Feeding Fish with a Doser?

[Ross B Reef'n]

Hi everyone. I have 1 male and 4 female dispar anthias that made it through QT, and I'm bound determined to see them healthy and thriving.

My question is: do you, or have you heard of anyone, dosing fish food with a dosing pump?

I have an idea to build a refrigerated doser for fish food to feed my tank periodically throughout the day. Just curious if anyone has seen this before.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Reef builders recently had a write up on a frozen fish feeder coming to market soon. I honestly forget the name of it though. Theres a few people running them in the diy forum that use dosers and refrigerators.

 

[Ross B Reef'n]

Reef builders recently had a write up on a frozen fish feeder coming to market soon. I honestly forget the name of it though. Theres a few people running them in the diy forum that use dosers and refrigerators.

So many great things for the home aquaria that can still be invented. Would love to see that come to fruition!

 

[Ross B Reef'n]

I also have an idea for a 5 day nori feeding machine. My current trouble is finding a timer that can operate individual relays on different schedules over a week... kind of like a doser pump (light bulb!)

 

[Gareth elliott]

look at reef pi for ideas. I stink at programming so not my ally lol. But i can control relays with it.
Btw might be able to skip if can power by smart outlet.

 

[Ross B Reef'n]

I'm a visual basic master, and would love to do it all through excel to skip learning a new language. The control panel I'm currently building for my tank is all analog, using relays, float switches, timers, and rocker switches. It's a goal to eventually build a more digital solution, and agree the Pi approach would probably be the most straight forward. Though VBA and C++ would be the most epic.

 

[TessGlo]

I use my doser to feed a variety of phyto daily because I have x-mas tree worms. I believe anthias eat zooplankton throughout the day and I know there are some room temp stable products you can buy, brightwell comes to mind, that may work similarly. I have a tiny pump inside the phyto container that kicks on to stir it up before the doser kicks on, it drops into the return chamber, and then apex turns off the pumps for an hour. I clean out the tubes about monthly depending on the size of the phyto I'm using. Not sure if it would work or meet your needs but its an idea, my worms have grown huge using this method.

 

[Silent]

Aqualiter or another diaphragm type pump might work better for live food.

 

[Ross B Reef'n]

Sounds like you have the concept down @TessGlo! Really like it! It's always great to hear on ingenuity in this hobby. If I were to incorporate a cooling mechanism, I could also do live phyto, and any other kind of frozen food. And definitly agree it needs to be stirred before dosing.
Something like this Mini Fridge and this Drink Stirrer/Mixer wired in are on the drawing board.

I just ordered 4 blister packs of PE calanus from BRS that I'd like to use, and possibly mysis. Also feel the need to give a shout out to @Bulk Reef Supply for how well it was packaged. Well done!

 

[Ross B Reef'n]

Aqualiter or another diaphragm type pump might work better for live food.

With the aid of a 3d printer, I'd imagine you could exchange the tubing for a larger diameter possibly?

 

[eraser2001]

Hi
I use a DOS pump connect to my mini fridge to feed my fishes when we are on vacation, is no difficult to set up this. I use mysis feast from reef nutrition

 

[JoshH]

Sounds like you have the concept down @TessGlo! Really like it! It's always great to hear on ingenuity in this hobby. If I were to incorporate a cooling mechanism, I could also do live phyto, and any other kind of frozen food. And definitly agree it needs to be stirred before dosing.
Something like this Mini Fridge and this Drink Stirrer/Mixer wired in are on the drawing board.

I just ordered 4 blister packs of PE calanus from BRS that I'd like to use, and possibly mysis. Also feel the need to give a shout out to @Bulk Reef Supply for how well it was packaged. Well done!

You could use something like a magnetic stirrer as well, the drink mixer might be too tall for that particular fridge.

I've really been toying with this idea in my head as well when I get my new tank up and running, I even left room for a larger mini fridge in the stand.

 

[Ross B Reef'n]

Hi
I use a DOS pump connect to my mini fridge to feed my fishes when we are on vacation, is no difficult to set up this. I use mysis feast from reef nutrition

This is great! Well done!

 

[reefwiser]

 

[Salty Lemon]

Hi
I use a DOS pump connect to my mini fridge to feed my fishes when we are on vacation, is no difficult to set up this. I use mysis feast from reef nutrition

That is so awesome! I especially like the skull with sunglasses. It adds that "extra touch" we all need in our lives.

 

[eraser2001]

That is so awesome! I especially like the skull with sunglasses. It adds that "extra touch" we all need in our lives.

My wife painted the skull and in nights with blue light, it glows

 

[Ross B Reef'n]

You could use something like a magnetic stirrer as well, the drink mixer might be too tall for that particular fridge.

I've really been toying with this idea in my head as well when I get my new tank up and running, I even left room for a larger mini fridge in the stand.

I'm really liking the magnetic stirrer idea. Didn't even know these existed!

 

[Ross B Reef'n]

The wine bottle cooler is an excellent idea!

 

[AquaLifeStudio]

Reef builders recently had a write up on a frozen fish feeder coming to market soon. I honestly forget the name of it though. Theres a few people running them in the diy forum that use dosers and refrigerators.

You are referencing the Auto Frozen Fish Food Feed (aF⁴) by inD Creations. The Kickstarter campaign just start yesterday. I'm very much looking forward to getting my hands on several of these units once they're planned to be available to the public in about a year.

 

[Pdash]

Hi everyone. I have 1 male and 4 female dispar anthias that made it through QT, and I'm bound determined to see them healthy and thriving.

My question is: do you, or have you heard of anyone, dosing fish food with a dosing pump?

I have an idea to build a refrigerated doser for fish food to feed my tank periodically throughout the day. Just curious if anyone has seen this before.

EDIT: Ross B Reef'n beat me to it
I've seen someone use a wine chiller, and a dosing pump that can be programmed to run backwards. So you run it forward to add food to the tank, and then in reverse to empty the line back into the chilled container, you just have to determine the amount in your lines and then dose the ammount in your lines + the ammount you actually want to feed, then run the pump in reverse the ammount in your lines.