BobH

I was thinking of diluting the concentrations more, say 10-1 so I could pump more volume to make the metering easier and flush the lines better. I may still give it a try as I just tore down my 26gal bowfront to drill the bottom. If that dosn't work watch for my new 75 gal bowfront!

jpmtotoro

diluting would work, i guess... it didn't really seem like an option for me. i'm going for super lazy. therefore, i don't want to keep re-filling the reservoirs! heck, i hooked this thing up around xmas and i have only used about 2/3 of my potassium reservoir! so i figure at MOST, i'll have to fill this thing up 4 times per year. that sounds much better to me than filling it 40 times per year

line flush is another interesting idea... i don't know how the lines will behave over time. i guess i'll just find out. SO FAR, no problems though. i really love not dosing daily. i really, really love it....

Zapins

Hey great job on the DIY. freemann also has some DIY dosing pumps.

By the way, I can't access the web page for some reason. I keep getting text instead of a page with info. How much were they per pump?

Also, Tom Aquatics Aqua Lifter—Dosing Pump aren't good for dosing. They have nearly no pressure when it comes to liquids. If you were to use them, they'd have to be on the same level as the rim of the tank to pump liquid.

Patchworks

This is good to know, I actually was planning on trying them and luckily I'm dosing in-line under the tank so it would be ok. I won't have much head pressure.

g

zdam20

Great project! I used to use a perastalic for makeup water on a reef tank. It worked very well but I bought too small of tubing and it ran probably 12 hours a day. The plastic around the bearings for the rotor wore out and the pump stopped pumping after about a year. If you can limit the pump run to an hour a day or so by selecting the right size tubing and motor speed they should last long enough to be economical. Thanks for posting!

ghengis

Curious about your timer settings and how you have regulated your dosages? How long do you run each pump for and how accurate is each dose? I see you mentioned the tubing used is good for about 0.9ml/min of flow...should I assume then that for a 10ml dose you have your timer set to 11.11111111r minutes??

Patchworks

Opps. Sorry, my earlier post was in reference to another post and I was mistaken...

Well after thinking about this, I don't believe it would be a good idea. As the head pressure changes, the amount you dose would change as well...

g

zdam20

Perastalic pumps will pump the same amount up until the tubing bursts. These are positive displacement pumps.

jpmtotoro

Sorry, haven't been on much to answer questions!

ok, problem number 1 cropped up... the flourish line got clogged! the stuff dried up at the tip after a while and that was the end of that. now i just make sure i look at it once a month to make sure it stays clean. I just poke a paper clip in it to keep it clean. it only crusts up right at the very end, thankfully. i've also started to dose flourish twice a day now... MAYBE that will help it from crusting over so quickly? we'll see. but my lamp timers can have two on/off periods, so why the heck not run it for a few minutes in the afternoon?

as for the 0.9ml thing... to be honest, i just guestimated as close as i could. and then when my plants showed signs of deficiencies, i bumped up the time. i kept taking readings to make sure i wasn't poisoning anything. but my nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, and phosphates all stayed low, but present. the nice part about it is that it gets added DAILY (or twice daily if you feel like it). so if you have one or two stem plants that you can watch, you can tweak settings that way. AND on top of that... you always have your water changes to save your butt!

actually, there is one downside i'll mention... it makes you lazy. and mistakes happen when you're lazy. i stopped monitoring the tank for a bit, and the PH dropped. Why? because my KH dropped to nothing! I've never seen it before. i've even gone for like 6 months without water changes on tanks before and never noticed it. suffice it to say, i'm recovering from it.

as for the price of the pumps... brace yourself... i think they were about 70 bucks a piece (ball park). So with 6 pumps, you can see how the price would add up quickly! then again, i think most people would probably use 3 or 4. but then again... there are people on this forum with 200 gallon gardens, and they may consider 500 bucks for a robust auto-doser to be a valuable investment!

i think next time, i may go with larger diameter tubing. the current tubing is fine, but as one member pointed out, the fewer rotations the pump has to make, the better. on the bright side, the tubing that gets squeezed can be easily replaced (and the bearing and roller assembly too, i think). so... when the thing fails in 2 or 4 or 10 years or whatever, i'll happily spend 50 bucks and replace the wearable parts and continue on with life.

jpmtotoro

www.aptinstruments.com is the website. the model i picked up was SP100 FO (fixed output). it's under the OEM pump section. they also sell better-looking ones with housings and stuff, which did not interest me.

as for the in-line dosing... that would be interesting. i considered it, but decided against it BECAUSE... i figured the water in your tank has STUFF in it, and it will grow back into the tube most likely. by having the fertilizer DRIP into the tank, it guarantees that algae and whatever else cannot get into the tube. as i've already found out... a tiny amount of build-up in the tube will block it off, so i'd be wary of that. however, if anyone else actually wants to do an in-line or has already done something like that, please post your feedback!