Automated Feeding System?

[AFKCW]

I have about 40 tanks of various sizes with filtered water drip system and drainage. I saw an idea a couple of years ago about creating a timed injection of food into the water lines. Has anyone done this? I would like both fish AND vacations (even if they are just long weekends)!

Thanks!

[Matt0matic]

No experience with anything on this scale but I would love to see some pictures of your fish room.

Matthew

[AFKCW]

I'll take some pictures ... "remodeling" at the moment. Love your discus picture. He looks like he's upset with you, though. Scowling over food? :)

What I'm thinking is a solenoid controlled system with daphnia or hatched BBS in a bucket that would drop into the drip PVC. But I wonder how far it would get through the system...

[ericatdallas]

This is a little late, but did you watch the second episode of Tanked on Animal Planet? They devised an injection method through the sump system (at least that's what it looked like to me).

It was light on the instructional/tech stuff, so I'm just mentioning as an FYI.

That does sound like an interesting idea though. The solenoid does seem like a workable idea. Definitely would love to see what you do. Probably wouldn't implement it myself, but I always like to see the ideas other people come up with :)

So this is just brainstorming and not something I've done, but you might also want to take a look at venturi systems.

You could use a venturi system attached to your sump return that pulls in the brine shrimp.
Pros: Pretty cheap and low-tech.

Cons: Difficult to control how much food gets in there. I suppose you could keep the container circulating and that should give you about an even concentration. The downside to that is, the concentration decreases with time, so the initial feeding has more food than the later feedings. Also, without a control mechanics (like a solenoid) you would have a continuous feeding versus intervals. However, you can easily control the flow rate by constricting the flow of the output. This would probably be more effective for Daphnia than brine shrimp since they're able to live in the enviroment a little longer. Might make your fish lazy if there's a little spout that constantly spits out food :)