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Simple and Cheap DIY Feeder


Terryz_
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Found this from azoox.org, Edited it a bit and post it up for the benefit of reefer who wish to explore the "dark side".

You will require the following:-

Small air pump

Timer(Preferred Digital)

DIY Pressurized container

Rigid Air tube and Air tubes

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How it works?

Air is being pumped into the container which stirs up the food and it increases the pressure in the container.

With the pressure increase, it pushes the water with the food out the long tube that lead to the tank.

When the air pump stop, the food return back into the container due to gravity.

The control valve is to regulates the amount of pressure in the container that will affect the speed of the food being pumped out.

Any Timer can but used but the more precise the timer, the more accurate the dispensing quantity.

Note: Do not place the outlet in water, to prevent backflow.

Edited by Terryz_

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Any question, I will try my best to answer.

Theoretically, it works but I have not tried but it is tested out by fellow reefers from overseas..

what happens if it get choked, and over pressure. POM! exploded.. Whole house covered NPS food.. :chair:

Then i will :rip:

Anyway my nano tank should be enough nutrient for the sea fan if i plan to keep 1. Cos i have no skimmer... :P

Lots of food... flowing every day.. feeding for aussie acans, duncans, suncans.. oophs.. i mean sun coral.

Plan to get 1 with 2 inch height.. or frag it .. if dun have.. -_-

Tank Theme: Mixed Reef with clams

3 feet tank with IOS

Eheim 1262

K3 wavemaker x1

Lightings: T5 actinic blue x4 , T5 white x4

Skimmer: BMQQ

Artica 1/5

Dosing: NA

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reefing is sharing. People with rotten mouth is sure a loser for life as expected. When a tomato gets rotten, you can nvr save it.. Throw it away before it infect the good ones.

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what happens if it get choked, and over pressure. POM! exploded.. Whole house covered NPS food.. :chair:

Then i will :rip:

Anyway my nano tank should be enough nutrient for the sea fan if i plan to keep 1. Cos i have no skimmer... :P

Lots of food... flowing every day.. feeding for aussie acans, duncans, suncans.. oophs.. i mean sun coral.

Plan to get 1 with 2 inch height.. or frag it .. if dun have.. -_-

I mean planning to get 1 sea fan with 2 inch, iam target feeding all my corals using a dropper with a straw extension.

Tank Theme: Mixed Reef with clams

3 feet tank with IOS

Eheim 1262

K3 wavemaker x1

Lightings: T5 actinic blue x4 , T5 white x4

Skimmer: BMQQ

Artica 1/5

Dosing: NA

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reefing is sharing. People with rotten mouth is sure a loser for life as expected. When a tomato gets rotten, you can nvr save it.. Throw it away before it infect the good ones.

Member of:

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what happens if it get choked, and over pressure. POM! exploded.. Whole house covered NPS food.. :chair:

Then i will :rip:

Anyway my nano tank should be enough nutrient for the sea fan if i plan to keep 1. Cos i have no skimmer... :P

Lots of food... flowing every day.. feeding for aussie acans, duncans, suncans.. oophs.. i mean sun coral.

Plan to get 1 with 2 inch height.. or frag it .. if dun have.. -_-

It will not get choked... When you look at the consistency of the food mix, it is not thick at all so it will not have choking problem...

Another thing is that the control valve is there to make sure the air escapes, so if you are afraid that the air tube will choke or clog and the pressure building up, you can adjust the control valve so that under a certain pressure, the air will escape slowly from there and not cause your container to explode..

I know you are feeding everyday, you can try but they require feeding every hour or so...

Edited by Terryz_

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Yup. That is the problem, but this feeder is on day to day basis replacement of the food, the food will not go bad that fast if you are talking about dried food.. also this feeder have almost 0 heat emission unlike other feeder with a circulation pump which will add up to the heat generated. I omitted the wine bottle chiller as that would be another cost if you want the feeder to be a long term one..

As for amount of food it hold, it depends on the reefer how long he want the feeder to continue feeding and the concentration of the food being supplied..

Typically a electronic timer would do the job, down to the minute setting is enough. It will take some trial and error the first time round to estimate the amount of food being pumped through the container..

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

Edited by Terryz_

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I remember during my school days, teacher said air can be compressed more than liquid. Probably did some experiment to prove that too. So if the container is big enough, we me see a reduced dozing amount over time as volume of air in container increases compared to liquid. Pls. tell me if I'm wrong.

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i agree over time as the air to water ratio is slowly changing, more air would be needed to push the same amount of liquid as before. but then again like what terry said "this feeder is on day to day basis replacement of the food" so it wouldn't impact feeding that much as opposed to dosing.

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When the air pump turns off, will liquid flow via air tube into pump?

To avoid the above, can the air tube be routed to the top of the container?

5620324035_2f0e262219.jpg

By right, it would back flow a bit but not to the extend of reaching the air pump as there is still air in the air tube....

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I remember during my school days, teacher said air can be compressed more than liquid. Probably did some experiment to prove that too. So if the container is big enough, we me see a reduced dozing amount over time as volume of air in container increases compared to liquid. Pls. tell me if I'm wrong.

Actually I think at the end of the day, it would be a problem with this... So I would suggest a smaller container so that the reduction will not be so obvious as it would take jut a little of the air to push the food..

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Why not use a U tube and an airpump? Using the same principles as an under gravel filters/external airpowered betta box.

There won't be a risk of the container exploding then. In any case I don't think the container will explode.. from my experience air pump stops having an output after a certain depth, meaning once a certain pressure is reached air stops coming out.

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Why not use a U tube and an airpump? Using the same principles as an under gravel filters/external airpowered betta box.

There won't be a risk of the container exploding then. In any case I don't think the container will explode.. from my experience air pump stops having an output after a certain depth, meaning once a certain pressure is reached air stops coming out.

Wun the output be high?

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