Frozen food Auto feeder...

[EnderG60]

So due to my lazyness and my love of automating/building stuff. I was thinking about making an auto feeder for frozen food.

I currently use a ehiem feeder to feed pellets twice a day, and feed a mix of a bunch of frozen stuff one a day.

I was thinking about using a mini fridge with a 2.5 or 5g bucket in it, along with a peristaltic pump and a timer(my AC3).

I cant think of any reason why this wouldnt work...what are your thoughts?

[coralnut99]

In picturing this, I see tubing running from the fridge to the tank. At some point that tubing will be exposed to room temp. Depending on the time between feedings I think you'll have decaying food in that run of tubing. The container of thawed food in the fridge would also either need a funneled bottom drain, or something to keep the food suspended. That's about all I can see working against it.

[brycerb]

Maybe it could dispence frozen ice cubes of food/ro water mix into the tank. Kind of like those ice cube dispencers for a glass of water except above the tank. If this idea works and you make millions, I want half. I am not joking. Really. A small cash advance will do. For now.

[driftin]

I don't know if it would work well for frozen foods but people have done similar setups for refrigerated foods, eg Rotifeast or Arctipods. Instead of using the peri pump to dose all the way to your tank, run a small "closed loop" through the fridge and pump into that. It could be a branch off a return pump, etc.

[garydan]

I was thinking about this a while back too. What i was envisioning was a square track with the cubes lined up in it. That track would be placed in a rectangular box with peltier coolers and some heat sinks on the outside to dissappate the heat and keep them frozen. Basically making a small DIY freezer to keep it cold. Use a car lock servo or something like that to knock the cubes out through a spring loaded door. Gravity or a spring would feed the next cube into place when the previous was knocked out. Once launched out the cube would land on a mesh plate or funnel or something like that suspended above the tank. You could pump tank water over it to melt the food and flush it into the tank.

Think of it like the ball shooter guns you probably had as a kid, each of the balls is a cube of food, an electrically controlled trigger to hit the cubes. Put it in a little DIY freezer.

In terms of control, the cooler would always be on, the small water pump could be left on since it just adds a little extra flow to the tank. The only thing you would need to control is the 12v trigger to shoot the food out.

The hard part is keeping the whole thing cold enough to keep the cubes from thawing even a little and sticking together, causing it to jamb. Maybe put it in a real freezer above the tank, cut a small hole in the bottom and run a track down into the tank if the peltier cooler doesn't cut it.

[stugray]

If I wanted to build one, here is what I would do:

1 - cheap dorm fridge for the freezer & cold sections, has to sit above the tank that is to be fed.

2 - Snow-cone making machine ( the kind you turn the crank & ice comes out the bottom ) run by timer/controller with a motor.

3 - Peristaltic pump ( as mentioned above ).


You would load a frozen block of food into the snowcone machine that sits in the freezer section. When timer #1 turns ON, it "grinds" X-amount of food that drops into a hopper (food receiver). Timer #1 turns off.

Timer #2 then turns on the peristaltic pump that pumps tank water up to the food receiver and it melts & drains to the tank thru a large diameter pipe (1/2").

Put a water level limit switch in the receiver and make it so the cycle cant run if the limit switch is tripped ( this would indicate a clogged outflow )

This keeps the frozen food in the frozen section and the "grinded" food still in refrigerated section so no food spoils.

Stu

[Lanimret]

How about something like:

http://www.air-n-water.com/product/AI-300S.html

Countertop ice cube dispenser. Just load it up with cubed food

[EnderG60]

I definitely dont want to do anything involving frozen cubes being put in the tank. Seems like too much work to get it working right with the preping of the cubes, transport of the cube, defrost and delivery.

As for the exposed part of tubing, I would be less then one feedings worth since the mini fridge would be about 1' from the section of closed loop pipe I would be injecting it into. Plus I dont see much worry about decay since it wouldnt be exposed for more then 12 hours at most.

As far as keeping the food mixed, I hadnt thought of that. I suppose a small power head would work, but having it draw from the bottom of the bucket wouldnt be to hard either.....

[dogstar74]

Originally Posted by garydan

I was thinking about this a while back too. What i was envisioning was a square track with the cubes lined up in it. That track would be placed in a rectangular box with peltier coolers and some heat sinks on the outside to dissappate the heat and keep them frozen. Basically making a small DIY freezer to keep it cold. Use a car lock servo or something like that to knock the cubes out through a spring loaded door. Gravity or a spring would feed the next cube into place when the previous was knocked out. Once launched out the cube would land on a mesh plate or funnel or something like that suspended above the tank. You could pump tank water over it to melt the food and flush it into the tank.

Think of it like the ball shooter guns you probably had as a kid, each of the balls is a cube of food, an electrically controlled trigger to hit the cubes. Put it in a little DIY freezer.

In terms of control, the cooler would always be on, the small water pump could be left on since it just adds a little extra flow to the tank. The only thing you would need to control is the 12v trigger to shoot the food out.

The hard part is keeping the whole thing cold enough to keep the cubes from thawing even a little and sticking together, causing it to jamb. Maybe put it in a real freezer above the tank, cut a small hole in the bottom and run a track down into the tank if the peltier cooler doesn't cut it.

You know that they say, energy in the universe refuses to be contained. I believe we both had the exact same Idea. Geeze that's scary. I've thought a lot about this very idea. Peltier devices and spring loaded ejector etc. Man that's freaky!

[screwtape]

Something similar was discussed on the NPS forum, Steve Weast has a pretty slick system for something like this. Hope it helps.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...773991&page=29

[EnderG60]

wow thats pretty good.

The only thing that worries me is he said that at 38F cyvlopeeze was still spoiling, and that is part of my frozen food mix.

[driftin]

Post 710 in that thread shows what I was describing - running a water line through your fridge so the food always stays refrigerated, essentially right until it is dispensed into the tank. Personally, I wouldn't want frozen or refrigerated food to sit at room temperature for 12 hours.

[EnderG60]

yeah thats a nice idea

[dogstar74]

a collaboration of ideas has resulted in a genius device that may very well change the way we feed fish in this hobby!

Imagine using silicone 1/2 inch hemisphere molds to make frozen fish food balls. Any choice of food recipe would do. Then once you take them out of the mold, you could wet the flat sides and form them into 1/2 inch diameter balls of frozen food.

Once you made the frozen balls, then you could place one ball for every feeding that you want. 1 for once a day, and two for twice a day, into this contraption.



The grey is the PVC piping
Light blue is a trigger wheel that rotates either on a controller, or timer, you choose.
The red is the plunger
The green is a spring (I can't draw springs in Sketchup)
The yellow is just to keep the spring in place.
The pink is a powerhead ran hose from the sump that will flush the food into the display tank. The Powerhead could be run on the same controller as the trigger wheel.

This whole device would pass through the sidewall of a small 1.6cuft Freezer like this.



Here's a good example.



You can load as many balls as you want for feedings. And control the hopper any way you want. I even think you could use a painball hopper if you would like.

The spherical shape keeps the balls from sticking to each other long term.

What do you think!? I bet this would work awesomely!

Aaron

[dogstar74]

Gentle nudge to the top so it doesn't get lost.

[dogstar74]

I guess I should have.

[capecoral]

I like it! I want big corals, which apparently need lots of feeding, and fish poop too :O

[mscarpena]

Originally Posted by EnderG60

As for the exposed part of tubing, I would be less then one feedings worth since the mini fridge would be about 1' from the section of closed loop pipe I would be injecting it into. Plus I dont see much worry about decay since it wouldnt be exposed for more then 12 hours at most.

As far as keeping the food mixed, I hadnt thought of that. I suppose a small power head would work, but having it draw from the bottom of the bucket wouldnt be to hard either.....

While mixing the food with a power head you are going to chop or grind it up. You will be putting a lot of small piece of food in your tank and that spells extra nutrients, decaying food in the tank, and a nitrate problem to me.

Also the food that will be exposed to room temp for 12 hours you will loose a lot of nutrients and grow a lot and I mean a lot of bacteria. Some bacteria maybe good, but a lot of it will be bad. You can also grow pathogens and pathogens can kill humans a fish a like. I am not saying you will kill yourself by leaving fish food out for 12 hours, but you could kill your fish. A bacteria cell will double every 10-15 minutes at that temperature. Also some bacteria product harmful byproduct of their metabolism. I would not recommend leaving your food exposed to room temp for very long at all. Also a lot of bacteria can be harbored in plastic slits or cracks.

[widmer]

Originally Posted by screwtape

Something similar was discussed on the NPS forum, Steve Weast has a pretty slick system for something like this. Hope it helps.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...773991&page=29

Hey if I really wanted to make an autofeeding device, I would totally make a miniature version of the one in that thread, except with one of those micro peltier-driven fridges that are like $40 at target and are made to hold a six pack. You could simply have a thawed bunch of the frozen cubes in a container, and a small peristaltic pump. My LFS says that the thawed cubes last a week in the fridge...

[driftin]

^^ That's what I was going to do too. Can just fit a BRS doser pump in with a bottle of food. But, those peltier fridges don't get good reviews for performance or longevity.

[screwtape]

Originally Posted by dogstar74

a collaboration of ideas has resulted in a genius device that may very well change the way we feed fish in this hobby!

Imagine using silicone 1/2 inch hemisphere molds to make frozen fish food balls. Any choice of food recipe would do. Then once you take them out of the mold, you could wet the flat sides and form them into 1/2 inch diameter balls of frozen food.

Once you made the frozen balls, then you could place one ball for every feeding that you want. 1 for once a day, and two for twice a day, into this contraption.

You can load as many balls as you want for feedings. And control the hopper any way you want. I even think you could use a painball hopper if you would like.

The spherical shape keeps the balls from sticking to each other long term.

What do you think!? I bet this would work awesomely!

Aaron

I would be concerned about the food balls getting stuck together in the "hopper" and jamming up. Also if I understand properly the chute the balls slide down will not have water flow so it may get dirty or have a slow buildup of junk, salt creep, maybe even ice depending how cold it gets, that's the benefit of Weast's design is that it always has flow through it so it's self-cleaning to some extent. I'm not a huge DIY'er so I could be wrong or misunderstand something, just some thoughts I had looking at that diagram.

[rsman]

I dont know those pelter fridges at all!!

however I have had a pelter device running for about 13 years non stop now, I suspect (again dont know) that any longevity issues could be fixed by someone with the DIY skill/desire to build such an autofeeder :P

[dogstar74]

Originally Posted by screwtape

I would be concerned about the food balls getting stuck together in the "hopper" and jamming up. Also if I understand properly the chute the balls slide down will not have water flow so it may get dirty or have a slow buildup of junk, salt creep, maybe even ice depending how cold it gets, that's the benefit of Weast's design is that it always has flow through it so it's self-cleaning to some extent. I'm not a huge DIY'er so I could be wrong or misunderstand something, just some thoughts I had looking at that diagram.

I'm green with envy about Steve's set up. I just think these are two different animals. Steve's is feeding liquid food, This would be for feeding frozen food. Neither system would be free of maintainance. But if you are accustomed to feeding frozen food, then this could buy you a couple of days on the road without resorting to that well wishing neighbor. It would most likely need to be cleaned once a week to keep it running correctly.

Thanks for the comments.
Aaron

[EnderG60]

I dont want to do anything involving frozen cubes. I would want to use tawed frozen food, like a soup of foods.

The only problem Im seeing now do doing a system like Uhuru's got on his NFS tank is that Ive heard frozen food will only keep for a week or two thawed in the fridge. I would want at least a months worth to make this worth while....

Can anyone confirm?

[capecoral]

Hey maybe my feeding thread will help ?

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1843241