Review on 🐟 EHEIM Everyday Fish Feeder: Programmable Automatic Food Dispenser for Effortless Feeding by Jacki Reichmann

So about half a year ago I switched to automatic feeders (versus hand feeding) and bought about 6 of these devices (all for different tanks) as a daily driver. I believe that in this time I can list a few pros and cons of this product that I think you should think about. Pros: 1) Simplicity - this product is very easy to manage and program. I lost the instruction manual a few months ago and honestly with three or four buttons you don't need a manual to figure out how to program this device. In addition, the volume regulator (small plastic door) can be easily adjusted to the amount of food you want to serve. I like to go to the side of less and just increase the number of turns if I feel the fish needs more. 2) Consistency - this was a big reason for me to switch to automatic feeders. I'm a big fan of overfeeding and mostly work with nano aquariums. I've been through all the problems that too much food can cause. From seaweed to smelly water to oily fish to being tempted to eat an extra pinch of food for fun, yes I've made all of these mistakes and paid for each of them. Now I can go weeks without fish food which gives me a base to adjust the amount if needed. It also helps me diagnose problems without worrying about the overfeed variable as the cause. 3) Reliability - I've been using this device for several months without failure. I was primarily planning to use it as a travel companion, but wanted to make sure it worked while I was watching. Sure enough, after a few months I've never had any technical issues with this product. Also, the option to "dissolve" food for vacationers seemed like a cheaper route, but the reviews I've read about these products put me off with so many extra chemicals added to the water (btw, when you're away for a few). weeks, you probably won't ask anyone to do a water change). Cons: (yes I would still give this product 5 stars) 1) Different types of feed - would require a second feed station. I have measles and gourami in the same tank so I need two of these to make sure they both get the food they need. For gourami I have flake food and for measles I have sinking pellets. I considered mixing them together and just using one device, but I realized earlier that if I tried that, the consistency would be seriously compromised. 2) Food of different sizes - can get stuck. So with flake food it doesn't matter, but if you have chickens and pellets of different sizes you can switch to flake food. Leaving the door closed can trap large particles and prevent food from escaping, but opening the door too far can cause you to lose too much food. In summary, if the pellets aren't always the same size, choose flake food AND don't drop too much food. 3) Moisture - Do not fit air stone or cooktop filter. I learned this the hard way after returning from a week long vacation. I placed the feeder over the Aeroston and the stream of water landed around and in the tank. After a week all the feed in the feed trough was rotten and caked (the fish starved for several days). Rachel O'Leary mentioned that you shouldn't use fish feeders at all in a very humid fish room and I totally agree with her. But keeping the feeder away from my HOB filter and Airstone was ideal as all the feed stayed dry for weeks. This is a big problem by the way, but I'm currently forgetting to replenish or set up the programming base on my fish stock. For example, if I move a whole bunch of fish from an aquarium and forget to adjust the amount of food discarded, I can easily run into an overfeeding problem. While this is clearly operator error, it's easy to forget a practice you don't do every day. These are my thoughts on this feeder, even keeping all the cons in mind I would definitely give this product 5 stars and will only continue to buy from this brand because it works for me. Note that I haven't used any other brand, but I read all the reviews before deciding on this device and I think the benefits far outweigh my concerns. Hope this review helped.