Dosing Pump ???

[Home_Depot]

Would this work for a dosing pump??
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=120069913334

[David Grigor]

Probably can do better. $80 is not that for a refurbished.

[JJGeisler]

Word of warning about buying dosing pumps from medical companies for reeftank use....

Hospitals buy hundreds of thes pumps at a time for use within the hospital. They use them for a while then the equipment reps sell the hospital lots of new pumps, latest and greatest and take the existing pumps off their hands. These pumps end up in lots of places including eBay.

These pumps are used for regulating liquid doses to patients including feeding tubes and IV's. They also freqently have drip alarms so if the pump runs out of fluids it alarms and usually shuts down. This is their purpose in hospitals.

We're not in a hospital. Each time a pump is used for a patient it gets a new set-up which includes a new hose and tubing. One patient, one use. Many of these tube set-ups include the drip chamber. An electronic eye reads the drips passing through the drip chamber. When used for aquariums we often are passing caustic and/or abrasive materials through the tubing (IE: Kalk) The kalk tends to cloud the drip tube so the machine can't see the drips. If it can't see the drips it alarms and shuts down. The material also abrats the tubing and wears it out. In a hospital, one tube usualy gets hours of use, not weeks and months. For reeftank use, tubing wears out and pumps fluids on the floor, not the tank. Now you have to find replacment tubing. Does this eBay deal have lots of extra tubes? Oh ya....the pumps are vending machines for the pump companies to sell lots of replacment tubes at hospital prices. Each pump has it's own brand of tubing so each patient get a new tubing set-up and other brands won't work with that brand of pump.

So....final word is: Save your money a little while longer and invest in a pump that is rated for dosing caustic materials wether swimming pools or reef tanks.

I have two of those things in boxes in the attic and ended up spending more money for two real pumps so been there, did that. Oh ya, my wife is an operating room RN on the heart team so she knows the routine also.
JJ

[Sea monkey]

i really wish the litter meters didn't cost so much , i have a billion things id like to use them for : (

[Home_Depot]

OK thanks for the info.

[REEFSTOCK]

Originally Posted by Sea monkey

i really wish the litter meters didn't cost so much , i have a billion things id like to use them for : (

Does any one else imagine SM to one day grow long fingers, wear huge googly spectacles, and have a propensity to drink strange colored water?

[David Grigor]

This is what I'm using on BJ's little tank the OEM SP100 ( $61 shipping was like $5 additional ) with the largest tubing. Made for continous use applications, quiet, no back siphon issues. Doses a fixed 5.6 ml per minute. Just calculate the number of minutes to dose the required or in combination with a float switch type for redundancy ( if float switch fails it flows slow enough that high PH shouldn't be a major concern unless goes unnoticed for days at a time with a large top off container ). Topoff container can be remote if needed can pump up to 25 feet.

I'm using along with a AC Jr. I have it come on with the lights go out and ocsilate dose 1 minute off 6 minutes works great plus for additional redundancy if PH is too high then will shut it off. Doesn't necessary have to been this redundant but the more the merrier.

http://www.aptinstruments.com/Mercha...tegory_Code=P2

[Sea monkey]

Originally Posted by REEFSTOCK

Does any one else imagine SM to one day grow long fingers, wear huge googly spectacles, and have a propensity to drink strange colored water?

isn't that what i look like now ? : )

[aka_bigred]

Originally Posted by JJGeisler

Word of warning about buying dosing pumps from medical companies for reeftank use....

Hospitals buy hundreds of thes pumps at a time for use within the hospital. They use them for a while then the equipment reps sell the hospital lots of new pumps, latest and greatest and take the existing pumps off their hands. These pumps end up in lots of places including eBay.

These pumps are used for regulating liquid doses to patients including feeding tubes and IV's. They also freqently have drip alarms so if the pump runs out of fluids it alarms and usually shuts down. This is their purpose in hospitals.

We're not in a hospital. Each time a pump is used for a patient it gets a new set-up which includes a new hose and tubing. One patient, one use. Many of these tube set-ups include the drip chamber. An electronic eye reads the drips passing through the drip chamber. When used for aquariums we often are passing caustic and/or abrasive materials through the tubing (IE: Kalk) The kalk tends to cloud the drip tube so the machine can't see the drips. If it can't see the drips it alarms and shuts down. The material also abrats the tubing and wears it out. In a hospital, one tube usualy gets hours of use, not weeks and months. For reeftank use, tubing wears out and pumps fluids on the floor, not the tank. Now you have to find replacment tubing. Does this eBay deal have lots of extra tubes? Oh ya....the pumps are vending machines for the pump companies to sell lots of replacment tubes at hospital prices. Each pump has it's own brand of tubing so each patient get a new tubing set-up and other brands won't work with that brand of pump.

So....final word is: Save your money a little while longer and invest in a pump that is rated for dosing caustic materials wether swimming pools or reef tanks.

I have two of those things in boxes in the attic and ended up spending more money for two real pumps so been there, did that. Oh ya, my wife is an operating room RN on the heart team so she knows the routine also.
JJ

I have to disagree

I've had my kangaroo pump running for about Jan 05 with no problems (knock on wood ). You buy one pumpset and simply change the 3" of tubing that actually pumps every couple months. I think the replacement tubing cost me maybe $20 shipped for 20' for what I'd consider super-duty tubing meant for use in a lab situation from USPlastics.com. That 20' will last prob 20+ years at the rate I use it. Compared to the original pumpset tubing (which lasted nearly 3.5 months with 24/7 use) the new stuff I've had last upwards of 6 months.

You shouldn't be pumping kalk through the pumpset - you pump pure freshwater into your kalk reactor which displaces the kalk water pumping it out of the reactor and into the tank. I would imagine this is the best way to do it even with a litermeter to make the pumping tube last longer.

Sure I should change them proactively, but I've left mine too long before and had it crack. It dumps a little freshwater onto the floor, but no big deal. When they are cracked they don't pump all that well so not as much water spills. Again, if you set it up right, these are nearly as good as a litermeter at a fraction of the cost. I highly recommend medical dosers over litermeters simply based on cost.

FWIW, I'd personally recommend a Kangaroo pump just b/c there's a couple easy mods available that will disable no-set & no-flow errors. Takes 10 mins and a soldering iron. I posted a how-to over on reefcentral a while back. I could find them if you wanted them.

[David Grigor]

Originally Posted by aka_bigred

I would imagine this is the best way to do it even with a litermeter to make the pumping tube last longer.

No applicable for the litermetter. My tubing lasted three years and is made to withstand exposure to Kalk so a non-issue.

Kalk reactor is just not as effective. If you monitor the PH of the effluent from your reactor you will likely find it is not fully saturated as you think unless your adding fresh kalk to the reactor more than once a week. Most of the stuff you see stirring up in the bottom is not soluable and/or precipitate. After you add fresh kalk, the effluent PH will be at or very close to 12 after about 48hours or so if you measure again it will be closer to 10 which is not as saturated. When you mix kalk in a bucket, place a loose fitting lid on,use a doser pump directly ( never stir until time to refill ) the PH stays virtually unchanged even 10-14 days later. If you using a Kalk reactor to basically keep your PH up, likely doesn't matter but if you using it solely as your ALK/CA additive it does.

[David Grigor]

Got some numbers to report for the $61 dosing pump that I linked.

Motor lifespan is 8000 hours. For my use at about 1 hour ( doesn't matter the number of on/offs ) a day that equates to about 20years. Continuous 24/7 use would be 1.3 years.

Neopreme tubing life is 800 hours. For my use that equates to about 2 years.

[JJGeisler]

I'm running Rolachem dosing pumps which are actually a local company. I had two Kangaroos previously which both ended up splitting the tubing and dumping water on the carpet within six months of operation. Not a fan of getting up in the morning, walking across the carpet and it goes "splash"! The Rolachems are on year five+, haven't touched them since hook-up.

I run an elevated RO/DI reserve tank which like a water tower generates line pressure. This pressurizes the Kalk reactor and pushes kalk solution to the pump which then regulates the dosing. Tubing is rated for caustic chemicals so it doesn't care about kalk. Oh ya...paid less than $250 each, "0" maintanence. Dosing 1.8 gallons per day for the main system, .8 for 45g system.

Many of us start out trying to save money in this "hobby" and short cut on many things thinking "I can do that for less". Usualy true. Often these short cuts end up in a box and we still end up spending the original amount to replace the first short-cut. Part of the learning experiance.

Lot's of soultion out there, none are the "only" one, just the ones that work for each individual and their budgets, experiance and labor levels...

[Home_Depot]

Originally Posted by aka_bigred

I have to disagree

I've had my kangaroo pump running for about Jan 05 with no problems (knock on wood ). You buy one pumpset and simply change the 3" of tubing that actually pumps every couple months. I think the replacement tubing cost me maybe $20 shipped for 20' for what I'd consider super-duty tubing meant for use in a lab situation from USPlastics.com. That 20' will last prob 20+ years at the rate I use it. Compared to the original pumpset tubing (which lasted nearly 3.5 months with 24/7 use) the new stuff I've had last upwards of 6 months.

You shouldn't be pumping kalk through the pumpset - you pump pure freshwater into your kalk reactor which displaces the kalk water pumping it out of the reactor and into the tank. I would imagine this is the best way to do it even with a litermeter to make the pumping tube last longer.

Sure I should change them proactively, but I've left mine too long before and had it crack. It dumps a little freshwater onto the floor, but no big deal. When they are cracked they don't pump all that well so not as much water spills. Again, if you set it up right, these are nearly as good as a litermeter at a fraction of the cost. I highly recommend medical dosers over litermeters simply based on cost.

FWIW, I'd personally recommend a Kangaroo pump just b/c there's a couple easy mods available that will disable no-set & no-flow errors. Takes 10 mins and a soldering iron. I posted a how-to over on reefcentral a while back. I could find them if you wanted them.

What if you don't have a kalk reactor than would you want to get some other kind of pump?There are so many ways to do some of the stuff in this hobby that it make a person confused?? I guess it is kind of hit and miss. What works for one may not work for another.

[Sea monkey]

you just need to be picky about who's advice you listen to : )

I would have to have a pretty good reason to disagree with David. I can not remember a time when his advice has steered me wrong.

[Home_Depot]

yes I have would have to agree with you on that one. He seems to know is stuff.