Auto feeder

[stuabdn]

Hi folks,

Have been thinking about getting an auto feeder, but have been hearing diffrent things about them, some people say there ok and others say there a waste of time as they end up not working right and become usless.

Could anyone give me any info on ones they have, pros and cons, as i dont know much about them. i have heard the ehiem one is good ?

Thanks

Stuart

Ps, Hi everyone i am new to your board. looking forward to speaking to you all and picking your brains for more info if you dont mind

 

[cdeakle]

Welcome to reefs.org bro!!!!! Glad your here....


I have not personally used an autofeeder but I have heard a few people on here get pissed off because they didn't work properly and in one case I think it actually dumped too much food in the tank? 8O

Just like with most things in our hobby if you don't follow the directions to a "T" or keep the equipment well maintained then you will have problems. For instance, people always bad mouth the CPR overflow boxes and how they overflow, break the siphon, fail etc.. I have never had a problem with mine in 3 years but I also keep that sucker cleaned and ready for inspection :wink:

I'm sure someone on here has had experience with these and will post for you.

 

[stuabdn]

Thanks for the welcome.

Yeah i know what you mean, my LFS bud was telling me he had heard a few people saying they were good then others saying they were rubbish. have put the same post on UR board and few has replyed saying the ehiem is good and never lett them down. think i might go with that.

Stuart.

 

[Baianotang]

I dont recomend them they are a waist or time in marine tanks (from my freshwater days).

 

[shellshocked]

I have an autofeeder but I only use it for vacations. I use pellet food in it to get "consistent feed rates" and it seems to do the job. I sit it on top of the canopy and cut up a tennis ball tube to act as a tube to direct the food into the water. Personally having used one - I would not trust it on a permanent basis. The amount of food while somewhat adjustable is inconsistent.

 

[LFS42]

I use the penplax auto feeder
(battery type)
and love it. I don't need to worry about
if I leave for a weekend, or stay at work all day.

My fish get fed twice a day with pellets

it has never miss-fed (if that's a word)
in over 1-1/2 years

 

[danmhippo]

I've used penplax one too before, only when I am away for long period of time and expect no one available to feed the fish. I clean it up everytime after use and has not yet have any problems.

Usually the tank disaster that occured is not due to over or under feeding, but it's other things that went wrong........

 

[pcragg]

How well do these handle flake food?

 

[LFS42]

Unsure how it handles flake,
I've never used it with flakes

The only downsidesare
mine makes alot of noise when it's spinning
you can't set the times it feeds (every 12 hours)
the braket to attach it to the tank is a little small
for 72 bowfront molding

 

[danmhippo]

I use it with flakes. One problem is flake will tend to clump due to moisture absorption. Thus don't use this device as a long term solution. Vacation of less than a week is fine, but any longer, it's the flake that would deteriorate.

 

[Anonymous]

I think an auto feeder is a great idea if you can't be around to feed when you want. I had one because I wanted my anthias to have frequent small meals. It worked great until I was trying to adjust the settings and I dropped it in the tank! Then it broke The kind I had used a tumbler and you adjusted the opening so when it spinned a certain amount of food fell out of the opening. It worked great with flake.