LF Long, Thin ...syringe? turkey baster? ..something

E

earthboy17

New member
Hey guys.

So I'm looking for a better way to feed my LPS, and when I was over at Levi's house he used a syringe/thin turkey baster to s.l.o.w.l.y drop mysis on them.

My problem is that I have a mesh over my tank so I need something thin and long. Removing the mesh top is so much trouble (breaking siphons, removing pvc, etc.) that it isn't worth the trouble and is prohibitive of daily removal.

Does anyone know of a long, thin (doesn't have to be SUPER thin; I can cut a couple strings in the mesh I need be) feeder like this?

By long, I mean that I would like to find something that is about 18" long.

I realize that is pretty long; if something like what I'm looking for is not readily available, has anyone used a combination of syringe + tubing (like air tube) to target feed corals low in the tank?

Thanks.
 
if you want one of those sea squirt feeders, i have one that was used only about 2 weeks to feed suncoral. got rid of the sun coral. :D
 
Re: LF Long, Thin ...syringe? turkey baster? ..something

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12134927#post12134927 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by earthboy17
I realize that is pretty long; if something like what I'm looking for is not readily available, has anyone used a combination of syringe + tubing (like air tube) to target feed corals low in the tank?
Click to expand...
Yep. Turkey baster with a long acrylic tube stuck in the end.
 
Hey Tom,

Glue a thin piece of acrylic tube to a normal turkey baster and VOILA, you have a thin turkey baster. I would have given you mine but I cut it down when I stopped target feeding.
 
I think i'm going to need to invest in one of these, or at least a ghetto DIY version.. I like the idea of thin acrylic tube glued to turkey baster (hell some rigid airline tube could do the trick!) I've been noticing a very slight rash + pain + itching that goes away very quickly after getting my hand/arm into the tank. Unsure if this is bad news, but regardless I'd rather err on the side of caution.

Those who have used the long squirt jobbers do you lose much in the way of "accuracy"... seems to be that having such a long instrument it might be difficult to get a straight shot onto the target.
 
I'll measure the diameter when I get home tonight, but I'd guess that the tube that extends out of the SeaSquirt is 3/8". As for accuracy, I'm able to spot feed individual heads on a candycane no problem. I just look through the side of the tank while holding it from above. I turn down the pumps because something that long gets unweildy with a lot of flow, but otherwise it's easy to use. You can take it apart fully to clean it too.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12137140#post12137140 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sfsuphysics
I think i'm going to need to invest in one of these, or at least a ghetto DIY version.. I like the idea of thin acrylic tube glued to turkey baster (hell some rigid airline tube could do the trick!)
Click to expand...
You don't even need to glue. You can use a scrap of tygon tubing on the acrylic tube and wedge it into the tip of the baster from the inside.

Easy to disassemble and clean that way.

If you want a larger diameter tube, just cut a bit off the tip of the baster first.
 
I just found a water squirt tube at the dollar store that may work. About 3feet long and cost just a buck. I was going to use it to blow sand off stuff on the bottom of the tank.
I post a pic. tonight
 
What I've done in the past is get a large syringe (the ear flushing type) and attached air-tubing to it, and put the air tubing onto a hollow plastic tube. Works pretty good!

V
 
I was thinking about that Vince, I mean the opening for the syringe I use now isn't that large, it was from when I got my wisdom teeth yanked and they gave me it to "flush out the holes". Hell maybe I'll hook some airtubing to that since the plastic tip is tapered I could probably wedge it in.. however it might still get my arm wet if the tube is too flexible :(
 
Well,

I did something like what Norm suggested but I used silicone glue. What I did was coat the inside of the turkey baster (also bought a dollar store) with non-stick Pam. Then I squirted silicone in from the tip of the baster so there was ~1.5" accumulated in the tip. I then fed some rigid acrylic tube (~$1 at Tap) through the tip of the baster and the "wad" of silicone making sure ~ 2" of tube went past the "wad". I then gently twisted the tube and lightly shook it to remove bubbles as I pulled it back out a little. I let it sit and when it was dry I was able to pop the whole piece out of the tube by gently rotating it like a PS2 joystick. I cut and cleaned up the interior end of the tube that was now cover in silicone so it was slightly conical and I was good to go. The silicone acted like a custom made cork.

So, for ~$2 in supplies, some silicone and patience I had my tool.

For my next go around I will use a syringe because basters pull water back in when you release the bulb. Very annoying when you need to pull your tool out after each squeeze.
 
Last edited:
Yes, for cleaning rock, nooks crevaces and plate corals the turkey baster is perfect. Not so much for target feeding.

If I had my "dream" feeder it would be one of those scientific ones that holds ~30ml but can release it in ~1ml bursts. Think about just going around your tank and with a quick "click" you drop 1ml of mixed phyto/roti/pod from Reef Nurition. I just think that would be so easy and cool to boot. If we got really tech I bet there's scientific tools with independent chambers. Dial up pods for lps, up rotis for sps and phyto for your fine filters.
 
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