What's in your Plank?

[DmitryB]

I bought a used Avast Plank feeder and it is a wonderful thing! I'd recommend people save some money and get one. (I also got the Mini for my 40 gallon; it's a bit different because it does not use a pump and does not send food down into the middle of the tank, but drops it on to the surface. I didn't quite understand this when I bought it, but it's fine!)

So what's in your Plank? What kind of food do you put there? My first batch I basically mixed every dry food I had, flakes, pellets, and coral food too. Observing what happens when it drops food, the flakes seem to be ignored when in the Plank (it's almost like they get ground down too small), but the pellets are eaten fast. So my next batch will be all pellets and coral food.

Does anyone put freeze dried mysis or brine shrimp? I saw somewhere that these need to hydrate first or they'll expand inside the fish's stomach if they eat them too dry, which can be dangerous. Is that the case? Do they have enough time to hydrate inside the chamber or is it not worth the risk?

 

[mmorrison55]

Im using the avast reef jerky. May eventually change to some other freeze dried

 

[rzimm33]

In my experience, too much freeze dried causes the food to get clogged and not dispense as intended.

 

[exnisstech]

I mix 5 different pellet, 2 types of flake, freeze dried calanus and mysis.

 

[exnisstech]

In my experience, too much freeze dried causes the food to get clogged and not dispense as intended.

What plugs, the feeder or the tube? I have a cannon ball on mine and was feeding reef jerky which is pretty much all freeze dried.

 

[DmitryB]

I mix 5 different pellet, 2 types of flake, freeze dried calanus and mysis.

So it's been safe to put in freeze dried mysis and such? It gets enough time to rehydrate before going to the fish?

 

[rzimm33]

What plugs, the feeder or the tube? I have a cannon ball on mine and was feeding reef jerky which is pretty much all freeze dried.

I was doing primarily freeze dried mysis which sits in the tube and isn’t shot down into the water column. I have even set the pump to activate when food is not being dropped and it still fails to come out. Usually I have to use a turkey baster to blast the mysis out and down into the water.

 

[exnisstech]

So it's been safe to put in freeze dried mysis and such? It gets enough time to rehydrate before going to the fish?

It appears to hydrate it. My understanding is that hydrating it is the purpose of the tube. I've been using the tube alone for quite a while and only recently started using the feeder but so far it's dropping food once every hour 11 hours a day. Food appears to be coming out each feeding. I have to feed fish from little damsels to 9" tangs so I create mix of food that hopefully satisfies them all. I still feed frozen a few times a day.