Is it true..

[7thheaven]

Here is quote of wade2185 from "dosage" thread..

I have always been told to stay away from flake food and pellet food. Apparently they are loaded with Phosphates. I have always used frozen cubes and have had great success. I use frozen brine shrimp. I let it thaw and then I drain the excess juices before I feed.

Is it true that frozen food are better than the flake food in case of PO4?

I am not sure but maybe I changed from frozen food to flake, In my tank,
NOW it starts many algae are growing and it is b/c of flake food....
Should I change again to frozen food?
but I wonder why flake food has more po4 than frozen food..
because I think It is a same source.

I feed fishes to flake food a little once in a day.

[Detritivore]

ive always thougth frozen was more nutritious than flake. the only benifit of flake is that its convenient...i guess...

[losmandy]

I only feed pellets, New Life Spectrum to be more exact. PO4 are under controlled :P

[mesocosm]

Greetings All !

Is it true that frozen food are better than the flake food in case of PO4?

No ... when you factor in the PO4 present in the "liquid" portion of frozen foods, gram for gram, frozen foods contain "more" PO4. This is easily solved by doing the thaw/drain thing that wade2185 does.

ive always thougth frozen was more nutritious than flake. the only benifit of flake is that its convenient...i guess...

Frozen foods are significantly more nutritious than dry foods. The vast majority of nutritional value is lost during the processing that creates dry foods. So much so that nutritional components, especially those chemicals easily degraded by heat, have to be reintroduced and mixed back into the dried carbohydrate/protein/fat material.

"Convenience" is the primary marketing value of flake foods. The primary concern about flake foods is typically it's acceptability to more demanding fish, like angelfishes ... and those specimens, like eels, which require "meat". HOWEVER, the nutritional quality of flake foods is nothing to be worried about, and the overall nutritional quality of dry foods has increased dramatically during the last 10 years. An example is the New Life Spectrum line ... great stuff.

HTH.

[Fins Reef]

Sera brand fish foods have the least amount of phosphate on the Market. It is hard to find at times, but very good flake and pellet food.
I also like the NewLife Spectrum.

[wasp]

Nutrafin Max has a guaranteed minimum and maximum phosphate content, and seems to keep the fish healthy also.

[nyfireman3097]

ok so then i can keep feeding my fish flake food thats not the PO4 problem im having i mean i only have 3 fish mated clowns and a diamond goby
Nick

[wasp]

Some flake foods can have a lot of Po4, up to 2% in the lower quality brands. Nutrafin max guarantees a minimun of 0.6% and a maximum of 0.9% (IE just less than 1%), they claim the minimum of 0.6% is required as phosphate is in fact a requirement for life.

[nyfireman3097]

so how do we find out how much PO4 is in the food ?
Nick

[G.Alexander]

Found a interesting graphic showing the different PO4 concentrations in food:



Copyright by Aquacare

G.Alexander

[wasp]

Hey thanks Alexander, that's very interesting, especially about the plankton. I use cyclops, fish seem to do well on it, but I had worried about the phosphate as it is not of marine origin. But looks like I need not worry.

Nick, unfortunately only a few manufacturers put on the label how much phosphate is in their food. However I think it will be a safe bet that the ones who do not tell you is because the phosphate is on the high side.

Try some Nutrafin Max Marine flake, your fish will love you for it, trust me

[G.Alexander]

They soak the different foods in PO4 free water leaving it in for 20 minutes / alternative 2 hours. After this process they measured the water to detect the PO4 concentration.

This technique will never show the absolute PO4 quantity which is contained, but it is a good guidance.

G.Alexander

[nyfireman3097]

i use spirulina flake and it says .6 MAX is that ok ?
Nick

[wasp]

Yes, that is comparatively very low. In fact, Nutrafin claim a minimum of 0.6 is required for fish health, as they do need some phosphate.

Alexander, just to make sure I understand, you are saying that was how that bar graph was calculated, by soaking the food in water?
If so, I doubt this would give an accurate indication. Cyclops, for example, could contain a heap of phosphate in their tissue, but this may not be released into the water.
What were your thoughts as per accuracy?

[nyfireman3097]

one thing i dont like about cyclopsee is how do you know how much to feed
Nick