Automatic feeder/fertilizers

[Troy Bruder]

Hello,

I'm going to be going on a 10 day vacation in the near future, and need some
type of automated feeder to both feed my fish, and dose my liquid PMDD
fertilizer.. Does anyone have any automatic feeders that they like or could
recommend?

Thanks!
Troy

[Joe Ferenchik]

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 08:50:49 -0400, "Troy Bruder"
> wrote:

>Hello,
>
>I'm going to be going on a 10 day vacation in the near future, and need some
>type of automated feeder to both feed my fish, and dose my liquid PMDD
>fertilizer.. Does anyone have any automatic feeders that they like or could
>recommend?
>
>Thanks!
>Troy
>


Hi there,

I have the Eheim fertilizer auto doser. I use it to dose the iron. I
initially bought it to dose my pmdd but what I found out is that the
pmdd will settle out and the heavier components will sink to the
bottom. Therefore pmdd needs to be shaken well before addition to the
tank. Since that the doser didn't work for that I manually add the
pmdd, and use the doser for supplying the liquid iron only. As for
auto feeders, I enlist the services of a relative or neighbor, but
here's what I do. I use old 35mm film canisters, and put the amount of
food that I want dosed in the cans. I tell the person coming to do the
feeding to only put the contents of 1 can in each aquarium, and to
only come to feed the fish every other day. Then I take all of the
food cans that are under the aquariums, and put them in a bag in a
closet. I've never had a problem with anyone overfeeding and polluting
the water. Most folks that don't have cold blooded animals don't
realize that they don't need to be fed at the intervals that warm
blooded animals need. They don't also realize that most fish in the
wild go for days without eating and they do just fine. With real
plants there are grazers that will feed off of the plants and algae as
needed too. If you don't have someone that can come and take care of
the fish for you when you're gone, just give them a little food before
you leave and don't worry about it. They will be just fine. Another
thing you can do to help quell algae growth is to cut your light
timers back a few hours. When I take off I set mine back from 12 to 8
hours a day. This will help compensate for the lack of nutrients in
the water column.

Joe

[Troy Bruder]

Thanks for the information! Is the product you have the "Eheim Liquidoser"?



<Joe Ferenchik> wrote in message
...
>
> On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 08:50:49 -0400, "Troy Bruder"
> > wrote:
>
>>Hello,
>>
>>I'm going to be going on a 10 day vacation in the near future, and need
>>some
>>type of automated feeder to both feed my fish, and dose my liquid PMDD
>>fertilizer.. Does anyone have any automatic feeders that they like or
>>could
>>recommend?
>>
>>Thanks!
>>Troy
>>
>
>
> Hi there,
>
> I have the Eheim fertilizer auto doser. I use it to dose the iron. I
> initially bought it to dose my pmdd but what I found out is that the
> pmdd will settle out and the heavier components will sink to the
> bottom. Therefore pmdd needs to be shaken well before addition to the
> tank. Since that the doser didn't work for that I manually add the
> pmdd, and use the doser for supplying the liquid iron only. As for
> auto feeders, I enlist the services of a relative or neighbor, but
> here's what I do. I use old 35mm film canisters, and put the amount of
> food that I want dosed in the cans. I tell the person coming to do the
> feeding to only put the contents of 1 can in each aquarium, and to
> only come to feed the fish every other day. Then I take all of the
> food cans that are under the aquariums, and put them in a bag in a
> closet. I've never had a problem with anyone overfeeding and polluting
> the water. Most folks that don't have cold blooded animals don't
> realize that they don't need to be fed at the intervals that warm
> blooded animals need. They don't also realize that most fish in the
> wild go for days without eating and they do just fine. With real
> plants there are grazers that will feed off of the plants and algae as
> needed too. If you don't have someone that can come and take care of
> the fish for you when you're gone, just give them a little food before
> you leave and don't worry about it. They will be just fine. Another
> thing you can do to help quell algae growth is to cut your light
> timers back a few hours. When I take off I set mine back from 12 to 8
> hours a day. This will help compensate for the lack of nutrients in
> the water column.
>
> Joe

[Joe Ferenchik]

Hi there,

Yeah that's it. It works great. Now if there was a way to keep the
pmdd from seperating out and needing a good shake before application
it would work great for that too. I've got mine set to dump 8ml a day
(max amount of 1ml per rotation X 8), and I have to fill the reservoir
about every 14 days or so. Not too bad.Thats for a really well stocked
75G tank pretty well split 50/50 with fast and slow growers. Adding
80-90ml of the pmdd every 5 days (using Marineland's maintenance timer
so I remember)will get me excellent pearling, and adequate growth on
the fast stem plants, but not so fast that I'm continously having to
prune them. I'd say that the stems have to get lopped about every 30
days or so to keep them below the waters surface. For me that's every
other water change (I do 14 day changes). I can't offer any advice
with food dispensers other than to say that I know there are issues
with some of them clogging, due to humidity, and other factors. I'm
sure someone more knowledgeable than I can offer some input and
direction for you. Good Luck

Joe


On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 12:17:41 -0400, "Troy Bruder"
> wrote:

>Thanks for the information! Is the product you have the "Eheim Liquidoser"?

[Troy Bruder]

Thanks again Joe.. I have my PMDD mix in a plastic bottle.. And I noticed
that after about 5-7 days, everything FINALLY dissolves.. Of course, I
still shake it before dosing the tank... So my theory is, to have a fully
dissolved bottle, shake it good, then add that into the Eheim and just see
how it goes..

I'm dosing 5ml per day.. I assume the Eheim doses 1ml at a time, so I'll
have to set it for 5x per day.

Thanks!
Troy


<Joe Ferenchik> wrote in message
...
> Hi there,
>
> Yeah that's it. It works great. Now if there was a way to keep the
> pmdd from seperating out and needing a good shake before application
> it would work great for that too. I've got mine set to dump 8ml a day
> (max amount of 1ml per rotation X 8), and I have to fill the reservoir
> about every 14 days or so. Not too bad.Thats for a really well stocked
> 75G tank pretty well split 50/50 with fast and slow growers. Adding
> 80-90ml of the pmdd every 5 days (using Marineland's maintenance timer
> so I remember)will get me excellent pearling, and adequate growth on
> the fast stem plants, but not so fast that I'm continously having to
> prune them. I'd say that the stems have to get lopped about every 30
> days or so to keep them below the waters surface. For me that's every
> other water change (I do 14 day changes). I can't offer any advice
> with food dispensers other than to say that I know there are issues
> with some of them clogging, due to humidity, and other factors. I'm
> sure someone more knowledgeable than I can offer some input and
> direction for you. Good Luck
>
> Joe
>
>
> On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 12:17:41 -0400, "Troy Bruder"
> > wrote:
>
>>Thanks for the information! Is the product you have the "Eheim
>>Liquidoser"?
>