Chad December 7, 2012 Share December 7, 2012 I've taken a crack at this idea hand full of times and haven't been terribly successful at it. Shudini's idea is an interesting one, but I worry about the effect that multiple thaw / refreeze cycles will do to the quality of the food. An Idea that I have that I haven't tried to implement is a conveyer belt on the inside of a freezer above the tank (or above the return section of the sump). Cubes of food could be placed on conveyer, a hole or trap door at the end of the conveyer such that the food drops into the tank after the conveyer belt. After I wrote this, I notice it's similar to the link provided above (the revolver idea is also good... but may require additional room)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt LeBaron December 8, 2012 Author Share December 8, 2012 (edited) I know multiple defrots and freezes will slowly ruin food but has there ever been any research into how quickly it happens? You figure for a normal tank you could put a weeks worth of food in for 6 defrosts/refreezes. People with seahorses would have a lot more, at least double that if not triple, so that could play a large part in how one of these systems are designed. Also how long can food sit defrosted before it begins to rot? Like I said I'm more interested in a daily feeding system that something that could feed for an entire week (although I would kill for that kind of system too) but I'm thinking of a system that I could place froze food into in the morning and potentially have it feed multiple times over the course of the day. My concern is how long I could let the food defrost for before it might begin to spoil. Also are there any controllable valves that are relatively cheap? Like a solinoid big enough for a small power head to attach to? I was thinking that you could develop something very similar to what Schdini has but put multiple levels in the box in the freezer. First feeding could flow water through on the lowest level, then the second could flow from the next level up and so on. That way there would be no defrosting of anything you weren't going to feed. For this to work without having a bunch of different pumps though would be if you could have some type of controllable valve that you could make send water to where it needed to go. *Edit* In thinking about it; buying a couple of the tiny rio pumps that they use on little fountains are likely cheaper than finding a number of solenoids at a decent price and the pumps are so tiny you could basically just stack them on each other and zip tie the tubes from them together to the freezer. Edited December 8, 2012 by Matt LeBaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thefishman65 December 18, 2012 Share December 18, 2012 Well I am going to take a try at it. I ordered some peltier devices, but I am cheating on the internals Fish Feeder I am hoping that I can keep it cold enough the food stays frozen. Worst case I may have to move the battery outside the freezer section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore December 18, 2012 Share December 18, 2012 The more insulation the better. Even a tiny peltier chip will freeze something given enough insulation. You can stack them for nearly double the temp delta. Try a 2" thick foam shipping box, or buy a piece of polyisocyanurate foam from the hardware store and cut panels to fit your acrylic box or similar. Dan and I have been brainstorming this for a while now and I think we finally have a design that is both versatile for location and food type, as well as affordable/produceable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypertech December 18, 2012 Share December 18, 2012 If I was looking to do this, I'd try to setup an auger and put cubes of frozen food between the blades. Run the motor on a timer long enough to push one cube out of the freezer and into the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar December 18, 2012 Share December 18, 2012 (edited) Dan and I have been brainstorming this for a while now and I think we finally have a design that is both versatile for location and food type, as well as affordable/produceable. I want one or two...get cracking! Edited December 18, 2012 by Jon Lazar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thefishman65 December 18, 2012 Share December 18, 2012 The more insulation the better. Even a tiny peltier chip will freeze something given enough insulation. You can stack them for nearly double the temp delta. Try a 2" thick foam shipping box, or buy a piece of polyisocyanurate foam from the hardware store and cut panels to fit your acrylic box or similar. Dan and I have been brainstorming this for a while now and I think we finally have a design that is both versatile for location and food type, as well as affordable/produceable. Now you tell me I thought about designing my own feeding system, I wasn't sure I could do it for $20 and this is easily replaced if something goes wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmatt56 December 19, 2012 Share December 19, 2012 Can't wait for the Avast frozen food dispenser! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore December 19, 2012 Share December 19, 2012 If I was looking to do this, I'd try to setup an auger and put cubes of frozen food between the blades. Run the motor on a timer long enough to push one cube out of the freezer and into the tank. This has been on my idea list too, I have a few different sized augers I've been playing with. The problem is that it is complex to build as you don't want to refrigerate a motor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der ABT December 19, 2012 Share December 19, 2012 then dont refrigerate the motor, drill a hole and feed the arm into the freezer with a grommet....heck you could use the kalk stirrer motor or a swabbie motor and just have it attached to a gear .....(im open for employment if you need me for idea's haha) you could use the swabbie motor to move a conveyer/augerish type of deal and have it drop a single serving, down a pipe with an open and shut from a ice maker into another pipe down into the tank....a bit on the larger scale but could be made into a DIY kit very easily i would think....would just need to have a small freezer next to the tank or some form of a vessel that can stay frozen for a week or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roni December 19, 2012 Share December 19, 2012 I'm quite willing to be a product tester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunWyrm December 19, 2012 Share December 19, 2012 ^ +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fazio92 January 28, 2013 Share January 28, 2013 Justin, Any updates on the prototype?!? -Anthony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkiboy April 1, 2013 Share April 1, 2013 justin/dan/avast - any updates on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmatt56 April 1, 2013 Share April 1, 2013 +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore April 2, 2013 Share April 2, 2013 I have components for the control system that just showed up yesterday. So it's being worked on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkiboy April 2, 2013 Share April 2, 2013 I have components for the control system that just showed up yesterday. So it's being worked on awesome to hear! are we more like a year out or a couple months? was working on gathering some components for my own design but know whatever you put out will be a cleaner operation so want to judge if i should drop it for now. thanks for always tinkering with new ideas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkiboy November 7, 2013 Share November 7, 2013 hey justin, any update on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w November 23, 2013 Share November 23, 2013 Hey folks, I just found this thread, sorry for being late to the party. I've been thinking along similar lines as this but not frozen. I'd either drop a chunk of frozen food into a volume of water in a refrigerator, or preferably use a water based live food system like blackworms or brine shrimp. I've been thinking of a wheel or revolver type of system in a refrigerator above the tank where a quart bottle would turn up an incline until it tips and dumps water down a tube into the tank. I think this could be easy for a single display tank but my situation is more complex, I will need to feed about 20 angelfish cages along the back of a 20' tank. Instead of dropping food into one corner of one tank, I'd perhaps drop the water into a 20' long pipe (manifold) with 20 tees pointing down into the cages. Then something like a solenoid would drop the water into 20 tanks. Maybe I could even turn on a colored LED light at the same time to see if my fish are smarter than Pavlov's dogs (a little psychology joke there). If I slope the manifold then a few ounces of water would catch in each tee while the pipe itself would stay relatively dry except for the odd shriveled blackworm. The solenoids should not need to open at the same time. The water volume in the bottle would need to equal the combined water volume of 20 tees or the last tees would be short of food. Several hurdles to overcome. First, blackworms tend to clump together and dumping them out of a quart container may result in 5 cages getting too much food and the other 15 getting nothing. Maybe the quart bottle gets vigorously bubbled just before dumping. Also, it is hard to find saltwater safe solenoids that operate by gravity feed. I don't mean to hijack this thread which mostly covers frozen food. Put me in line to buy Justin's system when it gets finished. But in the meantime can anyone suggest improvements on a water based system with 20 outlets? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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