Diy Dosing Pump.

[TORX]

Think I am going to give this a try. Basically it will be a BRS style dosing pump that needs to be plugged into a timer...or in my case will be my Apex EB8.

In the coming weeks, I am going to order:
PWM DC Motor Speed Controller w/ Knob
12V DC DIY Dosing pump Peristaltic dosing Head from ebay or Ali.

Throw it all in a small project box, or I think I may use one of those small Outdoor Weatherproof PVC Device Box, for a whopping $30 I will have a single head doser. I have a marine magic 3 head doser that in inherited and am using currently, but would like to try this out. Thank you to @KBennett and his recent post about his Ebay 12v Peristaltic Pump Tubing. I plan on making more and possibly hooking them together, but hey, for $30, why not give it a go.

 

[harleymike]

Becarefull. If it doesn't work right then your 30 dollar doser, will cost you way more in dead corals if it screws up. To me somethings aren't worth cheeping out on. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Poseidon]

I gotta agree with mike on this one,
Unless you use a tiny reservoir so in case it does malfunction then it won't throw things way out of wack

 

[TORX]

I do plan on only using a small reservoir for iodine, possibly use it for ATO.

But on the note of dosers failing, it is not the pump that fails and causes an issue, it is the programming. From what I have learned so far, there is no way for a 3 roller pump to fail unless the pump is left with the power ON. The only way that can happen is with poor programming. A simple timer or using the Apex will do better then some cheap chip. Either the pump is ON or OFF. The only way the head itself can fail is if it stops pumping or seizes, but that just means that nothing will go in the tank...not to detrimental then.

 

[Kyle1970]

Following...

 

[KBennett]

Just be aware that at lower voltages it is pretty choppy and loud. When I finally get around to it, I plan on only running mine at night time.

 

[TORX]

Just be aware that at lower voltages it is pretty choppy and loud. When I finally get around to it, I plan on only running mine at night time.

I have read that, hence why I am only doing 1 first. My doser is only 12V and pretty silent, so maybe just luck of the draw though. We shall see. Plus my fish room is in my storage room, so noise is not a big concern. I could do a stepper motor, but those are $45 a head and a lot more to set up.

 

[TORX]

Parts ordered...it's on now .

 

[TORX]

All come in the mail today. I took a few minutes to wire it up and check it all out. I like. I still need to pick up some sort of enclosure for it. I did a quick test and it does about 50ml/minute on high and is adjustable down to 0%. There is a tick motor running noise, but no more then my current doser, but also it is not enclosed in anything yet. Looking up so far.

 

[TORX]

 

[scubasteve]

was gonna ask how it was coming along

 

[TORX]

Hoping to assemble some into a box today. I just picked up an outdoor plastic electrical box to use for the test set up.

 

[TORX]

Just need a few minutes with the iron now.

 

[curiousphil]

Looks great. I like the box you chose, will make it a cinch to mount it on a wall or in your stand.

 

[TORX]

Looks great. I like the box you chose, will make it a cinch to mount it on a wall or in your stand.

Exactly. I was hoping for a single outlet size, but they were out of stock and the is just a trial.

 

[TORX]

Final product. Hard to tell from the video as it is really quiet in my house and the camera was close to it, but it is no louder then the marine magic doser that I am running. The hole below the nob was due to the fact that I had to thin the plastic out for the nob to fit snuggly and went a little too thin. It was not designed to be in an enclosure so thick. They are typically installed through thin metal sheet, not 1/4 plastic.

I plan on ordering parts to make a few single pump ones and with better planning, I could put 2 in this one enclosure. For the singles, I will be adding a second DC plug so that you can daisy chain them together on the same power plug. Only then they would run together.

 

[EricTMah]

Nice!

When will these be for sale

Sent from my Z30 using Tapatalk 2

 

[monizb]

Good job

 

[scubasteve]

that is some seriously sweet stuff lol jeez maybe you should bring your own 3 channel doser to production and retire early

 

[TORX]

Ordering more parts in 2 weeks. That should give me time to keep beating this up. I ran it through a couple dozen 30 sec runs on a low setting and all were spot on for volume.