Fist time DIY Food = Massive Algae Outbreak

[jvswan]

So, I’m looking for some wisdom… I made my first ever batch of DIY frozen food a couple of weeks ago and my tank looks like crap. I normally dose NOPOX, but this is like algae at another level. My most recent nitrate test was < 5 ppm. Not ideal, but not terrible. My guess is that phosphates have gone through the roof, but I don’t have a phosphate test kit yet, so I can’t empirically prove my “through the roof” theory. My skimmer is just about maxed out with really bad skimmate. Worse than normal, anyway. Like, masses of foam escaping through the vent holes in the lid. Gross! And my filter sock and filter mat (between skimmer section and return section) are filthy within a day or so.

Livestock includes a dozen or so mixed corals, a few small nems, four PJ cardinals, a firefish, an orchid dottyback, a big, fat black saddleback clownfish (I swear she ate the male), a full size foxface Lo (rabbitfish), and a 4” purple tang. All are in great shape. I only feed once a day and it’s all pretty much gone within about 5 minutes. I’m probably over feeding, compensating because my schedule doesn’t allow more frequent, smaller feedings. I have numerous snails and hermit crabs to help clean up, so I’ve never really been too bothered by too much food. I also clip a sheet of nori in the tank in the morning.

I dose about 10ml - 12ml NOPOX every morning (110g display and 30g sump). I dose 30ml each of my two-part calc/alk stuff at the same time.

My zoas and LPS are doing fine, my cap montis are ok, as are my other montis and my chalice, but my setosa monti is showing bleaching. Surprisingly, my three small nems are growing and seem to be doing great (photo below just because it’s cool looking). They’ve actually about doubled in size since the photo was taken a month ago, so the new food seems to be filtering down to them, as I had hoped. Worst, though, is the tank just looks seriously grungy! Green and red algae everywhere.

Sorry for the long post, just want to get all the context in here. Here’s what I put in the food and froze in whatever silicone molds I had on hand (the star wars shapes were cool):

• Frozen shrimp (de-shelled, de-veined, and tail off) - shredded in food processor while frozen, but bigger chunks got through along the sides of the cutter.
• Frozen bay scallops - shredded as above
• BRS Freeze dried mysis - I was told in another thread that thawing frozen mysis and such and refreezing is a bad idea.
• BRS Freeze dried krill - I had no idea how big krill is!
• Freeze dried cyclops
• Freeze dried phyto
• BRS Freeze dried Calanus (zoplanctons I believe)
• About 8 sheets of nori (seaweed only, no other ingredients) - processed to smallish bits in the food processor
• Reef Roids - not a ton as I still spot feed the corals once or twice a week.
• Selcon - 60ml bottle, used to soak the mysis, nori, and krill, but it wasn’t nearly enough to get it all wet.

So, first, can anyone tell me what I did wrong? I’m assuming the food is the cause of the algae. Is it normal for diy reef food to cause a sharp increase in nitrate and/or phosphate? Any suggestions for going forward?

Second question for y’all who make your own food, how do you get freeze dried krill and mysis to sink? I soak the frozen food for at least 10-15 minutes in a cup of tank water to thaw. I had hoped it would also get the freeze dried stuff to sink. Nope! Tons end up floating on the surface of the water.

Any ideas? TIA!

 

[FishTruck]

I have done that and just had to use less food at each feeding, your recipe looks fine.

You might want to rinse off the "juice" before you throw it in. If there is lots of uneaten food, make sure you are cleaning your mechanical filtration.

I have also seen feeding bags that are sort of like plastic mesh that allow the fish to pick at your concoction - but, I don't know where to find them. Those would help the uneaten food problem.

And yes... check your phosphates.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I'd be suspicious of the frozen shrimp and scallops. They may have had preservatives added unless stated otherwise.

I normally use fresh shrimp and clams from a fishmonger.

 

[jvswan]

I'd be suspicious of the frozen shrimp and scallops. They may have had preservatives added unless stated otherwise.

I normally use fresh shrimp and clams from a fishmonger.

Do you freeze the shrimp and clams? Or just process them into chunky goo?

 

[jvswan]

You might want to rinse off the "juice" before you throw it in. If there is lots of uneaten food, make sure you are cleaning your mechanical filtration.

That’s a good thought. I’ll try that and see if it helps. Swapping out filter sock and pad every other day now.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Do you freeze the shrimp and clams? Or just process them into chunky goo?

I part freeze them to chop them, then combine and freeze into cubes using an old frozen mysys container.

I don't add much else. Another poster mentioned the recipe looks okay, I'm just wary of putting too much nutrition into a single feed.

 

[EASTERN INDIGO]

So, I’m looking for some wisdom… I made my first ever batch of DIY frozen food a couple of weeks ago and my tank looks like crap. I normally dose NOPOX, but this is like algae at another level. My most recent nitrate test was < 5 ppm. Not ideal, but not terrible. My guess is that phosphates have gone through the roof, but I don’t have a phosphate test kit yet, so I can’t empirically prove my “through the roof” theory. My skimmer is just about maxed out with really bad skimmate. Worse than normal, anyway. Like, masses of foam escaping through the vent holes in the lid. Gross! And my filter sock and filter mat (between skimmer section and return section) are filthy within a day or so.

Livestock includes a dozen or so mixed corals, a few small nems, four PJ cardinals, a firefish, an orchid dottyback, a big, fat black saddleback clownfish (I swear she ate the male), a full size foxface Lo (rabbitfish), and a 4” purple tang. All are in great shape. I only feed once a day and it’s all pretty much gone within about 5 minutes. I’m probably over feeding, compensating because my schedule doesn’t allow more frequent, smaller feedings. I have numerous snails and hermit crabs to help clean up, so I’ve never really been too bothered by too much food. I also clip a sheet of nori in the tank in the morning.

I dose about 10ml - 12ml NOPOX every morning (110g display and 30g sump). I dose 30ml each of my two-part calc/alk stuff at the same time.

My zoas and LPS are doing fine, my cap montis are ok, as are my other montis and my chalice, but my setosa monti is showing bleaching. Surprisingly, my three small nems are growing and seem to be doing great (photo below just because it’s cool looking). They’ve actually about doubled in size since the photo was taken a month ago, so the new food seems to be filtering down to them, as I had hoped. Worst, though, is the tank just looks seriously grungy! Green and red algae everywhere.

Sorry for the long post, just want to get all the context in here. Here’s what I put in the food and froze in whatever silicone molds I had on hand (the star wars shapes were cool):

• Frozen shrimp (de-shelled, de-veined, and tail off) - shredded in food processor while frozen, but bigger chunks got through along the sides of the cutter.
• Frozen bay scallops - shredded as above
• BRS Freeze dried mysis - I was told in another thread that thawing frozen mysis and such and refreezing is a bad idea.
• BRS Freeze dried krill - I had no idea how big krill is!
• Freeze dried cyclops
• Freeze dried phyto
• BRS Freeze dried Calanus (zoplanctons I believe)
• About 8 sheets of nori (seaweed only, no other ingredients) - processed to smallish bits in the food processor
• Reef Roids - not a ton as I still spot feed the corals once or twice a week.
• Selcon - 60ml bottle, used to soak the mysis, nori, and krill, but it wasn’t nearly enough to get it all wet.

So, first, can anyone tell me what I did wrong? I’m assuming the food is the cause of the algae. Is it normal for diy reef food to cause a sharp increase in nitrate and/or phosphate? Any suggestions for going forward?

Second question for y’all who make your own food, how do you get freeze dried krill and mysis to sink? I soak the frozen food for at least 10-15 minutes in a cup of tank water to thaw. I had hoped it would also get the freeze dried stuff to sink. Nope! Tons end up floating on the surface of the water.

Any ideas? TIA!

ALMOST GUARANTEED: TOO MUCH VARIETY AND WAY TOO MUCH FOOD. You have to understand that the mostly garbage packaged foods have WAY more moisture than food. Real food is much denser, so a little goes a long way. I have six tanks, reef and FOWLR, 55 to 350, not running any phosphban or carbon, and have been using DIY food exclusively for over a year. First of all, I use only scallops, shrimp, squid and cooked mussel meat. Then I put it in a NINJA blender frozen and put it on low and hold the button for only a few seconds so I do not get micro chips of food. Then I rinse the entire thing with rodi water in a strainer with holes big enough to let the micro chips drain out. Then I feed it very sparingly twice a day. NO FISH DEATHS IN OVER A YEAR. ABSOLUTELY ZERO ALGAE OF ANY KIND. 50% WATER CHANGES ONCE A MONTH OR UP TO SIX WEEKS. No skimmer either. To give you an example, my 150 system with 8 two year old yellow foxfaces and one 4 or 5 inch clown trigger gets15 to 20 (and usually only 15) grams of food at each feeding. My reef tank with only one foxface a small yellow goby, gets 6mg twice a day. My 350 with an 8 inch rabbit fish, 7 inch FAT wrasse, 10 inch panther grouper, 6 inch hogfish, 5 inch bluespot grouper, 4 inch Picasso trigger and 6 inch Sailfin gets 20g 2xd. That's my two cents. I recommend you get a BRS carbon/phosban reactor and starve the tank until the algae disappears. Put in a few more omnivore fish, following strict pre-introduction quarantine and medication, and you should be ok. OH, AND WASHING AND STRAINING THE FOOD WITH TANK WATER OR RODI IS A B S O L O O O O T L Y ESSENTIAL.

 

[sfin52]

You feed heavy. The food your feeding is far better but a little goes a long way. Increase your scavenger clean up crew.

 

[damsels are not mean]

hat I did wrong? I’m assuming the food is the cause of the algae. Is it normal for diy reef food to cause a sharp increase in nitrate and/or phosphate? Any suggestions for going forward?

You simply overfed. Uneaten food becomes ammonia quickly and ammonia is the best fertilizer for all algae. When I feed frozen I always do it in bits with a tweezer. Almost every piece goes into the mouth of a fish, invert, or coral. None of the "juice" goes into the tank because that's just free nutrients. I've noticed if I dump a chunk of frozen right in the next day my glass is brown, every time, despite having a highly developed community of microfauna including amphipods and bristleworms.

It's surprising however that something is bleaching from this... Maybe there is some preservative as said above that was in the frozen shrimp you bought that is not so reef safe.

 

[Crevalle]

Plus one on the over feeding. I’ve done it when I started making my own.
by the way you can find smaller freeze dried krill on brine shrimp direct.

 

[Biochembob]

"Frozen shrimp (de-shelled, de-veined, and tail off) - shredded in food processor while frozen, but bigger chunks got through along the sides of the cutter"

Look for an ingredient called tripolyphosohate.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Do you broadcast feed? I usually target feed so there is less uneaten food floating around. Make sure you turkey blast the rocks when doing water changes to move thar detritus down the overflow