"Automatic" Frozen Food Feeder
- Thread starter FishDad2
- Start date
keep this one alive me thinks,
after reading the bottle theory i gave it a go, 1st attempt with mixing RO and frozen food and the freezing it all went well until i placed it above the tank. the issue is when the water starts to thaw (and it takes quite a long time so no need to insulate as such to keep cold) it tends to thaw on the sides of the bottle first so in effect alot of the food tends to stick to the side of the bottle.
2nd attempt was to place a small amount of RO in the bottle and freeze it. once frozen i placed a small glass jar in the bottle and then filled with RO again to then refreeze making a 'hole' in the middle of the frozen bottle once i wedged out the glass jar once frozen. i then placed all of the food in the hole that was created and then froze again. once all frozen i placed over the tank. again food tends to stick to the side of the bottle somehow as its thawing from the sides first.
maybe to get round it is to send some tank water in the bottle via a peri pump or something to flush the sides of the bottle after a good few hours to send the food towards the mouth of the bottle, i did this manually with a turkey baster and it worked a treat........unfortunately i dont have a peri pump
hth
Craig
after reading the bottle theory i gave it a go, 1st attempt with mixing RO and frozen food and the freezing it all went well until i placed it above the tank. the issue is when the water starts to thaw (and it takes quite a long time so no need to insulate as such to keep cold) it tends to thaw on the sides of the bottle first so in effect alot of the food tends to stick to the side of the bottle.
2nd attempt was to place a small amount of RO in the bottle and freeze it. once frozen i placed a small glass jar in the bottle and then filled with RO again to then refreeze making a 'hole' in the middle of the frozen bottle once i wedged out the glass jar once frozen. i then placed all of the food in the hole that was created and then froze again. once all frozen i placed over the tank. again food tends to stick to the side of the bottle somehow as its thawing from the sides first.
maybe to get round it is to send some tank water in the bottle via a peri pump or something to flush the sides of the bottle after a good few hours to send the food towards the mouth of the bottle, i did this manually with a turkey baster and it worked a treat........unfortunately i dont have a peri pump
hth
Craig
cwagner315
New member
I didn't figure it would be as simple as floating a bottle in there. Sounds like your getting the testing out of the way for him though. If you can get it to work i would be very interested in giving this a try. Time release feeding based on something as simple as a bottle would be very nice to have.
I'm not sure if it was mentioned but the fear of freezing a bottle resulting in all the food going to the bottom could be easily resolved by freezing in layers. It might take more effort but it would be a good way to alternate strata by having food in one layer and just water as a spacer in another and so on etc.
^
your still going to have the problem of food sticking to the sides of the bottle once its thawing out hence me trying to create a hole in the middle of the bottle and putting all the food in the hole. the food wont all go in at once as it takes ages to thaw but you still get food stuck to the sides...............grrrr i need a peri pump
your still going to have the problem of food sticking to the sides of the bottle once its thawing out hence me trying to create a hole in the middle of the bottle and putting all the food in the hole. the food wont all go in at once as it takes ages to thaw but you still get food stuck to the sides...............grrrr i need a peri pump
Interesting... Then why not just take frozen cubes whole and place them in a 1" PVC pipe and freeze water around them and then a layer of RO water and keep alternating to make "time release" layers. It keeps it simple and the cubes would be mostly intact and stay central in the cylinder of ice then without the sticky side issue.
yeah could work would have to monitor how a full cube would thaw into the aquarium etc. dont think you could have too many layers as i've tried it with about 4 inch of water and it takes an age to thaw out and we are talking hours !!
i might have to try a powerhead instead of a peri pump but obviously not the full force of one, like a bypass tee to send some of the output to the bottle but only after a route is clear in the bottle to the opening, probs about 4 hours after putting the bottle over the tank
i might have to try a powerhead instead of a peri pump but obviously not the full force of one, like a bypass tee to send some of the output to the bottle but only after a route is clear in the bottle to the opening, probs about 4 hours after putting the bottle over the tank
Just thinking more about making it convenient you could make what is essentially a PVC ice tray by cutting small 1" lengths of 1" PVC pipe and make a dozen of so of the cube embedded rounds and load them into a the tube like shells in a shotgun. This would mean you wouldn't have to freeze a layer at a time and take all day making one of the frozen feeder tubes and you could reload a tube while it still has food rounds still in it.
well to me IF i am going to automate frozen feeding then i rather do it in a manner that it can be used over and over and is reliable. Mostly if i was to automate then it would be for reasons that i myself or i cant find someone to feed the tank over number of days. in such case a frozen bottle will not work for extended vacation times.
Now i do have a frozen food dispenser in my setup that i dont use unless i am testing it or on vacation.
i have a small 300gph pump submerged in the tank towards the back. when it comes on alarm triggers and shuts the return pump. small pump runs for 15 min and runs water through clear transparent pvc ($$$$$$) and goes through a small refrigerator. fridge contains a bubble magus triple doser that is attached to roti feast and arcti pods and trigger pods. i found mysis to get stuck quite often. but anyways those 3 are programmed to come on around the same time as pump is on thus releasing the food into the pvc pipe resulting in being delivered to the tank.
works well for me except for i wish i would have gotten 3 individual dosers rather than bubble magus. reason: bubble magus cannot be programmed to come on multiple time at set time.
Now i do have a frozen food dispenser in my setup that i dont use unless i am testing it or on vacation.
i have a small 300gph pump submerged in the tank towards the back. when it comes on alarm triggers and shuts the return pump. small pump runs for 15 min and runs water through clear transparent pvc ($$$$$$) and goes through a small refrigerator. fridge contains a bubble magus triple doser that is attached to roti feast and arcti pods and trigger pods. i found mysis to get stuck quite often. but anyways those 3 are programmed to come on around the same time as pump is on thus releasing the food into the pvc pipe resulting in being delivered to the tank.
works well for me except for i wish i would have gotten 3 individual dosers rather than bubble magus. reason: bubble magus cannot be programmed to come on multiple time at set time.
gweston
New member
Following this thread as I have had this in the back of my mind for a while now.. but haven't quite reached the point to experiment.
I want to keep a group of bartletts or carberyi anthias in my 6' 125. It'd be nice to be able to dose feed throughout the day. Not only does it keep anthias happy, it may reduce agression in the tank. I also have a dwarf angel that becomes an @$$ if he doesn't get fed often.
How about something like a TLF Kalk stirrer in a mini fridge. When the pump turns on to dose the food (most likely 'floaty' planktonic food, cyclopeeze, or brine), the stirrer suspends the food, and out it goes. While not as 'long lasting' as leaving the food in a frozen state and gradually thawing, it could work for a period of a few days between refills.
Of course.. now we're talking about a controller, a stirrer, a fridge, and a pump. Things are starting to get beyond a simple DIY. I LIKE the idea of the suspended frozen bottle. Maybe something can be figured out from that. Toss enough cash and gadgets at anything, and the problem will be solved. The challenge is solving the problem with a minimalistic and CHEAP solution that anyone can do.
I wonder: Layers of dry ice with food layered in between? Eh? But then let me try to explain to the wife that I did not buy a smoke machine for the man-cave. LOL
I want to keep a group of bartletts or carberyi anthias in my 6' 125. It'd be nice to be able to dose feed throughout the day. Not only does it keep anthias happy, it may reduce agression in the tank. I also have a dwarf angel that becomes an @$$ if he doesn't get fed often.
How about something like a TLF Kalk stirrer in a mini fridge. When the pump turns on to dose the food (most likely 'floaty' planktonic food, cyclopeeze, or brine), the stirrer suspends the food, and out it goes. While not as 'long lasting' as leaving the food in a frozen state and gradually thawing, it could work for a period of a few days between refills.
Of course.. now we're talking about a controller, a stirrer, a fridge, and a pump. Things are starting to get beyond a simple DIY. I LIKE the idea of the suspended frozen bottle. Maybe something can be figured out from that. Toss enough cash and gadgets at anything, and the problem will be solved. The challenge is solving the problem with a minimalistic and CHEAP solution that anyone can do.
I wonder: Layers of dry ice with food layered in between? Eh? But then let me try to explain to the wife that I did not buy a smoke machine for the man-cave. LOL
Mrs. Gixxerman
New member
This may seem overly simplistic...but why not use a popcycle freezing tray? Take the food to be frozen, mixed in with the RO water, freeze in the tray with the stick in the center and once frozen, remove the stick and suspend it over the tank. The downside would be that it would be exposed to contaiminants. Perhaps you could construct a acyrlic box to mostly enclose the hanging popcycle, to prevent anything from getting on the slowly melting food. It would solve the problem of the food from 'sticking' to the inside of a bottle.
Just a thought.
Just a thought.
some good ideas coming
think there is another thread with ref to fridges etc for there non photo tank.
i like the bottle idea as for me i dont need it to work for x amount of days etc, i just need something simple to feed the tank through the day when i'm out at work for say 11 hours. i do have an auto feeder but obviously only dry food and i reckon my angels and triggers need something to get there teeth into ha ha.
with ref to the popcycle i thought hey not a bad idea but then i think when its thawing the whole lot would drop into the tank rather than a slow drip feed ?
think there is another thread with ref to fridges etc for there non photo tank.
i like the bottle idea as for me i dont need it to work for x amount of days etc, i just need something simple to feed the tank through the day when i'm out at work for say 11 hours. i do have an auto feeder but obviously only dry food and i reckon my angels and triggers need something to get there teeth into ha ha.
with ref to the popcycle i thought hey not a bad idea but then i think when its thawing the whole lot would drop into the tank rather than a slow drip feed ?
I would think if you had a controller (maybe an apex) you could program a small pump to flush the walls of the container for a small period. Like for 1 minute. Lets say you have an inverted 2 liter bottle suspended above your tank with the bottom of the two liter cut off for access to adding your frozen food. You could use the same setup for freezing the big block and remove them as needed every day and load it into the apparatus above the tank. Lets say you use a small water pump to pump water into the apparatus made above the tank. The water line sent to the apparatus can be split lets say 4 ways and installed on the two liter bottle above the tank evenly and angled to create the toilet bowl affect so to wash the sides down in a clockwise fashion, since were in America. A controller would turn on the pump and pump water to the two liter. The water will hopefully wash the sides of the bottle and wash the food that is sticking to the sides of the bottle. I would think this gentle spray would speed up the thawing of the ice block. Also this setup could be downsized to maybe 1 liter bottles for smaller tanks. The only downside I see is if your tank does not evaporate alot then this could be problematic since you.might be adding more water back to the tank then what's needed. Also maybe a spray tip in the bottle would work better then a line split 4 ways, I don't know just shooting from the hip here. There is a fine line here though because the food needs to be adequately washed away from the sides before it drys. Once it dries it will stick to the walls. 1 minute might be too long to wash the ice block as well. And I think that's the shortest time for a controller to control a pump. The idea of using a small pump from lets say a sump and pump it up a tube and then split off could decrease the amount of time the water runs over the ice block.
Maybe a small pump with a large diameter pipe up to the two liter. The idea would be to decrease some of the water time over the walls and ice block. I would imagine that 1 minute would be two long. So if it took 15-30 seconds for the water to enter the two liter than only 30-45 seconds of time would be used to wash the walls. The controller would kill the power to the pump and the water would just drain back to the sump and no big deal. You could program as many wall washes as you wanted. It would all be determined by how big the block is and how much food is introduced to the system. The nice part about having the controller is that if you did not do this every day than no big deal. Lets say you only wanted to feed 1-7 times per week than just program the intervals per day on which day you want to do this. The nice thing about using a pump is that you will not be introducing more unsalted water to the system. Your using existing tank water. So run with that idea and lets see where it takes us. I am interested in this idea as well. So this is my 2 cents
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