Fridge feeder discussion.

[Enderg60]

INTRO:
Im in the testing phase of a fridge feeder. There are not may threads on them and not much info around them aside from a few very custom units. So I figured Id start a thread and try and funnel some knowledge in here so please share anything about your setup.

THE FRIDGE:
Literally anything that can hold a 6-pack of cans and keep the temp near freezing will work. Size is dependent on your needs. The only thing to look out for is where to drill your holes for the tubing and stirrer power (optional) to insure you dont hit anything critical. I went with a 3 cubic foot unit with a freezer on top. Lots of room to play with and all the important stuff is on the back of the unit so you can drill the sides anywhere.

Mini-Frige and Freezer

STIR PLATE (Optional but recommended):

I started off with the on I see most often in builds and on amazon.

Basic Stir Plate

Honestly this stir plate sucks. It can not be turned down low enough to be useful. While using a full 500ml beaker it will create a vortex at the lowest setting before it simply stalls. So it will keep things mixed but it will be really noisy, and only get louder as the level goes down.

Since I was planning to feed 4 systems out of my unit I got this 4X stir plate.

4x Stir Plate

The Controls are much nicer and you can utilize much lower speeds which works a lot better. Im really liking this LABFISH brand. My only complaint is the unit will not startup on powerup. You have to hit the start button. I was planning to only have it turn on before feedings but leaving it on isnt a big deal.

DOSING PUMP:

It appears most any dosing pump will work (depending on the food size) I am currently using a DOS since its plug and play with my apex and easily programmed. Tubing size is 1/4" OD and 1/8" ID. If you plan to feed larger foods a pump with larger tubing will be required (more on this later)

What are you guys using? Im trying to stay away from doing a full DIY with a rasberry pi type thing.

FEEDING THE TANK:
Here the are a few methods. The best is to run your return pipe through the fridge and just dose into that. It keeps everything in the fridge cold and keeps your dosing lines short. Second best is to run your return next to the fridge.

But what if you cant do that? I dont have space to run the returns for 4 systems over to the fridge. This is why I opted to use the DOS. I can prime the dosing tube with food (depends on the tube length) Then feed the tank, then reverse the pump and put the food back in the fridge. If your feed tube drips into the tank (with an air gap) it will just suck air back into the tube. If you feed directly to the return pipe it will suck tank water back into the tube.

The other option here is to use a secondary dosing pump to flush the feed line with RO water.

FOOD:

Im currently testing the system with calanus (nice and smal) I will try Brine, mysis and blood worms next to make sure they fit the tubing and wont clog. What foods are you guys using without issue on smaller tubing?

My main goal is to make my own food, but Im a little worried about how to keep the size down so the tubing wont clog. Any advice on how to do that?

Any other info you have please share!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Good luck.

 

[CasperOe]

Very interesting indeed! Can't wait to see some pictures of this setup..

I do set up dosing for when I am away on holidays using USB can coolers- I am looking for something a bit more permanent though.

This offers good inspiration

 

[leen.tu]

This is awesome
Im looking into doing this for the second time

The first time the fridge started leaking and i had to unplug it

If there is any tips or suggestions
What doser did you end up using

 

[Enderg60]

Lets get this thread moving.

I got the fridge and did some test fitting to see what the was possible, and this thing is decently roomy.

I drilled the sides for power to the stir plate and for the feed lines and connected the DOS pumps.

Did some testing to see how much water the tubes hold so I can tune the prime cycles. This amount will get pumped into the tube prior to feeding and then get suck back into the fridge after feeding.

And to start things off, some small foods.

I ran into a problem most people wont have. I tapped the display feed line into the return pipe. Which goes up a floor and is under some pressure. This caused some extra water to get pushed past the pump when it was revers priming the pump. So I upgraded the DOS from two rollers to four rollers.

It mostly solved the problem, but I had to trial and error test the code to get the right volumes for that one.

Next up I tried larger and larger foods. Brine, Mysis, fish eggs and blood worms. And the clogs started. So first restriction is the DOS couplings, so lets replace those.

Stock DOS head, but with 4 roller.

DOS coupling vs the 1/4" barb to JG fitting.

It fits with some effort.

I had to trim a bit off the stock tube but it works.

Niiiiiice.

Next in line, the valves.

Everything is up and running right now with mysis, brine and blood worms.

Ill be letting things run and testing new foods for another week or two and then I will get some more DOS units to feed the other tanks.

Now I just hope this can stand up to DIY foods.

 

[twentyleagues]

I tried this years ago and I guess you can say it was a failure. I didnt have the right equipment and didn't know what that equipment was tbh. I did do a couple things that fixed some issues such as food in the line I ran my top off with a "y" into the feed line just inside the fridge. That kept the food line free of food at least. I didnt really know about stir plates so I used an air pump not great but adequate. Can't remember the doser I used but it pretty much was one of the weakest links in my design. Needed something stronger and just over all better. I used A pretty good mix of things in the food oyster eggs, mysis (I always rough chop mine smaller fish usually) enriched brine, A little ocean nutrition phyto, there was a couple other things I put in there from ocean nutrition also but cant remember and some rodi. It worked ok especially on a slow feed type thing until the top off kicked on. It would loose prime a lot and obviously not everything would be mixed well.

 

[e-sully]

I have this setup for a while now. I dose half a large flat pack of Hikari mysis over a week. The photos in this link show the system. Only upgrade now is that I use a 4-quart plastic beaker (https://a.co/d/7DOHQBH) instead of the smaller container. The stir plate comes on 5 minutes before the feeding. I also no longer try to flush the feeding tube. Doesn't seem to make a difference.

Autofeeder for frozen mysis

Nope, I failed getting a copperband through quarantine 2 times, and never tried after. I had to re-read again. I thought you wrote "I failed getting a copperband through it".

www.reef2reef.com

 

[JoJosReef]

INTRO:
Im in the testing phase of a fridge feeder. There are not may threads on them and not much info around them aside from a few very custom units. So I figured Id start a thread and try and funnel some knowledge in here so please share anything about your setup.

THE FRIDGE:
Literally anything that can hold a 6-pack of cans and keep the temp near freezing will work. Size is dependent on your needs. The only thing to look out for is where to drill your holes for the tubing and stirrer power (optional) to insure you dont hit anything critical. I went with a 3 cubic foot unit with a freezer on top. Lots of room to play with and all the important stuff is on the back of the unit so you can drill the sides anywhere.

Mini-Frige and Freezer

STIR PLATE (Optional but recommended):

I started off with the on I see most often in builds and on amazon.

Basic Stir Plate

Honestly this stir plate sucks. It can not be turned down low enough to be useful. While using a full 500ml beaker it will create a vortex at the lowest setting before it simply stalls. So it will keep things mixed but it will be really noisy, and only get louder as the level goes down.

Since I was planning to feed 4 systems out of my unit I got this 4X stir plate.

4x Stir Plate

The Controls are much nicer and you can utilize much lower speeds which works a lot better. Im really liking this LABFISH brand. My only complaint is the unit will not startup on powerup. You have to hit the start button. I was planning to only have it turn on before feedings but leaving it on isnt a big deal.

DOSING PUMP:

It appears most any dosing pump will work (depending on the food size) I am currently using a DOS since its plug and play with my apex and easily programmed. Tubing size is 1/4" OD and 1/8" ID. If you plan to feed larger foods a pump with larger tubing will be required (more on this later)

What are you guys using? Im trying to stay away from doing a full DIY with a rasberry pi type thing.

FEEDING THE TANK:
Here the are a few methods. The best is to run your return pipe through the fridge and just dose into that. It keeps everything in the fridge cold and keeps your dosing lines short. Second best is to run your return next to the fridge.

But what if you cant do that? I dont have space to run the returns for 4 systems over to the fridge. This is why I opted to use the DOS. I can prime the dosing tube with food (depends on the tube length) Then feed the tank, then reverse the pump and put the food back in the fridge. If your feed tube drips into the tank (with an air gap) it will just suck air back into the tube. If you feed directly to the return pipe it will suck tank water back into the tube.

The other option here is to use a secondary dosing pump to flush the feed line with RO water.

FOOD:

Im currently testing the system with calanus (nice and smal) I will try Brine, mysis and blood worms next to make sure they fit the tubing and wont clog. What foods are you guys using without issue on smaller tubing?

My main goal is to make my own food, but Im a little worried about how to keep the size down so the tubing wont clog. Any advice on how to do that?

Any other info you have please share!

I dose ROE, puster feast and phyto feast from mine (explained in my build). It works well. Flish the tubes with a second doser head with RODI. You don't want the tube fouling.