Frozen Food rinse or no?

[Venzzla]

Hi all, question for you. Do you prerinse your frozen food? I don't prerinse my reef frenzy or my mysis shrimp at all. I just let set out for maybe 5 minutes or so to loosen it up just a hair then add to tank. Formula one I let set longer to partially thaw then add to tank after soaking in garlic guard. Curious to see what others do. Thanks in advance!

 

[Saveafish]

I never rinse. Thaw and feed. Rinsing washes away goodies that corals and filter feeders eat.

 

[Captain Quint]

Several do rinse the frozen as to not 'foul' the tank. My preference is to not rinse.

I just put a couple of cubes in a glass, add Selcon and an appetite enhancer (garlic guard) and let it set out until thawed, half it for that feeding and evening feeding. Sometimes I'll add some quality pellet food to each feeding but I don't mix it in until time to feed.

 

[Wen]

I’m a rinser.
Rinse when feeding fish in QT.
Rinse when phosphates and nitrates are at my target numbers in DT. If numbers are low, no rinsing.

 

[64Ivy]

I'll rinse PE Mysis but that's about it. Everything else, just thaw and feed.

 

[TexasTodd]

I'm unsure why, but Randy posted once that rinsing reduces the potassium amount that the food adds to the tank.

 

[mort]

I don't even thaw it anymore unless I'm adding vitamins to it, just throw it in and it slowly feeds the fish over a few minutes rather than a large amount of food at once. I do defrost when feeding my marine betta as it gobbles a large lump in one and I don't want it getting brain freeze.
Rinsing has been proved to not really be that beneficial and the little bits are good for feeding corals.

 

[Katrina71]

I don't rinse.

 

[madweazl]

No rinsing for me; I want all that stuff in the tank, something is going to feed on it.

Edit: I do rinse the littleneck clam under tap water for a few seconds, forgot about that (mostly to keep the smell off my fingers). Outside of the clam, we feed LRS Reef/Herbivore Frenzy and Two Little Fishies Sea Veggies.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

No rinse, my corals would be upset if there wasn't little bits of LRS that got past the fish.

 

[Hemmdog]

I used to rinse, now I don’t and my acros and everything shows much better polyp extension all day. I’m officially out of the rinsing club

 

[Joe3122]

I do not rinse either. The food that I use seems to be pretty clean already.

 

[Claus84]

No rinsing for me, chuck 4 or 5 cubes in a shot glass, add vitmarin and aminomega, defrost and feed

 

[lapin]

No rinse. In fact I put a little hot tea water in the container to thaw it. If you are on rain water with no chemicals you can do this. If not use warm tank water. It also might be different if your trying to manage nutrients in a nano than a 500g tank. If you feed pellets then they are way worse than not rinsing.

 

[Reefcowboy]

I rinse, as I dont trust the companies freezing/packaging these foods. I rinse the cubes inside a small fish net ran in a sink under warm water, then when everything is thawed I squeeze it all then feed the fish.
I dont like the process, would rather dump frozen cubes in, but the extra step guarantees im not adding any unknown elements to my tank.

Heck if human supplements/foods are inconsistent, I cant expect fish food to be free of stuff that at times can be undesirable.

 

[PDR]

I don’t rinse any of my food. I remember reading something that showed rinsing was basically worthless for nutrient reduction.

If feeding LRS they specifically say you shouldn’t rinse it as you will lose a lot of the benefits of that particular food.

 

[DSC reef]

No rinsing at all. LRS reef frenzy doesn't need rinsed

 

[sfin52]

Don't rinse. Corals love the extra bits.

 

[MTBake]

I don't rinse. Just thaw and feed.

 

[saltyhog]

I rinse, as I dont trust the companies freezing/packaging these foods. I rinse the cubes inside a small fish net ran in a sink under warm water, then when everything is thawed I squeeze it all then feed the fish.
I dont like the process, would rather dump frozen cubes in, but the extra step guarantees im not adding any unknown elements to my tank.

Heck if human supplements/foods are inconsistent, I cant expect fish food to be free of stuff that at times can be undesirable.

Anything that is in the liquid your food is in is very likely to be in the food also.

I don't rinse. The amount of nutrients in the fluid is insignificant compared to what's in the food. I also think the smaller particles removed with rinsing are beneficial to the filter feeders in the tank.