So my fish and corals are hungry... (pic Intense)

[Double-J]

Well I had some time on my hands this morning and I needed to make another batch of food so I decided to document it a little. This is the biggest batch I've made yet to date. I've been adding and removing stuff each batch but I finally think I came up with the End all recipe.

6x 16oz mysis shrimp
4x 160z krill
10x 16oz mixed sea food (squide, mussel meat, octopus, clam.
16 oz. cyclopzee
2x 3.50z mega marine
3x 3.5oz ocean plankton
4x 160z brine shrimp
3x 4oz silversides
2x 8.8oz sally plankton
10 oz bloodworms
Brown marine algea strips
2x Green Marine algae strips
Red Marine algae strips
10oz New Line Spectrum Marine fish Formula
2.5oz Blue Lagoon Anti-Parasite Marine food
2oz. Formula two pellets
2oz. Formula one pellets
3x 1.5oz jars of Reef Chilli
60ml of Selcon
10 Fl oz of Garlic Guard

It's a crap load of different food but my fish go absolutely nutz for the stuff. So here are the pics of how all of it is put together...

All the ingrediance:
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=387">

Thawing out the Krill and Mysis Shrimp. Not only does it thaw it out it gets rid of some of the phosphates as well
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=388">

thawing out the Brine shrimp on the left, and mix seafood on the right.
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=389">


Mysis shrimp all ready with the plankton cubes etc mixed in
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=390">

Straining the Brine shrimp before adding to The Mysis etc. mix
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=391">
<img src="">

All the mysis, brine, cyclopzee, blood worms, plankton, pretty much all the stuff I don't want going into the blender
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=392">

Filtering all of it once again to get rid of excess water
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=393">

Finished product mixed together
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=394">

 

[Double-J]

Part II

Part II

(Cont)

The meaty portion of the food, seafood mix and krill
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=395">


Getting ready to start blending the meaty portion
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=396">

Blending of the meaty portion, also adding Nori
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=397">

After the blend
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=398">

Each blend I dump in the bucket mix with the soft stuff and add dry foods, making sure to mix well between each addition.
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=399">

All the dry ingrediance plus silcon, and garlic extract
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=400">

 

[Double-J]

Part III

Part III

(cont)

Closeup of the mixture
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=402">

Food put in a gallon bag
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=403">

I weigh it out, makes it easier for me so they don't overflow by adding too much each bag weighs 1lbs.
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=404">

All the stinky trash
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=401">

22 bags later
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=405">

And in case you are wondering, My wife is out of town, she would kill me if she found out I used her dishes to make this crap, so yes it's all picked up (no evidence)
<img src="http://www.shallowreef.com/display_image.php?id=406">

 

[xroads]

That is pretty cool, I have always wanted to try making my own. Where do you live?

 

[Double-J]

Urbandale

The cool part is it feeds corals, herbivores, carnivores, pods etc... Food ranging form microscopic to bigger chunks.

On top of that it has selcon, garlic extract and, anti parasite stuff in the mix to keep your fish healthy

 

[RobynT]

I am assuming that making your own was a savings over buying something prepacked(such as Rod's food-which your mixture resembles BTW) but it looks to me like you have quite an investment in your finished product. How much do you think it cost you per package if I may ask!

 

[RobynT]

duplicate

 

[annamarie421]

I'll bet that was a smelly process!

A+ on the cleanup! My first thought was how on earth did he get permission from his wife to use all her nice kitchen things... Looks like a great mix of foods!

Anna

 

[Double-J]

It does cost a bunch to make but it will last me a while. In the long run I save money by making my own. Plus I can fine tune the ingrediance that want in there and make sure it's all premium stuff.

 

[einsteins]

This is a great post but please bring it over it to our club forum....
http://www.greateriowareefsociety.org/site/Community/DiscussionForums/tabid/78/Default.aspx

eins

 

[xroads]

I thought about buying some fresh Salmon & including it in my mix.

 

[Double-J]

I've used salmon before, just not for this batch.

 

[waverz]

Looking good man! I wonder how the margaritas are gonna taste next time you make them.....

 

[Philby]

I've been thinking this is the route I go once I actually need to feed a whole reef full of livestock - and luckily I have a little dorm fridge about 5 feet away from my tank so I can crank that up and use it as a freezer (I'd never have the extra room in our kitchen freezer, nor would my GF probably allow it to "touch" our other food).

I obviously won't be making this much at a time since my tank is considerably smaller than JJ's (or Melev's who has a good recipe for food as well) and I'll also probably have to buy my own dishes.

JJ - how much do you feed at a time? I've been contemplating using icecube trays to freeze the food in for easy portion control - although I'll have to find some trays with smaller than standard cube sizes cause I don't think my tank won't need that much per feeding...

 

[annamarie421]

With my homemade food, I just break off little chunks to feed my tank. I've seen people use eggcrate (light diffuser) to make little cubes - thought that was a cool idea!

Anna

 

[Double-J]

Yeah, it's all depending on the tank size, I probably feed my tank a gallon bag every 2 or three weeks.

 

[tcollins]

When I make my own mix, I roll the mix in a sheet of nori, put them on a cookie tray in the frig and once they've frozen, wrap them in saran wrap and put them all into a gallon ziplock. When it's time to feed, I have a pair of kitchen sizzors and I cut off the portion I want. When I unwrap a one of the cigars, I put it in a smaller ziplock and cut away until it's gone. That way it doesn't get on my hands and I can control how much I feed each time.

 

[AVALover5498]

I've been looking for a good recipe for a while now and this one seems to fit the bill but I need a much smaller form haha thanx. I know alot of people who would benefit from this. This should be a sticky.

-Chris-

 

[Double-J]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11160083#post11160083 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AVALover5498
I've been looking for a good recipe for a while now and this one seems to fit the bill but I need a much smaller form haha thanx. I know alot of people who would benefit from this. This should be a sticky.

-Chris-

Thanx, Its definitely something you can add or subtract from. Like I said this is my third batch, I think I'm going to stick with it. If I had to do it again I would add more NORI. I was going to put 50 sheets in it but they didn't arrive on time.

 

[tibbs2]

That is quite a recipe. I made some homemade food once myself, and it really did stink. Maybe I'll give it a try sometime again, though I don\t know if I will use quite the extensive list of ingredients that you used.

Do you think it pollutes your tank anymore than say your standard store bought frozen fish food? People always say to strain the water out of those but I never do.

JJ, do you mind if we add your recipe to the GIRS website?

Chris

Oh and I dont know if you make it to clive area, but Wong's asian store on 100th has 100 sheet nori packs for very cheap.