IND Aquatics AF4

[slingfox]

I ran the AF4 for 10 days feeding 24 cubes. It worked flawlessly. I smelled the slurry a few times during that duration including the end right before the last feed and it smelled just fine (ie, barely any smell throughout). I rinsed the frozen food and then filled the container to the level I wanted with 1.050 sg saltwater.

There was maybe a little bit more than half a cube which got stuck at the bottom at the end since it is a slurry and towards the end you run out of liquid. Not a material issue since I just rinsed the container out with a little bit of RODI and fed it manually to the tank.

I fills the AF4 with 64 cubes this morning. Now the test starts to see how well it does running for 20 days straight.

 

[slingfox]

My power went out for 2.5 hours today. I am traveling for the holidays so was not around to do anything. Thankfully the power was restored without too much of a delay. The AF4 came back online and started operating without issues assuming the feeding log is accurate.

 

[slingfox]

Unfortunately the WiFi dongle / app for the aF4 is completely unreliable. It has failed twice during my first month of ownership of the af4.

Details here:

AF4 Frozen Fish Feeder—Highly Unreliable WiFi Control

I purchased the aF4 during Black Friday and started using it in December 2025. I use the dedicated Wifi dongle to connect to and control the aF4. I have taken two trips during my one month of ownership of the aF4 and it has lost connectivity both times. First time on day 2 of a 4 day trip...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[alabella1]

So I have had mine connected to the hydros and I have concerns. There have been times where I have come in to find all lights blinking on the machine. This is fixed by a quick power cycle. My concern is what if this is to happen while I am away. I could use my hydros to trigger a power cycle of the unit, but when it comes back on it is not ON. You need to hold the power button down to turn it on. I was wondering if the wifi dongle would be able to help me around that issue but after hearing about how unreliable that is I don't know what my best option is. I'm going away for a week in February and I need to make sure I have a solid plan in place by then.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I think the unit is a great idea, but rather poorly implemented from a logic and control standpoint. This revelation ads to that opinion. Not for me given the constraints, and if I had one I would likely toss it’s brain in the bin and build my own controller for it.

 

[slingfox]

Unfortunately the WiFi dongle / app for the aF4 is completely unreliable. It has failed twice during my first month of ownership of the af4.

Details here:

AF4 Frozen Fish Feeder—Highly Unreliable WiFi Control

I purchased the aF4 during Black Friday and started using it in December 2025. I use the dedicated Wifi dongle to connect to and control the aF4. I have taken two trips during my one month of ownership of the aF4 and it has lost connectivity both times. First time on day 2 of a 4 day trip...

www.reef2reef.com

Got back home after 3 weeks on the road. The unit connected via WiFi dongle lost connectivity at Day 11. I have gone on two trips during my first 1.5 months of ownership and it went offline both times. I was able to get the dongle reconnected simply by unpluging and repluging. The wifi dongle is basically complete crap given it has dialed 2 out of 2 times!

One positive is the frozen slurry has zero smell even after 21 days. I used the coldest setting.

 

[alabella1]

Got back home after 3 weeks on the road. The unit connected via WiFi dongle lost connectivity at Day 11. I have gone on two trips during my first 1.5 months of ownership and it went offline both times. I was able to get the dongle reconnected simply by unpluging and repluging. The wifi dongle is basically complete crap given it has dialed 2 out of 2 times!

One positive is the frozen slurry has zero smell even after 21 days. I used the coldest setting.

Are you unplugging and plugging back in the power to the unit, or just the dongle?

 

[slingfox]

Got back home after 3 weeks on the road. The unit connected via WiFi dongle lost connectivity at Day 11. I have gone on two trips during my first 1.5 months of ownership and it went offline both times. I was able to get the dongle reconnected simply by unpluging and repluging. The wifi dongle is basically complete crap given it has dialed 2 out of 2 times!

One positive is the frozen slurry has zero smell even after 21 days. I used the coldest setting.

Are you unplugging and plugging back in the power to the unit, or just the dongle?

I unplugged the splitter which powers both the dongle and the aF4. Next time I will try unplugging just the dongle. I just hope next time is not next week when I got on another trip!

 

[alabella1]

I unplugged the splitter which powers both the dongle and the aF4. Next time I will try unplugging just the dongle. I just hope next time is not next week when I got on another trip!

When you plugged it back in did the unit go right back into operation or did it just go to a red light and you had to hold down power to turn it on again. Every time i unplug and plug mine in i have to hold down power to turn it back on.

 

[slingfox]

I unplugged the splitter which powers both the dongle and the aF4. Next time I will try unplugging just the dongle. I just hope next time is not next week when I got on another trip!

When you plugged it back in did the unit go right back into operation or did it just go to a red light and you had to hold down power to turn it on again. Every time i unplug and plug mine in i have to hold down power to turn it back on.

The unit had the red light lit up as you describe so I had to hold down the power button to turn it to green. This is not described in the online videos from the Company on how to operate the unit. The very first time I turned on the unit I couldn’t get it to work and thought I would have to initiate a return! By happenstance I tried holding the power button down and that fixed things.

I am not sure why this critical step is needed and why it is not described in the online videos put out by the Company! Very stupid oversight!

 

[alabella1]

The unit had the red light lit up as you describe so I had to hold down the power button to turn it to green. This is not described in the online videos from the Company on how to operate the unit. The very first time I turned on the unit I couldn’t get it to work and thought I would have to initiate a return! By happenstance I tried holding the power button down and that fixed things.

I am not sure why this critical step is needed and why it is not described in the online videos put out by the Company! Very stupid oversight!

So there is no way from the dongle or app to power the unit on? My thought was power the unit off and on from my hydros and perhaps use the wifi dongle/app to power the unit on, but if it does not have that capability we are still going to be stuck here.

My issue is that my unit periodically starts with all lights blinking and stops cooling so i need to reboot it but again, i need to hold down power which when i am away i obviously cannot do. I also would love to get some kind of notification if/when this happens. I'm wondering IF it's being powered by the hydros we will see a change in the power consumption when it stops cooling and have it throw an alert. I have to assume we will and then if I have someone watching my house/walking my dogs, I can have them power the unit back on for me.

 

[reef_ranch]

The unit had the red light lit up as you describe so I had to hold down the power button to turn it to green. This is not described in the online videos from the Company on how to operate the unit. The very first time I turned on the unit I couldn’t get it to work and thought I would have to initiate a return! By happenstance I tried holding the power button down and that fixed things.

I am not sure why this critical step is needed and why it is not described in the online videos put out by the Company! Very stupid oversight!

I had the exact experience! I have also had the unit power off due, apparently to overheating. I have it in a cabinet with good airflow all around and keep the cooler on the lowest setting. This seems to help, i don't have any shutdowns any longer, but I'm not sure if it will continue once winter passes and the ambient temp of the house goes up a few degrees.

I am running it on a hydros wave engine. that works well for scheduling feedings

 

[slingfox]

So there is no way from the dongle or app to power the unit on? My thought was power the unit off and on from my hydros and perhaps use the wifi dongle/app to power the unit on, but if it does not have that capability we are still going to be stuck here.

My issue is that my unit periodically starts with all lights blinking and stops cooling so i need to reboot it but again, i need to hold down power which when i am away i obviously cannot do. I also would love to get some kind of notification if/when this happens. I'm wondering IF it's being powered by the hydros we will see a change in the power consumption when it stops cooling and have it throw an alert. I have to assume we will and then if I have someone watching my house/walking my dogs, I can have them power the unit back on for me.

I don’t believe the dongle or app actually powers the unit on or off. In the app when the unit is shown to be “on” and “off” but that simply means that a feeding cycle has started or ended. Even when “off” the unit has power and therefore continues to keep the frozen food cool.

 

[slingfox]

I had the exact experience! I have also had the unit power off due, apparently to overheating. I have it in a cabinet with good airflow all around and keep the cooler on the lowest setting. This seems to help, i don't have any shutdowns any longer, but I'm not sure if it will continue once winter passes and the ambient temp of the house goes up a few degrees.

I am running it on a hydros wave engine. that works well for scheduling feedings

Even though the WiFi dongle has gone offline twice, when it did the aF4 unit continued to have power and therefore kept the food cold. When the WiFi dongle was offline the unit would not initiate any feeding cycles. I may need to switch to Hydros control if the WiFi dongle keeps bugging out!

 

[alabella1]

Even though the WiFi dongle has gone offline twice, when it did the aF4 unit continued to have power and therefore kept the food cold. When the WiFi dongle was offline the unit would not initiate any feeding cycles. I may need to switch to Hydros control if the WiFi dongle keeps bugging out!

That's the other thing that bugs me, you can only have the dongle or the connection the the hydros connected. They should let you have both.

 

[slingfox]

Even though the WiFi dongle has gone offline twice, when it did the aF4 unit continued to have power and therefore kept the food cold. When the WiFi dongle was offline the unit would not initiate any feeding cycles. I may need to switch to Hydros control if the WiFi dongle keeps bugging out!

That's the other thing that bugs me, you can only have the dongle or the connection the the hydros connected. They should let you have both.

I would be okay with having access to one if at least one of the technologies was reliable. I ended up getting the dongle (even though I have a Hydros collective) because I didn’t want to deal with the programming bugs/issues people were posting about. Unfortunately the dongle works onto most of the times and it has failed on me during two trips in the last 1.5 months! Third trip coming up next week.

 

[FireUnderwater]

I would be okay with having access to one if at least one of the technologies was reliable. I ended up getting the dongle (even though I have a Hydros collective) because I didn’t want to deal with the programming bugs/issues people were posting about. Unfortunately the dongle works onto most of the times and it has failed on me during two trips in the last 1.5 months! Third trip coming up next week.

I would definitely reach out to their support team. Every experience people have posted about with them seems to be truly top notch support. I’ve been running my AF4 with Dongle since November and have yet to have a single issue. Currently feeding 4x a day at 9-11:30-1400-1630

 

[Jamie9]

For anybody that currently has the AF4, what is the smallest gap you think you could fit the hoses w/ holder through? Trying to figure out how extensively I'd have to modify the lid to my tank to make this work. Thanks!

 

[FireUnderwater]

For anybody that currently has the AF4, what is the smallest gap you think you could fit the hoses w/ holder through? Trying to figure out how extensively I'd have to modify the lid to my tank to make this work. Thanks!

Whenever I’m home later, I can measure the cutout on my lid from Top Lids to give you an exact measurement if you’d like.

 

[Jamie9]

Whenever I’m home later, I can measure the cutout on my lid from Top Lids to give you an exact measurement if you’d like.

That would be really helpful, thanks!