REEFSICLE Automatic frozen food dispenser...

[ReeferMaddness843]

I’ve learned to enjoy feeding, testing, and water change time. Gives me a bit of time to focus on the tank and look closely for anything that may need to be adapted or if what I’m doing is what the tank needs.

 

[MnFish1]

No ... I bought one ... its not a"bad"anything, and it is certainly NOT a "gimmick". Its a very innovative, very well made product.

Question - does it take any frozen food - or do they have to be a certain shape, etc?

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I apologize I did not see those sump level labels in the original photo!

 

[BryanD]

Question - does it take any frozen food - or do they have to be a certain shape, etc?

The instructions state to let your frozen food thaw (which I do) then divide it up in the blue tray. So yeah, it will take any frozen food ... once its thawed out. It comes with a plastic "popsicle stick" thingy you can divide and scoop the thawed food up to place in the tray before you add water. As you can see from the pictures, you could put whole cubes in the tray then add the water if you need that much food to be fed. One thing I found worked easier, put it in the freezer before adding the water, then pour the water in the tray, shut freezer door. Otherwise you are trying to keep the tray perfectly level carrying it to the freezer with the water moving around .... I leave for work at 7am, and my lights don't turn on until about 10am, so I try and have the food for the fish further up the stick so it doesn't thaw and drop into the tank before the lights come on. Trying to carry it with the water in it lends the food to move where ever it wants on the length of the tray.

There is a video on YouTube, shows how they fill it and how it attaches to the tank. Oh, and they have a rimmless tank version as well. Don't mean to sound like a fanboi, but this is one of the best new products I've seen around in a long, long time, especially one that doesn't have to be plugged in or work in tandem with something else. I mix my types of food whichever way I want, more "green" stuff on certain days, more "meaty" stuff on other days. And I will say this, I was afraid I was losing the orange tree gorgonian, was coming out less and less until I bought this, now most days I get home, its fully out and I can spot feed it live baby brine shrimp that I have set up to hatch just before I get home. Before it was hit or miss as to whether I had a hatch ready, or if I had a hatch ready whether the gorgonian would be out or not. Haven't had to worry about it since I bought this thing.

 

[ca1ore]

This thing is a HUGE benefit for the vacationing reefer.

Is it though? I worked out a long time ago that if my fish are maintained at a healthy body weight, asking them to go without food for a week or even 10 days is of trivial impact. OK, maybe if you're gone for a month it becomes a problem, but does this device hold enough for that long anyhow.

 

[BryanD]

Is it though? I worked out a long time ago that if my fish are maintained at a healthy body weight, asking them to go without food for a week or even 10 days is of trivial impact. OK, maybe if you're gone for a month it becomes a problem, but does this device hold enough for that long anyhow.

This thing is meant for a daily feed. It comes with a tray for 4 frozen sticks, you can buy more trays/stick ends, I'm going to make some more ends out of plastic washers and plastic screws, so I can make 8 or more frozen sticks and put them in the freezer in say an empty casserole dish. So .... I'm going on vacation this summer, with this the person watching my tank only has to put the cylinder part that hangs on the aquarium back in the freezer in the evening, then in the morning put it and one stick on the part that hangs over the tank to be thawed and fed throughout the day. I have someone check on my house twice a day because OF my pets, so putting the cylinder back into the freezer at night isn't an issue. So if you are looking for something to put a weeks worth of frozen food in and have it fed, no, this ain't it.

One thing I am surprised about in the general comments is that it isn't electric! I don't know about ya'll, but I'm at my limit with what more I can plug in. Having something that doesn't use electricity is awesome, NOT a negative.

 

[MnFish1]

One thing I am surprised about in the general comments is that it isn't electric! I don't know about ya'll, but I'm at my limit with what more I can plug in. Having something that doesn't use electricity is awesome, NOT a negative.

Personally - I dont like the concept - especially for the frozen food I feed - BUT - the lack of electricity is definitely a plus. - that said - I like feeding time.

 

[MnFish1]

PS - what is the price

 

[GK3]

PS - what is the price

$100-$150 depending on what all you want and how many of each.

 

[GoVols]

I've already seen it done.

There's a guy that uses a "single" electric wine bottle chiller, and feeds the food with his DOS pump.

 

[BryanD]

Personally - I dont like the concept - especially for the frozen food I feed - BUT - the lack of electricity is definitely a plus. - that said - I like feeding time.

PS - what is the price

Sigh .... so do I. But since I work, and am gone from my home for 10 hours Mon-Fri, this allows me to feed my fish some in the middle of the day, and not make them wait until I get home at 5-5:30. It has some real good uses for vacations if you are dealing with people who don't have fish. One cylinder with one blue tray and 4 sticks is $100.

Its a very nice product. I'm disappointed in the negative comments on here from people who, according to all the banners under their names, should know better and have more respect for a someone who comes up with a VERY GOOD IDEA, whether they have the foresight to understand how it works and how it could be used or not.

 

[MnFish1]

Sigh .... so do I. But since I work, and am gone from my home for 10 hours Mon-Fri, this allows me to feed my fish some in the middle of the day, and not make them wait until I get home at 5-5:30. It has some real good uses for vacations if you are dealing with people who don't have fish. One cylinder with one blue tray and 4 sticks is $100.

Its a very nice product. I'm disappointed in the negative comments on here from people who, according to all the banners under their names, should know better and have more respect for a someone who comes up with a VERY GOOD IDEA, whether they have the foresight to understand how it works and how it could be used or not.

Thanks for answering all the questions - very interesting....

 

[Steve Fast]

@BryanD thanks for sharing your ideas. Even though I already used this, your practices motivated some new ideas about how I can feed given similar professionals and family constraints

 

[DBR_Reef]

I would definitely love something that somehow let you auto feed frozen foods. These though, isnt really what I would want. I would call this more of a slow or extended feeder rather than an automatic feeder. I want something I can stock maybe once a week and it feeds frozen... unfortunately that would basically require a dippin dots vending machine so how built into my canopy. haha.


I do love the labels on the sump though. I had a good laugh. Just need to add a label out side of the sump on the floor that reads "She's going to kill me"

Easy frozen food feeder- https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/automatic-frozen-refrigerated-food-dispenser.335151/

 

[Jeremy Chatham]

I believe ill just build one that does what everyone wants it to do.
Yep ill return with my design.

 

[AmaleeC]

So I’ve been considering the Reefsicle and silently stalking this thread. I want to start a 75 gallon that supports some Chromis and I’m sure feeding them a few times a day will help keep them from killing eachother off. Would this work for something like that?

 

[Steve Fast]

@AmaleeC should work well.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I picked up one of these a while back. I haven't used it yet, but I do like the concept a lot