Auto feeder in the sump- anyone try this?

andyg1960 · Oct 24, 2018

Hi all just wondering if I thought of something unique or if I’m late to the party. I Purchased an Neptune Apex AFS ( auto feeder) about a month ago, I have a rimless Red Sea reefer tank With a mesh cover and I did not want to be looking at the feeder. So, I mounted it over the return chamber of the sump. I also mounted a very small power head in the returned chamber. I have a powerhead come on to educate the water and calls the flake food to sink and stir around. It’s been picked up by the return palm in blown into the tank. Seems to be working great. I program the small pump to run for about five minutes and as far as I can tell that’s long enough for all the food you exit the sump chamber. Anyone tried something similar?

rkpetersen · Oct 24, 2018

Interesting. Sounds like a great idea, I might try this as well. Gives the food more time to hydrate before being eaten, and avoids the issue of floating food going straight into the overflow. Did you mount it on the glass partition?

andyg1960 · Oct 24, 2018

OK so if you ignore the dirty sump, here is the photo. I used a piece of plexiglass attach to the glass sump To raise it up a little

cmcoker · Oct 24, 2018

I thought about doing this, then I realized I am to clumsy and will knock it in the sump, haha.

Seems like a good idea though

GoldeneyeRet · Oct 24, 2018

Been doing that for years, works good for me.

Water Dog · Oct 24, 2018

Great idea! I was actually thinking of something like this earlier today. What type of pellets are you using... sinking? floating? size? What brand of food?

biecacka · Oct 25, 2018

Have it dispense into a piece of pvc that goes below the waterline right above the return pump to ensure it all gets into the tank.

Corey

Breadman03 · Oct 25, 2018

biecacka said:
Have it dispense into a piece of pvc that goes below the waterline right above the return pump to ensure it all gets into the tank.

Corey

I have my AFS mounted on a 4">2" reducer that is plumbed to a tee on my return pump intake. I have a small slit on the pipe just so a little water circulates through it and keeps the surface from getting funky.

MPS · Oct 25, 2018

That’s some great food for thought. As long as pellet food works as well and doesn’t gunk up or damage the pump, I’d love to implement this.

n4soccer06 · Oct 25, 2018

What a great idea. I will be starting my build this way.

ryshark · Oct 25, 2018

I actually tried this for the first time last week and again yesterday. Same situation, I got some wrasses and didn't want to lift the new mesh so I threw flakes, by hand, into the sumps return chamber. Seems to work well

andyg1960 · Oct 25, 2018

Water Dog said:
Great idea! I was actually thinking of something like this earlier today. What type of pellets are you using... sinking? floating? size? What brand of food?

I’m just using various flake food