Auto feeder for Reef Nutrition Mysis Feast

So I'm coming to the point where I will have to leave my seahorses for a few days at a time over the summer. I knew this would be a challenge to overcome and I do think an auto mysis feeder, combined with a tank sitter is a safe way to go.

There are several really nice designs out there for refrigerated auto feeders (from azoox.org). Most follow the same overall concept thought up by Steve Weast. I will most likely follow his design too.

From azoox poster Michael Lukaczyn


From azoox poster Aquatic Engineer


I am planning on using Reef Nutrition Mysis Feast. This would eliminate the need for automatic stirring, which is usually accomplished with magnetic stirrers. More importantly, Mysis Feast has a much longer shelf life when refrigerated than thawed frozen mysis, which would probably only last a day or two when refrigerated.

The main problem is that the PE Mysis in Mysis Feast are quite large; according to the RN website 5 - 25 mm. I can attest to that as I feed frozen PE mysis occasionally to my seahorses. I'm worried the large mysis will quickly plug up most peristaltic pumps on the market. I have seen people use both Profilux and Bubble Magus dowers, but those use narrow ~3/16" tubing. Does anyone have any recommendations for a peristaltic pump that could move large particle sizes without getting plugged up? Does the size of the tubing even matter, since peristaltic pumps have very high head pressures?

Thanks for the help

 

This appears to be my solution to the issue of peristaltic pumps clogging up when used for larger feeds... the syringe pump.

From Razel Scientific


I am thinking of getting a 50 CC syringe and turning on the pump for a couple of minutes each day using my controller, so that it would pump out 10-20 mL of Mysis Feast per day. There are different sizes of motors available to change the speed.

 

That's cool.

 

For 340.00 it better work.

Razel Scientific Instruments » Model R-E

 

True that! There are less expensive models out there on Ebay of course. I will continue researching this and planning before spending a dime.