Eheim or Rena

Automatic fish feeder
http://canreef.com/vbulletin/showthr...tomatic+feeder

I use an Eheim dual compartment feeder. It's in daily use so not much change to the critters' routine when I'm not around, except the evening treat of frozen stuff which I thaw and feed manually.

It's a bit of a beast but works well and even retains settings after changing batteries. I think the only thing I need to do is set the clock after a battery change. I MacGyvered a mounting rig out of scrap acrylic for it that includes a section which extends below the waterline. That's my 'feeding ring' solution. Pics follow:

http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/.../P1010782c.JPG

http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/.../P1010781c.JPG

The big drawback with this feeder is that it doesn't allow you to program specific times for feeding. I was hoping that there would be a way to connect this to my Apex controller, as that would solve the programming challange. Can you elaborate on how this works? - Is it as simple as programming the outlet for an on/off/on/off at every feed cycle? - Does the Rena automatically initiate a feed cycle when the power is cycled?

Thanks!!

Brad

what i do is on/off the feeder every minute. The rena can initiate a feed cycle depend on where the drum is. This is how do program mine

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 12:01 to 12:02 Then ON
If Time 12:02 to 12:03 Then OFF
If Time 12:03 to 12:04 Then ON
If Time 12:05 to 12:06 Then OFF

This allow me the feeder to rotate twice. The cool thing about this is when I travel, i have camera and i can see and feed all my fishes if i want to.

try on/off the feeder and you will see what it is doing

Hi Coleus

I setup my Rena autofeeder tonight, and the program above does indeed activate a feed cycle.

One feature which the Rena has is a warmer to prevent any moisture in the drum. Presumably, this warmer can only opperate when the unit is power. I modified the program such that the unit is always on and the feed cycle is initiated by an off/on/off/on.

The problem with this seems to be the default setting of 1 automatic feed cycle every 12 hours. To get around this, I taped up the day/night optical sensor and set the unit so that it doesn't feed at night. With the unit set this way and the sensor taped, it should never initiate an automatic feed cycle.

My question is whether you have any concerns with this approach (assuming I don't want any unplanned feeding events)? I wonder why you choose to keep the unit powered off except at feed time?

One somewhat obvious problem that I see is that tape isn't exactly a long term reliable solution. Another approach might be to use a suitable paint to cover the sensor? Another problem might be that the feed at night button might acidentally get pressed, but if you spot check it regularily, this shouldn't be a problem.

Just curious what your thoughts were.

Thanks

Brad

Mike - Your mounting solution is awesome!

Just curious - Do you get a build up of scum in the 'feeding ring' area? - I find that with feeding rings there is no surface skimming so the scum builds up quickly.

Yes, the portion of the acrylic in the water does indeed get quite grungy and needs to be cleaned periodically. Toothbrush takes care of it no problem. I went through a few iterations, trial & error until I ended up with this design. Note the little ramp I had to add to get more tilt on the feeder. Without the ramp, some of the food was not making it to the water and creating a mess on the tank rim. It's a bit fragile too, not something you want to drop on the floor. I had to rebuild the side flanges once or twice when I dropped it.

Just want to update how i do mine now. I found a better way of doing this for couple reason.

When we use the If time statement, it does not count second so if you have if time 20:00 to 21:00 then ON, if is actually on for 2 minutes. And i also turn my power head off during feeding so poor fish waiting for like 4 minutes before the food actually got dropped. Thus my power head does not run for 8 minutes per feeding. 4 feeding per days so that 32 minutes per day.

So here is my new program, by using OSC i can do per 15 second on and off

[Feeder]
Fallback OFF

OSC 000:00/00:15/00:15 Then ON // this will give enough ON-OFF-ON-OFF in 1 minute

If Time 20:02 to 13:00 Then OFF // my first feeding start at 1 and end at 8
If Time 13:02 to 15:00 Then OFF
If Time 15:02 to 18:00 Then OFF
If Time 18:02 to 20:00 Then OFF

[PowerHead]
Fallback ON
If Time 20:00 to 20:02 Then OFF
If Time 13:00 to 13:02 Then OFF
If Time 15:00 to 15:02 Then OFF
If Time 18:00 to 18:02 Then OFF

So I only lost 3 minutes per feeding instead of 8 like before which reduce 32 minutes of no water flow movement to 12 minutes. The best out of this is all my fished now don't hang on top that long and fight each other while waiting for food to drop

I also had any problem with moisture in the drum because the feeder is under my light and it get very hot when my MH is on so on moisture got evaporate