DIY pellet food set up...

[afboundguy]

In my quest to keep my mandarin fat and healthy I purchased an automatic pellet food setup and noticed they were making into the overflow. So I 3D printed a ring so they would sink and not stay on the surface. Issue with that was it wasn't making it to the sandbed.

I happened to see they make acrylic/glass fish tank feeding rings like this

Only issue is most of them are only 12" max and ideally I'd want it to touch the bottom for the mandarin. I also thought about how if it only came out at the bottom the other fish might not be the nicest and steal the food.

So I thought I have a 3D printer and I have designed plenty of things so I decided to design something that would allow some of the food to come out in the middle somewhere with some still coming out at the bottom.

I purchased two 1/4" black PVC pipes and designed the above piece to let them slip in and added the small angled piece so some of the sinking pellets would come out.

 

[afboundguy]

I did a test run today without the pellet feeder and it worked pretty well. I think I may redesign the middle section to give it a smaller dish size if not remove it completely as I don't think it's totally necessary. I was going to put a dish at the bottom but I think I just may leave the pipe open at the bottom.

I do think I will design a top funnel part as the cheapo foldable one I purchased isn't the nicest looking. I'll update subsequent versions and designs accordingly but figured I'd share my idea and get some input! I haven't hooked up the pellet feeder yet but that will be the next step along with a video of it in action!

 

[Owen386]

Very cool! Wanna share the .stl ?

 

[afboundguy]

I will but it still needs lots of adjustments. I made the ID too small and had to Dremel out the inside a bit for the 1/4" PVC pipe to fit so I need to adjust that. Once I have a more solid design I wouldn't mind sharing at all.

 

[afboundguy]

Even with the super busy weekend I was able to start 3D printing version 2.0. I redesigned the middle section without the dish and it's printing right now.

 

[afboundguy]

Designed the top funnel part earlier in the week and printed it out this morning. Should have time to work on the tank tomorrow and plan to test it out with the pellet feeder if I can remember where I put it

 

[FishieBusiness]

Love this idea. It is pretty F-ing Ingenious.

 

[kgstei]

Does it work for the mandarins? When I had a scooter blenny I used a PVC tube that went through an inverted piece of Tupperware that was about it half inch off the sand. The food would come down the tube and under the Tupperware which would keep the other fish from going after it. It looked pretty bad but It worked pretty well until the hermit crab figured it out.

 

[afboundguy]

Love this idea. It is pretty F-ing Ingenious.

Thanks hopefully it works like my mind envisioned it!

Does it work for the mandarins? When I had a scooter blenny I used a PVC tube that went through an inverted piece of Tupperware that was about it half inch off the sand. The food would come down the tube and under the Tupperware which would keep the other fish from going after it. It looked pretty bad but It worked pretty well until the hermit crab figured it out.

My mandarin eats pellet food so I am assuming it will work and he'll figure out the timing as he does with the BBS setup I have in the other back corner of the tank. Hoping to set it up and test it shortly so we're how it goes!

 

[afboundguy]

Designed and printed a funnel for the top for version 2.0! Middle part came out nicely.

 

[afboundguy]

Drilled holes in the PVC and added several suction cups

 

[afboundguy]

All put together! It does blend in nicely with it being all black.

 

[afboundguy]

However version 2.0 didn't work very well. It took about 20-25 seconds before the TDO started to sink but none of it made it to the sandbed. I didn't try any other pellets and I just dropped them in by hand. I'll have to test it with the actual pellet feeder that will have several different types of pellet food mixed together. I am guessing I'll need to redesign the middle section and shrink the opening and cut back the angled piece so more pellets make it to the sandbed.

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