which is the lesser of the evils frozen or pellet?

[landlubber]

So over the 5 years of running a system and the biggest battle I've had to constantly deal with has been green hair algae. Flash forward to march, In comes covid and the result has been less trips to the lfs which has me using more pellet food than I ever did previously. interestingly, I'm actually noticing the algae dissolving away which has me asking, do high quality dry pellets result in less nutrient input than the thawed and drained frozen mysis and LRS reef frenzy I had been favouring? I had always heard it was the opposite.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Frozen food is not really all that nutritious, especially brine shrimp or anything like that. They are kind of nitrate factories unless you make your own like I do, but even then I still feed pellets most of the time. Pellets are better balanced for a fish's nutritional needs then frozen, and they don't decompose as fast either.

 

[landlubber]

Frozen food is not really all that nutritious, especially brine shrimp or anything like that. They are kind of nitrate factories unless you make your own like I do, but even then I still feed pellets most of the time. Pellets are better balanced for a fish's nutritional needs then frozen, and they don't decompose as fast either.

agreed. I tried to supply a diverse balance but used frozen as the primary food. I'm shocked by the positive result.

 

[JKDMan]

Frozen food is not really all that nutritious, especially brine shrimp or anything like that. They are kind of nitrate factories unless you make your own like I do, but even then I still feed pellets most of the time. Pellets are better balanced for a fish's nutritional needs then frozen, and they don't decompose as fast either.

idk about that. what do you think would be more nutritious for you, frozen food or processed dried pellets. i think if the right combination of algae and protein can be made it should be more nutritious and natural.is it possible pellets decompose faster as well but that could be of benefit becasue they can be handled via filtration more quiickly .

 

[DeniableArc]

So over the 5 years of running a system and the biggest battle I've had to constantly deal with has been green hair algae. Flash forward to march, In comes covid and the result has been less trips to the lfs which has me using more pellet food than I ever did previously. interestingly, I'm actually noticing the algae dissolving away which has me asking, do high quality dry pellets result in less nutrient input than the thawed and drained frozen mysis and LRS reef frenzy I had been favouring? I had always heard it was the opposite.

I switched from frozen/pellets to pellets/flake only a year ago. Fish and corals look great! The only thing I have to dose from time to time is phosphate.

 

[Buffalou]

I have been feeding fish and coral with the BRS homemade reef tank food for almost a year now. Followed the recipe which has made about a 1 1/2 -2 year supply of the food which I break a chunk off and feed throughout the day. I wouldn't say I'm an expert but over the last ten years I have feed dried flake, pellet and frozen store bought and frozen BRS recipe, and I believe it's just finding the right amount of nutrient input and output. My fish and coral are doing well, and as algae appears it's a signal fo me to ensure CUC is sufficient to handle leftovers as much as possible. It's a two edged sword, on one hand you want enough nutrients for everything to thrive on the other you want to limit excess nutrients. I'm always fine tuning it somewhat. One thing I did do was rinse store bought frozen foods prior to feeding it to tank to remove the excess water its packed in, which it seemed if I didn't accelerated algae outbreaks.