automatic feeders

[serpentman]

I am going on vacation in 3 weeks and am concerned about feeding my fish in my mixed reef while I am gone. My sister-in-law is going to be watching the house but I hear horror stories about people overfeeding their fish while the owner is away. I was thinking of puting on an automatic feeder.

Does anyone use these? How reliable are they? And finally, which model/manufacturer do you recommend?

 

[rkelman]

eheim no question. Throw out the batteries that come with it and put nice new name brand ones in. (My batteries that came with it died in 3 days) Good luck.

 

[bertoni]

I agree. The Eheim has worked well for me. The fanning that it does seems to be critical.

 

[Shagsbeard]

Don't know about your area, but mine has people who will come and check on your aquarium, perform water changes, check for dead fish, all sorts of stuff. If you are gone for three weeks and something minor goes wrong in the first few days, you could easily come home to a crashed tank. Think about getting someone to look in on your fish while you're gone.

Of course, I'm still in the stage where my tank is holding as much attention as a first born son. I don't even like going to work... I miss it that bad.

 

[atvdave]

I'm away from the house a bit on businesses, and the wife doesnt know much about reef tanks so I purchased a eheim. It's been running on the original batteries for 2 years now.

However I would also purchase something like this http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=6280&N=2004+112972
I made my owen out of a funnel.

If you just dump the food on the top of the water the current will just take the floating food down the over flow. The ring will let it sink just a bit.

 

[dastratt]

I have an EHeim feeder but it feeds too much for my 54G.

As a contact lens wearer I have tons of extra contact lens cases. So I put individual portions in contact lens cases and instruct to feed one per day.

I also keep melted brine shrimp and other frozen food cubes in these lens cases in the fridge when I'm home. No reason why you couldn't put liquid or frozen portions in these cases if you normally feed this kind of food daily.

 

[dastratt]

Non reef keepers are amazed at how little the portions are :lol