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DIY Project DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump with alternate switching.

Re: DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump. More Pics and more.

Ha ha, I'm gonna follow your keep it simple approach and go with the single pump and single timer for dosing an all in one solution.

Have a good holiday ;P
 
Re: DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump. More Pics and more.

spill50 said:
Have a good holiday ;P
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Will be going to SeaWorld Orlando, I know they have some wonderful tanks there, wonder if any are planted tanks ?

Will be going this time with more of a "planty interest" than when I have been before. 😀
 
Re: DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump. More Pics and more.

Well got back after 3 weeks in Florida, all fishes still alive, including loads of extra guppies that have appeared. So fish feeder clearly worked.

Most plants still alive though, though not 100% as dark green as they were before I left. Some uprooted and floating HC had grown to about 10cm long with leaves every 3cm, very weird, planted it back and see if it gets back to normal. Odd bit of algea and slight diatoms on some plants. Nothing too unmanagable. Put back to full dosing and full lights and see how it goes.

Dosing worked whilst away, both macro and micro levels lower in storage bottles.

Going to put dosing back to single timed dose of both macro and micro as with two B&Q timers it is very tight space wise with all the plugs required. It is also very easy, during tank maintenance, to accidentally knock the B&Q timers and override the timer and start the dosing as I found yesterday numerous times :jawdrop

Seaworld, Orlando, had one slightly planted tank, but not nearly maintained as well as the sea water tanks they have. To be expected really for a sea based park.
 
Re: DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump. More Pics and more.

so how come you are not using your homeeasy timers on this now
 
Re: DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump. More Pics and more.

jagz said:
so how come you are not using your homeeasy timers on this now
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I am now back to dosing both macro and micro at same time each night using home easy timers.

I split them on alternate days, whilst I was away, as it was suggested that dosing macro and micro together will precipitate the phosphate (as insoluable iron phosphate).

However in practice I have a feeling it doesn't matter as both macro and micro are quickly diluted in the tank and I read somewhere the reaction to iron phosphate is quite slow, it takes hours/days. I did mix 40ml of macro and micro and saw nothing precipitate out over a week, though I suspect my macro has sorbic acid/potassium sorbate as a preservative which can also prevent the phosphate reacting.

Also the homeeasy timed sockets are not accidentaly knocked, time overridden etc when fiddling with the electrics/pumps etc. They are also much smaller than timed switches, meaning you can get four plugged into a 4 way extension socket.
 
Re: DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump. More Pics and more.

good stuff i am still considering a set of these, can you tell me where the pins are on the time are they on the top or bottom as my plug faces are right up against the top of my cabinet and moving them will be a pita now, so i wanna know if they will fit in, if you dont understand what i mean is there anychance you could post a pic of the back of one of the timers and ill have a look

cheers Ric
 
Re: DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump. More Pics and more.

jagz said:
good stuff i am still considering a set of these, can you tell me where the pins are on the..
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The mains plug pins are at the top of the unit, probably right behind in line with the front mains sockets. The top of the earth pin is 10mm below the top of the switch unit, so they "hang" below a wall mounted 13A socket.
 
Re: DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump. More Pics and more.

ian_m said:
jagz said:
good stuff i am still considering a set of these, can you tell me where the pins are on the..
Click to expand...
The mains plug pins are at the top of the unit, probably right behind in line with the front mains sockets. The top of the earth pin is 10mm below the top of the switch unit, so they "hang" below a wall mounted 13A socket.
Click to expand...

perfert mate just what i was after

cheers
 
Re: DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump. More Pics and more.

Updated first post with alternate relay switching circuit.
 
A bit off topic, but what are your experience with having the tubes hang over the water surface so there is dripping/evaporation from the hoses? I dose EI and EasyCarbo and I'm worried that it will clog up the hose when it dries out between dosing.

(I have a solution to avoid the catastrophe of emptying my tank into my cabinet if a hose comes loose)

Thanks
 
I have had this running two years now and drying up between dosing is not an issue. There are slight crystal deposits on the outside of the tube at the end of the macro outlet, but not enough to worry about. The liquid generally stays in the tube and doesn't evaporate from the ends of th etubes.

Biggest "mess" is in the cupboard, when you go to change the dosing bottles, getting drips of solution on things, which then produces a patch of white crystals.
 
Below is a picture of the tube outlets, this is after two years. The third middle tube is a recently fitted liquid carbon dosing tube (not actually primed yet, took about 1/2 an hour at 1ml per min to prime).

DosingPipes_zps76da39f4.jpg

This is the cupboard, with the recently fitted liquid carbon dosing pump. Pump bought from Ukapps member.
DosingPumps_zps75f16b53.jpg

This is the rather squeezed in electrics, in the other cupboard, including the 6th timed socket hastily updated for liquid carbon dosing.
Electrics_zpsac8f2a0c.jpg
 
ian_m said:
not actually primed yet, took about 1/2 an hour at 1ml per min to prime
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Whoa! That's slow. Mine gush out 60 ml per minute. This also makes it easy to calibrate. There is a calibration item in the menu where you just let it run in exactly 60 seconds and type in how many ml that produced.

Thanks for the pics - good to see that it works fine without getting clogged up. I have chosen another method as I have no hood to conceal the tubes in. It's a paludarium so the tubs will go into the aquarium hidden behind some 'land' plants and then run under the 'ground' and then zip tied to the spraybar and then only the tip of the tube will protude over the water near one of the nozzles (to prevent emptying my tank into the cabinet in case the tubes get unstuck).
 
No need to calibrate mine (though I did check), manufacturer stated 3ml/minute for the EI dosing pumps and 1ml/minute for the liquid carbon pumps. Just set timer for required number of minutes to get the dose needed.

One thing I did pick up, whilst designing/building mine, was make sure you have four roller peristaltic pumps (maybe three ?) as this will prevent back flow down the tubes when the pumps have stopped. You can get away with cheaper 2 roller pumps (as used in marine dosing), but have to use a non return valve and many people encountered EI crystalization issues in the valves
 
Nathaniel Whiteside said:
I've just purchased (3weeks ago) some byron home easy sockets and remote on your advice Ian
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I assume you remembered to reset the sockets (hold button in for 10 seconds) before programming as they will respond to more than one unit number and timer slot. I had right fun and games initially, as my CO2 kept on coming on at same time as lights as the CO2 socket (no 2) was responding to both the lights socket (no 1) and CO2 socket (no2). :banghead:

I have couple two issues in the two years odd I have had them.

Recently one of the switching plugs started misbehaving on my air pump. I put air on at 10:45pm (before lights out at 11pm) until 3am. Find this gives much cleaner tank, no surface film etc as change in flow due to air causes all the settled detritus at rear of tank to be moved and filtered away. The air would come on and couple of seconds later turn off. Switch unit has failed/misbehaves. New one from Ebay £7, sorted. Most likely due to switching the inductive load of an air pump, I have had conventional digital timers fail and/or just reset themselves to 00:00 when attempting to switch an air pump.

Normally the remote is stored in its holder in the fish tank stand, right next to the switching sockets. However once after tank clean and water change I left the remote on coffee table with TV remotes etc. It managed to switch my dosing pump on, but not off so I ended up dumping 1 litre of EI macro solution into the tank over the next day or two, giving way over 300ppm nitrate. According to "other people" anything over 50ppm will kill all the fish and lead to algae blooms. But us UkApps know better, fish unaffected and no algae.

Other than the above two issues, second one clearly my fault the switching sockets have been awesome.

Oh, also once used the switching socket to control a pump in the kitchen to pump warmed dechlorinated water from kitchen (can't use my hot water as is from a water softener) into the tank. When tank is full, remotely control the pump, in kitchen to turn the water off. Nice.
 
Ha yeah! It was a head scratcher when the Ei started switching on randomly, but then realised it was when the light was coming on. So reset and on three separate channels.

As long as your checking them when your setting up new sockets they're spot on.

I have OCD with the remote. I lock it and leave it on channel 2 (lights) so that I don't have to go through the channels if I think something's wrong to turn lights on
 
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