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Author Topic: storing frozen fish food  (Read 1449 times)

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Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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  • Shawn
storing frozen fish food
« on: January 06, 2018, 17:32:34 »
I'm posting this in hopes of maybe some suggestions, and possibly a solution to my on going issue.

I have stored my frozen fish food in the packages I get them in, in paper bags stored in plastic bags,  stored them in freezer safe bags, and freezer safe plastic bowls.
No matter what I have done, I cannot get the fish food to NOT crystallize. 

When this happens, it usually means the product is thawing, and then refreezing.  The freezer is never left cracked open, and im not in the freezer much at all, except for when it comes time to thawing and preparing for feeding time.
Even my blister packs of frozen food are crystallized.

I feed my fish LRS, as well as chopped muscles, and scallops to the nem/serpentine sea star.  Occassionally I will feed frozen mysis (blister pack).  Just to let you know what I'm doing
I realize I only have 11 fish and it takes me a long time to ever go through a pack of food, but I can't see how a few months or more would cause the food to spoil or crystallize, as I have mentioned.

Today I bought a glass bowl that has a rubber gasket built in for storing in the freezer. I'm hoping that will work.

Until I see how it handles the next week or two......Can anyone tell me why this is happening or maybe offer a suggestion to avoid this?  Feeding the fish more food, more often, is NOT an option  :)


Offline Gary

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Re: storing frozen fish food
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2018, 19:06:18 »
Frost free freezers periodically (time between cycles is controlled by a timer) have heaters to defrost the evaporator coil. This melts the frost off of the evaporator coils and drains the water into a pan under the appliance which is evaporated by the compressor/condenser coil cooling fan. During the defrosting portion of the cycle, some of the food/containers and the freezer inside surfaces in the freezer maybe superficially thaw. Old style deep freezers did not have this feature but required either manually removing the ice/frost build up or thawing the unit out. This can be a messy job. Build up of frost and ice on the evaporator significantly reduced efficiency and in some appliances could block the air flow to the evaporator.
I hope this helps.
Gary

Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: storing frozen fish food
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2018, 19:17:39 »
hm, interesting.  thanks for the lesson
that solve the why, now how can i solve the "so it doesn't happen again"?
does everyone experience his type of thing happening as well?

Offline Gary

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Re: storing frozen fish food
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2018, 19:34:16 »
I store mine in the deep freezer without a defrost cycle. It last for years.

Offline CoralBeauties

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Re: storing frozen fish food
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2018, 20:17:23 »
The way I process frozen foods that I bag up that I don't want to get freezer burnt is as follows. I will take a freezer zip lock bag and a straw.  I will put the end of a straw into the bag and zip it up all but tightly around the straw. Suck all the air out of the bag, while sucking pull the straw out of the bag with your mouth and zip it shut while pulling out the straw. Basically a cheap vacuum bagger. I use this method every year when I bag up my garden corn and when I make up my bulk fish food. Usually get very little freezer burnt, even after a year.
Hope this helps
Jeff

Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: storing frozen fish food
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2018, 20:22:17 »
hmmmmm. thats a nifty idea. thanks for sharing

 

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