Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

On the search for an auto feeder for my system. So far have spotted

THIS

or

THIS

Going by price alone, the Cloverleaf would appear the better of the two, but such is not always the case...

Anyone have any experiences with either? Alternatives??

The first appears to be similar to the "Koi Chief".... OBO used them....

The Cloverleaf has always been regarded as the "bees knees"... and I have used them...

But the Cloverleaf is now manufactured in China... and the last batch I had... had all sorts of problems with the timers and power supplies...

Eeew. That doesn't sound good... Reading the descriptions, I get the impression that the pond feeder can make multiple "deposits" in a given feeding time. Sort of like a pulsing system, rather than one large dump, as seems to be the case with the Cloverleaf.

I like that the CL is mains powered...I am guarenteed to forget to replace batteries when required...

This pic is from Ryans thread, maybe you could PM him to see what type they are and if any good..

I have THIS one.. Had issues with mice getting into it with it just sitting on top of the tank, but up on a bracket it seems to work ok..

Nope.. the Cloverleaf has the same programmable abilites.. to deliver a set amount of feed... at whatever intervals you program...

They're a stock standard "off the shelf" aquaculture belt feeder...

So I got the "koi pond" one (first pic)...but it despenses waaaaay too much food

Filled it with a Chinese takeaway container of 1mm pellet food, switched to manual mode and promptly dumped half of all that food into a waiting bucket below. Not really ideal...

The unit incorporates a paddle wheel/funnel type system which is about 60mm at its widest diameter , with an outlet hole of about 40mm diam. Any tips on modifying this to dispense less...? I'm thinking to either restrict the outlet or inlet areas, but with that 60mm through the funnel, I'm not sure that would make a huge difference...except maybe jam the paddle wheel with backed up food...

Anyone wanna buy a feeder? Brand new, great nick, perfect for larger system containing 1 million + fish... Cheap, cheap!

That's the trouble with 95% of the feeders.... (most of them are modified pet feeders)...

Some of them work alright once you get up to a 4mm pellet...

Below that... and the pellet just dumps through....

The one I posted earlier is much the same, it's supposed to give a specific volume or multiples of it, which worked out to be anywhere from 20-30g with the 3mm feed i'm using.. It's meant to be a 5th of a cup..

I spent much time and money trying different feeders.

Those belt feeders are good but they are designed that you fill them once each day and the feeder slowly feeds the contents of the belt so it doesn't really help if you are going on holiday.

I've used the Ergo feeders which look very similar to the Cloverleaf ones. Has an aggitator up in the hopper and is an auger type feeder that doesn't simply let the feed fall through so very adjustable that way. However, no feeders are perfect. They don't seal out moisture/humidity let alone bugs and I've even had a problem with rodents trying to chew into them but I haven't found anything better other than having an observant person do the feeding.

Automatic fish feeders are dangerous. It is easy to mess up when programing the timer (have you ever set your alarm for pm instead of am sort of thing? I once dumped the entire hopper of feed when I adjusted the feeder in a hurry.) They can also be dangerous even when you don't mess up and the timer is working properly. See it is important to observe your fish eating and adjust the amount of feed accordingly. An automatic feeder can't take weather/temperature or something putting the fish off their feed into account and if you are not paying attention to how much of the feed they are eating and how fast, you can't adjust the feeder accordingly. Please use automatic feeders with extreme caution if you absolutely must use them.

We a building our own so once its done will share. Running it off an Arduino board so its pretty flexible plus will do a few other things such as monitor air pressure, tank volume and temps. You can see a few pics so far on badgers second system thread.

I tend to echo TCL's thought... don't use them...

You're better off not feeding the fish... than having problems...

Can definitely see the issues that could arise...but what then is the point of having fish? Might as well just have a hydro set up...

I've just started a new job and finding I'm not getting home until dusk. By then, available light at the tank is minimal and the fish don't eat a lot. Hence the feeder, so I can at least attempt to have them fed on a semi regular basis.

Would it be fair to have the feeder go off just once a day, to reduce the possibility of issues should the fish not be eating? At least then they'd get the one feed, but not be overfed...?