The Feeder that Saved my Fish

Have you ever been so busy that you can't even find the time to feed your fish? Me too. I haven't lost a fish in a long time until recently and I am nearly convinced my feeding routine, or lack thereof, was responsible. I vowed never to let that happen again. So at Reef-A-Palooza I bought a Lifeguard Aquatics Intelli-Feed Aquarium Fish Feeder. It has been running for a few weeks on my tank now and the novelty has not worn off. I love this thing. Read on for a little review.



I've had my eye on the Lifeguard Intelli-Feed for some time. It has a sealed drum to keep food dry, a versatile mount that should fit any tank and is easy to program. In fact, once you set the clock, it is already preset to feed at 8am and 6pm. This may be enough for most people. But you can really dial it in with up to 12 feedings times and even set the number of rations for each.


The Food

For food, I went with APBreed Chroma Boost pellet food that I believe was designed with this type of feeder in mind. This is high-quality Reef Nutrition food for 1 to 2 inch fish perfect for my Royal Gramma and Coral Beauty.


Great food for this feeder.


Adjusting the Feeder

I decided to go with 3 feedings with 1 ration each. I wanted to keep the rations very small so I tested it out and adjusted the feed gate a couple times.





The first time I tried it out, I went with the gate 2 clicks out from closed. With the small pellets, this ended up being quite a bit of food as shown. I only have two fish in my nano now, so I adjusted the gate down to 1 click from closed. At this setting, the Intelli-Feed kicked out just a pinch of pellets. This was perfect, especially for feeding 2 fish, 3 times a day.


Having the gate 2 clicks out from closed released a lot of small pellets for 2 fish


The perfect pinch of food from having the gate at its smallest opening. I went with this.


Finding the Sweet Spot

One thing to keep in mind is that, depending on what type of food you use, it may just float right into your overflow. So you either have to use sinking food or get creative with the targeting. That is what I did as the Chroma Boost floats. Fortunately my odd Neo-Nano aquarium with the high back wall and waterfall return was just the trick. I mounted it over the waterfall and the pellets went into and over the falls and submerged in the aquarium where they got sucked into the vortechs and shot around the aquarium. Perfect.


The Feeding

When the Intelli-Feed awakes it is reminiscent of a coo-coo-clock with a lot of whirring and mechanical movement. The drum comes out, rotates around, releasing the food and returns into the unit. My 4 year old gets pretty excited. Heck I get pretty excited I have to admit. It's fun to watch. And, like clockwork, your fish go nuts too.








No Stress

The Lifeguard Intelli-Feed Aquarium Fish Feeder is one of those things you didn't think you need but now you can't live without. I am such a huge fan. It has been rather profound. I never really realized how much feeding or not being able to feed had stressed me out when I was busy. Now when I come home late and see my tank, I smile knowing they've been fed. It's a win/win for me and my fish. I highly recommend one of these.


The Lifeguard Intelli-Feed Aquarium Fish Feeder

+ automatic feeder!
+ sealed drum keeps food fresh
+ easy to program
+ versatile tank mount
- a bit noisy
- 6v power-supply is optional

More:
http://www.lifegardaquatics.com/products/intelli-feed-aquarium-fish-feeder/


Check out the APEX version here!
http://www.3reef.com/threads/automa...om-neptune-systems-delivers-the-goods.150316/

 

Sweet feeder. 12 settings would be great for Anthias if you have them eating dry food.

 

nice review thanks for this +1

 

As always, awesome product review Matt.

Did you say the cost?

 

Thanks guys.

Todd I did not mention the cost. I've seen it for as low as $49 online with free shipping. But I have also seen it for $70 - for which I think it should come with the 6v power supply (out of the box it runs on 4 AA batteries). Batteries is probably fine and good for power outages though.
I paid $40 at Reef-A-Palooza. If you are at a show and Lifeguard is there, they will have it for that price.

Challenge for 3reefers:
I forgot to mention something. When daylight savings time rolled around recently, I wanted to change the time on the feeder. For the life of me I could not figure out how to do so with the manual. I ended up having to remove the tank mount, take the battery cover off and pull out a battery and put it back in. This put it into set the clock mode. In the first post I attached the manual. Can anyone see how to set the clock there without doing what I did?

Regardless, I can live with this quirk. The positives of this feeder far outweigh the two things I've mentioned here.

EDIT: Hey it's 8am, guess what just happened.

Matt

 

Hey Matt, that is a sweet little feeder. I have been eyeing the Apex feeder unit. It is basically the same unit, but with apex control. I am glad to hear you are liking it so far. Makes me want to move forward with the purchase. Thanks

 

Glad it helped Jon! Let me know what you think.
I do have a link to the APEX version at the bottom of the 1st post.

 

Nice write up and certainly something to consider for a next purchase. I have not asked them, but i don't think my fish recognize daylight savings time, so the difficult adjustment should not be a big issue for me either!