimal IMHO.

I just wanted to mention that when it pertains to our blends I wanted to discourage re-freezing and give an explanation why.

 

[Lazys Coral House]

Respectfully I don't think thawing the frozen seafood for 20 minutes to add additional ingredients is going to cause a severe degradation in quality; perhaps texture and palatability like you mentioned but I am not eating it so that's okay . I am sure it is good practice to move through the process as quick as possible by begin mixing as soon as it thaws enough to do so.

 

[ReefFrenzy]

Respectfully I don't think thawing the frozen seafood for 20 minutes to add additional ingredients is going to cause a severe degradation in quality

Unfortunately, lab tests and the US Department of Agriculture doesn't support that statement, especially since some of those ingredients (including a few in LRS) would now be thawed and frozen a second or third time. I'm not trying to be critical, but rather helpful so that folks can understand there are physical and biological forces which work against us when we process and freeze foods for human or pet consumption. When food is frozen, particularly in a residential freezer verses a commercial one at -30 degrees, the moisture in the food slowly expands as it crystalizes into a solid. This creates shearing forces which rupture cell walls and particularly the exo-skeleoton of the mysis, krill and other ingredients. Rinsing under high pressure running water further compounds this by crushing it further. The lipids and proteins which were once trapped inside the organisms will now likely leach out. It makes no difference if you are thawing an ingredient for 20 minutes or 2 hours. If you have ever caught a fresh fish, then froze it to cook at a later date you know exactly how the texture changes when you thaw it out. Now refreeze that same fish 2 or 3 times and see how it turns to mush.

These articles better explain in detail what degradation processes I am referring to:

Layman's terms: Refreezing seafood; why is it bad? - refreezingfood refreeze lossofquality | Ask MetaFilter

Scientific jargon: Factors Influencing the Freeze-Thaw Stability of Emulsion-Based Foods - Degner - 2014 - Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety - Wiley Online Library

Highland Refigeration - Blast Freezing Q&A

I'm all for DIY foods and freely provide info when I can to clubs and others seeking to learn better methods so please don't misconstrue the nature of my post as being one to dissuade DIY foods. I have personally tested LRS by thawing and refreezing it and it does change texture slightly.

If your desired outcome is strictly convenience and zero prep time at feeding then by all means continue your process depicted above. If optimal nutrition and maintaining the highest quality is your goal then I would thaw each item a single time before feeding.

 

[Lazys Coral House]

So how do you unpackage Mysis and Krill and add it to LRS without first thawing it?

 

[GHill762]

interesting thread :nerd:

 

[ReefFrenzy]

In a perfect world we would have a manufacturing facility located right at the dock so each and every ingredient would only be frozen one time after harvest. However certain ingredients such as Mysis and squid have to be shipped in frozen, then processed and added to the blend before final packaging. It is not optimal, but still far ahead of the norm for "fish food" standards.

In your example above some of the ingredients will be thawed and frozen three times before you feed them which I don't think is optimal. Let me know if this makes sense or if I can clarify anything further.

As stated we do have to thaw them once to enrich with the beta carotene, HUFA, and Vitamin C food soaks. This 100% by-hand process helps to boost some of the nutrients lost without mishandling the mysis or krill. The blend is then promptly frozen in a fan driven freezer kept at -24 to -30 which "cures" the 8 ounce pack back to a solid form very, very rapidly to minimize damage from ice crystals forming.

I just wanted to add that thawing our product subsequent times by the end user is not advisable.

 

[Lazys Coral House]

Okay I think I am getting your message. Sounds like the issue with this and other DIY mixes is using LRS in them. We should refrain from that and if we wish to use LRS we should feed that seperatly as is. I added the LRS to this for the fish base. I can instead source fresh unfrozen fish from the grocery store. Thanks for your inputs.

 

[gtbarsi]

So how do you unpackage Mysis and Krill and add it to LRS without first thawing it?

I think the suggestion is that the frozen foods should be kept that way until the day of feeding then thawed, and fed. I know a lot of people take the block of LRS and cube it with a large knife while it is still frozen and then store it in a bag in the freezer that way to make feeding easier.

I'm not sure how much you feed at any time so you may have to very the items you feed each time, if it too much to feed a cube of mysis, krill, Copepods, Rotifers, and LRS. If that would be too much keep in mind that you can cut up the frozen cubes in to smaller pieces w/o letting them thaw then keep them in the freezer that way until you are ready to thaw and feed. Additionally you can mix up your dry ingredients, and have it ready to add to the thawed food for the day.

This process is definitely not as easy as mixing batches, and re-freezing but it provides better nutrition overall. It will also insure that you are adding a minimum of excess nutrients that are likely to only feed your algae. Any time things are frozen cell membranes are damaged and when thawed those cells spill out, that is why we rinse even the best quality foods like LRS. I suspect that your blend that you are freezing will have just as much of those type of nutrients when thawed as LRS does (if not more) when not rinsed.

Like Larry I am respectfully just trying to point out an aspect that you previously may not have considered or understood. Clearly you are working to do the best for the creatures under your care, and personally I think it sucks that freezing has such ramifications but it does.

 

[gtbarsi]

Okay I think I am getting your message. Sounds like the issue with this and other DIY mixes is using LRS in them. We should refrain from that and if we wish to use LRS we should feed that seperatly as is. I added the LRS to this for the fish base. I can instead source fresh unfrozen fish from the grocery store. Thanks for your inputs.

With fish it is a race to get it from the ocean, to the stove / grill as fast as possible before spoiling. Freezing greatly increases the time you can take in between, but at a cost in the quality. That is why there is usually a big difference in the quality of fish you get in a quality restaurant on the shore vs what you get at your local grocery store. Almost all large scale commercial fishing is done with freezing or processing and freezing happening on board the fishing vessel or at the unloading point. Unless you have a local fish market that gets their stock from local fishermen you have little to no chance of getting fish that were not previously frozen.

Sushi grade Tuna among a few others are the only remotely readily available unfrozen / previously unfrozen fish available at many fish markets, and it is very expensive.

All of this is why Larry has a job and a great product. If it was easy to source the components for LRS then all we would be paying a premium for would be to save time and chopping.

BTW, I am in no way affiliated with Larry or LRS. I spent a about 10 years around the commercial fishing industry, and on a sport fishing boat that paid or itself with Tuna caught, and specially handled, to be sold to Japanese exporters. The exporters would fly out the fish we sold them the same day to hit the fish markets in Japan the next day. From there it had a shelf life of only a couple of days despite being kept on ice the entire time.

 

[Lazys Coral House]

Just thought I would share a Before and After picture. This is an ORA Chips. First picture is prior to feeding this nutrient rich small micron food. Second is after. Many of my corals have respond this well. Note the chalice to the left of the Chips as well. I will share a few more pictures.