Autofeed Reef Nutrition

[Amateur Reefer]

After a ton of research, I decided to get the wine coolers to keep the Reef Nutrition Food cold and use an Apex DOS to autofeed. I am concerned about logistics, however.

I have three tanks plumbed into one sump: (1) a 65g predator reef (in process of building, currently just has a small picasso trigger and small snowflake eel; no corals yet); (2) a 14g mixed reef biocube; and (3) a 10g frag tank. I will have to feed the predator reef more than the other two, so I planned on using one of the DOS heads for a dedicated line to that tank and the other head to the other two tanks (via a T fitting).

I wanted to create a mix of phyto-feast, oyster-feast and mysis-feast going into each tank. But now I am reading that phyto-feast shouldn't really be mixed with the other foods. I don't have room for another cooler and another pump to make a dedicated phyto line.

Any ideas? @Reef Nutrition

 

[Amateur Reefer]

Anyone?

 

[Reef Nutrition]

After a ton of research, I decided to get the wine coolers to keep the Reef Nutrition Food cold and use an Apex DOS to autofeed. I am concerned about logistics, however.

I have three tanks plumbed into one sump: (1) a 65g predator reef (in process of building, currently just has a small picasso trigger and small snowflake eel; no corals yet); (2) a 14g mixed reef biocube; and (3) a 10g frag tank. I will have to feed the predator reef more than the other two, so I planned on using one of the DOS heads for a dedicated line to that tank and the other head to the other two tanks (via a T fitting).

I wanted to create a mix of phyto-feast, oyster-feast and mysis-feast going into each tank. But now I am reading that phyto-feast shouldn't really be mixed with the other foods. I don't have room for another cooler and another pump to make a dedicated phyto line.

Any ideas? @Reef Nutrition

How cold will the wine cooler go to? Keep in mind that our products need to be held between 33-42°F / 1-5°C . While we don't recommend you combine our products, long term, if you are filling the feed reservoir once a week, the phytoplankton should hold up. You can always give it a try and see. If the product starts to smell like rotten eggs before it's done feeding out, then you will need to remove the Phyto-Feast from the mixture.

Best,
Chad

 

[Amateur Reefer]

I've tested the wine chiller over the past week with a cup of water and the water was between 38-42 degrees. My plan is to fill it once per week.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I've tested the wine chiller over the past week with a cup of water and the water was between 38-42 degrees. My plan is to fill it once per week.

Sounds good. Keep me posted. I look forward to seeing how it goes.

Sorry about the late reply. I was at a trade show over the weekend.

Best,
Chad

 

[Amateur Reefer]

Sounds good. Keep me posted. I look forward to seeing how it goes.

Sorry about the late reply. I was at a trade show over the weekend.

Best,
Chad

so it is working for the most part. I’ve been filling a cup with mysis feast, roti feast, arcti feast and oyster feast. The wine chiller keeps it at 32 degrees. But I find by the end of the second week most of the mysis feast and roti/arcti feast is gone and it appears to be just oyster feast with residue from the mysis and rotis/arctis left. The smell is not great.

I’m definitely putting more mysis feast in than the rest. So where is it all going?

 

[dhof]

I still use the liquid food dosing system detailed as version 2 in this post: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/o...d-goldpod-vacation-feeder.517037/post-5448159

I originally used Goldpods, but my fish didn't really like them, so now I'm dosing the ReefNutrition Artic Pods, and my fish like that way better.

Not sure how you might do this with several tanks, but the concept that I like is that basically 1 head moves the liquid food a pre-determined amount past the Y in the tubing. Then the other head pushes the bolus of liquid food through the system to the tank. The first dos head then backs the liquid food from the edge of the Y back into the refrigerated container.

 

[Amateur Reefer]

Interesting idea. So far though my problem doesn’t seem to be getting the food to and from the tank. Instead, it seems like my reef nutrition mixture of multiple feeds is just now doing well in the storage

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Are you still changing the food out weekly? I got from your post that the food was in there for 2 weeks, but @Reef Nutrition seemed to be indicating that 1 week was about as long as it should stay in there? Or maybe I'm missing something?

 

[Reef Nutrition]

so it is working for the most part. I’ve been filling a cup with mysis feast, roti feast, arcti feast and oyster feast. The wine chiller keeps it at 32 degrees. But I find by the end of the second week most of the mysis feast and roti/arcti feast is gone and it appears to be just oyster feast with residue from the mysis and rotis/arctis left. The smell is not great.

I’m definitely putting more mysis feast in than the rest. So where is it all going?

If you are experiencing a stronger-than-normal odor, you should refill the reservoir every week. The reason that the zooplankton are feeding out so fast is because they are settling in the food reservoir. If you quickly stirred it with a spoon a few times a week, it will keep everything more homogeneous.

 

[Amateur Reefer]

If you are experiencing a stronger-than-normal odor, you should refill the reservoir every week. The reason that the zooplankton are feeding out so fast is because they are settling in the food reservoir. If you quickly stirred it with a spoon a few times a week, it will keep everything more homogeneous.

I will try weekly changes. Not sure the settling is the issue though. Before each feed, I use the reverse function on the DoS to pump air into the container to stir things up. I would think that would be sufficent to keep everything homogeneous, yet things are still feeding out fast.

 

[Amateur Reefer]

Are you still changing the food out weekly? I got from your post that the food was in there for 2 weeks, but @Reef Nutrition seemed to be indicating that 1 week was about as long as it should stay in there? Or maybe I'm missing something?

I ended up keeping the phyto seperate from the meaty foods. I had orinally understood @reefnutrition as suggesting changing out every week was necessary if I was going to be keeping the meaty foods together with the phyto.

 

[SirShmyra]

@amateru reefer

I ended up keeping the phyto seperate from the meaty foods. I had orinally understood @reefnutrition as suggesting changing out every week was necessary if I was going to be keeping the meaty foods together with the phyto.

How did this end up working out? I recently purchased a wine chiller and am planning to implement almost the exact same solution with purely mysis feast...