New Avast Marine Auto feeder

[AVAST Marine]

Even though the Plank is pretty much silent to us, the fish can sense the vibration of the motor when it activates, they get trained to this dinner bell pretty quickly. This may be an advantage or disadvantage depending on the animals you have and how you like to observe them. As far as effectiveness, I really don't think there is a difference if you have sufficient flow in the return section of the sump. Based on the number of request we have for longer feeding tubes, I think probably 20% put in sump area and I have only heard positive feedback. I would have 0% concern about the food clogging the pump unless you include pellets in your food mix.

 

[ctenophore]

I think the only potential drawback to using the feeder in the sump would be the increased rate of biofouling in the return plumbing. Anywhere fresh food is available with little to no predation is a wonderful place for opportunistic filter feeders to grow. As long as your return piping can be cleaned out periodically, this isn't too much of an issue.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

I think the only potential drawback to using the feeder in the sump would be the increased rate of biofouling in the return plumbing. Anywhere fresh food is available with little to no predation is a wonderful place for opportunistic filter feeders to grow. As long as your return piping can be cleaned out periodically, this isn't too much of an issue.

I would think this would be vary minimum since there would be zero light in the return lines. However, I've never looking in a return line that has been removed after years of use either. I also imagine it would be dependent on how much flow you had going through the return lines.

I had already planned on placing unions in my return plumbing, but I will now make sure they are in the correct places to allow me to just pull the plumbing out and swap in some pre-made spares. That way I can just swap them out back and forth for cleaning.

 

[PanhandleReef]

A lot of questions/concerns about dealing with screen tops. Is there any compelling reason not to mount the Plank on your sump and dispense food near your return pump to push it up and into the display tank below the waterline or am I overlooking something obvious?

Manifolds! I don't want my food going through my reactor and uv.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Manifolds! I don't want my food going through my reactor and uv.

That is something to be mindful of, but if you are not feeding your manifold from the return pump or return chamber of the sump, this is not an issue.

I'll be doing a dedicated manifold pump in my skimmer or fuge section for this very reason.

 

[ctenophore]

That is something to be mindful of, but if you are not feeding your manifold from the return pump or return chamber of the sump, this is not an issue.

I'll be doing a dedicated manifold pump in my skimmer or fuge section for this very reason.

My favorite way to do a manifold is to use the siphon pipe off the overflow (assuming you have a full-siphon + backup style overflow design) rather than a pump, one less thing to plug in and generally very consistent pressure & flow.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

My favorite way to do a manifold is to use the siphon pipe off the overflow (assuming you have a full-siphon + backup style overflow design) rather than a pump, one less thing to plug in and generally very consistent pressure & flow.

Interesting. I've never heard of anyone running a manifold off of a drain pipe before. Have any pics of the plumbing you can share (feel free to PM if you do not want to take this thread too far off topic)?

 

[PedroYoung]

We’ve started adding a small hole just below the plank rim to all mixing chambers which will act as an emergency drain in case a snail or something blocks the normal drain tube. I recommend doing this if you’ve noticed any kind of higher-than-normal water level inside your mixing chamber.

A 3/8” drill bit is a good size. If anyone with an existing plank has any trouble with doing this modification, please contact us at [email protected] and we’ll help you out.

FYI, I just got my plank Monday and it didn't have the drain hole in it. I thought you'd be doing it as a standard on new shipments.

 

[PanhandleReef]

FYI, I just got my plank Monday and it didn't have the drain hole in it. I thought you'd be doing it as a standard on new shipments.

You probably got the new, square, plank mount. The hole isn’t necessary for that style because it drops down.

 

[Biokabe]

The Plank

The Plank auto feeder represents years of our efforts to find and build a device that both serves the needs of our most delicate and selective aquarium inhabitants as well as our ability to realistically attend to their well-being. Many reef fish and most corals have evolved to continuously eat...

www.avastmarine.com

If you look at main picture, you can see the front of the Plank is now squared off so standard L brackets for screen top kits allow a very tight fit. The front is also now 2 parts and is offset below the rim of the tank, this allows for additional screen top options as well as prevents any possibility of a overflow/drip onto floor if the pump gets stopped up. There is a TikTok on bottom of that product page that shows assembly of the 2 part plank, which might make what I just said a little more clear

So I think the Plank looks awesome, probably going to pull the trigger on one soon... but just want to make sure I'm understanding how it works with screen tops correctly with the new style mount.

I have a ClearView lid on my tank, so the acrylic frame is about 2-3" wide, with the mesh starting at the end of the frame. The platform for the Plank is a two-piece affair, so I assume I basically disassemble it, slide the pipe bracket on the 'water' side of my mesh, and then screw it together through the mesh - do I have that correct? So the 'top' side of the platform (the part that attaches to the keg) would be resting on my outside frame, and the "bottom" side would be screwed to it through the mesh.

 

[PanhandleReef]

So I think the Plank looks awesome, probably going to pull the trigger on one soon... but just want to make sure I'm understanding how it works with screen tops correctly with the new style mount.

I have a ClearView lid on my tank, so the acrylic frame is about 2-3" wide, with the mesh starting at the end of the frame. The platform for the Plank is a two-piece affair, so I assume I basically disassemble it, slide the pipe bracket on the 'water' side of my mesh, and then screw it together through the mesh - do I have that correct? So the 'top' side of the platform (the part that attaches to the keg) would be resting on my outside frame, and the "bottom" side would be screwed to it through the mesh.

I cut my screen. Screen frame slides into groove. Plank clamp adjust to snug it up and pull everything together. I have default plank length, but if you need longer just shoot them an email. They have excellent customer service and will respond quickly.

 

[ctenophore]

You probably got the new, square, plank mount. The hole isn’t necessary for that style because it drops down.

Yes, this is correct.

 

[DH78]

To add my experience in to this thread, I have had my Plank Autofeeder for about 5 months now. I have never owned a better or more reliable autofeeder. The build quality is superb. I've had zero issues with it's operation. I mix powdered items for corals and small fish along with pellets and broken up krill together and it feeds it through with no issues.

The only problem I encountered is when i knocked it off my tank. It fell about 5 feet onto a tiled floor. The feeder survived with no issues. The plank itself snapped. I contacted customer service to see if there was an adhesive I could use to glue it back together. I was told there was not anything that would really work. I set about to order a new plank. At this point, they sent me a new plank free of charge. This type of customer care is amazing.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

I can't tell, is the Plank part 3D printed?

 

[DH78]

I can't tell, is the Plank part 3D printed?

It doesn't look like it to me. I think it is milled out of a plastic.

 

[Darrell Brady]

Had mine for about 3 weeks now its dead silent compared to the apex feeder. You can actually control the amount you want to feed.

 

[Mark Gray]

I just ordered one to try hope I get it soon

 

[Darrell Brady]

I will post pictures in a bit (however it is the basic install like in the videos) but I got pinged about my setup/programming so thought I would share in case that helps someone else with this cool feeder and an Apex.

I have two feeders for my two display tanks. They are mounted and programmed identically (for now) but may shift the feeding schedule on one or the other over time.

I have SCA 120G tanks with a ~3" eurobrace and the default install instructions worked just fine for me. I have them in 'back corners' where they dump out near/over MP40's so the food is broadcast pretty quickly and well. In fact in one tank it falls out above an MP40 which pushes the food forward which then is in the path of a Gyre 350 which pushes the food lengthwise in the tank - it is fun to watch the roller coaster ride for the food

For each tank, I have both the pump and the feeder in separate outlets on an EB832 on my apex and have the following programs which result in the pump coming on 1 min before the feeder, the feeder running for 30 seconds and then the pump staying on 2:30 mins after the feeder for a total of 5 mins on time for the pump. My goal with this program is to feed 3 times a day (10a, 3p, 5p) for now but can adjust by changing the code in one place (the pump's code).

Amongst other things I am a coder by trade so I am not saying this is the simplest/most direct way as I like to build things into the apex code.

Pump Code for 'AFpump':

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 10:00 to 10:04 Then ON
If Time 15:00 to 15:04 Then ON
If Time 20:00 to 20:04 Then ON

This defaults to off and then is on for 5 mins at the top of the hour for each feed time. If I want to run more times I can just add more lines like 'If Time XX:00 to XX:04 Then ON' (note current code would only work for 'top of the hour' feeding times.

Feeder Code for 'AFeeder':

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
OSC 001:00/000:30/058:30 Then ON
If Output AFpump = OFF Then OFF
When On > 001:00 Then OFF

This defaults to off, tells it to run for 30 seconds after a 1 min delay and then stay off again for the remainder of one hour (58mins 30secs). Since this statement 'starts' at exactly midnight this ensures it is aligned to the top of each hour for the 1 min off, 30 seconds on pattern.

It will not run when the pump is off - with the OSC command above and not running when pump is off this allows me to both ensure it only feeds when the pump is on as well as control how many times I feed with only code changes in the pump's code.

The last line checks that if for some reason it is on longer than a minute (future coding error etc.) - it will turn off and throw an error so I can't accidentally overfeed.

Hope this is helpful to anyone looking to program it. Of course times can be adjusted for length of pump before/after, duration of barrel feeder running etc.

What code would i run if i wanted it to run for 1 minute.

 

[driftin]

I feed every two hours during the day. Here's my code. You adjust the times in the OSC for the duration and the "wait" til the next cycle.

Fallback OFF
OSC 000:00/000:20/119:40 Then ON
If Time 18:59 to 08:00 Then OFF

In example above it feeds for 20 seconds and is off for 1 hour 59 minutes and 40 seconds. And then off in that window of 7PM to 8AM.

If you have a spare outlet, it's always good to enable "Log" and test your code for a day before running it for real. Especially if you can way overdose something by accident.

 

[kinetic]

Just ordered mine last week! A couple of questions (I tried to read a lot of the thread, but couldn't find answers easily):

1. What kind of foods would be recommended? I just ordered the Avast Reef Jerky and hope that'll be good for fish + corals. Before I was using TDO pellets (small) for fish and reef chili. I'm planning on using TDO pellets and the avast reef jerky mixed together.
2. How do we know how much to feed? I have a 24"x20"x20" tank, two clownfish, one orchid dottyback, and a chromis. I also have just a few SPS and a magnifica anemone (that I never feed, and does just fine). Currently I have a Neptune autofeeder that dumps one rotation twice a day, but I've taped up the hole to about 1/4th of it's size at the smallest setting.