Rinsing food

[slingfox]

Thank you for such a thorough detailed response. I think I’m going to mix higher salinity water specifically for the af4 and do the same as you. I smelled the food yesterday after 10 days on the second coldest setting and it definitely didn’t smell great. I have about 40 fish in my tank and some of them would be very difficult to replace. I definitely don’t want to feed them rotten food.

I have never smelled anything in the slurry albeit I have never run the AF4 more than 10 days without refilling. The unit will be put to the test soon during winter break where I will be gone for 18 days. I will have someone housesitting but I don’t trust them to feed so the AF4 will have to carry the day.

 

[Wonkabar]

Have you checked out Randy's report of rinsing? Give me a couple minutes and I'll post a link.

I have not, if you could link it I would appreciate it and I’ll give it a read. I definitely trust Randy.

 

[Wonkabar]

Thank you for such a thorough detailed response. I think I’m going to mix higher salinity water specifically for the af4 and do the same as you. I smelled the food yesterday after 10 days on the second coldest setting and it definitely didn’t smell great. I have about 40 fish in my tank and some of them would be very difficult to replace. I definitely don’t want to feed them rotten food.

It smelled bad enough i seriously thought about just going back to hand feeding. I’ve had the af4 for about 3 months now and until yesterday u have had zero complaints. With that being said it’s probable it was user error on my end. I have known about higher salinity water and just haven’t done it due to laziness.

 

[slingfox]

I wasn’t rinsing for about a month and my phosphates got as high as .4. Granted I was also adding oysterfeast into the mix and that probably didn’t help.

I don’t think you should add any fine particulates type feed to the slurry if you intend to keep the food longer than a week. At least that is what I have heard from others but I have never tested myself. During my standard one week run I add a some small fish roe (2 cubes out of a total of 24 cubes) which does okay for that period of time. When I go away for 2+ weeks I will only use a mix of brine and mysis to reduce the chances of the slurry rotting.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I have not, if you could link it I would appreciate it and I’ll give it a read. I definitely trust Randy.

Phosphate and Math

 

[slingfox]

Have you checked out Randy's report of rinsing? Give me a couple minutes and I'll post a link.

Phosphate and Math by Randy Holmes Farley

I have read it but still rinse because reducing the particulates help keep the vermitid population down (I used to have 1000s of them in my tank which was very painful). With the AF4 there is also the need to create a slurry that will rot as slowly as possible if you need to have the AF4 run for 2-3 weeks between refills.

 

[Wonkabar]

I have not, if you could link it I would appreciate it and I’ll give it a read. I definitely trust Randy.

Phosphate and Math

Thank you

 

[JumboShrimp]

I can't recall where I got this thing (BRS?), but it's very handy to rinse batches of frozen food with a few squirts of RODI. Lift out the strainer and your frozen food is 'defrosted' and clean.

 

[slingfox]

I can't recall where I got this thing (BRS?), but it's very handy to rinse batches of frozen food with a few squirts of RODI. Lift out the strainer and your food is clean.

I use a plastic fine mesh strainer:

https://a.co/d/4RBM0xP