Auger aquarium feeder

R

richiev

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Over the weekend I put together a design for an auger -based aquarium feeder. There's a lot of examples out there on 3d sites, and some printable pieces to convert existing feeders to be auger style, but I wanted one that I could print easily and had a strong motor. There's also the well known commercial one that I have on my frag tank, but I won't name it here because I don't want to hurt that guy's interesting business.

A handful of hours in Fusion 360, and a next day delivery of a $15 30rpm motor from Amazon, I have the initial version together:

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And after a bit of soldering it's now working:


Next step will be printing the motor enclosure and lid, finishing soldering, making the food hopper a bit bigger, and making a mount for it.

I'll be using this on my main display to dump Reef Jerky plus freeze dried mysis into my sump return compartment. I'll probably put a small power head in there to mix it up as well. This is the setup I use on my frag tank with that commercial brand, and with that there's no need for the complicated mixing chamber setup. If it's wet enough to get sucked into a return pump, it's wet enough to not float to the top of the display.

After it proves itself I can make them very quickly if others wanted them. No warranty from me, but would cost you $20 instead of $200.
 
Looks great! Will you be making a cover for the food hopper? Also just a thought but but maybe makes it circular so you can find a common sized ring to seal food from moisture.
 
iani said:
Looks great! Will you be making a cover for the food hopper? Also just a thought but but maybe makes it circular so you can find a common sized ring to seal food from moisture.
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Yes! The demo just isn't as interesting with the cover on :).

It has a cover for the hopper and now one for the motor, plus a tank mount. Still finalizing it, but hoping my current print is the V1. Will share updated pics after it's all setup
 
Love it! I'm definitely interested in buying/printing one out. I'm going to try to build a stand/enclosure and chute for it. I'm thinking of keeping the feeder in a side cabinet and have the food go down a chute that leads directly to my return pump intake. This is to not have more stuff mounted to the top of my tank and to avoid condensation problems of having a feeders in the sump area.
 
spitballing (I have never used an auger but hear about moisture)- under the auger cover make a chamber to safely hold a rechargeable desiccant packet. Time to re-up and add food, microwave the moisture back out of the desiccant packet and place back in the chamber with the new food.

Occasionally I use many large 500g desiccant bags at work in fleet cars after they have had the cloth steam cleaned. Helps dry out the car during the winter months a little quicker without much effort.
 
Patio said:
spitballing (I have never used an auger but hear about moisture)- under the auger cover make a chamber to safely hold a rechargeable desiccant packet. Time to re-up and add food, microwave the moisture back out of the desiccant packet and place back in the chamber with the new food.

Occasionally I use many large 500g desiccant bags at work in fleet cars after they have had the cloth steam cleaned. Helps dry out the car during the winter months a little quicker without much effort.
Click to expand...

I used to have loads of various sizes. They work for all kinds of stuff. The 500g I would keep in my tool box.
 
V0.9 with mount and a connection socket. I lost the lid somewhere so need to print that again. Also need to get the front of the motor enclosure to have a stronger seal. I also am thinking it may make more sense to have the cord directly extending out of the unit versus connecting a cord to it. For that I ordered some waterproof cable grommets off amazon and will design that in later.

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The bolts holding it together and locking the mount against the tank are also 3d printed. Always fun when those turn out properly.

I also designed 2 different versions. One has the power port in the back and this one has it on top. The on top one will make allow everything to fit in my Reefer sump area, whereas the port on the back I think would look better on a tank. At some point I might do one with the port on the bottom instead of the back, but that won't be useful to me given how I'm using them.
 
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