Feeding Stations

[mr9iron]

Originally Posted by Paul B

In that thing I built 6" above this post. Any seawater, even old tank water.

I collect them but you need some pods from anywhere. You probably stil have some in there or you need to get some sand from some ones tank. Just throw some pellets in there every day , pods will grow as long as you don't keep the tank to sterile.

If it's a yellow clown gobi he won't eat from the feeder. I feed them live worms like I feed all my fish. They will thrive and even spawn on worms, mine spawn at least once a week. With most other foods, they will croak. They will also eat small pieces of clam and sometimes small mysis.

Very cool idea paul. Thanks for sharing it. What kind of worms do you feed?

[Paul B]

I use live blackworms and whiteworms every day

[PaintGuru]

Can I ask a stupid question? How do you actually get the BBS down the tube into the feeder? I would think that when the feeder is at the bottom of the tank, the water pressure would push water up the tube to the height of the top of the tank. Do you just add the brine to that and let them swim down the tube into the feeder or is there some other way you're pushing them to their destination?

[madadi]

I wonder if this can work with decapsulated eggs. It would be so nice if they can hatch at 1.025sg and so convenient. just poor a ton in and wait.

[Paul B]

Can I ask a stupid question? How do you actually get the BBS down the tube into the feeder? I would think that when the feeder is at the bottom of the tank,

A lot of people ask me that question so I guess it is confusing. I drain the water and new born shrimp from the feeder into a baby brine shrimp sieve. Then I squirt a little water in it and quickly pour the shrimp into a small amount of water, about a tablespoon. I then use one of these (pictured) and squirt that small amount of water with the shrimp into the feeder tube immediately followed by another tablespoon of water that pushes all the shrimp down the tube into the feeder. You don't want to put to much water into the feeder or it would push all the shrimp through the mesh and out of the feeder at once.
trust me it works as I do it twice a day.
I hatch them in old tank water as they don't seem to care how they hatch and never asked to see the hydrometer.

[tallball158]

Originally Posted by madadi

I wonder if this can work with decapsulated eggs. It would be so nice if they can hatch at 1.025sg and so convenient. just poor a ton in and wait.

Don't they still need to be tumbled, or is that only for the ones with shells. I am not sure you would get that kind of flow through the container to get them to tumble. If that works, that would awesome though!

[Paul B]

I don't know why you would want to tumble shrimp eggs unless you like to make them dizzy.

I forgot the picture of what I use to load the thing and do everything else on the tank.

[spamreefnew]

what a great idea! now if I only had a fish that needed to eat pods.(off to the LFS),,,o no honey,,that fish was always in there..

[swiftvision]

Do you ever have to take out the container? Thinking about burying it.

[Paul B]

I take out the feeder about every two weeks to clean because the screen gets covered in muck and the shrimp can't get out

[fearyaks]

Hey Paul B - Thank you for being a wonderful resource for both humor and marine life. I always enjoy reading your posts (no pressure) and I'll sometimes even learn a thing or two!

Anyway, I picked up a Psychedelic Mandarin Dragonet a few weeks ago that was eating prepared food. Unfortunately, I realized that after adding him to my main tank he was not able to out compete my other fish for the prepped food and was losing weight.

So, I went to the tool store and picked up some stuff to make a feeder.

I fill it with BBS every morning and about 5 minutes later he's there... with his 'hermie buddies' and the pom pom crab. They hang out there for most of the day and he 'seems' to be gaining weight.



Thanks again!

[Paul B]

Great, that's what he is supposed to do.

[csammis]

Originally Posted by fearyaks

Hey fearyaks, I hope you don't mind if I ask some questions about your feeder...I've built one that looks a lot like PaulB's original in this thread but I suspect mine's not working to its full capacity.

What diameter tube is your downspout, 1/2" PVC? Do you just pour in the shrimp and let them sink down? I used 3/32" ID rigid acrylic tubing and I think it's just too small. The shrimp don't sink without additional water being syringed in and no matter how slow I go the shrimp still get blasted out.

What did you end up using for mesh? I've got a stretched nylon but at the rate the shrimp come out of the feeder I suspect the openings are too wide.

Thanks for any advice you can give!

[Paul B]

Don't stretch the nylon, put it on loose. After you put the shrimp in the tube put a little water in to get the shrimp down. 1/2" tubing is way to large because you need a lot of water in there to push the shrimp down and most of the shrimp will exit through the mesh as you are pouring water in. Use 3/8" tubing.

[fearyaks]

Originally Posted by csammis

Hey fearyaks, I hope you don't mind if I ask some questions about your feeder...I've built one that looks a lot like PaulB's original in this thread but I suspect mine's not working to its full capacity.

What diameter tube is your downspout, 1/2" PVC? Do you just pour in the shrimp and let them sink down? I used 3/32" ID rigid acrylic tubing and I think it's just too small. The shrimp don't sink without additional water being syringed in and no matter how slow I go the shrimp still get blasted out.

What did you end up using for mesh? I've got a stretched nylon but at the rate the shrimp come out of the feeder I suspect the openings are too wide.

Thanks for any advice you can give!

Hey, sooo sorry about not seeing this earlier. I was really busy with work and usually don't check these main forums.
So I ended up using 1/2 PVC as you mentioned. This has the benefit of being rigid, having a bit of weight and you can get fitted elbows easily. The disadvantage is that you end up needing a larger container. I found some small tupperware pieces - Like a square version of http://www.amazon.com/GladWare-Round...ble+tupperware

I use an old pair of nylons from the wife and as Paul said, try not to stretch it too much. It's challenging for me to see how many shrimp are 'escaping' so I usually rely on my little Mandarin to let me know. If he (or she) are still there a few hours after feeding, I know things are good... otherwise, it's time to get a new stocking.

I tried a smaller tube and had a heck of a time getting the BBS into the container. So, this is my weirdo method.

1. Scoop a small amount of tank water into a bowl.. say ~ 3-4 oz
2. Filter out the BBS from their station and get them into said bowl.
3. Use a funnel (I use this one - http://www.amazon.com/Lumax-LX-1603-...mission+funnel) as it fits into the 1/2 pipe and isn't too unwieldy. I then put the funnel (and tube) into the pipe. I pour the 3-4oz of BBS water into the funnel and gravity usually does the rest for me.

It's probably not the most efficient way to transfer them but I figure at worst, I have some BBS floating around the tank for my other fishies to munch on.

Please feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

[Zephrant]

An old thread, but since I just 3D printed a version of this, I wanted to leave a link to it.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...8#post25294088

This model is magnetically attached, so the user can fill it, deploy it on the side of the aquarium, and retrieve it.

[mr9iron]

Originally Posted by Zephrant

An old thread, but since I just 3D printed a version of this, I wanted to leave a link to it.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...8#post25294088



This model is magnetically attached, so the user can fill it, deploy it on the side of the aquarium, and retrieve it.

That is a really cool idea.


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[Joe0813]

i need to make one of these

[Zephrant]

I've since tested it, and the "fine tulle" is not fine enough, the brine shrimp just swam right out. I ordered some micro mesh which came in yesterday, and I'll give that a try soon, then report back which size worked best.

Several people have said nylons works well too, but I wanted a more precise mesh than "stretch the nylon a bit".

[reef cuber]

Love this idea Zephrant... please let us know how the fine mesh works, and then how much you'll charge to make me one!

[MondoBongo]

Originally Posted by Zephrant

Several people have said nylons works well too, but I wanted a more precise mesh than "stretch the nylon a bit".

i would also be curious was size and type you end up with. "just stretch the nylon a bit" drives me nuts. it always seems that i'm either stretching it too much, or too little, and would just love a nice sturdy re-usable mesh i didn't have to guess with.

[Zephrant]

I bought about six different mesh sizes from eBay. Many of them were only a dollar or two. But I have not figured out the best size yet. My guess is 500u or larger. 250 is way too small.

[MondoBongo]

Originally Posted by Zephrant

I bought about six different mesh sizes from eBay. Many of them were only a dollar or two. But I have not figured out the best size yet. My guess is 500u or larger. 250 is way too small.

thank you, i'm going to have to take a look around at what they have.

there was a company called, i think, Nintex that makes specific mesh for industrial filter applications i had looked at a while back, but all their stuff was fairly expensive, they were meant for much more industrial applications than a fish tank, but still a potential option.

[josepha]

So I love this thread and I am trying to figure out how to combine Paul-B’s 2 chamber hatchery with his feeder, into one contraption - way to perhaps get them to swim toward the light into a smaller that can be lightly “pumped” from the second hatchery chamber directly through the tube into the feeder. Just trying to simplify the steps/labor due to my laziness. Any thoughts Paul and all?