I need an auto feeder that works for me and the eheim I'm testing the food goes striaght into the overflow. Anyone have suggestions about this?
Thanks
Thanks
Auto Feeders - food straight to over flow?
- Thread starter camellia
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I don't know if you have an aquarium controller, like an Apex or and Reefkeeper Elite or Reefkeeper Lite, but they have what is called Standby mode or aka Feed Mode, which you program into the controller itself. You press a button and the controller turns off your return pump. Without the return pump pushing water back into the tank from the sump, the water level drops tot the level of the intake, and the food stays in the water and doesn't go into the overflow.
You program how long you want the pump to be off. I have my 465 gallon return pump go off for 10 minutes, then it restarts and resumes normal operation. Feed the fish, not the sump.
The above works with manual feeding. The Eheim you are using would not work with it, so unless you can feed a sinking pellet, you may be out of luck. Flakes, forget it. Apex just recently introduces a programmable auto feeder, so you can probably use feed Mode in association with that.
You program how long you want the pump to be off. I have my 465 gallon return pump go off for 10 minutes, then it restarts and resumes normal operation. Feed the fish, not the sump.
The above works with manual feeding. The Eheim you are using would not work with it, so unless you can feed a sinking pellet, you may be out of luck. Flakes, forget it. Apex just recently introduces a programmable auto feeder, so you can probably use feed Mode in association with that.
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also you can attach a small section of pvc to your tank just below the feeder where the pvc is halfway in the water. that way when the food falls in to the tank the flow of the surface water wont carry the food into the overflow allowing flakes some time to sink so your fish get it and not your sump.
I use the method Acro described with my Ehiem feeder and my apex. They don't talk to each other, but all you have to do is make sure the clocks are in synch. The apex turns my return pump off at 8:28 and back on at 8:40. My Ehiem is programmed to feed at 8:30. Poor man's AFS.
As long as both internal clocks are somewhat sync'd it works great. Obviously you could make the durations and occurrences what you want.
As long as both internal clocks are somewhat sync'd it works great. Obviously you could make the durations and occurrences what you want.
Use sinking pellets as the food. Otherwise, your return pump needs to shut off at feed time.
Recently I have been feeding food directly to my return section of my sump. The return pump pulls the food from the section and randomly throws it to my display. That way the fish never know where the food will come from and keeps them active. I use a mixture of freeze-dried cyclopeeze(sp?) and NLS pellets.
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Not a bad idea. ive been have similar concerns with adding an auto feeder to my tank at work, and I think this might be my plan of action.
If you really want to get crazy, you can actually plumb in a "feeding tube" into your return line. Basically, a tee off the return line followed by a ball valve, a couple inches of pipe then another ball valve. Concept is that you have the ball valve closest to the tee closed, open the outer ball valve, put the food in, close the outer ball valve and then open the inner ball valve. It gets sucked right into the return line and out into the tank. If the food is frozen, then just leave it in the feeding "chamber" for a couple minutes before opening the inner ball valve. Kind of like the airline toilet. Just tell the fish sitter that you can NEVER have both valves open at the same time!
I had that setup years ago when I had a supper tall FW built-in tank. I could barely reach the top opening, but everybody else had to use a step stool to feed when I was out of town. If I wanted them fed consistently - I had to go this route.
WOW a bunch of great ideas!
Dave I do have an Apex but never set it up after the move. Plans were to upgrade but with many bumps in the road it hasn't happened. My parents are needing 24/7 assistance right now or none of this would be an issue.
Thanks so much guys!
Dave I do have an Apex but never set it up after the move. Plans were to upgrade but with many bumps in the road it hasn't happened. My parents are needing 24/7 assistance right now or none of this would be an issue.
Thanks so much guys!
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