Hello!
Did anyone have an experience with Eheim "Feed-Air" Digital Feeder ? In description it says that it uses flake food. Have you tryed it with granules like ProGold or Hikari?
I have to leave for 3 weeks and need your advice before spending $45. My friend will come and check for emergensies, but she can't come everyday to feed my fishes.

Thanks

give them plants to eat and have her feed once a week lots of food

What i am doing, when im leaving for 3 weeks, im going to get someone to come about every second day.. and i will have a container full of food for each day. So they dont put too much or not enough in. And i will buy some more plants for them to eat.

Thanks.
The only problem is what if I can't find anyone to come even every three days. Also, if I give them plans, little pieces might clog the filter intake.
So, u absolutely not recomending the automatic feeder?

Well, I had the proquatics auto feeder which is highly rated...and it was made for pellets and flakes. It sucked...couldn't get it to dispense the same amount of food everyday. Do a search, i made a post here a week ago about it. I don't see how the eheim could be any better since they both operate similarly, but you can try and if it works out...let me know.

Thanks,
I guess it may be just more complecated to use an automatic feeder. Especially if something goes wrong. May be I will just lower the temperature and ask somebody to feed them once a week. I am sure they will live through this 3 weeks.

I wouldn't use the automatic feeder. Something could go wrong, like the power cord being pulled out or something which broke it. Besides, what if bigger fish were pushing smaller ones out of the way and getting all the food. The machine wouldn't notice.

The problem wouldn't be loss of power since most of the feeders are run on battery. The main problem is the inconsistency of quantity of food.

Poor fish, what would they do if the battery run out? Jump out of the tank and get the food themselves?

I have same problem as well!!!!

leaving for 3 weeks min and I'm thinking on getting the Hagen A780 NutraMatic 2x Fish Food Feeder *sigh* but I don't even know how long it would last for.

I doubt batteries would run out in 3 weeks would they??

I'm now thinking with getting them holiday sticks (most last around 14 days so it would mean 1 week without food *gulp*)? whats ur thoughts on that?? and stocking their tank with loads of plants but i dont want it to get too planty as it then starts to smell of them....

There is absolutely noone that could come and look at them

Ideas? anyone??

oh and maintenance of tank? is it ok if i put some amolock and nitrite lock in there so that they're ok until i come back and clean them up??


Lydia

btw I might just get this one:

Hagen 10785 ProFeed Automatic Fish Feeder

ProFeed Automatic Fish Feeder
- Medium
- 14 g / 0.5oz reservoir
- The everyday fish feeder
- Battery powered, (2 AA batteries - not included) feeds even during power failure
- Dispenses flakes, pellets or freeze dried morsels up to 2 times a day
- Dispenser opening is oriented upward to reduce moisture intake



110mm x 70mm x 75mm (these dimension include allowance for rotation of food drum)

more expensive but seems it'll last that period of time.....
but yes one of the fish is a bully and i'll have to train the fish before i live to get their food on time so noone goes starving.

I picked Eheim "Feed-Air" Digital Feeder becose it has a mechanizm to keep the food dry and not clumped. The problem I find is inconsistancy in advertizing this particular feeder. In many cases it says it is for flake food, in some it says for both flake and granules. I use granules and concerned with capabilities of the feeder. Also, I hear that it is not always distributes even ammount of food.

Most people don't understand the fact that you can't get absolutely nobody to come regular and the FEEDER is the only hope. You have to pick best of the worse.

Let me know how it works out...I was initially going to get the eheim but the mechanism they talk about is basically a vent hole. The petsmart proquatics feeder i got can be hooked up to a air pump to keep things dry. Again, I just want to know how consistent the amount of food dispensed is. this was basically the problem i encountered with the proquatics model.

Yes.. if I had someone coming over I would definately do it but feeder is only hope unless I want to find fish floating.

I do have some fear of coming back and they are overfed and floating with food even dropping on them BUT I will test the feeder for a couple days to see how the fish are feeding and maybe help the lil one learn that it'll need to go up there and bite their asses to let it eat food thats one of my concerns..

a good thing is that big one that tends to overeat burps a lot of food out so lil one hopefully can pick up on that, if not I think it does nibble on plants soooo we'll see *sigh*

I see some going for $80 but thats too much after I spent nearly $200 on their new tank.

I e-mailed the guys that supply this to get some ruling on how much food it holds and fingers crossed i hope :/

hope your feeder turns out well!

Lydia