What to make a feeder for aquarium fish from. How to make an automatic feeder for aquarium fish with your own hands. DIY aquarium lighting - video description

I wanted to decorate my room and a small aquarium seemed like a great idea. But since I'm always away for weekends or even longer periods, I can't feed the fish, and they probably don't like it. So, I needed to find a solution, and when I had some free time, I brainstormed for a fish feeding automation solution that I could implement myself.

There are many solutions on the Internet with automatic fish feeders, but mostly these are ugly designs with servo drives. They are bulky and difficult to adjust to the correct amount of food.

Using Inventor, I designed a screw that can be 3D printed. Using this and a stepper motor, I push the aquarium fish food through the tube directly into the aquarium. I can set the duration of feeding, which will help set the device to give exactly the same amount of food every day.

Important note: I tested it with several types of food. Flakes tend to jam the engine, so it's better to use granules.

The RTC module monitors time, and the stepper motor receives commands from it through the Arduino Nano board. To everything I added two panels of LEDs (white and of blue color), their brightness is adjusted by separate potentiometers.

Step 1: What you need for assembly

Arduino Nano board: the code is simply uploaded to it via a USB cable. Arduino Pro Mini is also great.
DC female connector for connecting a 12V adapter.
Power adapter: I use 12V and 2A, this is more than enough.
DS1307 module for time storage. It has a spare 3V battery, so the module will keep time even if the power goes out.
Potentiometer for connecting to the Arduino analog input to adjust the brightness of the LEDs.
LED panels operating on 12V. Brightness is adjusted via PWM on Arduino.
TIP122: Bipolar Transistor (NPN) for 12V regulation to control LED brightness (any NPN will do as long as its specification is appropriate)
Stepper motor and driver to control it. The motor turns the screw, the screw pushes the food down the tube.
A small piece of a breadboard to make it easy to connect everything

Step 2: Required Equipment

Laser cutter for making a housing that will be in the aquarium. I used 2.5 mm thick MDF for the body.
Tube with outer diameter 16 mm and inner diameter 13 mm. You can find one at your local plumbing store or similar store.
3D printer for printing screws.

Step 3: MDF Case

Show 5 more images

As mentioned, I used 2.5mm MDF board. I have access to a laser cutter that quickly, accurately, and very precisely cut out the parts I needed. I will not include a file with my body parts because every aquarium is different and you will need to customize the body to suit your needs.

Step 4: Tube Construction

The tube into which the screw is placed should be 120mm long, so it will fit neatly into the housing. As you can see in the previous pictures, the front and middle walls of the case are double, they firmly hold the tube.

A small upward facing tube connects to the food reservoir and can be made longer to accommodate more food. A downward-facing tube hangs over the water and carries food into the aquarium (via a rotating screw).

Step 5: Screw

The screw was also designed in Inventor and 3D printed. It is attached directly to the axis of the stepper motor. The screw fits perfectly and the plastic is strong enough to withstand the torque required to push food into the fish feeder in the aquarium.

As it rotates, the propeller will exert pressure on the feed, but the feed will also exert equal and opposite pressure on the propeller, meaning the propeller will be pushed in the opposite direction and does not need to be glued to the engine.

I have attached the STL file for those who want to print the screw. Be sure to set the scale to x10.

Files

Step 6: DS1307 RTC Clock Module

Set the time. Because the clock module is inaccurate, I reset it every few months. I would recommend getting the DS3231 module, it is much more accurate.

The module communicates with Arduino via SDA (A4) and SCL (A5) lines. It also needs to be connected to the 5V and GND pins on the Arduino.

The library for configuring the module can be found at this link.

Step 7: Code

I have attached some code that will help get the engine running. A friend helped me write the code, so the comments to the code will be in Danish. If you don't understand something, use a translator.

Files

Step 8: What do I plan to do in the future?

design a printed circuit board
put an LED to indicate that food is running low
increase the food tank (mine lasts for a week)
add a two-channel relay to switch between the filter and the oxygen pump
add a cover and install potentiometers on it to adjust the brightness of the LEDs
add a bluetooth module (HC-05) and display the temperature and water level, external temperature and tank fill percentage on the computer screen
install a switch to turn on/off an automatic aquarium feeder
etc.

Why do people buy automatic feeders for their aquarium pets? There are various reasons: being very busy at work, the desire to ensure that the feeding regimen is followed accurately, leaving for several days on business or traveling, etc. It would seem that the easiest option is to go to a pet store and buy one. But which feeder should you choose? Or maybe it makes sense to try to make it yourself?

What is the use of feeders?

A fish feeder is a kind of discipline. Feeding will be associated with only one location. Thanks to this, you can improve the condition of the water in the aquarium, since the residues will settle in only one place, which allows them to be removed from the aquarium or collected by catfish. The catfish will not have to scour the entire ground in search of food; it will know exactly where to look for the treasured delicacy. The minimal distribution of food in the aquarium prevents rotting processes, which means the water stays clean longer.

A feeder for live food greatly simplifies the feeding process. The fact is that particles of such food are heavier than water and quickly sink down, so slow fish or those who do not know how to feed from the bottom do not have time to fully enjoy live food. Thanks to a properly selected feeder, particles are retained in it, which will allow the fish to slowly eat all the food offered.

Automatic feeder: general principle of operation

The operating principle of the device is based on portioned feed supply per unit of time. The mechanics of most modern automatic feeders are, in principle, the same: a strictly dosed portion of food is poured into the water through a hole in the drum.

After food is served, the drum rotates and its compartment is refilled from the common chamber. The capacity of the feed compartment is adjusted using a special curtain, which can be moved in one direction or another until a characteristic click is heard.

In addition to drum-type devices, there are:

Fully automated automatic feeders with feeding during the opening of a special shutter (like curtains in old mechanical cameras).

And screw devices, when the feed dose is regulated by the number of turns of the worm shaft.

Also available for sale disk samples, where food for the fish is supplied sequentially from compartments on the disk. At a certain time, the lower disk rotates and all the food from one compartment is poured into the aquarium. Next up is the next drive bay.

But the main technological unit in all commercial automatic feeders is, of course, the electronic control unit.

Many devices can be powered by both household AC power and ordinary batteries.

How to make an automatic feeder for an aquarium?

The process of making an automatic feeder with your own hands is very simple and does not take much time. For work we will need the following materials:

small analog clock with alarm;
plastic transparent container;
a transparent plastic tube with a diameter of about 7-8mm.

Now let's look at the instructions for making an automatic feeder for an aquarium with your own hands.

We make a hole in a plastic container with a slightly smaller diameter than the diameter of the cutting and insert the tube. Then you won't have to use additional glue.

The drum does not need to be fully loaded. It is enough to fill it two-thirds, then the food granules will not fall out all at once under their own weight. In addition, the clock hand can withstand a certain weight and should be loaded experimentally gradually, and we will attach the container to it.

How does a do-it-yourself automatic fish feeder work?
A container with food pellets is attached to the clock hand. Since the container makes two revolutions in 24 hours, granules will spill out of the hole in the tube twice a day. This is quite enough for feeding.
The size of the hole in the tube of the self-made automatic feeder will determine the number of pellets that will fall out at a time. The larger it is, the more food will enter the aquarium.
The automatic feeder for an aquarium with your own hands is ready and now you can safely use it in practice.

Choosing a place for the feeder in the aquarium

It is up to you to choose what you will use - an automatic fish feeder or a conventional one that requires manual manipulation. However, one rule should be remembered: carefully choose the place where you will have it, preferably where there is no aeration system or heating devices. Ideally, it is advisable to turn off the aeration system during feeding so that the feed does not spread over the entire surface of the water. However, as you can imagine, if an automatic fish feeder is used, this item may not be feasible.

Feeder functions

Such designs are very useful when using live and dry food. It is they who prevent food from spreading over the entire surface of the water, ending up in hard-to-reach places where it will safely rot. In this regard, an automatic fish feeder is a real lifesaver. When using live food, the feeder is also very important. It allows you to keep heavy worms on the surface of the water, preventing them from getting lost under rocks at the bottom, where they are likely to rot.

In what cases can you not do without an automatic feeder?

A working aquarist always has to solve the problem of regularly feeding his pets. Being away from home all day, this can be quite problematic. When you go on vacation for half a month, you can’t take an aquarium with you either, so a lifesaver like an automatic feeder comes to the rescue.

Nowadays, as was done in the days of our grandparents, there is no need to “reinvent the wheel”, because given the demand for automatic feeders for aquariums, some manufacturers of pet products have adopted them. These devices have a variety of designs and are programmed for feeding hours and feed volume.

Brief overview of commercial samples

Like all other aquarium accessories, automatic feeders from various manufacturers are quite widely represented in trading network. They vary in size, container capacity, design and, of course, price. Moreover, the cost depends mainly on the degree of automation: the more electronics there are in the feeder, the more expensive it is.

Model Eheim TWIN

The German company Eheim produces expensive, elite equipment for aquariums, and the samples of automatic fish feeders presented by this company are no exception.

Has 2 feed compartments with a total capacity of 160 ml. Each compartment operates independently to deliver food various types at different times. However, you can program the feeding process in any way you like.

To prevent the formation of product lumps due to moisture, the device is equipped with a mini-fan that automatically dries the food in the compartments.

The model is powered from 4 AA batteries, which are included in the delivery set; their resource is enough for about 4 months of work. Of course, the price of Eheim TWIN is not small - about 7 thousand rubles for a 600-gram device.

Hagen

Another German company, Hagen, has taken the path of reducing the size of its equipment.

Thus, the electronic model Hagen Nutramatix weighs only 140 g, and its hopper holds much less feed - only 14 g.

This sample is well suited for feeding fry, since it can deliver doses of even the smallest dry food 2 times a day at a programmed time. The device runs on 2 batteries.

Juwel

A budget version of automatic feeders is offered by the company Juwel (Germany).

The drum-type model weighs 300 g, runs on 2 batteries, does not require labor-intensive maintenance and provides twice the feed per day.

You can install the device anywhere, the main thing is to cut a corresponding hole in the lid of the aquarium.

The volume of the hopper for this sample is 100 g, and many aquarists believe that this device is almost ideal in conditions of long-term absence.

FERPLAST CHEF

The Italians are not lagging behind German manufacturers.

The FERPLAST CHEF automatic feeder (screw type) accurately doses food, can serve it 3 times a day, protects food from humid air and operates for quite a long time on 2 batteries.

In short, the variety of branded automatic fish feeders allows you to choose exactly the option that is needed at a given time. But you can make this device yourself.

Do not forget that aquarium fish are just as much pets as dogs and cats. Like other pets, fish should have their own place for feeding. Inexperienced aquarists are sure that the inhabitants of an artificial reservoir do not care how and where they eat. But, if you consider feeding through a feeder, it becomes clear that this method has many advantages. So, the fish get used to the place and time of feeding. Creating a routine has a beneficial effect on the health of the inhabitants.

What is the use of feeders?

Variety of models

Today in the pet store you can find a huge assortment of different aquarium feeders. But if you don’t want to spend money, you can build a simple structure yourself. All models can be divided into floating and automatic.

If you decide to purchase a floating option, then it is more convenient to purchase a model with suction cups. Such feeders are attached to the wall, which will not allow the fish to move it and the pump to be carried away. Most often there are plastic frames with food poured into the middle. But if you don’t yet know where the power supply will be located, then you can choose a regular model without fasteners.

Pay attention to live food feeders. In appearance, it looks like a cone, at the sharp end of which there is a mesh. The cone is conveniently located under water, so changing the height of the water will not affect convenience in any way. All the worms remain in the cone until the fish grabs them on its own. If you remove the grate from the bottom, you can use it as a regular feeder for different types stern. A fixed feeder on one of the walls of the aquarium is also inconvenient due to the natural lowering of the water level. If the aquarium feeder is fixed on one side, then after changing the level, the feeder will tilt and stop performing its functions. Manufacturers have thought about this, so you can find modern floating models with guides that help it adjust to the water level.

People who:

Often go on business trips or travel;
Contain a large number of aquariums.

The automatic fish feeder is mounted on the upper edge of the side wall. It is a can with an engine. The timer sets the time when the food will be delivered to the pets. As soon as the appointed time approaches, the box automatically throws out the portion. Since the amount of food varies depending on the type and number of inhabitants, the feeder is equipped with a quantity regulator. To begin with, you will have to spend a lot of time to adjust the optimal amount. Remember that in no case should the food settle to the bottom and rot, no matter how hungry the fish may look, it is worth limiting their diet.

An automatic feeder is ideal as the main source of food, but you shouldn’t leave things to chance. After all, it can only dose dry food, and fish need a balanced diet. Give your fish live or plant food.

The feeder must be installed in opposite side from the filter and compressor. If you place it in the same corner, then the flow of water will simply wash the food out of the feeder. So, the fish will remain hungry, and the food will spread out in all directions.

How to make a feeder yourself?

Not everyone wants to buy a feeder, since you can make it yourself. To make it you can use:

Plastic,
Styrofoam,
rubber tube,
Plexiglas.

The easiest way to make a feeder is from foam plastic. Even a child can cope with this task. Find a small piece of foam that will be 1 to 1.5 centimeters high. Decide on the optimal length and width of the feeding area and cut out a frame from foam plastic. It is advisable to go over the edges with fine sandpaper to remove excess. This feeder has significant advantages: excellent buoyancy, ease of construction and low cost. However, there are some drawbacks - a short-lived design that easily absorbs odor and dirt.

Making a feeder from a rubber tube is even easier. It is enough to find a suitable tube with a diameter of 1 centimeter and glue the hollow ends together. It is important to do this very carefully, because if water gets into it, the ring will sink. This feeder is not afraid of mechanical damage and will last a long time.

For live food, it is better to use plastic and plexiglass. Take a piece of material up to 2 mm high. Make a frame from four strips, gluing them perpendicular to each other. Place a piece of plastic with drilled holes in the middle and glue it securely to the prepared frame.

Of course, the aesthetic side of homemade feeders remains in question. In addition, their cost in pet stores is not so high that you waste time on independently preparing the necessary attribute.

Automatic fish feeder with your own hands - photo video review description.

What is the use of feeders?

Automatic feeder: general principle of operation

In addition to drum-type devices, there are:

Fully automated automatic feeders with feeding during the opening of a special shutter (like curtains in old mechanical cameras).

And screw devices, when the feed dose is regulated by the number of turns of the worm shaft.

Also available for sale disk samples, where food for the fish is supplied sequentially from compartments on the disk. At a certain time, the lower disk rotates and all the food from one compartment is poured into the aquarium. Next up is the next drive bay.

But the main technological unit in all commercial automatic feeders is, of course, the electronic control unit.

Many devices can be powered by both household AC power and ordinary batteries.

How to make an automatic feeder for an aquarium?

The process of making an automatic feeder with your own hands is very simple and does not take much time. For work we will need the following materials:

small analog clock with alarm;
plastic transparent container;
a transparent plastic tube with a diameter of about 7-8mm.

Now let's look at the instructions for making an automatic feeder for an aquarium with your own hands.

We make a hole in a plastic container with a slightly smaller diameter than the diameter of the cutting and insert the tube. Then you won't have to use additional glue.

The drum does not need to be fully loaded. It is enough to fill it two-thirds, then the food granules will not fall out all at once under their own weight. In addition, the clock hand can withstand a certain weight and should be loaded experimentally gradually, and we will attach the container to it.

How does a do-it-yourself automatic fish feeder work? A container with food pellets is attached to the clock hand. Since the container makes two revolutions in 24 hours, granules will spill out of the hole in the tube twice a day. This is quite enough for feeding.
The size of the hole in the tube of the self-made automatic feeder will determine the number of pellets that will fall out at a time. The larger it is, the more food will enter the aquarium.
The automatic feeder for an aquarium with your own hands is ready and now you can safely use it in practice.

Choosing a place for the feeder in the aquarium

It is up to you to choose what you will use - an automatic fish feeder or a conventional one that requires manual manipulation. However, you should remember one rule: carefully choose the place where you will have it, preferably where there is no aeration system and heating devices. Ideally, it is advisable to turn off the aeration system during feeding so that the feed does not spread over the entire surface of the water. However, as you can imagine, if an automatic fish feeder is used, this item may not be feasible.

Feeder functions

In what cases can you not do without an automatic feeder?

Brief overview of commercial samples

Like all other aquarium accessories, automatic feeders from various manufacturers are quite widely represented in the retail chain. They vary in size, container capacity, design and, of course, price. Moreover, the cost depends mainly on the degree of automation: the more electronics there are in the feeder, the more expensive it is.

Model Eheim TWIN

The German company Eheim produces expensive, elite equipment for aquariums, and the samples of automatic fish feeders presented by this company are no exception.

Has 2 feed compartments with a total capacity of 160 ml. Each compartment operates independently, serving different types of food at different times. However, you can program the feeding process in any way you like.

To prevent the formation of product lumps due to moisture, the device is equipped with a mini-fan that automatically dries the food in the compartments.

The model is powered by 4 AA batteries, which are included in the delivery set; their resource is enough for about 4 months of work. Of course, the price of Eheim TWIN is not small - about 7 thousand rubles for a 600-gram device.

Hagen

Another German company, Hagen, has taken the path of reducing the size of its equipment.

Thus, the electronic model Hagen Nutramatix weighs only 140 g, and its hopper holds much less feed - only 14 g.

This sample is well suited for feeding fry, since it can deliver doses of even the smallest dry food 2 times a day at a programmed time. The device runs on 2 batteries.

Juwel

A budget version of automatic feeders is offered by the company Juwel (Germany).

The drum-type model weighs 300 g, runs on 2 batteries, does not require labor-intensive maintenance and provides twice the feed per day.

You can install the device anywhere, the main thing is to cut a corresponding hole in the lid of the aquarium.

The volume of the hopper for this sample is 100 g, and many aquarists believe that this device is almost ideal in conditions of long-term absence.

FERPLAST CHEF

The Italians are not lagging behind German manufacturers.

The FERPLAST CHEF automatic feeder (screw type) accurately doses food, can serve it 3 times a day, protects food from humid air and operates for quite a long time on 2 batteries.

In short, the variety of branded automatic fish feeders allows you to choose exactly the option that is needed at a given time. But you can make this device yourself.

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#Aquarium for #beginners #Feeder for #aquarium fish #with your own hands Fast and free

How to make an automatic feeder with your own hands

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Good day, today is my review of the “Zoomir” aquarium feeder.

With the advent of the aquarium house, already at a conscious age you learn about new products that, for example, did not exist during my childhood, when simple guppies lived in my house in a 5-liter jar. There were no such feeders at that time, or I simply didn’t know about them. And now, about 20 years later, this is the third aquarium in my life. First, remember about the jar with guppy, then the Cockerel fish in a 10 liter aquarium, and now a 100 liter aquarium with 2 goldfish.

Here is the actual background to the review of the fish feeder. At the pet store I purchased the simplest feeder for aquarium fish from the manufacturer “Zoomir”.

On the back of the package there is a directions for use. That the feeder is designed for both dry and live food.

The feeder itself consists of a suction cup for attaching to the wall of the aquarium, a food container and a grid. I would like to note that the suction cup holds well, this is at an inexpensive price for the feeder; when I bought it, I was afraid that the feeder would not hold at all. BUT she is holding up WELL!

Here is the feeder itself without the contents. I installed it in a familiar place where I had previously fed my fish, so that it would be easier for them to find their way around. Where there are no aquarium plants below, it is more convenient for me to maintain cleanliness and order in the aquarium. Because in addition to dry food, fish eat porridge, peas, nettles and much more. BUT this is feeding goldfish for up to six months, so that they grow into big FISH)) Before feeding your fish, read the tips. For example, peas, if they are canned, must be separated from the skin and crushed.

The grid in the set is for feeding with live food, but you can feed dry food without a grid. I will demonstrate the feeder in both versions. The manufacturer recommends using a grid for feeding live food. To feed dry food, remove the grille. But I also leave the grill when feeding dry food, since this time I bought flake food, and for goldfish it is better to soak them for feeding.

I just pour the food onto the grate and when it gets wet, it just starts pouring out through the grate. The fish have already gotten used to the feeder within a week and they themselves rub their noses at it so that the food falls out faster.

And a feeder without a net. If you set it at the right level. Further in the photo, the food remains inside and does not scatter throughout the aquarium.

The feeder turned out to be a useful acquisition. The food is concentrated in one place, but this is the simplest feeder, I can’t say about other options for feeders, since I have little experience in aquarium keeping and I’m just learning, I hope my experience was useful to you.

No matter how hard I tried to photograph the process of feeding the fish, I was unable to focus the frame well.

Thank you for your attention and happy shopping!

Automatic fish feeders: which one to choose?

While preparing this material for publication, I wondered how useful the information will be to the reader? Well, okay, it’s clear that we all leave home: on business trips or on vacation. And often, it’s inconvenient for us to ask relatives to look after the aquariums, and besides, there are risks that the “supervising parent” will overfeed the fish, and even worse, screw up something... But, in fact, automatic fish feeders themselves are just a mechanism that is programmed to dispense feed within a certain period of time! What difference does it make what it will be?

Despite the fact that we live in an age high technology and an abundance of consumer goods, it turns out that not everything is so simple! Each automatic fish feeder has its own characteristics and nuances.

The main criteria that a fish feeder must meet are:

1. Simplicity and ease of installation. The feeder should be mounted in a place convenient for you, and not as intended by the manufacturer. Setting it up shouldn't be confusing.

2. The automatic feeder must be of high quality. The poured food should not stick together or deteriorate.

3. The fish feeder should provide an abundance of operating modes. It should be suitable both for standard feeding of fish and, for example, for frequent feeding when “raising” juvenile fish.