Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeder Woes

The bottom of my feeder was flooded last week and I took the Aqua Pro 75 apart today to see what the problem was. Water had gotten up to the delivery tube and cemented the feed. After a clean out it was time to re-assemble the lower unit. Now I know why Aqua Pro has such a cheap reputation. It took me FOREVER to get that junk re-assembled. Cut fingers, screw holes that would not match up and a delivery tube held together with HVAC tape.
Our homeowners association just bought five Texas Feeders for our lake and after getting a good look at them say goodbye to Aqua Pro. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!

Yeah, I kinda thought it would be a PITA to get in there and clean things out. I cleaned a flooded TH feeder last year and it was pretty easy. I've never had an AquaPro apart, and from the looks of it, I hope I don't have to.

The TH feeder was getting a bit ripe with the food all wet and sitting in 80° temps for a few days.

I had an Aquapro 75 get flooded a few years ago. After cleaning out the mushy feed, I also had to replace a bad top spinning plate's electric motor. It sits inside the feed chute, which caused all the wet fines to ruin it. About a month later, I had to replace the slinger plate's motor, too.
Since then, I put it on a pond shore platform to get it up another 2 feet. 2 years later and no more issues, expect having to up the fuse size from 7.5 to 10, becasue it kept melting the 7.5. AP Cunstomer Service said I could go to 15 on the fuse size, without issues.
I liked the AP 75, so much I bought their Fat Cat that holds 200 pounds of feed. It constantly clogs if I put more than 100 pounds of feed in it. I plan to play with making the feed hole in the bottom smaller this year to see if it helps.

Mudcat:

Does it clog because too much food is pushing down on the spinner plate, over riding the motor? I'm finding out that if I feed AquaMax 600 my ADF75 will bridge, and not let any food thru. Last year I didn't have this problem with the same food, so I think just a tiny size increase in the pellets will plug things up.

yes, that's the problem. With the larger capacity, I think the hole is too large and the weight of the food pushes it down and over rides the ability of the spinner plate. I can work my arm down into the hole and force the spinner plate to turn enough to get the food to drop past it and free it up.
That's why I am thinking I need to put something in there to make the hole smaller or never put more than 100 pounds of feed in at a time.
Since I've bought 2 Aquapro feeders, I'll do what I can to keep them going. When I must replace them, I'll buy the Texas Hunters from Todd Overton, at Overton Fisheries. He also has some very nice Windmill aerators that I'm yearning for.

If I'm lucky this plug for a guy that I have a lot of respect for, will get me a discount. Yes, I'm shameless.

If you were to take a flat piece of sheet metal like they make furnace duct work out of, cut it to the size of the bottom of the feeder, and make the hole in that, it will allow you to practice on something that is easy to modify. Greg Grimes sent me a couple of pieces like that for the ADF75 for use with smaller food. I had problems of it throwing too much food even set on 1 sec. I enlarged the hole with a step bit or uni bit, with that it's easy to make the hole gradually larger. I took a pair of vise grip "C" clamp locking pliers, the uni bit and a cordless drill to the pond and did the modifications there. Easy to test without having to move the feeder or make a lot of trips back and forth from the garage.

Thanks for that plug Mudcat, will likely get you a discount. I'm easy.

I must admit however, that you will have to reveal to me who you are first so that I don't have a steady stream of fellers named "Mudcat" heading to my place lookin for a feeder discount!

My Aqua Pro feeders have been nothing but trouble. I have two and both are useless. Lesson learned. In hindsight, one good TH or Sweeney feeder would have been far superior to the Aqua Pro feeders.

Thanks for the tip, ESSUP. I'll try that.

Todd, check your PM. Yes, could have a bunch of Mudcats showing up for discounts.