New Avast Marine Auto feeder

kharn101 · Aug 29, 2020

Guys, Highly recommend using this 3/8 hole....my wife almost killed me because the tank overflooded in the office tank.
It ended up leaking into the floor below and into a ceiling fan....Please, can't express how important this is!!! Other than that, I love mine

kharn101 · Aug 29, 2020

*edit

kharn101 · Aug 29, 2020

SoAg Reefer said:
I just lowered the speed of the pump and it works fine, no bubbles either. Hands down, the best auto feeder I’ve ever owned!

What about when you block the pump access...it will still rise and overflow...now way to escape other than through the top. This is what happened when a snail found it's way up there

lactose · Sep 9, 2020

I just got mine and I love it, thank you for making this. One question:

How deep under water does the pipe/pump inside the pipe have to be? My scenario with initial install has the pipe going a lot deeper than I think it needs to and kinda 'sticks out'.

IOW, I am looking for guidance that the pipe needs to be at least X" under the water surface. Then I can trim the top of the pipe so it is moved up but deep enough under the water to work properly. Thanks in advance.

lactose · Sep 15, 2020

lactose said:
I just got mine and I love it, thank you for making this. One question:

How deep under water does the pipe/pump inside the pipe have to be? My scenario with initial install has the pipe going a lot deeper than I think it needs to and kinda 'sticks out'.

IOW, I am looking for guidance that the pipe needs to be at least X" under the water surface. Then I can trim the top of the pipe so it is moved up but deep enough under the water to work properly. Thanks in advance.

I got good guidance from avast through direct email and in short you can move the pipe up and down as you see fit. The things to balance are potential noise of pump/water movement if you go higher (not a concern for me as I will only run the pumps for a bit before and after feeding via apex), balancing the amount of 'soak time' your food will get before it goes down (in my playing the higher the pump the less water 'above' the pump and the sooner the food will wind up in the main tank), and when all was said and done I kept it at the height recommended/shipped at (pipe top at holder frame) and just moved it more to back corner above a vortech and it disappeared for me. I am very happy so far.

mfollen · Sep 20, 2020

is there a way to lower any higher water levels in a mixing chamber?

Install was yesterday, today the water level is higher than what it was yesterday, now continually flowing out of the emergency drain hole.

I had to modify installation with my screen top, but it should be as elevated as a normal install. I don’t see anything blocking the normal drain tube.

This is a great product! The fish are already more happy. Thanks avast.

SoAg Reefer · Sep 20, 2020

I lowered mine by turning the pump power halfway

mfollen · Sep 20, 2020

Thanks! Only way with to do that is a controllable dimmable power outlet?

radiata · Sep 20, 2020

mfollen said:
Thanks! Only way with to do that is a controllable dimmable power outlet?

There's a little mechanical gizmo on the bottom of the pump that controls the flow.

SoAg Reefer · Sep 20, 2020

Yep, what radiata said. Under the pump is A power lever you can move back and forth

mfollen · Sep 20, 2020

Got it! Didn’t see that in the instructions. Thanks!!

pgravis · Sep 20, 2020

Anyone have any pics (of the whole tank) of this on a rimless tank? Trying to gauge how distracting it would be to the clean lines of a rimless tank. I just ordered a new tank because I hated my return coming over the top of the tank but this intrigues me and I would like to see how it looks. Thanks!

deahttub · Sep 21, 2020

just curious how may times/minutes a day y’all are feeding a day. Im feeding 5 times a day 3 minutes each time and my pig fish want more! My anthias Love this feeder!

Daveobrien · Sep 22, 2020

deahttub said:
just curious how may times/minutes a day y’all are feeding a day. Im feeding 5 times a day 3 minutes each time and my pig fish want more! My anthias Love this feeder!

I'm feeding every hour, on the hour, for one minute. This is a mix of small foods (calanus, rotifer eggs, and freeze dried mysis shrimp) and some random flake food to be ground up. My idea, day time feeds mostly fish, night time feeds sps and lps corals. Or that's my theory.

I'm curious - What food are people using in their Plank, and why?

deahttub · Sep 22, 2020

Freeze dried brine shrimp, freeze dried mysis, freeze dried calanus, and pellet food.

SoAg Reefer · Sep 22, 2020

pgravis said:
Anyone have any pics (of the whole tank) of this on a rimless tank? Trying to gauge how distracting it would be to the clean lines of a rimless tank. I just ordered a new tank because I hated my return coming over the top of the tank but this intrigues me and I would like to see how it looks. Thanks!

I have mine on a rimless tank. It’s big but well worth it. So much more consistent than the Neptune that dumps too much and this gets into the water column instead of floating. I have it right over a vortech mp10. Ignore the tube, I run easy sps on a dosing pump into the plank as well. That’s not part of the actual unit

pgravis · Sep 22, 2020

SoAg Reefer said:
I have mine on a rimless tank. It’s big but well worth it. So much more consistent than the Neptune that dumps too much and this gets into the water column instead of floating. I have it right over a vortech mp10. Ignore the tube, I run easy sps on a dosing pump into the plank as well. That’s not part of the actual unit

Thank you! Yeah, I have the Neptune now going into my return section of my sump-but I really like the sound of these and the ability to get food into he water column.

Arricefe · Sep 29, 2020

Howdy all y'all, does anybody have one installed on a rimmed tank? If so do you mind sharing pics?

lactose · Sep 29, 2020

I will post pictures in a bit (however it is the basic install like in the videos) but I got pinged about my setup/programming so thought I would share in case that helps someone else with this cool feeder and an Apex.

I have two feeders for my two display tanks. They are mounted and programmed identically (for now) but may shift the feeding schedule on one or the other over time.

I have SCA 120G tanks with a ~3" eurobrace and the default install instructions worked just fine for me. I have them in 'back corners' where they dump out near/over MP40's so the food is broadcast pretty quickly and well. In fact in one tank it falls out above an MP40 which pushes the food forward which then is in the path of a Gyre 350 which pushes the food lengthwise in the tank - it is fun to watch the roller coaster ride for the food

For each tank, I have both the pump and the feeder in separate outlets on an EB832 on my apex and have the following programs which result in the pump coming on 1 min before the feeder, the feeder running for 30 seconds and then the pump staying on 2:30 mins after the feeder for a total of 5 mins on time for the pump. My goal with this program is to feed 3 times a day (10a, 3p, 5p) for now but can adjust by changing the code in one place (the pump's code).

Amongst other things I am a coder by trade so I am not saying this is the simplest/most direct way as I like to build things into the apex code.

Pump Code for 'AFpump':

Code:

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 10:00 to 10:04 Then ON
If Time 15:00 to 15:04 Then ON
If Time 20:00 to 20:04 Then ON

This defaults to off and then is on for 5 mins at the top of the hour for each feed time. If I want to run more times I can just add more lines like 'If Time XX:00 to XX:04 Then ON' (note current code would only work for 'top of the hour' feeding times.

Feeder Code for 'AFeeder':

Code:

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
OSC 001:00/000:30/058:30 Then ON
If Output AFpump = OFF Then OFF
When On > 001:00 Then OFF

This defaults to off, tells it to run for 30 seconds after a 1 min delay and then stay off again for the remainder of one hour (58mins 30secs). Since this statement 'starts' at exactly midnight this ensures it is aligned to the top of each hour for the 1 min off, 30 seconds on pattern.

It will not run when the pump is off - with the OSC command above and not running when pump is off this allows me to both ensure it only feeds when the pump is on as well as control how many times I feed with only code changes in the pump's code.

The last line checks that if for some reason it is on longer than a minute (future coding error etc.) - it will turn off and throw an error so I can't accidentally overfeed.

Hope this is helpful to anyone looking to program it. Of course times can be adjusted for length of pump before/after, duration of barrel feeder running etc.

Arricefe · Sep 29, 2020

lactose said:
I will post pictures in a bit (however it is the basic install like in the videos) but I got pinged about my setup/programming so thought I would share in case that helps someone else with this cool feeder and an Apex.

I have two feeders for my two display tanks. They are mounted and programmed identically (for now) but may shift the feeding schedule on one or the other over time.

I have SCA 120G tanks with a ~3" eurobrace and the default install instructions worked just fine for me. I have them in 'back corners' where they dump out near/over MP40's so the food is broadcast pretty quickly and well. In fact in one tank it falls out above an MP40 which pushes the food forward which then is in the path of a Gyre 350 which pushes the food lengthwise in the tank - it is fun to watch the roller coaster ride for the food

For each tank, I have both the pump and the feeder in separate outlets on an EB832 on my apex and have the following programs which result in the pump coming on 1 min before the feeder, the feeder running for 30 seconds and then the pump staying on 2:30 mins after the feeder for a total of 5 mins on time for the pump. My goal with this program is to feed 3 times a day (10a, 3p, 5p) for now but can adjust by changing the code in one place (the pump's code).

Amongst other things I am a coder by trade so I am not saying this is the simplest/most direct way as I like to build things into the apex code.

Pump Code for 'AFpump':

Code:

Fallback OFF Set OFF If Time 10:00 to 10:04 Then ON If Time 15:00 to 15:04 Then ON If Time 20:00 to 20:04 Then ON

This defaults to off and then is on for 5 mins at the top of the hour for each feed time. If I want to run more times I can just add more lines like 'If Time XX:00 to XX:04 Then ON' (note current code would only work for 'top of the hour' feeding times.

Feeder Code for 'AFeeder':

Code:

Fallback OFF Set OFF OSC 001:00/000:30/058:30 Then ON If Output AFpump = OFF Then OFF When On > 001:00 Then OFF

This defaults to off, tells it to run for 30 seconds after a 1 min delay and then stay off again for the remainder of one hour (58mins 30secs). Since this statement 'starts' at exactly midnight this ensures it is aligned to the top of each hour for the 1 min off, 30 seconds on pattern.

It will not run when the pump is off - with the OSC command above and not running when pump is off this allows me to both ensure it only feeds when the pump is on as well as control how many times I feed with only code changes in the pump's code.

The last line checks that if for some reason it is on longer than a minute (future coding error etc.) - it will turn off and throw an error so I can't accidentally overfeed.

Hope this is helpful to anyone looking to program it. Of course times can be adjusted for length of pump before/after, duration of barrel feeder running etc.

So by adding the "If Output AFpump = OFF Then OFF" line the feeder is only on when the pump is on even if the code tells it to turn on for 30 seconds every hour? I like that, the number of feedings can be controlled by the pump programming, "AFpump" in your case.