The Automatic Frozen Fish Food Feeder (AF4) by InD Creations is a radical aquarium device which is slowly moving further away from a concept and inching ever closer to reality. This company and its device first hit our ‘new reef tech’ radar way back in 2019 when it wasn’t much more than a food dispenser with a chiller strapped to it but the latest, and hopefully final, iteration is a completely different animal.
The most recent renderings of the InD aF4 looks more like a nano chiller that sits next to or below your tank and now it injects food to your tank from up to six feet away. The sleek new enclosure of the Automatic Frozen Fish Food Feeder has a remote touchscreen for controlling, programming and monitoring the actions of the feedings but the real change and innovation is how the Automatic Frozen Fish Food Feeder actually works.
Instead of advancing a crude carousel to simply drop frozen food in the tank water the Automatic Frozen Fish Food Feeder uses Refrigerated Salt Water (RSW) technology which allows fresh fish food slurry to be dispensed for up to 20 days, for a total of about 14 typical cubes of frozen food. The refrigerated salt water tech enables the slurry to be stored at or below 0C without the slurry freezing solid.
Storing the slurry at 1-2C with RO water versus 0 to -1C with saltwater reduces the duration the unit can operate before the food begins to spoil from 20 days down to about 12 days making it safe for freshwater aquarium applications and users can specify the temp they would like the unit to operate at from -2C to 5C. The frozen food slurry resides in a removable compartment which can easily be withdrawn and cleaned away from the unit or your aquarium.
Aquarists will naturally wonder about the possibility of clogging but as long as you don’t put large food items like whole krill or silversides users shouldn’t encounter any clogging of the 6mm diameter supply hose. If we were impressed by how far InD Creations has taken their Automatic Frozen Fish Food Feeder idea as a product, we were shocked to learn that they are aiming for an irresistible price of $299 which will come down to $270 for preorders when they open up in a month or so.
Kickstarter backers will enjoy receiving the first 200 units which InD Creations hope will become available towards the end of summer 2022. With all these features and improvements the aF4 is a a genuine innovation in automation of feeding aquarium fish and this is one ‘controller’ that we can’t wait to put in service on several reef tanks and setups around the Studio; we might even feel confident enough in the constant feeding of meaty foods to build a nice school of small dainty anthias. [InD Creations]
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