# Using peristaltic pump to auto feed live food



## Mark Livermore (11 Apr 2017)

I just wondered if anyone has ever attempted to use the pumps many of you use for auto-dosing to auto-dose live food?

I have seen a few reef guys online do this using chillers and all sorts of potentially unnecessary steps, but figured a bucket of daphnia, paramecium, copepods, etc with the same routine as an auto-dosing EI setup should work, in theory...

The reason for the idea is to stock a tank with pipefish and indostomus and be able to feed live food at regular intervals during the day while i am at work. I could ask the wife to feed it every two hours but fear she will throw something heavy at me/the tank for suggesting it. I have kept piepfish a while back and managed to feed them and keep them alive for a year before they either ate all the tiny things in the tank and died, or something else got them. I found the constant feeding and watching to make sure they ate a little frustrating, although they were in a busy tank so that didnt help.

So, what are peoples opinions and ideas, heaven knows one of you may have done this already and be able to furnish me with schematics and pictures...

Cheers


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## Zeus. (11 Apr 2017)

Have just installed my ( well based on Ian_m setup DIY) auto dosser. with A PLC to control them
my concern would be the live food in the pipes which get left there between feeds


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## Mark Livermore (11 Apr 2017)

Good point, hadn't thought about that, guess it wouldn't be a massive issue if you were flushing them regularly, like every day....


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## zozo (11 Apr 2017)

You would need some special kind of pump mechanism.. Anything with an impeller is a shredder.. 

But i think i know the perfect way to get around that.. But it must be live food swining in water. 
I'll make you a simple little drawing.. One thing maybe eastheticaly, it needs to be beside the tank same level. Anyway i'll be back..


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## Mark Livermore (11 Apr 2017)

Marcel, now you are whetting my appetite! I am sitting with bated breath....


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## zozo (11 Apr 2017)

Dont laugh.. But it'll work garantied.. 



Explaination -  Both tanks have same water level, the U pipe syphon is vacuumed so stays filled with water.. Now if you pump water from the fishtank to the seperate life food tank, the water in both tanks stay level by the law of Communicating vessels.. Thus the water will flow back through the vacuum syphon (or water bridge) from lifefood tank to fish tank, taking it's life food with it. Put the pump on a timer and you'll good to go, as long as the lifefood tank contains enough life food it can be pumped over. Need to adjust the timing for that and keep lifefood population abundand enough.

This U pipe doesn't need to be so huge, actualy a smaller diameter will only increase the flow speed and suction and suck more life food through. Only need to trottle the pump to the capicity of the U pipe. THis is perfect for anything free swimming in the water like daphnia. Unlikely that a fish or any daphnia travels the U pipe back and forth on its own if diameter is as small as possible.


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## zozo (11 Apr 2017)

Oh and there is no law that says you can't use a serie of u pipes in small diameter to increase pumps capacity. Also the pipes ending in the life food tank can have different lenghts to suck at different water levels. It doesn't mater how long they are as long as they are under the water level in both tanks..


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## Mark Livermore (11 Apr 2017)

Marcel, every now and again I am reminded that I am not nearly as clever as I would like to think!

I think that sounds very workable and in theory cheaper and safer (with regard to dead live food in tubes) than the pump idea I had.

I need to test this before putting into action, but I think it should work.

Thanks


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## Mark Livermore (11 Apr 2017)

Also the diagram is both excellent and awful at the same time


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## zozo (11 Apr 2017)

Mark Livermore said:


> Also the diagram is both excellent and awful at the same time



Thank you.. I know it's awfull. It was just a simple quicky. Good that you got the idea as i meant it. I know the concept works because i used it on several occasions already.. Not for live food, but in principle it works, clean and safe. I would need to test it too, about how strong suction we could create. I guess with several smaller tube diameters in serie (huh? no parallel actualy next to eachother)  as U pipe at different depth in the feeder tank levels you could create quite some flow and suction. At least more changes to catch some than with one U pipe only.  For example 4 or 5 x 16 mm u pipes.. In the food tank at different dephts and it the tank to be fed just 1 inch bellow the water level..


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## Mark Livermore (11 Apr 2017)

Experimentation needed!


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## mort (12 Apr 2017)

Whilst I really want to see you build Marcel's suggestion above, could you be overthinking it a little? by that I mean is it really a problem to just add more live food in the morning for it to hunt throughout the day, rather than thinking in terms of regular feeds. If you do the above then you will be using the same water that the food is in anyway so any nutrient load it has will be on the tank anyway and make no difference where the food is. From my experience with marine pipefish, they are slow methodical hunters that pick through the day, so wouldn't gorge themselves and then lay around waiting for the next feed.


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## Mark Livermore (12 Apr 2017)

Mort, to be honest you are probably right. However the ultimate goal i guess would be to get it to work so that were i to go away for a weekend or even a week, that it would feed during that hiatus.

When i previously had pipefish i was always worried when i went away that i would come back to a dead pipefish or two, however i guess in a more species orientated tank the live food (given the right type) would survive a while, as you say they are not particularly gluttonous fish...


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## zozo (12 Apr 2017)

mort said:


> rather than thinking in terms of regular feeds.


That's what you can regulate with a timer and a pump..  How often it runs is controllable..

Surely you would need to think this over.. How applicable this all is, is about which fish and what do they like to eat.



mort said:


> nutrient load it has will be on the tank anyway and make no difference where the food is.


It is live food, so it can be considered live stock, i do not see any nutrient load beeing a problem. The only limitation is, it will function as one water body, so only free swimming fresh water live food can be used if it concerns a fresh water tank.. Best example i could find is Daphnia, and to keep them alive, healthy and breeding they need a fresh and healthy invironment. So the life food tank needs to be taken care for as if it was a display aquarium.. I would plant it up and put an airfilter in it as well. In how far you are at risk concerning cross contamination all comes down to husbandry and how it's setup.. It doesn't need to a problem.


With some other electronics like a relai and a DC pump running on different voltages at different capacities. It could be set to a constant low pump capacity to slowly keep the water cirlcling as one and the same water body. And than speed it op switching to higher voltage to suck critters at feeding time.


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## mort (12 Apr 2017)

Mark Livermore said:


> Mort, to be honest you are probably right. However the ultimate goal i guess would be to get it to work so that were i to go away for a weekend or even a week, that it would feed during that hiatus.
> 
> When i previously had pipefish i was always worried when i went away that i would come back to a dead pipefish or two, however i guess in a more species orientated tank the live food (given the right type) would survive a while, as you say they are not particularly gluttonous fish...



That's essentially the same reason that I run refugium on my marine systems. It works very similar to how Marcel has described but I don't have the u siphon, instead use a gravity return with the outlet slightly above the display (you can even cascade it down like a waterfall) with it constantly pumped from the main tank. It's a lovely breeding ground for fauna.


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