Current USA Aquachef Auto Fish Feeder
by ADVANCE AQUA TANKS
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List Price: Our Price: $23.89 Availability: Usually ships in 4-5 business days Buy Used: from $22.99 (click here) Category: Pet Products See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Current USA Aquachef Auto Fish Feeder
Customer Review: Does the job. Easy to Set-up
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently went away for almost two weeks and was concerned about my saltwater fish starving. I ordered this item, set it up in a few minutes, and my fish were well fed while I was away. I was tempted to order a similar product on ebay for $10 from dealers in Hong Kong, but after no e-mail response and a 10-20 day lead time, I decided to purchase from a U.S. dealer and am glad I did. I received my order within a week.Customer Review: Either feeds too much or too little + other problems
Summary: 2 Stars
I had high hopes when I bought this feeder but have been disappointed.
The biggest problem is that I can't get it to feed my fish a proper amount. It has a little dial to adjust how much food gets dumped in, and the dial ranges from 0-5. At setting 3, the fish hardly get fed and the most aggressive ones gobble it up in 10 seconds (I have a heavily stocked 55 gallon freshwater community tank). At setting 4, a huge load of food goes in and instantly becomes a sinking cloud.
I tried keeping the setting at 3 and programming it to feed more often, but the greedy aggressive fish just eat everything while the slower/dumber ones get nothing at all.
I tried hand grinding the flake food into smaller pieces (guessing that larger flakes are clogging it), but this also did not help. The pieces after grinding were about 2-3mm, and the results are same: setting 3 too little, setting 4 way too much.
Another complaint (as mentioned by other people) is the clamp isn't big enough. My tank has a plastic rim that is 7/8" thick and the clamp will fit (at maximum) a 3/4" thickness. I was able to shave down my rim with a razor blade, but other people may not have this option. This is really too bad because I couldn't find another auto feeder than seemed to have such a sturdy way to mount it!
Yet another problem: the drum has a trap door that drops open when it rotates. My water level was so high that the trap would drop in the water, then come back up and dribble a little water into the drum! Obviously this is -not good- with dry flake food. I had to drop my water level by 1/2" to fix this.
Lastly, it is hard to program. The buttons (Mode, Adjust, and Set) are very unintuitive and don't work as you would expect. And I'm a very tech savvy person.
I bought this feeder because I'm going on a long trip (7 weeks) and was hoping to not have to pay someone to feed the fish. I've been trying it out for over a week now and am giving up on it.
Your mileage may vary. Maybe if you have a smaller tank with less fish, you can get it to feed to right amount (maybe).
Customer Review: Excellent Product
Summary: 3 Stars
Works but not that well. Set it up to feed a 33 gallon long marine aquarium for a week while I was on vacation. I do like the way the drum rotates completely all the way around at once to dump food, some feeders use a slow turning of a drum to time the addition of food. Setup of the timer is just more complex than it should be. I used the included Velcro to mount the feeder to the top of a wood canopy where the flakes were to fall into a section I cut out for the hang-on-tank protein skimmer to fit in. Upon pulling the drum off to add flakes the plastic backing of the drum pulled out and bent(not good)although I was able to get it almost back into position when I put the drum back on. Also, when I returned the feeder had leaned over off the Velcro so that it was out of optimal position and the flakes weren't falling as they should. My fish lived but I wouldn't trust it again.
EDIT: I gave this product another try when going on vacation for two weeks this October 2007. When set up properly and filled properly this feeder works with out fail. I secured the feeder to a strip of scrap wood screwed into the tank hood so that it had to stay in place. I also filled the drum through the discharge hole instead of pulling the drum off. My fish were still fat and happy on my return. Can't be beat for the price. 5 Stars. If you lose the instructions for setting feeding times you can go to the link below for a complete on line copy.
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Customer Review: Excellent customer service
Summary: 5 Stars
Seller very responsive to issues - great to deal with - prompt service and outstanding communications. Highly recommend product and seller.Customer Review: FISH FEEDER
Summary: 5 Stars
SEEMS TO WORK GREAT. EASY TO PROGRAM. DOES NOT DISPENSE A LOT OF FOOD SO IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF FISH YOU WOULD HAVE TO PROGROM MORE FEEDINGS