We've been testing five different automatic fish, feeders,
and three different feeding rings over the past month.
And we're ready to share our results with you.
So.
So much to cover today,
we're going to go in-depth on all five feeders and the three feeding rings.
And after all of that,
we're going to choose a winner based on eight different categories.
I think that if you stick around till the very end,
you'll know exactly which feeder and feeding ring to buy,
that will fit your needs best.
Please consider subscribing to my first fish tank,
Amarin Depot and links to all the theaters and feeding rings in the description.
We have the Hime feed air with feeding station.
It retails for $33 or $48 with the feeding station included.
It takes two AA batteries, which are included.
There are three different mounting options for the EIM feed air.
The first is to use the felt feet for sitting on some sort of flat surface,
such as the feeding station or on a lid. The second is using the feeder clamp.
It has a max three quarter inch opening.
So it fits on any glass up to three quarter inch,
and you just have to screw it to the bottom of the unit.
And the third mounting option is just put it on top of the feeding station.
And the feeding station has a maximum opening of seven, eight inches.
This EHE feed air is reviewed a lot online.
Marine Depot gives it an average of four out of five stars with 80 reviews and
Amazon gives it a 4.4 out of five stars with more than 5,000
reviews and has a hundred milliliter capacity to fill the Haim air automatic
feeder.
Just pull off the feeding drum pinch down on the rear plastic panel to remove
this feeder is perfect for either pellets or flakes and has an adjustable
opening.
This EIM automatic feeder can run up to four programmed cycles a day with
one to two rotations at a time for a maximum of eight daily feedings.
The most unique feature of this e-health air feed is that it has a ventilation
fan system that turns on whenever feeding happens to help
keep the food dry during the drum rotations.
The best characteristic of this feeder is it feels heavy duty and it runs almost
silently.
And the worst characteristic is that none of the mounting options are actually
integrated into the unit,
but it's also kind of a positive because that means you can
Mount it anywhere.
We have the Haim twin automatic theater with the feeding station coming in at
$70 for just the feeder and $81 with feeding
station. This is the highest price option we're going to review today.
The EIM twin runs on four AA batteries,
which are included just like the previous EHE version.
There are three mounting options.
The first is to install the rubber feet for sitting on flat surfaces,
like the feeding station. The second is Velcro.
It comes with two small pieces of Velcro for securing it to a flat surface.
And the third is just to use the feeding station.
The beehive twin automatic feeder doesn't have as many online reviews,
but Marine Depot gave it three out of five stars with eight reviews and
Amazon gave it a 3.9 out of five stars with 227
reviews. As for capacity.
The Haim twin has two separate feeding compartments,
both of which are 80 milliliters for 160 milliliters total filling
the Haim twin automatic feeder is super easy.
Just open each side from the top and pour in either your flakes or your pellets
for types of food. It's a little tricky with the Hine twin.
I used small pellets, large pellets and flakes.
Some of the flakes seem to work okay,
but some of the flakes wouldn't get caught up in the mechanism.
So virtually no food was dispensed. And when it came to pellets,
really small,
dry pellets got caught in the mechanism causing it to not work at all,
but larger softer pellets seemed to work. Really.
I think the Haim twin is ideally suited for larger softer pellets East side of
the EIM twin automatic theater can be programmed for up to three cycles today
with nine rotations per cycle to make programming simple.
You just need to understand the LCD display the numbers on top one, two,
three, one two, three. Those are the cycles, the one, two,
three on the left being for the left feeding chamber and the one, two,
three on the right being for the right feeding chamber.
And then the number below those numbers are how many rotations per that feeding
cycle?
The most obvious unique feature of [inaudible] twin is you can feed two separate
foods. It's also the only unit to have a random feeding cycle,
but the directions aren't very good.
So I'm not exactly sure how random that is and how many
rotations that means per day. Also,
this is the only unit that doesn't use a feeding drum,
but uses these feeding screws to push the food out.
The best characteristic of the [inaudible] twin automatic feeder is that it has
two separate feeding compartment. So you can feed two separate foods.
And the worst characteristic is it really doesn't seem to work that well for
flakes or small dry pellets.
So it's really just meant for larger, more moist pellets.
This is not my favorite feeder, and I probably wouldn't recommend it,
especially given the price.
Sure.
Up on our journey is the current USA Aqua chef retail price
of $23 is one of the more affordable options we have.
The two AA batteries are included, only comes with one mounting option.
The attached plastic support bracket fits glass up to one inch thick.
Online reviews at Marine Depot gets a three out of five stars with 22
reviews.
And the biggest complaint seems to be that only the manual feed button
works. So if you program it,
it doesn't seem to always dispense food at the time it's supposed to,
which is kind of a big deal.
Chewy gives this a 3.2 out of five stars.
So this unit does not have the highest reviews capacity of the current USA.
Aqua chef is only 35 milliliters,
which is the smallest of the units we're looking at today to fill the Aqua chef,
just pull off the drum and gently bend back the center covering this feeder
works well for both pellet and flake foods.
The current Aqua chef can be programmed for up to four cycles per day,
with one or two drum rotations per cycle for a maximum of eight drum
rotations per day. Unique features of the current USA Aqua chef.
It has a smaller, more compact barrel,
which may work better for some of your aquarium setups.
And the second unique feature is that the feeding door closes all the way,
which should help keep moisture out of the drum.
My favorite feature for the Aqua shaft is the adjustable slider.
It just seems like it gives a more consistent amount of food per
each rotation.
And the worst aspect of the current USA Aqua chef is just the reviews.
It's probably the worst reviewed one we're looking at.
And it's because a lot of people had reliability issues where this unit would
not dispense food at the pre-program time.
Yes.
Our list today is the lifeguard aquatics and tele feed retail price right now is
$50. This unit comes with built in rechargeable,
lithium ion batteries. You have two mounting options for this unit.
It comes pre-installed with a plastic support bracket,
which can go onto glass up to seven, eighth inch thick.
You can also remove the rotatable base and apply the double-sided
tape to stick it to a flat surface. There aren't a lot of reviews for this unit.
At the time of filming at Marine Depot,
there were zero reviews and Amazon gave it a 3.6
out of five stars with 94 reviews.
This unit has a huge capacity of 200 milliliters.
There are two ways to fill up this unit.
You can use the top load hopper, or you can remove the drum.
The lifeguard aquatics and tele feed works well with both pellets and flakes.
The lifeguard aquatics and tele feed can be set up with four programmable cycles
a day with either one,
two or three rotations for a maximum of 12 rotations per day.
There's a couple of unique features with this unit. First of all,
if you buy the new and improved version, which this is not,
this barrel is actually shorter, but it pulls into the housing,
keeping the food completely dry in between use.
The other unique feature is that it has a top load feature.
So you can just easily open it, load the food from the top.
But if that's not your thing,
you can still just pull it off and loaded the old fashioned way.
There are a lot of best things about lifeguard aquatics.
Automatic feeder has a rechargeable battery, which is awesome.
The drum capacity is huge at 200 milliliters and I found it to
be one of the easiest ones to program. The worst feature is the price.
This is currently retailing for $50 when you can purchase
pretty much the exact same feeder from Amazon for $25,
The fifth and final automatic feeder is these Zack row automatic fish
feeder available Amazon retail price of $25.
Rechargeable lithium ion batteries are included.
And pre-installed just like the unit from lifeguard aquatics.
There are two mounting options.
It comes pre-installed with a rotatable plastic support bracket for glass up to
one inch thick,
or you can pull off that support bracket and Mount the double-sided tape to
put it on a flat surface.
This is the highest reviewed unit we're looking at today on Amazon.
It gets 4.4 out of five stars with over
1,300 ratings.
This is acro has a huge capacity of 200 milliliters.
You fill this the exact same way as the lifeguard unit.
It either has a top load hopper, or you can remove the drum and fill that way.
This unit works great for pellets and flakes.
The Zacherle automatic fish feeder can be set up to four separate times per day
with either one,
two or three rotations per cycle from maximum of 12 rotations
per day. Unique feature of this,
even though the buttons are in slightly different places.
And the face of the unit looks a little bit different. Functionally speaking,
it's the exact same as the lifeguard and tele feed, but it's half the price.
The best feature of the Zachary automatic fish feeder is the price and the
reviews.
It is one of the least expensive units and it is the highest rated unit we're
looking at today.
The Zack will also has a really large barrel capacity and it's super easy to
program the absolute worst feature of the Zachary automatic feeder color.
I really don't know it's a good feeder.
The price.
What type of food you use or where you place the automatic
feeder.
You may need a feeding ring flakes and some pellets will float on the
surface and be sucked into the filtration. If you go with either EAM,
feeder just purchased the feeding station and you're set,
but if you buy the current lifeguard or Zack Rowe feeder,
I look into one of the following three feeding ring,
Max MFR dash one magnetic feeding ring retails for $20.
It's big, probably bigger than you want for a nano tank.
It's two inches in diameter and five inches in length.
It will work with any feeder,
but depending the length of the automatic feeder barrel,
the [inaudible] may have to sit on an adjacent
glass panel, not directly underneath the feeder itself.
The best characteristic of the ACO max feeding ring is it's heavy duty
and the height can be adjusted.
The worst characteristic of the Omnimax feeding ring is that it's really big and
might not be good for nanotech.
Next up we have.
Of the innovative Marine Aqua gadget,
gourmet defroster pro retails for $20.
It's a smaller in size with the same two inch diameter,
but only four inches in height compatibility, exact same as the Omnimax feeder,
but there are a lot more options with this unit.
The innovative Marine gourmet defroster is actually a three in one
system it's primarily advertised as a frozen food defroster,
and it does that job well,
but you can also easily disassemble it and it becomes a
low-profile magnetic feeding ring or leave on half.
And you have an underwater feeding station.
It also has an adjustable release setting for portion control,
the best feature of the innovative Marine Aqua gadget gourmet defroster,
because it's really a three in one feeding station and the worst characteristic.
I can't think of one, maybe the placement of the holes on the side.
You just have to make sure that they're either below or above the water line.
For example,
if you placed the holes on the side below the waterline,
if you dispense pellets or flakes, rather than be dispensed under water,
they may just float out the hole,
but that's easily solved by just placing those holes above the water line.
And the third and final feeding ring we're looking at today is the S L S O N the
sole sun fish feeding ring from Amazon super affordable,
$7 for both a square and a circular shape feeding ring.
It's three inches by three inches. If there's too much surface agitation,
then water can spill over the side. Basically making it useless.
It's just really cheap plastic with some styrofoam underneath it.
So it has to float on the surface.
The best characteristic of the plastic feeding ring is it's super inexpensive
and it just attaches with the suction cup.
The worst characteristic of this feeding ring is it's very cheaply made and it
has to float on a calm surface.
All right, we're fine.
Up to our favorites by category category.
Number one least expensive here is the current
price for all of the automatic fish feeders.
We just looked at the current Aqua chef is the cheapest one currently at
$23, but it's reviews. Aren't very good online.
So why not $2 more and get the Zack row unit for
$25 with really high reviews category. Number two,
the highest user rating here are all of the user ratings.
And you can see it as a tie between the EHE Haim air and
the Zack row. Both of which have a lot of ratings.
And our 4.4 out of five stars category three largest capacity. Again,
here are all the capacities for the units. The lowest of course,
being 35 milliliters from current USA,
but there is a tie for largest capacity, the lifeguard and tele feed.
And these acro both have a 200 milliliter capacity category. Number four,
the most amount of mounting options.
If you want to have flexibility with how you Mount it,
it's really a three-way tie between the Zack row,
the lifeguard and the Haim air category. Number five, the most daily feedings,
pretty boring here. They can all feed up to four times a day.
Some of these units can do three rotations.
Some of these units can do two rotations and then the E Haim twin
has two separate sides. So it can actually be programmed for six cycles a day.
I'm not going to give a winner here, just look over here,
make your choice basically any one of these can be programmed for four cycles,
a day, category number, sick, easiest to program.
It is a tie between the lifeguard and the Zack row.
These are just a little bit easier to program because they have both an up and a
down button.
So let's say you're setting the time and you want to set it for 12 o'clock and
you accidentally go to one.
You can just hit the down arrow rather than having to continue with the up
arrow. 23 more times, category number seven, easiest to refill again,
it's gotta be the lifeguard and the Zack row because you can either pull the
barrel off or you can just use the top loading feature. All right, drum roll,
please. Category number eight, my overall favorite winner.
And I think you've probably guessed it by now.
It is the Zack row really it's the Zack row and the
lifeguard,
but why would you pay $50 when you can pick up for
what I can see to be the exact same feeder for $25?
So lifeguard, I'm sorry. Zack row wins.
This is my go-to automatic fish feeder, highest quality,
highest rating, largest capacity, best price.
And one more category category number nine, my favorite feeding ring.
It's pretty obvious. I think it's the innovative Marine gourmet defroster.
The Aqua max feeding ring is also very nice, but for the same price,
why not pick up this one, which is really three and one,
and just gives you so many more options. Ooh,
that was a crazy long video. I hope you found it helpful.
And I hope you know which one to get.
Please consider liking this video and subscribing to both Marine Depot and my
first fish tank links to all five of the feeders and the three feeding rings are
in the description below. And as always, we'll see you next time. Happy evening,
everybody.