If you feed flake or pellet food and have not tried the Gourmet Grinder from Innovative Marine, you need to! One of the biggest challenges when feeding fish by hand is keeping the food from traveling down the overflow, especially flake foods. One of the greatest benefits of the Gourmet Grinder is that once it is filled, you no longer need to touch the food directly while keeping precise portion control. The clear spout is also an essential feature that lets you break the water line in the tank, holding the food in the feeding tube until it sinks or is consumed and placing it by a powerhead will help broadcast the food throughout your aquarium allowing even the timidest fish to get some food. The Gourmet Grinder works best with pellet or flake foods that are under 3mm in size, and the food can be loaded into the body of the Grinder simply by unscrewing the lower portion from the upper body. Then using the clear dispensing tube, you can scoop your favorite pellet or flake into the hopper. Once it is full reattach the top to the bottom and you are ready to feed your fish! A couple of things we have found with the Innovative Marine Gourmet Grinder is that hard pellets like Piscine Energetics, and Neptune Crossover pellets work very well, providing a uniform grind that doesn’t clog over time. Also keeping the dispensing tube clean will keep food build up from accumulating, we found running a brush through it once a week keeps things clean and consistent.