Avast plank amount and schedule

[mrpontiac80]

Those that run a Avast Plank feeder, what are your thoughts on a quantity and schedule? I just got mine yesterday and filled it with reef jerky.

My tank is 180 gallons
Livestock…
3 lyretail anthias
3 chromis
2 bangi cardinals
2 pj cardinals
2 zebra darts
2 clowns
1 large foxface lo
1 young blue hippo tang
1 purple tang
1 two spot tang
1 mandarin dragonet
1 copperband
1 Melanorus wrasse
1 firefish
And of course the cuc and such

Previous to the plank, I’ve been feeding once per day after work.
2 sheets of nori
Approximately 4-5 cubes worth of frozen foods.. a changing mix of mysis, brine, rods original, bloodworms, angel/butterfly mix, and some homemade seafood mix.

The Avast plank company says 3 min of runtime of reef jerky is comparable to 1 cube of frozen food. For today’s first run schedule I did 45 seconds 5x through the day spaced 1.5 hrs apart. Figured I’d still feed three cubes of frozen tonight.

 

[mrpontiac80]

I changed my schedule to 1 min 30 seconds 5x per day figuring that’s comparable to 2-2.5 cubes of frozen. Maybe I can try that and manually feed 2 cubes at night. I’ll see how that works out I guess.

 

[kevgib67]

I changed my schedule to 1 min 30 seconds 5x per day figuring that’s comparable to 2-2.5 cubes of frozen. Maybe I can try that and manually feed 2 cubes at night. I’ll see how that works out I guess.

Alright @mrpontiac80 , we need a picture! I really want to see this.

 

[mrpontiac80]

Alright @mrpontiac80 , we need a picture! I really want to see this.

I’m all about pictures but what are you wanting to see exactly?

 

[kevgib67]

I’m all about pictures but what are you wanting to see exactly?

Fts

 

[mrpontiac80]

The way it is designed is absolutely ingenious. It drops ( very slowly) freeze dried foods or powders or dehydrated foods into a cylinder in the water. There is a sicce nano pump inside of that that hydrates everything.

 

[mrpontiac80]

Fts

I’ll make a video today and share the feeder in action

 

[907_Reefer]

Love my Avast Plank + reef jerky also. I run it 1 min, 3x per day on a 55g. I would run it shorter, more often, but the Kasa plug running the timing has 1 min intervals minimum (no Apex, etc here).

Are they still using zip ties on the upper auger? I had to tighten these, but haven't touched anything else on the unit, been working great for me, other than algea and sponges collecting in the feeder tube as I run it in the DT. Fish love the jerky.

 

[mrpontiac80]

Love my Avast Plank + reef jerky also. I run it 1 min, 3x per day on a 55g. I would run it shorter, more often, but the Kasa plug running the timing has 1 min intervals minimum (no Apex, etc here).

Are they still using zip ties on the upper auger? I had to tighten these, but haven't touched anything else on the unit, been working great for me, other than algea and sponges collecting in the feeder tube as I run it in the DT. Fish love the jerky.

They are still using zip ties.

They offer what they call a cannonball… it’s a cover for the tube. $8.00. I should receive it Tomorrow

 

[mrpontiac80]

Here is the plank in action

 

[907_Reefer]

They are still using zip ties.

They offer what they call a cannonball… it’s a cover for the tube. $8.00. I should receive it Tomorrow

I picked up one of the cannonballs as well, not bad for $8. I found that it can promote mold if you don't keep it a little spaced from the unit for air flow. YMMV

I ended up destroying mine in an attempt to modify with some ventilation holes, probably will pickup another when I need more jerky and dremel vs drill this time.

 

[mrpontiac80]

I picked up one of the cannonballs as well, not bad for $8. I found that it can promote mold if you don't keep it a little spaced from the unit for air flow. YMMV

I ended up destroying mine in an attempt to modify with some ventilation holes, probably will pickup another when I need more jerky and dremel vs drill this time.

Good to know. I’ll keep an eye on it I guess

 

[dangles]

I love my Plank! Total game changer. I’m not around often enough to feed manually, and the other rotating drum style feeders are just so inconsistent. Yes it’s expensive, but there’s nothing that even comes CLOSE in quality, design and reliability.

I feed for 1m 4x/day on a 120 gallon with 15(ish?) fish including 4x anthias. That kept the programming simple (no OSC commands, just If/Time commands in Fusion).

I ditched the Canon Ball after repeatedly getting fuzzy mold balls develop at the end of the auger. It did this even after spacing it away from the feeder a bit. But yeah ymmv

I add a few different pellets to the Reef Jerky because I’m way heavier on fish than corals at this stage.

 

[dangles]

Love my Avast Plank + reef jerky also. I run it 1 min, 3x per day on a 55g. I would run it shorter, more often, but the Kasa plug running the timing has 1 min intervals minimum (no Apex, etc here).

A word of caution from personal experience with the Kasa outlets…

I had not yet put my Plank on my Apex and was still using a Kasa wifi outlet. When I was away I noticed my pH PLUMMETING. I happened to open my Kasa app and noticed the outlet for my Plank was on when it should not have been. It turns out that the outlet turned on as it was supposed to, but just randomly decided to NOT turn off. It had been on for 3 hours by the time I caught it. The (formerly full) Plank was completely empty and my tank was a disaster.

Somebody later told me that this isn’t TOO uncommon with Kasa. If you’re going to keep using it, add an additional command to turn the outlet off right after the first “off” command. Two “offs” in a row in other words. If the initial “off” command works like it’s supposed to, the second one is meaningless. But if it randomly fails, you’ve got a second command there as a backup.