Auto brine shrimp hatchery and feeder

[Paul B]

I often have to go out of town and with pipefish that only eat live newborn brine shrimp that is always a problem. I have a tank sitter that can feed the fish but I can't ask her to hatch brine shrimp every day and sit there while the pipefish eat for an hour so I designed this device which is not quite finished.
The internal mechanism is now sitting on top of the white box that will sit in the tank. (this is just for the picture) Once a day a trap door will open on top of the container and an auto fish feeder will deposit brine shrimp eggs into the container. The door will close keeping it dark inside and aeration will start inside the box. After 36 hours the eggs will hatch and the aeration will stop, a tube on the side will open allowing light in and the shrimp, who are attracted to light will swim out into the tank or I can direct them to my brine shrimp feeder. After a few hours, the tube will again close and the trap door on top will open allowing more eggs to be deposited inside and the process will repeat. All that is required for power is a small air pump which aerates and circulates the eggs and opens and closes the valve controlling the tube where the shrimp swim out. I tested the mechanism and all I now have to do is put it together and position the auto feeder on top which also opens and closes the trap door on top allowing eggs to enter.
Of course it works great on paper but I still have to test the entire thing.

 

[Creekview]

Like those fence posts, don't ya!! lsmile:

 

[DaveK]

If anyone else had posted this, I'd have said that this is a very difficult project to get working.

In your case, Paul, I'd say you have a good chance of pulling this off. Good luck!

 

[Creekview]

I'm always impressed with Paul's ingenuity.

 

[Paul B]

I do tend to use fence posts a lot don't I. I use them for everything except fences.

 

[Paul B]

I was having some problems figuring out how to get the eggs into the unit while still keeping it dark. I just came back from having two MRIs back to back so I was in the machine for an hour. That was great because during that time, I figured out how to get the eggs in the thing.

 

[Snid]

Duh Duh Duh!

 

[reefle]

This is amazing. If this could be used to automate with frozen foods somehow....

 

[Paul B]

No, it could not be used for frozen foods. I am working on that and although it is not that big of a deal to build, it is a big deal to do if you want it to be affordable. It is easy to build if you don't mind spending over $1,000.00 to feed your fish, but I am not looking for that.

 

[Oxylebius]

I often have to go out of town and with pipefish that only eat live newborn brine shrimp that is always a problem. I have a tank sitter that can feed the fish but I can't ask her to hatch brine shrimp every day and sit there while the pipefish eat for an hour so I designed this device which is not quite finished.

I tested the mechanism and all I now have to do is put it together and position the auto feeder on top which also opens and closes the trap door on top allowing eggs to enter. Of course it works great on paper but I still have to test the entire thing.

Patented yet?

 

[Paul B]

No, I already have two patents and am not thinking about another. I am just looking to feed "my" pipefish while I am away. If I tried to patent everything I think up, I would have gone broke decades ago.

 

[Paul B]

I abandoned that design because the eggs kept clogging the tiny air vent that would let out air from the float and allow the valve to open. I also thought it was to complicated and hard to change the water. This is a much simpler design and so far is passing the tests. It is a much larger version of my normal feeder except this one allows for the water to be constantly renewed. There is an auto dry food feeder on the rim of the tank (above the funnel) that I tweeked a little so it only lets about 1/4 teaspoon of brine shrimp eggs into the funnel at the top of the tube just at the waters edge twice a day. There is a small tube (3/16") that disperses water into the funnel from the tank. That comes from my algae trough but an air bubbler would work. The water flow provides 2 services. It aerates the eggs and pushes them down the tube to the feeder and even if it doesn't, after the shrimp hatch, they will be forced down (I hope). I may have to tweek this a little but I have an other design in my head for that possibility. There is a stocking over the feeder to allow the shrimp to exit. The water being pumped into the device also changes the water in the device. "most" of the eggshells will stay under the mesh (stocking) but not all. The eggs are slightly larger than the mesh and most of them sink anyway. When I come back from vacation I will run my diatom filter if there are any visible eggs to remove from the tank but I don't think it will be a problem in a few days. Right now the 3 pipefish, 2 mandarins and scooter dragonette are all around this thing and the rest of the fish come by for a snack. I will get the fish used to feeding in this place for a few days before I go anywhere and I will be using it now. The powerheads will turn off a couple of times a day to allow the pipefish to feed without searching all over the place for new born shrimp. I like this idea even better than how I am feeding them now as it keeps shrimp in the water continousely and that is how pipefish and mandarins are supposed to eat. I will update with any problems and maybe a video.

 

[Paul B]

The first batch of eggs hatched in the feeder and the pipefish and mandarins are all over it like a cheap suit. I love it. There is a dragon face pipe laying on the thing but he is white so hard to see, then there is a multi stripe pipe and the pregnant mandarin.

 

[Paul B]

I took a video of the thing working. The mandarins also hang out on it but they are afraid of me and run away as soon as I get near the tank. You can see the male mandarin to the left at the start but he leaves when he sees the camera because he got up on the wrong side of the tank today and doesn't like his picture taken.
The two pipefish just stay on it all day and every minute or so they can grab a shrimp. This works differently than my normal feeder in that the shrimp are expelled a little faster but more spread out during the day. They do that because they hatch all day long. The fish don't have to sit on it as they can constantly eat shrimp all around it.
It is a very natural way of feeding such fish and the large copperband also visits on every trip around the tank. You can see the funnel at the top with some water running into it to push the eggs down which they all do. The auto feeder is missing the hopper for the video.

 

[Snid]

Could you do me a favor, because I have never seen a Brine Shrimp Auto Feeder at work, custom made or manufactured... Could you explain each part, how it works exactly in detail, and what it looks like inside? If you don't have the time or patience, I'll understand. Just curious. Mostly, I don't fully understand how the flow is created to pull the eggs or hatched shrimp down from the funnel into the box. And I also don't understand if the box needs to be a certain size for any particular reason.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Beautiful fish Paul, congrats on the new invention !

sidebar - you should upload the vid to youtube then when you add it here, it looks great & works better - if interested - cheers - then just click on the Film Icon & add the youtube url - free & very easy - not sure why, but our RS forum handles vids from youtube better http://www.youtube.com/

 

[Paul B]

The box is empty. Any box that light does not enter through the sides will work. You want the shrimp to be attracted to the mesh (stocking) at the top and that is where the light comes through.
The thing is a piece of Home Depot fence post with a fence post top on the bottom, but as I said, the shrimp don't care what kind of box it is. Tupperware would work but something darker inside would be better or something black. The stocking is held in place by a fence post top that I cut off the sides of it so it fits over the rim of the post and holds the stocking in place. You could use a rubber band but that looks tacky and I don't do tacky.
The tube is an acrylic tube but any tube will work. Even a flexible tube but then you would need a way to keep the funnel on top. Home Depot sells PVC tubes that are used to attach bathroom sinks, you can use that. Home Depot also sells short pieces of 1/2" PVC pipe. You can use that and glue on a street ell. I heated it with a hair dryer, put a steel spring inside and bent it. Then unscrewed the spring. The funnel is secured on top with shrink tubing but you can use tacky electrical tape or just get a funnel that fits in the tube you have. The water entering the top must be very slow like I have in the video. To much water entering the funnel would push the eggs out the mesh and that is a no no. You can use a tiny powerhead and adjust it very slow or I would use a bent tube with an air line in it that would pump in small amounts of water, that would also help the eggs to sink. They sink in an hour or so and eventually all go down the tube because the water keeps flowing out the mesh. That water supply also keeps the eggs aerated and moving as that is the right conditions to hatch them. It also keeps renewing the water in the thing. The auto feeder puts eggs in once a day. I had to slightly modify the feeder so it doesn't put to many eggs in at one time because it is made for flake food and not tiny shrimp eggs. I just glued a piece of plastic in the opening of the feeder so there is just a small opening. That's it.

 

[Paul B]

Nanoreefing4fun, I don't know how to do that. But if you do, be my guest.

 

[Snid]

Thanks, Paul! It all makes sense to me now.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

If I could, I would...

It's just like photobucket (youtube) is a host for vids, like photobucket is a host for pics.

I guess I could save your vid, to my local pc & then upload it to my youtube account to get a hosted url

I understand, if you don't want to mess with it, but your so smart - you would figure it out quickly, you can figure out anything I marvel at your inventions

but here... how for anyone interested (lots follow your threads)

[video=youtube;_O7iUiftbKU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O7iUiftbKU[/video]