so whats the scoop on the frozen fish feeder?
 

just as the title states :D

It works :) but I can't really say when it will be ready or how much it will cost. Still have some refinements to make before a production version is ready.

Great news still, will this be a feeder that can feed more than once a day or is it a single type feeder? Couldnt see much from the video except for a lot of happy fish lol

This certainly perked my interest. I've been thinking about building one for a while.

I have it set to feed 10x/day :)

I am in :inlove:, deff. can't wait for this now.

Thanks

My anthias and wrasses would love that. If you need beta testers at some point..... :)

I am very, very interested in such a product. Updates would be much appreciated.

I would love to have something like this also. I have held off on fish like anthias due to not being able to stay around and feed them all day.

I feed my trio or Bartlett's once a day or so and they are fine. Which Antias specifically are you guys talking about that require 10x/day feedings?

I feed my Lyretail Anthias 5 times a day, 4 times with flakes and pellets and once with frozen foods. I would like to switch it to 4 times a day with frozen and once with flakes/pellets.

They get far more nutrition from quality flakes then they'd get from most frozen food but that's not the topic here.

However, I too am interested in the feeder so that I can "dose" frozen cyclopeeze multiple times a day.

I'd be interested in how you arrived at that conclusion xoomer?

its quite simple, you wouldn't do well if you ate filet mignon all the time. No matter how good it is.

Frozen food might have ton of protein but that is about it.

Quality flakes are like a very nicely balanced diet.

What do you consider "quality flakes"?

Flake food is processed and contains very little nutrition in relation to weight, (of the food). It also contains a lot of preservatives which include phosphates.

Whole fresh foods are best to feed marine fish, with a varied diet.

My fish will eat flake food and pellets, but I rarely feed it to them.

any new updates?

None that we can share. It is a very active project but we can't really discuss anything else at this time. We may have something more to say at MACNA though........

It appears you've said something already just by hinting at MACNA news. I really hope this product hits the market and I am actually able to get ahold of one. Hopefully this time without any official news was used to help gather the parts/supply of a bunch of these units so when the masses come knocking their is plenty to go around.

Anything new on this?

It's not perfect yet. Please see my signature for more details.... :)

Art is subjective.....just make this so someone with a sub <100G tank can afford to justify the price tag and you'll have my business

Well there is nothing more subjective than cost :wave:

I will give you some insight into what we are building and the general way we approach product development though.

It all starts with a problem and coming up with a elegant solution to solve that problem. We usually setup design goals for ourselves and they almost always follow this pattern:

1. Does it solve the problem?
2. Is it reliable?
3. Is it easy to use?
4. Does it look good?
5. How much is it going to cost?
6. Is there a market for it?
7. How much investment does it require to bring to market?

The feeder we have been working on for quite a number of years actually. We have developed several working versions of the concept but they have all been scrapped for one reason or another simply because it didn't meet all or most of the design goals. Notice how far down on the list cost is for us? We feel pretty strongly about never cheapening a product to lower the cost. If we can lower the cost through other means we always try to do this but we are not going to put our name and reputation behind a cheaply made product just to move a few more units.

So lets look at the feeder and some of the components that make up the "system". It is a freezer. It is a precision dosing unit. It is a mixer. It has either a stand alone controller or an interface to connect to a variety of reef controllers already on the market. All of these things are fairly expensive on their own so that will give you a basic idea of the "cost" here.

Will there be a market for something that has the above cost associated with it? We don't really know but, the target audience is going to be an enthusiast with a tank filled with expensive and finicky fish. Are there enough of them to justify us tooling up and starting a new production line? No idea.

The last item on the list is investment capital and it is going to be a lot. We are actually in the middle of construction of our new facility right now and we have pretty much everything tied up there. Someone on another forum mentioned crowd-funding this project and it is something we will give serious consideration to over the next few months. It could be a great solution for items #6 and #7 on the list.

Right now we are on #3 though so we have a bit of time. :)

Thank you for the information. I do understand the hardships, and understand that they need to be overcome. I think something that may be of value though that is much less expensive is if you were to sell a retrofit kit and indicate the type/size of freezer to use in the project. It would make the item much less expensive and easier to ship. Many people already have mini-freezers near their tank so it would actually be to their benefit not to have to spend extra money to use the product.

In terms of it having a controller or connecting to a controller from a 3rd party, i have enjoyed the idea behind your ATO that has the option on purchase to choose which one you want. I would be very open to this idea as it gives the most amount of options to users.

What type of information would this controller really need? I am curious how you really would be able to integrate to the controllers out there, I use a Reefkeeper elite, so I would like something controller connected, to allow me the ultimate control.

Also, as to reinforce the idea about doing a DIY kit for this product, if you sell a freezer with the unit built into it, then you limit the people that would be able to use it as the size might not be right for the space they have for this item. If it's a kit, people will be able to purchase it without that fear and get the most out of their purchases.

mix
dose cycle (controls multiple things)
clean cycle (controls multiple things)
monitor temp
freeze on
freeze off
fan on
fan off
status alerts

Those are just the basic functions of the top of my head so if there is no integrated controller you have a minimum of 5 cords to plug in to your controller outlet strip. Sounds messy and it is actually pretty expensive to dedicate that many control outlets on a strip. Our unit will absolutely have an integrated controller to handle all of these functions and more because in the long run it is actually the most cost effective way to go. What we are looking for with regards to external controllers is simply an interface to monitor and override some of the functions, possibly make the "alerts" more robust by handing off to a email client etc, not as a means for complete control. It will be an option, not a separate product. The size of the unit is along the lines of a 2l bottle of soda, not a dorm fridge, some will have room and some will not.

wow this is very exciting news !

what will be the price range ? any Ideas ?