Auto Dosing Refrigerated Food

[Schraufabagel]

I've seen a few posts of DIY solutions for auto dosing refrigerated food. I'm looking for some updated thoughts. How difficult would it be to auto dose using something like one of the Koolatron 6 can fridges? I currently feed @Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast, Arcti-Pods, and TDO. I also feed Red Sea AB+ daily.

A few other questions I have. Does the dosing head itself have to be in the fridge? How do you purge the dosing line to prevent spoilage?

Also, some questions for @Reef Nutrition. Can Apex pods and Tigger pods be mixed? What foods are best for auto dosing?

 

[AlgaeBarn]

It's possible! We just had one of our customers share with us their recent project

 

[Schraufabagel]

It's possible! We just had one of our customers share with us their recent project

I've been considering getting an aqua cultured mandarin. So this would help with pod feeding a lot!

 

[afrokobe]

It's possible! We just had one of our customers share with us their recent project

I've been banished from the food fridge by my gf and need to find a mini fridge for all my fish stuff. I was looking at one of these beverage coolers, but the problem I found is that they only cool to a certain point below ambient temperature. i.e. if my ambient temperature is 74 and it cools 30 degrees below ambient, the cooling temp would only be 44 degrees.

is this cool enough for live phyto and other refrigerated foods?

 

[AlgaeBarn]

I've been banished from the food fridge by my gf and need to find a mini fridge for all my fish stuff. I was looking at one of these beverage coolers, but the problem I found is that they only cool to a certain point below ambient temperature. i.e. if my ambient temperature is 74 and it cools 30 degrees below ambient, the cooling temp would only be 44 degrees.

is this cool enough for live phyto and other refrigerated foods?

I don't think hat would be an issue. This particular one is rated to cool the air inside the chamber 25-30 degrees Fahrenheit lower than the ambient air temperature and the customer hasn't had any issues with their highest temp in the refrigerator being around 55.

 

[afrokobe]

I don't think hat would be an issue. This particular one is rated to cool the air inside the chamber 25-30 degrees Fahrenheit lower than the ambient air temperature and the customer hasn't had any issues with their highest temp in the refrigerator being around 55.

Got it, thanks for the feedback!

 

[mdb_talon]

A few other questions I have. Does the dosing head itself have to be in the fridge? How do you purge the dosing line to prevent spoilage?

At least in theory you could "t" the lines and hook another doser up up to rodi water. Run your food dose then dose enough rodi to push it out the line.

 

[afrokobe]

Just keep in mind if you want to dose phyto, you might want to set up some kind of kalk doser. This will keep the phyto moving and not separated. Or shake it manually everyday, which kind of eliminates the point of auto dosing though....

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I've seen a few posts of DIY solutions for auto dosing refrigerated food. I'm looking for some updated thoughts. How difficult would it be to auto dose using something like one of the Koolatron 6 can fridges? I currently feed @Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast, Arcti-Pods, and TDO. I also feed Red Sea AB+ daily.

A few other questions I have. Does the dosing head itself have to be in the fridge? How do you purge the dosing line to prevent spoilage?

Also, some questions for @Reef Nutrition. Can Apex pods and Tigger pods be mixed? What foods are best for auto dosing?

Check this thread out! https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/got-my-fresh-food-autofeeder-working-today.691649/

This is Scott Sweet's setup (@scottsweet). He is more than happy to discuss it further if you have any questions after checking out his thread.

Keep in mind that our phytoplankton and all of our other products are kept in suspension, so there is no need to shake or agitate, which is one of the things people love about our foods. Also, our phytoplankton blends are 20 times as concentrated as our competitor's algae products (happy to see you are using Phyto-Feast), so you are getting way more phyto for your hard-earned money. We recommend that you start off with conservative doses when feeding due to the high concentration.

Our top foods for auto-dosing are Phyto-Feast, Oyster-Feast, R.O.E. and Arcti-Pods. You can also feed our pellets TDO with an auto-feeder.

Are you asking if you can combine the live pods for culturing? If you aren't culturing them, we always recommend adding them to the system as soon as you get them in.

Let me know if you have any other questions, and, as always, thanks so much for choosing our foods. Sorry for the late response; I was in Hawaii on vacation!

Best,
Chad

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Just keep in mind if you want to dose phyto, you might want to set up some kind of kalk doser. This will keep the phyto moving and not separated. Or shake it manually everyday, which kind of eliminates the point of auto dosing though....

If you dose our Phyto-Feast, there is no need to shake the bottle manually. Our algae stays in suspension and is highly concentrated. You should check it out.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Best,
Chad

 

[mdb_talon]

Check this thread out! https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/got-my-fresh-food-autofeeder-working-today.691649/

This is Scott Sweet's setup (@scottsweet). He is more than happy to discuss it further if you have any questions after checking out his thread.

Keep in mind that our phytoplankton and all of our other products are kept in suspension, so there is no need to shake or agitate, which is one of the things people love about our foods. Also, our phytoplankton blends are 20 times as concentrated as our competitor's algae products (happy to see you are using Phyto-Feast), so you are getting way more phyto for your hard-earned money. We recommend that you start off with conservative doses when feeding due to the high concentration.

Our top foods for auto-dosing are Phyto-Feast, Oyster-Feast, R.O.E. and Arcti-Pods. You can also feed our pellets TDO with an auto-feeder.

Are you asking if you can combine the live pods for culturing? If you aren't culturing them, we always recommend adding them to the system as soon as you get them in.

Let me know if you have any other questions, and, as always, thanks so much for choosing our foods. Sorry for the late response; I was in Hawaii on vacation!

Best,
Chad

Great info!

 

[Schraufabagel]

Check this thread out! https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/got-my-fresh-food-autofeeder-working-today.691649/

This is Scott Sweet's setup (@scottsweet). He is more than happy to discuss it further if you have any questions after checking out his thread.

Keep in mind that our phytoplankton and all of our other products are kept in suspension, so there is no need to shake or agitate, which is one of the things people love about our foods. Also, our phytoplankton blends are 20 times as concentrated as our competitor's algae products (happy to see you are using Phyto-Feast), so you are getting way more phyto for your hard-earned money. We recommend that you start off with conservative doses when feeding due to the high concentration.

Our top foods for auto-dosing are Phyto-Feast, Oyster-Feast, R.O.E. and Arcti-Pods. You can also feed our pellets TDO with an auto-feeder.

Are you asking if you can combine the live pods for culturing? If you aren't culturing them, we always recommend adding them to the system as soon as you get them in.

Let me know if you have any other questions, and, as always, thanks so much for choosing our foods. Sorry for the late response; I was in Hawaii on vacation!

Best,
Chad

Just bought some Oyster Feast yesterday. I'm thinking if I choose to autodose, it would be the Arcti-pods, Oyster Feast, and Phyto Feast. The live pods question was more-so if Tigger and Apex pods could be combined and auto dosed. But it sounds like it's better to just use the whole bottle at once and replenish the tank as needed

 

[radiata]

Do you really need a doser to handle this particular dosing scheme? It occurred to me that a controller and a closed state solenoid would work well with a source solution that was gravity fed from the bottom of the solution. It wouldn't be especially difficult to determine the volume passing through a solenoid per second and timing the necessary cycle with a good controller. If I were to go this way, I'd use some larger diameter tubing after the solenoid to try to prevent any foods from clogging and rotting in any smaller diameter tubing.

 

[mstevenson1972]

I've seen a few posts of DIY solutions for auto dosing refrigerated food. I'm looking for some updated thoughts. How difficult would it be to auto dose using something like one of the Koolatron 6 can fridges? I currently feed @Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast, Arcti-Pods, and TDO. I also feed Red Sea AB+ daily.

A few other questions I have. Does the dosing head itself have to be in the fridge? How do you purge the dosing line to prevent spoilage?

Also, some questions for @Reef Nutrition. Can Apex pods and Tigger pods be mixed? What foods are best for auto dosing?

I do this with AB+ and phytoplankton with air stone in each to mix, 5min before dose

 

[NathanF]

I am finding feed rates that are all over the place. How much algae do you feed a 200L vessel with 3-5 pods/ml? I have seen 10ml, 1.25L, and 11L per day. So confused.