Neptune AFS Adjustability Modification

MTWiley · Nov 18, 2015

I had high hopes when I bought the AFS, unfortunately when I received it I found out that using Neptune's own food the Crossover Diet I had very little control over how much food was dispensed. I did 15 rotations on the following settings to get an average dispensing rate the results were as follows with the stock AFS:

Before Modification(15 Rotation Results):

Smallest Opening = 28 pellets dispensed (1-3 pellets per rotation, average of ~1.9 pellets per rotation)
Second Smallest Opening = ~878 pellets dispensed (53-66 pellets per rotation average of ~58.5 pellets per rotation)

With these results and a 60 cube with ~ 6 fish in 60 cube dispensing enough food ~2 pellets at a time (with at least a minute between each rotation using the built in Apex Food Profiles, might be able to trim it to ~30 seconds between rotations using advanced programming) I had to find a solution.(My wife and I moved half way across the country and haven't really made friends since moving, but we go back to visit family a few times a year and spent 2 weeks at home last year and are hoping to spend another 2 weeks there this summer)

My requirements were that:

Keep the AFS adjustable in since I'm looking at upgrading tanks in the future and really don't want to have to buy another AFS.
Be able to revert the modification since I've had a few mods not work out so well in the past and if the mod didn't do what I needed it to I needed to be able to sell it rather than just eat a ~$100 loss.

Here's what I've come up with:

1. Remove the stock adjustable shutter by slipping the back side of a knife between the tab and the pellet container.

2. Use the sample bag or another thick, but pliable piece of plastic and cut out a strip that's about half the width of the shutter (you can change the width of the strip depending on how much ofan adjustment you want/need to make to the original portion sizes) and at least one and a half times the length of the biggest opening.

3. Tape the strip cut in the previous step to the shutter and clean up the scotch tape along the red lines in the picture to make sure that it's still adjustable and consistent.

4. Put the modified shutter back into the pellet container and you're good to go. Here's what it should look like after the modification(these are just 3 examples, I think there are 15 possible settings between the smallest and largest openings.

Smallest opening:

Middle opening:

Largest opening:

After Modification(15 Rotation Results):

Smallest Opening = 19 pellets dispensed (1-2 pellets per rotation, average of ~1.3 pellets per rotation)
Second Smallest Opening = 155 pellets dispensed (8-13 pellets dispensed per rotation, average of ~10.3 pellets per rotation)

If you have any questions, concerns, thoughts, etc let me know and I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible.

djbetterly · Nov 29, 2015

This is good...I've had real issues with this, but never though to mod it.

MTWiley · Nov 29, 2015

I'm glad I was able to help, I've seen way too many barely used AFS on the classifieds of this and a number of other forums to think that I was the only one having an issue with it.