Phosphates in DIY food and running GFO to remove?

[Wistler]

I have been studying DIY food recipes for a few months and one of the common problems with producing DIY food is that phosphates are added to scallops and fish to help them hold water and appear more appealing in the display case.

Obviously going to the dock and getting fresh seafood would make this a moot point, but not of us have that ability. Sometimes there are good sales on bay scallops and white fish that are the bulk of the recipe.

So here is what I was wondering......

What if during the processing of the fish or scallops I kept them in a five gallon bucket of RO water below the USDA recommended temp of 50 degrees F and I ADDED a two little fishes GFO reactor.

Would this help strip any of the phosphates from the fish/scallops if I left it in there for 12 hours before I ground them into my mixture?

What if I processed the seafood in a blender first to expose more surface area to be stripped by the GFO?

Is this all crazy thinking or would it help my finished product have less total phosphates?

Thanks for any advice.
Larry

 

[bertoni]

I don't know how easy it'd be to remove the phosphate from the shellfish. I think using ground food would just make a mess of the media before it could do much. For the whole shellfish, the time required to remove much phosphate might be prohibitive. I'd be careful about bacterial growth, in any case, especially with ground seafood.

 

[Wistler]

Bertoni, do you mean bacterial growth from letting the shell fish tumble in the water over night?

I know a lot of clubs and stuff have gatherings where they have DIY food sessions and I don't think there is a risk if you are grinding the food up and then freezing within an hour or two.

You may be right about it staying overnight, but the USDA website said if its kept below 50 degrees it would be OK. I was thinking of putting the fish under water, then adding egg crate with ice cubes on top. Then snake my feed and turn hoses from the GFO down through the ice. Might be a big PITA but if it would make a phosphate reduced food I would do it.

Larry

 

[rovster]

Interesting question. I think the more important question is if the phosphate added to the food is enough to make a significant impact on the aquarium. If you have your nutrient control in place (Skimmer, LR, Fuge, GFO, etc), is the little bit of phosphate in the food going to do anything, or will your filtration just eat it up? My guess is it doesn't matter, but I'm no expert. I think sometimes we overanalyze things, but that's just my opinion. Good luck. I've been very curious about DIY food recipies for some time now......

 

[Sk8r]

You need a little phosphate to grow algae to keep certain species of fish. You can overdo phosphate removal.

 

[Wistler]

Thanks guys. I actually found a new fish wholesaler today that makes weekly trips to the Coast and can get me all the fresh untreated fish and seafood I need.

I am trying to make this food "as fresh as possible." The one thing we keep hearing beat into our heads is that commercial cubes have to be strained or else you will get high phosphates.

I have various tanks set up in different places of different sizes. Some of the people caring for the tanks are grossly over feeding so I am trying to create a simple frozen sheet food that I can dice up in, for example a dime sized piece and keep it in a ziplock baggie, with enough "food bits" for a couple weeks.

Its sort of an all in one fish and coral blend that takes care of the fish,inverts and corals. Some of these Nano systems are running chemi-pure elite as the only PO4 export mechanism so I want the cleanest food possible.

Thanks All!

 

[bertoni]

Okay, that sounds much easier.