automate liquid foods- like arctipods? how?

oregonanenome · 01/13/2007, 11:14 PM

What type of equipment is suggested for automating liquid foods that need to be refrigerated?

Aqualifter pumps? eheim dosers? aquamedic dosers?

I know I can't target feed animals but would like to know if this is possible to feed a tank I will oly be able to maintain every 4 days in the summer.

oregonanenome · 01/14/2007, 11:16 AM

bump

ReeferAl · 01/14/2007, 12:04 PM

I have given some thought to this problem in the past as I've thought about doing that.
You'd need to have the reservoir in a regrigerator with tubing coming out to the tank. I believe a paristaltic pump would be your best bet to dose. The main problem IMO is that you would need to keep the food stirred or it would tend to settle (or float if lighter) and it then wouldn't be dosed evenly. A magnetic stirrer in the fridge could work. It wouldn't add alot of heat if it ran only intermittently. An airstone would likely warm the refrigerator too much with all that warm air, unless the pump was in the fridge and recirculated cold air. You'd also need to keep the tubing outside of the fridge as short as possible.

Having said all that, if you were able to feed once or twice per week with frozen, you could easily get by with a standard automatic dry food feeder the other days through the summer.

Allen

oregonanenome · 01/14/2007, 04:24 PM

Thanks. I didn't think about the magnetic stirrer. I have a small dorm fridge to help with this process. Don't have a stirrer.

The only other thing I could think of to solve this problem is to have a separate tank filled with mysis or possibly copepods and dosing live organisms for food with a small pump. But as you probably know live mysis are expensive. I might look into a cheaper nutirtious option to try to cultivate. (rotifers?) Brine shrimp will definitely not work since their breeding is a daily upkeep venture.

01/13/2007, 11:14 PM	#1
oregonanenome Premium Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Eugene, OR Posts: 87	automate liquid foods- like arctipods? how? What type of equipment is suggested for automating liquid foods that need to be refrigerated? Aqualifter pumps? eheim dosers? aquamedic dosers? I know I can't target feed animals but would like to know if this is possible to feed a tank I will oly be able to maintain every 4 days in the summer.

01/14/2007, 11:16 AM	#2
oregonanenome Premium Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Eugene, OR Posts: 87	bump

01/14/2007, 12:04 PM	#3
ReeferAl Premium Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Fond du Lac, WI Posts: 2,040	I have given some thought to this problem in the past as I've thought about doing that. You'd need to have the reservoir in a regrigerator with tubing coming out to the tank. I believe a paristaltic pump would be your best bet to dose. The main problem IMO is that you would need to keep the food stirred or it would tend to settle (or float if lighter) and it then wouldn't be dosed evenly. A magnetic stirrer in the fridge could work. It wouldn't add alot of heat if it ran only intermittently. An airstone would likely warm the refrigerator too much with all that warm air, unless the pump was in the fridge and recirculated cold air. You'd also need to keep the tubing outside of the fridge as short as possible. Having said all that, if you were able to feed once or twice per week with frozen, you could easily get by with a standard automatic dry food feeder the other days through the summer. Allen

01/14/2007, 04:24 PM	#4
oregonanenome Premium Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Eugene, OR Posts: 87	Thanks. I didn't think about the magnetic stirrer. I have a small dorm fridge to help with this process. Don't have a stirrer. The only other thing I could think of to solve this problem is to have a separate tank filled with mysis or possibly copepods and dosing live organisms for food with a small pump. But as you probably know live mysis are expensive. I might look into a cheaper nutirtious option to try to cultivate. (rotifers?) Brine shrimp will definitely not work since their breeding is a daily upkeep venture.