Greg's 75g

[gregzz4]

Disappointing update for me, but maybe it'll help someone else ...

The home-made food is going to have to stay in the freezer for now

Our Bangaii (Banggai?) has never really eaten the new food, so last night I added a small amount of Mysis for him
Now tonight everyone is being picky about the new food
All they want is the Mysis

I'm currently making a new batch of food;
4oz Mysis
4 cubes cyclopeeze (just 'cause it's what's left)
4 cubes plankton (same reason)
Some garlic and omega aminos

I think it was too soon to try the new food blend as nobody is full-grown yet
I hope to use the food when they get bigger, but who knows
Nobody is over 2-1/2" , so I chopped the mix fine
It's probably too small for bigger fish and I'll have to give it to J&L or something ...

FM

[gregzz4]

I took the home-made food to J&L and all their fish ate it up like it was a last meal !
Good thing as I don't want to waste it

I'm gonna stick with the mysis diet for now with my fishies and hope they will become more hungry/adapt to a different diet once they are bigger

If you've been following, you'll know that after I installed the new light surround, I found some limitiations with it
While I was building it I thought, Nah, there's no way I'll need more room than 33" of access, but while I was cutting the wood I was asking Myself about having doors on the ends. Myself told me there's no problem, there's lots of room, so I carried on

Well, it turns out that Myself was quite wrong and I needed doors on the ends
I tried to access an area last week and couldn't get to it, so Myself shouldn't plan stuff without consulting Me first

Here's the mods I made
Sorry for the poor lighting shots
I'll get better pics up one day ...

[Coralgurl]

You should have consulted with "I". You see "I" always knows best, me and myself seem to forget who's boss! Keep that in mind next time you start second guessing!

Nice work as always!

[gregzz4]

Thanks Sheena for the reminder about consulting 'I', but it looks like we didn't have a full crew the day we were building

We think 'I' was on holidays as there was no other input that day, so we had to just go with it

'We all' still think it turned out pretty sexy, so it's good

And thanks for the nice comments

Oh, and for the record, We are not going to admit anything about schizophrenia
That's for Grizz's posts

[Coralgurl]

Well, "they" must have been into the woobly pops, but regardless, it seems the entire team got it figured out!

And you are welcome!

What's thenext project up your sleeve?? I know there's gotta be at least one more right...lol

[kien]

I think you were being too soft on your fish. I would have starved them and forced them to eat the new food. A couple of days of hunger strike and I bet they'd eat it up as if it was there last meal! Mind you, that doesn't always work and some fish are stupid enough to hunger strike themselves to death so in the end you probably did the right thing.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by kien

you probably did the right thing.

Ya, the Bangaii wasn't eating for about 4 days, so I had to do it

Originally Posted by Bblinks

LORD OF THE RINGS.....MY PRECIOUSSSSSSSS

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

What's thenext project up your sleeve?? I know there's gotta be at least one more right...lol

Nothing fancy but, ya, there is one more thing on the go
I'm planning to mount an auto feeder on the inside of one of the doors, with an air vent hole through the door to prevent clumping, and a 'sunscreen' over the feeder to prevent overheating from the lights

Soon ...

[Bblinks]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Thanks Sheena for the reminder about consulting 'I', but it looks like we didn't have a full crew the day we were building

We think 'I' was on holidays as there was no other input that day, so we had to just go with it

'We all' still think it turned out pretty sexy, so it's good

And thanks for the nice comments

Oh, and for the record, We are not going to admit anything about schizophrenia
That's for Grizz's posts

LORD OF THE RINGS.....MY PRECIOUSSSSSSSS

[Rice Reef]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Disappointing update for me, but maybe it'll help someone else ...

The home-made food is going to have to stay in the freezer for now

FM

Greg, maybe your fish don't like your cooking?

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by Rice Reef

Greg, maybe your fish don't like your cooking?

Ya, that's it

I've had the Flu since Sat, so I stayed home Mon thinking about the auto-feeder, and Tues afternoon I got lucky with a wandering RBTA. I poked it a bit and it floated, so off to J&L I went for a store credit

Tonight my brains were still scrambled from a left-over fever so, once again, no studying
Next week, I promise myself, I'll hit the books HARD

So, I got the auto-feeder mounted tonight
Thanks to my wife, Donna, for suggesting the final location

It's an Eheim, with the little fan. If you're familiar with it, you know it's best not mounted inside a canopy as it can, besides getting splashed etc, cause the food to clump as the fan will draw in moist air from the tank

Well, after weeks of thinking about it, this is what I came up with

A 3/4" Forstner bit for the hole and some bent acrylic for a mount




Some fibreglass bugscreen to keep the fan clean, and some foam to keep it airtight, so there's no tank air entering the container
In the first pic you can 'just' make out the red fan on the feeder
I used 2 layers of 3/16" foam, so there's lots of room for air to enter
The foam holds the mesh in place against the door




Another piece of acrylic covered in sunscreen to keep the feeder from getting too much Sun from the lights. Could cook the electronics, or cook the food ?




Mounted and ready to go (forgot to re-position the light-blocking foam around the hinges before this pic)
I used the factory screw to mount the feeder through the acrylic
You'll see I made the mount a bit sloped (food is heavy near the end of the container)
This is so the container doesn't run out of food when it's still partly full



Easy access for re-filling or re-programming



Many online have complained about this particular feeder being too touchy, and I agree
After some testing, I decided to tape the trap door in the position I like, and then I taped some paper over the end so I could get the 'perfect for me' amount of food
I was careful not to leave any tape exposed to food so there is no clumping



I will adjust the food as needed, but for now it seems to work great for our small fishies and Donna can now not worry about the poor guys going hungry @ lunch if she's tied up with work