How to feed frozen food

[stingeragent]

Well I must be an idiot, because I didn't figure this out until when I setup my 125. Previously I would stick the frozen cube directly in the tank, or in a bowl and stick it in the microwave, or put tap water in the bowl or whatever. I don't know what happened but something donned on me. Take a plastic cup, put some tank water in it, and then drop in the cube until it's thawed. You can then take a turkey baster or pipette to suck out however much food you want to feed. This may be common sense but I somehow missed it over the last 18 months.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Seriously? Well, glad you got it figured out.

I take a heavy glass beer mug (so it's harder for me to knock over by accidentally) and add 1 turkey baster full of tank water. I add some frozen food, some liquid food, some additives, some pellet food and maybe even some flake food. I let the frozen food thaw out and the vitamin or amino acid additives soak in. Then I turn off the main tank pump and the wavemakers and spray food all over the tank.

Now I'm feeding 4 tanks and the 180g has lots of fish and is overflowing with coral, so I over feed a bit. But I also run 3 filter socks in the sump, have a big skimmer, a 45g refugium full of growing Chaeto and a 45g DSB and tons of LR in the tank, and in the 90g sump.

 

[Bent]

I buy a boatload of frozen food (mysis, brine, squid, scallops, shrimp, fish, bloodworms, krill, etc.), thaw it, and stick them in the blender, then I take the mash and pour it in a freezer bag. I then put the freezer bag flat in the freezer and flatten it as thin as possible.

When it's frozen I open the bag and take a hammer to it making small chunks.

I then hold the chunk in the water in front of the return pump and it sprays it all over creation. I don't turn anything off.

 

[kmbyrnes]

I rarely target feed anything these days, but I admit to holding the whole frozen cube when I want to 'hand feed' my fish. Try it, you might be surprised at the results.
I also will thaw and mix a few cubes together in tank water and broadcast across the top of the tank with the pumps on.
My reef fish refuse to eat if the pump is off and wait until 'feed mode' is over and the tank is swirling with goodies.

 

[cloak]

I usually just thaw out a cube in a cup of water and then use a spoon to dish out small portions at a time. The fact that frozen food tends to break down into very small pieces, feeding it any other way scares me. If my CUC happens to die due to starvation, so be it.