Help on autofeeder

[dadat1968]

I will be out of town for 5 days and will be using my automatic feeder for the first time. My question is, do i have to set my pumps off at the time of the feeding? or, i can just leave my pumps on?. I have a strong return pump about 300+gph i beleive and a wp25 running 50% on a 20 gallon high sump with 10 gallon sump.

Just worried if i leave my pumps running food will just go to overflow.

 

[46nBliss]

I think it depends on the food your putting in it. I use pellets in my auto feeder and most of them sink so pumps stay on.
If you use flakes that stay floating on the surface it might get sucked out to fast. You should do a test before you go.

 

[dadat1968]

I will be using pellets this time .. Its just by looking at them, they dont sink right away.

 

[NYCEnglish]

I use pellets and schedule feedings 3x per day. I use a combo of small and medium pellets (due to different fish requirements) and have never had any issues throughout many trips away. I leave all pumps on.

 

[Affordable Aquatic]

Why dont you just test-run it and see if the food is blown away before the fish get to eat it. Maybe careful placement would eliminate any potential issues.

 

[dadat1968]

I did a test run.. And the pellets takes time to sink. The problem here is if i set my wp25 pump to turn off like 30min after turning on again it will run to 100% again. Its like the pump resets when turned off a long time and i only run 50%

 

[edd]

just turn the return pump off. the wp will blow food around the tank.

 

[dadat1968]

Just placed pre filter sponge on my drain so no food will go to waste

 

[edd]

i dont think fish will pick the food out of the sponge. it will still go to waste or rot in sponge.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

if the pellets are floating, you can place a floating ring underneath the drop zone. Cut it out of a sheet of styrofoam or get some floating plastic tupperware, flip it upside down, cut the drop zone in the middle and use magnets to hold it against the glass. Get the Idea? How else are we going to go on vacations for longer then 3 or 4 days without these tricks.

 

[dadat1968]

Thanks for all the responses decided to put a timer on the pump and leave wp25 running while autofeeder operates. Thanks edd