New Avast Marine Auto feeder

[AVAST Marine]

Anyone have a “grinding” noise on their little whirlpool motor pump that stirs up the water column? Installed mine yesterday and it works great, but it doesn’t sound like the little pump will last very long at this rate.

Just wondering if there are any tips/tricks

Shoot us an email to support @ avastmarine.com and we will take care of this.

 

[deahttub]

May

Anyone have a “grinding” noise on their little whirlpool motor pump that stirs up the water column? Installed mine yesterday and it works great, but it doesn’t sound like the little pump will last very long at this rate.

Just wondering if there are any tips/tricks

maybe flow is too high? there is a switch on nthe bottom you can adjust the flow

 

[Arricefe]

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.

@lactose is this programming working it out for you? It doesn’t seem to be for me, the feeder won’t come on. I plugged in a lamp and removed the line for the “If Output AFpump = OFF Then OFF” to see if it would come on. I would expect the lamp to come on at the top of every hour for 30 seconds but it’s not. Thoughts?

 

[lactose]

@lactose is this programming working it out for you? It doesn’t seem to be for me, the feeder won’t come on. I plugged in a lamp and removed the line for the “If Output AFpump = OFF Then OFF” to see if it would come on. I would expect the lamp to come on at the top of every hour for 30 seconds but it’s not. Thoughts?

Been working for me and I've expanded the hours it runs etc. Can you post the code (or pm) for both outlets? Also I presume both are set to auto?

Hope I can help as this is working for me and I'm pretty sure I put it all in the example above

 

[lactose]

@lactose is this programming working it out for you? It doesn’t seem to be for me, the feeder won’t come on. I plugged in a lamp and removed the line for the “If Output AFpump = OFF Then OFF” to see if it would come on. I would expect the lamp to come on at the top of every hour for 30 seconds but it’s not. Thoughts?

It would specifically come on for 30 seconds 1 min after the top of the hour, but assume you would see that.

Also when debugging something new, I turn on logging on the outlet so I can see what happened in the logs. May help in addition to plugging in a light.

Again hope to help

 

[Arricefe]

It would specifically come on for 30 seconds 1 min after the top of the hour, but assume you would see that.

Also when debugging something new, I turn on logging on the outlet so I can see what happened in the logs. May help in addition to plugging in a light.

Again hope to help

Yeah it’s working just as designed. I’m not sure if I was checking right or what, Thanks!

 

[lactose]

Yeah it’s working just as designed. I’m not sure if I was checking right or what, Thanks!

Great to hear!

 

[AustinReef]

I have one on the way that shipped today. I’m hoping to place on the back of my tank. How much space do I need from back side of tank to the wall to make this work?

 

[Arricefe]

I have one on the way that shipped today. I’m hoping to place on the back of my tank. How much space do I need from back side of tank to the wall to make this work?

As you can see by the pic you need about 6”. (there’s supposed to be a bunch of laughing emojis in here) JK You need about 3” or 4”.
.

 

[AustinReef]

As you can see by the pic you need about 6”. (there’s supposed to be a bunch of laughing emojis in here) JK You need about 3” or 4”.
.

Thanks. Ive got 5 inches so seems that will work.

 

[AVAST Marine]

The official answer is 5.88" measured from the INSIDE wall of the tank.
A tank with 2" eurobrace would need 3.88" OUTSIDE tank clearance
A rimless tank with 3/4" glass would need 5.13" OUTSIDE tank clearance

 

[KPersico]

After first day of use my unit stopped working. The pump is on as always and the motor I hear it running, however nothing is turning inside the unit. Therefore, no food.
Any ideas??

 

[AVAST Marine]

Yes, I think the extended trip all of these took with USPS over the holidays was a little too much for it. We will happily get this fixed for you, please send a email to support about this if you have not done so already.

 

[reefinnewb]

Will there be a "You Built" Version for people with 3d printers? I know it's a long shot but would be great to save a bit of money on it. I've had my eye on it since pre-order. Just can't seem to push the button due to cost.

 

[HighChiefKC]

I’ve been using my auto feeder for
Months with no issues. I have had some troubles with micro bubbles coming out. Is there something I need to adjust?

but tonight after dinner I hear this ringing, like I’m going deaf or something, I can barely hear it. I yelled at the wife and kids to be quiet so I could tell if it was me or an alarm. My first thought was a carbon monoxide alarm in the basement. I ran downstairs and it was my flood alarm in the floor. There was water pouring out all over the floor. I was like where the hell is this coming from?!?

it was my auto feeder. I had dropped
A chunk of frozen food in it about a half
Hour earlier. It got stuck in the opening and some how water came up and over and was sucking water from inside the tank and overflowing over the side. Aren’t we supposed to be able to use frozen food? It’s was clean except for the frozen food that was now thawed.

 

[ctenophore]

I’ve been using my auto feeder for
Months with no issues. I have had some troubles with micro bubbles coming out. Is there something I need to adjust?

but tonight after dinner I hear this ringing, like I’m going deaf or something, I can barely hear it. I yelled at the wife and kids to be quiet so I could tell if it was me or an alarm. My first thought was a carbon monoxide alarm in the basement. I ran downstairs and it was my flood alarm in the floor. There was water pouring out all over the floor. I was like where the hell is this coming from?!?

it was my auto feeder. I had dropped
A chunk of frozen food in it about a half
Hour earlier. It got stuck in the opening and some how water came up and over and was sucking water from inside the tank and overflowing over the side. Aren’t we supposed to be able to use frozen food? It’s was clean except for the frozen food that was now thawed.

Yuck, sorry to see this happened. I think you have one of the earliest units before we added the emergency drain hole near the top of the mixing tube to prevent this type of overflow due to a clog. It's very easy to add yourself if you want to mod it- just drill a 3/8" hole in the pipe just under the rim of the plank platform. This was discussed earlier in this thread, around the bottom of page 6. We are also happy to do it for you, just email us at [email protected] and we'll get it taken care of.

 

[ctenophore]

Will there be a "You Built" Version for people with 3d printers? I know it's a long shot but would be great to save a bit of money on it. I've had my eye on it since pre-order. Just can't seem to push the button due to cost.

Sorry, no plans for this right now. Maybe one day we'll have a you-built with parts that we print, but I wouldn't want to even try to support a you-print version. There's a ton of fine tuning of the printers and slicer file well beyond just downloading a stl file and letting it rip.

 

[HighChiefKC]

Yuck, sorry to see this happened. I think you have one of the earliest units before we added the emergency drain hole near the top of the mixing tube to prevent this type of overflow due to a clog. It's very easy to add yourself if you want to mod it- just drill a 3/8" hole in the pipe just under the rim of the plank platform. This was discussed earlier in this thread, around the bottom of page 6. We are also happy to do it for you, just email us at [email protected] and we'll get it taken care of.

Yea I got in on them during early production and had mine custom made for plank length! I’ll go drill a hole right now! Thanks

 

[ctenophore]

Yea I got in on them during early production and had mine custom made for plank length! I’ll go drill a hole right now! Thanks

Be sure to test it out with another cube or two of frozen food- see if you can get it to clog again. Please let me know if it looks like it could still happen. I'll try a few cubes of frozen on mine as well.

 

[radiata]

Has anyone tried feeding dried spirulina with the Plank? The algae is difficult to get fully suspended in a water solution because it seems to want to float on the surface. I'd only be adding this algae to the pellet concoction in my Plank. I'm currently using my Plank for the hourly daytime feeding of my Anthias. I'd be mixing in the spirulina for my filter feeders.

TIA...