Reefer'ette Ariel talks with Marc about the new products offered by Boyd Enterprises.

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My personal favorite food for my aquarium is now even easier to feed with 4oz blister packaging instead of the flat frozen packs. My fish got so fat and happy off this food. Highly recommend it. Just be sure and WASH it first. Lots of little legs and things that don't need to go in the tank can be rinsed clean.
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So I got a hold of a bucket of the highly anticipated Salinity, the first of three buckets currently available on the Central Coast! Here's what Seachem says about it:
"salinity™ is a blend of salts specifically formulated for the reef aquarium that contains all essential major, minor, and trace components found in natural reef waters, but contains no toxic or non-essential components. Additionally, salinity™ is the most concentrated salt blend on the market. With a hydration level of <0.5% salinity™ will yield a greater volume of prepared saltwater at a salinity of 35‰ per unit of weight than any other salt mix currently on the market.
salinity™ is identical to the distribution of anions and cations found in Natural Sea Water (NSW). We have compiled data from all the oceans and seas on the Earth, and have targeted the midpoint of the range for each element. We guarantee to be within ± 3% of the midpoint."
First impression- this bucket is HEAVY! And huge, at least 5 gallons. Second impression, it is VERY dry, almost like powdered sugar.


Each bucket is stickered with the guaranteed values of 19 elements, including lab-certified results for each batch for the "big 4" (ph, Alk, Calcium, Magnesium) and Strontium.


There is a surprisingly detailed list of mixing instructions also, but once you cut through the excess it is straight-forward.


It is slightly more concentrated then other mixes, using slightly less then 1/2 cup per gallon (for my starting mix I used 7 cups for 15 gallons). They advise allowing it to mix for 24 hours to "achieve oxygen/carbon dioxide equilibrium", so tomorrow I will test to confirm the accuracy of their claims! ...

Marc interviews Alan Flojo from Central Coast Reefkeepers about his DIY 2-Part dosing system on the show floor at the Marine Aquarium Expo (MAX) in Costa Mesa, CA. See the video below for all the details.
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For about 6 months now I have been making my own food. When, I started my goal was to purchase as much of it as possible from the local grocery store in order to keep the cost down. In November, I did a teach for my local on the food recipe. Here is the recipe and a video that I made to go along with recipe.

MASM Food Recipe

Why Make your Own Food:

1) Allows for variety of diet: You can mix different things together in feeding. Your fish get variety
2) Cost effective solution. Most items in the recipe are at your local grocery store.
3) Can tailor your recipe to your own specific tank.

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