How do you remember to dose your tanks?

[TarkMalbot]

It will be on my journal as soon as it arrives. 😉

 

[greenink]

Is fine to dose micro and macro on same days - just don't keep in same solution bottle.

 

[ale36]

This is what I have just ordered:

Marine Magic 1+1 doser - Set

Instructions:
http://www.rrasco.com/downloads/MM-01B_IB_-_English.pdf

let me know when you have tested it and what you think 🙂

 

[AverageWhiteBloke]

Will be watching this closely to see how it pans out. It may be the answer I'm looking for when I work away. Looks a bit more reliable than my missus 😉 Out of curiosity could you mix the macros/micros/LC in one bottle just for short term use of say a week? I only generally go away for a week every now and again so could switch back to manual while I'm home. Would there be a reaction between the three if I was just to mix enough to dose a weeks worth and switched it on on Monday?

 

[TarkMalbot]

Ok my dosing pumps arrived today. Follow the link to my journal for the Aquaone AR850 in my signature. Save me posting all the photos and stuff twice.

 

[TarkMalbot]

Just realised if you use tapatalk you can't see signatures and you Can copy posts so here goes:

Dosing pumps arrived this afternoon. I managed to get a free spare pump thrown in too.



There is a master that controls the timers and the slave that just does as its told:



Each pump can have up to 36 timed intervals. You can set the day of the week and how long the pump runs for.



I did a test and set it up to run pump 1 and 2 on alternative days for 1 min at the same time 15:00.



I fitted the non return valve at the end of the hose and fitted to the pipe holder:



I drilled two small holes in the back of the old filter housing and ran in the hoses.



With the pumps in place I used the manual mode to pump the fluid though the pipes until a drop came out. I then filled up 30ml (my daily dose) and timed how long it would take. I did this with everything in place and pipes to the correct length as the height and distance to be pumped will change the pumping speed.

As it happens it took 1 min to pump 30ml on speed 4 (the fastest) so my original guess was spot on.

Pumps in place:



My only concern is evaporation from the bottle but know I must have some hole in the top of the bottle so to not create a vacuum in the bottle. I might just drill a hole in both lids.

Once set up and in auto mode the screen shows your next 3 scheduled doses for each pump and then turns the screen off with just the auto light illuminated.

All programmed in:



I will see how it goes tomorrow at 15:00 and hopefully dose 30ml of micro solution.

 

[tim]

how do you guys remember to eat breakfast 😉

 

[TarkMalbot]

how do you guys remember to eat breakfast 😉

I can eat breakfast wherever I am but I can't take my tank to work with me for 2 weeks and I can't guarantee the wife will remember so this was my solution.

 

[tim]

good solution 🙂

 

[ale36]

Just realised if you use tapatalk you can't see signatures and you Can copy posts so here goes:
.

Thanks man thats really helpfull

 

[LondonDragon]

Just realised if you use tapatalk you can't see signatures and you Can copy posts so here goes:

With the responsive style who needs Tapatalk?!?! I don't use it any more 😉

 

[ale36]

With the responsive style who needs Tapatalk?!?! I don't use it any more

i do but mainly because im a menber on other forums and just check all at once 🙂

 

[Notator]

In answer to the original question - how do you remember to dose - I,...wait for it..it's very sad...
I have a spread-sheet on my desktop with a reminder programmed into my task scheduler....
Ahem.

ANYWAY...
@ TarkMalbot -
To save leaving the bottles open you could drill a hole and put a one way non-return valve into the hole...
That way it could suck in some air when it needed it and it's sealed the rest of the time.

(I've just done something similar for a totally different purpose - and on a larger scale!!)
(But in my defence the hole was precision cut with a Laser - I gotta get points for that!)

 

[ale36]

(I've just done something similar for a totally different purpose - and on a larger scale!!) (But in my defence the hole was precision cut with a Laser - I gotta get points for that!)

this sound like you are doing something interesting what is it?

 

[LondonDragon]

To save leaving the bottles open you could drill a hole and put a one way non-return valve into the hole... That way it could suck in some air when it needed it and it's sealed the rest of the time.

Thats what I did on mine! have a look here: Aqua One AR-850 | Page 2 | UK Aquatic Plant Society

 

[jojouk]

Dag nammit...forgot to dose mine this morning before coming to work...

 

[DTL]

Does the Marine Magic pump come with spare tubing?
When I lived in the States I used a couple of ex medical peristaltics which had the thinner tubing, for my reef tank , and it wore out every month or so. Be interested in whether there's any probs like this with the MM pump?

 

[ian_m]

I used these in my DIY dosing pumps. Not the cheapest, but very high quality.
Series 100 Micro Peristaltic Pumps
The ones I used were 3ml/minute.

Using a 4 roller version means no one way valve is required. The marine dosing people suffering from failed/gummed up one way valves and is quite common on the marine forums, so much so that they often place their dosing liquids at same height as the tank so no back flow or syphoning can occur.

With these pumps the lifetime of the pump & pump tubing is greatly increased by choosing low rpm (3 rpm), biggest diameter pipe (3mm) and using Norprene pipe. Williamson support suggested that 3rpm at say 7minutes per alternate day will most likely last for ever, unlike the 200hour run time quoted for the dosing pumps on Ebay, which I am sure must be wrong. Mind you 7minutes a day to total of 200hours is 4.5years...so OK'ish lifetime.

Here is my original article.
DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump with alternate switching. | UK Aquatic Plant Society

 

[clonitza]

I dose 5 types of ferts in both of my tanks daily using ADA and the new Tropica bottles, it takes me around 30s and when I'm away I leave a note. 🙂

 

[George Farmer]

Dosing is part of my daily routine. I do it before I have breakfast. I guess I'm so obsessed with this hobby I couldn't forget, even if I wanted to. 🙂