angel poop is full of phosphates?

i didn't know where this should go: general, chemistry, food... anyway, my main question is, is this BS?

i was in the LFS today looking at foods. the dude i was talking to told me that since angels are predominately veggie eaters, they don't process meaty foods as efficiently. therefore, since i was only feeding frozen mysid (which uses a preservative high in phosphates), they were simply passing through my angel and directly into my tank.

i ultimately walked out with some Formula 1 and 2 flakes which i will use for the main staple. i will still use my Hikari for my bi-weekly coral feeding and the fish always sneak a bit of that.

 

Look at the ingredients of the flake food. A lot of flake food uses phosphate for a preservative too. Not sure about Formula 1 or 2 though. I know my flake has phosphate in it. But yes angles need a lot of algae based food. And some need sponge in there diet too.

 

got to get with the varied diet with angels....damsels are one of those fish that are mainly herbivorous in the wild but can transition to all protein based foods, but angels like their variety for sure. Algae, sponges etc....

all food will either decompose into nitrates or be used as energy which leaves phosphates...

 

i've been running fluval's phosphate media in my canister for the last month and i have a reactor in the mail so hopefully phosphates are a thing of the past. my next setup will definitely be drilled, the "no sump" thing is a total drag.

also, secondary question, i have hitch hiker sponges under my rocks and i see the Coral Beauty nipping at rocks, is this enough/right kind of sponge for him? or do i need to actively supplement him?

 

I just recently ran across this article discussing food composition and some nutrients in general, it might help.

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

I don't know enough about angels to comment but this might help understand the phosphate issue a little better.

 

thanks for the link. i'll have to read it again after i've had my coffee (LONG). however, i got a chuckle out of the first sentence "Over the past few years marine aquarists have come to realize that the animals in their aquaria need to be fed." lol

 

ALL foods have phosphorus occurring naturally in them. It doesn't matter if it is meaty foods or veggie foods, flake, pellet frozen or freeze dried.
Many foods have phosphates added as preservatives and that can be washed away but you still have the natural phosphorus remaining.
As fish don't use much or any of the phosphorus ingested, it is expelled in their excrement to become phosphates in the tank.
In a current thread on Reef Chemistry forum on RC, Randy Holmes-Farley says that the amount of phosphorus is pretty well similar for a given amount of protein of any food.

 

thats kind of what i gathered from the article posted above. the biggest deal i have with frozen is, you're right, the phosphates in the preservatives. i just don't always have time to rinse the stuff. i didn't even start rinsing until about a month ago (bad research on my part)

in my head there is a negligible PO3 difference between rinsed frozen and flake. flake is easy as well as having the added bonus of a variety of ingredients of the veggie persuasion. all in all, no matter what i do, i'm adding phosphates to my tank and after a year of this with no phosphate media, i'm beginning to run into algae problems. i hope the two little fishies reactor is my magic bullet

 

works for me

ZJ - I started my tank with a two little fishies 150 in place. Even though I only have two Cardinals, I feed them frozen brine and mysis shrimp. Although my tank is still young, every test for phosphate is ZERO.

 

this might merit a new thread, or simply my doing some searching, but what is the general consensus for medias? i've got some rowa phos floating around but i was planning on using Bulk Reef Supply's GFO granules. any objections?