How to make your own Automatic Fish Feeder.

DIY Automatic Fish Feeder.

Automatic Fish Feeder in Action.

Finally I am done with my Automatic Fish Feeder. Its simple and cost less than Rs 300.

Basic Principle:

A cylindrical drum is attached to the hour needle of an electronic alarm clock. The Drum completes 2 rotations in 24 hours. A small hole in the drum with a straw, ensures that food is dispensed every 12 hours. The cut made in the straw, determines how much food is dispensed each time.

Here are the things you need:

1. An Electronic Analog Alarm Clock like Orpat Alarm clock.
2. A small plastic cylindrical light weight container (preferably transparent). I took a small container in which you get camphor balls used in religious rituals (Pooja).
3. A small plastic straw/pipe. A pipe used in Aquaguard water purifier is fine. Its diameter is around 7-8 mm.

The operation is self explanatory. If you are still confused then you can refer the following sites.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-automatic-aquarium-feeder-on-the-go/

http://bahatanju.pbworks.com/w/page/9065926/My%20Hacks

A few tips:

1. Make the hole for the straw on the drum, a bit smaller so that you do not have to use a glue to hold it in place. You can then create 2-3 small straw with different cut size to dispense different amount of food. Whenever you have less fishes in tank you can use the straw having a smaller cut.
2. Do not load the drum full. Keep it half filled otherwise all the pellets may  drop out in one go.
3. Try to get the lightest cylindrical drum so that you can fill more food pellets.
4. Every clock needle motor has a threshold of how much load it can take. So do not over load the clock with a heavy drum filled with food pellets.
5. You can use mustard seed for testing your DIY Automatic Fish Feeder.

Build your own Aquarium.

5-Feet Aquarium.

So finally I am done building my own 5-feet aquarium.

Here are a few links that will help you out building your own.

Link 1:

http://www.austinglass.com.au/aquariums.html

Link 2: Glass Thickness Calculator.

http://www.theaquatools.com/building-your-aquarium

See to it that you are well through with the whole process. Here are a tips that may be helpful for you.

  

11. I preferred the method 2 presented in Link1. The only difference was the side glasses are placed on the bottom glass instead of side glass sticking to the edge of the bottom glass. See figure below.

22. You can use a the normal general purpose silicon sealant instead of getting some costly aquarium sealant. I have good experience with china made brand “GP” and “Resibond”. The sealant glue costs you around Rs 125 and the silicon gun cost you around Rs 80.

33. My bottom glass had cracked when I had placed the aquarium for drying in hot sun. Note Acetic glue cures via air moisture not via heat. I had to replace the bottom glass. To remove the glass you need to use a Topaz Razor blade and a pen knife.  The razor blade is used to cut open the sealant and the pen knife is used to widen the insertion created by the blade. Once the blade and pen knife is in, just drag the blade to cut open the selant and then drag the pen knife to widen the cut. See pics below.

44. See to it that you are present at the glass vendor while cutting the glass. The vendor may dupe you by providing a normal glass instead of a 'float glass'. A normal glass has lot more irregularities due to which it may break easily in pressure.