Pellet vs. Flake vs. Frozen

[110galreef]

Between these does one have lower phosphate content, one have better nutrition?

Frozen to me seems the best nutrition, but just cuz it's less processed???:beer: Not sure.
I typically would thaw in a cup of tank water, then drain as much water out as I could, then feed. But with frozen, I need to turn off return pump so not to suck a bunch down the overflow.

Flake, just feeding lightly seems I can get by w/o turning off return pump. But if doing a normal feeding I need to turn return pump off.

Pellet, most seem to sink fast enuf that the fish get or even a few of my starving snails & crabs can get. But atleast don't go down the overflow.

Also the Formula One & Two stuff seem nice in pellet form. Any other suggestions for foods

 

[philipph]

since i've never found out the answear to this question no matter how much i've read, i feed a combination of frozen food and good quality pellets just to make sure.the pellets are sinking so i don't have to turn of the return pump.as far as i know frozen food contains less phosphate

 

[frankpayne32]

People seem to say that frozen is best but I have not noticed a difference in my fish between frozen and pellets/flakes. There was a time when I was feeding only vitamin soaked frozen. But I didn't notice any positive changes in my fish. I also saw a decline in my water quality. I then switched to almost 90% NLS pellets and various flake foods. My water quality is better than when I fed frozen and I have not noticed any negative effects in my fish.

 

[110galreef]

I like the Ocean Nutrition small pellets as they are mylar foil packed and seem to sink realtivelty easily.

I ordered the Omega one Super color sinking pellets last order to see how these are. They seem to sink about as well as the Ocean Nutrition.

The ELOS SVM2 looks real promising too for a pellet food.

If one looks at the flakes protein opposed to the pellets they flakes appear to have more?

 

[cloak]

I've had a lot of success feeding all three of those to both my freshwater/saltwater tanks. I do feed more flake food than anything though. As long as I watch my portions it's all the same to me.

 

[zigzag1]

I've had a lot of success feeding all three of those to both my freshwater/saltwater tanks. I do feed more flake food than anything though. As long as I watch my portions it's all the same to me.

+1 to what Cloak said. Portion control is key!

I feed mainly Ocean Nutrition flake and grocery store Nori most of the time. Frozen foods are an occasional treat, when I have time to thaw, rinse, rinse, rinse.. GL!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

All foods contain substantial phosphate, but unless they have added phosphate (like some fresh, canned and frozen seafoods for people do), I am not certain that any particular type of food has more phosphate relative to other nutrients like protein than do other types.

Phosphate is an integral part of many tissues, not just a preservative. It is a part of proteins, phospholipids, DNA, RNA, etc. There is no getting around that. So anything that contains fish, seaweed, clams, etc is going to contain phosphorous. And the higher the protein, the higher the phosphorous is going to be, typically.

Fresh, canned and frozen seafood from the grocery store does often have phosphate added to retain moisture in the food. So be careful of that.

You might want to avoid anything with bones in it as they are very high in phosphorus. So fish meal as an ingredient might be something to avoid.


Ron Shimek analyzes some foods here;

http://web.archive.org/web/200107200...data/foods.asp

From it I calculated the phosphorus to protein ratio, and get:


Formula Two...........................176
Formula One.............................69
Frozen Brine Shrimp................232
Frozen Plankton/Krill...............182
Golden Pearls..........................273
Lancefish.................................244
Nori..........................................221
Plankton Gold Flakes...............169
Prime Reef.................................69
Saltwater Staple......................500
Silversides...............................952
Tahitian Blend..........................318

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Well, I know the link I posted above is abbreviated and won't work, but I can't edit it from my iPad.

 

[zigzag1]

http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20010720071031/http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish/data/foods.asp

This one Randy?

 

[NatureNerd]

From it I calculated the phosphorus to protein ratio, and get:


Formula Two...........................176
Formula One.............................69
Frozen Brine Shrimp................232
Frozen Plankton/Krill...............182
Golden Pearls..........................273
Lancefish.................................244
Nori..........................................221
Plankton Gold Flakes...............169
Prime Reef.................................69
Saltwater Staple......................500
Silversides...............................952
Tahitian Blend..........................318

Ok, am I reading this wrong? This looks like the prime reef and formula one flake foods are better than natural foods. This chart says they have a lower phosphorus to protein ratio. I always assumed they were worse.

 

[ccalabro]

I love the Ocean Nutrition when feeding dry so I'm gratified to know that these seem to have the lowest phos content. Thanks for posting.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ok, am I reading this wrong? This looks like the prime reef and formula one flake foods are better than natural foods. This chart says they have a lower phosphorus to protein ratio. I always assumed they were worse.

That's the beauty of real data.

Silversides would be very high in phosphorus because they have bones in them.

This one Randy?

Probably. It is giving a data retrieval failure right now, but that may be them at the moment.

 

[frankpayne32]

Thanks for posting that Randy. That kind of proves what I have experienced first hand. Do you know if anyone has done an independent analysis of New Life Spectrum pellets?

 

[Phishguy]

Good thread! Thanks for posting the analysis Randy!!
Do the lowest ratio foods automatically mean best foods to
Feed? The prime reef and number 2 are actually what I feed. The chart is good reassurance on the food choice.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I've not seen any other foods analyzed in detail.

No, I would not assume that lower P is necessarily a better food. Higher ratio foods may add more P, but may also be more nutritious in many ways unrelated to P or protein.

 

[110galreef]

I've not seen any other foods analyzed in detail.

No, I would not assume that lower P is necessarily a better food. Higher ratio foods may add more P, but may also be more nutritious in many ways unrelated to P or protein.

Plus wouldn't a food primarily targeted as a veggie food have a skewed ratio like formula 2 or Nori compared to something like Formula 1 which is more a carnivore food

 

[110galreef]

Randy also given the data, since I cannot seem to open a link. are the frozen food test just straight thawed w/o draining/rinsing? as this would significantly help that ration if rinsed correct?

Thanks again for the link! Looks like the DRY Ocean Nutrition foods are very good choices in addition to frozen food.

 

[kissman]

i feed a variety i have several frozen types, pellets, and some flake foods and I rotate them

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The second link is working now so you can read the study. I don't think there was any rinsing, and I'm not convinced that matters enough to bother (I don't do it).

As to the food types, the ingredients will certainly impact the various measurements, but I wouldn't necessarily assume in advance that an herbivore food would have a higher or lower P to protein ratio.

 

[Lynnmw1208]

I like using pellet food more just because it keeps my water clear I do feed frozen on occasion though. The new life spectrum pellets are really good. My baby clowns showed pretty significant growth on a diet mainly of these pellets. they seem to like these more than flake or frozen.