BRS 1.1 ml DIY Tubing Replacement

Greg P · Jul 5, 2020

Be careful what you buy. Too hard tubing will damage the motor.
Harder than factory will slow down the motor so it will dose less. Too soft a hose will dose more.
The Santoprene listed above has a Shore hardness of 73A. I do not know what the factory hose was rated at but from what I can find online it could be anywhere between 64 and 73.

I have a brand new factory hose that tested at 1.18ml/minute.
I bought silicone hose with a Shore hardness of around 50A and my first couple test runs gave me 1.5ml/minute.
I'm planning on some more testing with a couple other of my pumps and if this is the case I'll need to recalculate all my timers.

I found the silicone hose to be somewhat sticky, even after washing, so I lubed it with silicone grease. Possibly that's what made it dose so much. I plan on another test with ungreased tubing. Maybe with it being sticky will get me back closer to 1.1ml/minute.

Greg P · Jul 6, 2020

Upon more testing, it appears the silicone tubing I purchased allows my pumps to spin easier.
This is giving me 1.5ml/min versus the stock 1.1ml/min

I'll live with this and adjust both my spread sheet calculations and my timers.
Considering I paid $15 for enough to replace 7 pumps with 3 new hoses each, I guess the re-calculations is worth the effort.

Good luck everyone else!!

hotdrop · Jul 6, 2020

Sorry to derail this a bit but how are you guys controlling this pump? Are there reliable timers out there that would be a good choice or are you running off the apex?

Greg P · Jul 14, 2020

I still have a DA Elite unit that works so I program it to my needs. Before I bought the DA stuff I couldn't find a reliable timer, but that was 8 years ago.

Greg P · Jul 14, 2020

I've checked the calibration on 3 of my 7 BRS/BRS Style pumps and the 3 all give me 1.5ml/min so I've adjusted my timers accordingly and will do so going forward as I change the tubing on the other 4 pumps (after testing).
I've been in contact with the company I purchased the silicone tubing from and am awaiting a response - I'm looking for exact Shore hardness and Compression test info so I can share with you all what I purchased.
I cannot economically purchase less than 50' of Santoprene, but I found 10' of Silicone within an acceptable driving distance from home for less than $15.

I've seen others mention issues with leaks, and I've had issues myself, but it's not from the replacement tubing.
My leaks were due to using airline tubing on the suction and supply sides, and I've solved the issues (I think).
In the past I tried wrapping the tubing with a couple wraps of electrical tape, after pushing it onto the nipples, then forcing the nuts on. But this wasn't very reliable as it would push the tape aside or just mangle it and cause an irregular contact situation.
I've recently applied some heat shrink tubing after pushing the airline onto the nipples and, after letting the tubing cool, then installed and tightened the nuts. It was a tight enough fit that the airline would spin during the last half of the nuts being tightened.
I'm hoping this will be a fix and I'll not get air intrusion again.

I'll report back in a day or 2 if they leak, or a week or 2 if they don't leak.

Greg P · Jul 16, 2020

Looks like I'm not suffering any tubing connection leaks, but rather the possibility of gas in solution. In 48 hours I have about 9" of air in the output tubing of 2 pumps.
I'll start a thread soon with some testing and so on

BAUCE · Jul 16, 2020

so there's no reliable solution so far? I have 7 of these pumps that I wanted to get new tubing for but at $12 a piece Im having a hard time justifying it. Anyone using any of these tubings with 100% success?

redfishbluefish · Jul 16, 2020

Sublime Corals said:
so there's no reliable solution so far? I have 7 of these pumps that I wanted to get new tubing for but at $12 a piece Im having a hard time justifying it. Anyone using any of these tubings with 100% success?

I've done four of my pumps without issue. The last one about two weeks ago.

BAUCE · Jul 16, 2020

redfishbluefish said:
I've done four of my pumps without issue. The last one about two weeks ago.

guess I'll be buying that stuff you linked on the first page and hope I dont have the same issues the other guy had. Thanks for posting this info

Greg P · Jul 16, 2020

@HuskerTank reported leak issues but did not specify exactly what kind of leaks.

I am on a mission to solve my leaking issues and will delve into it in this thread

Doser tubing leaks vs gas bubbles in peristaltic pumps

I'm on a mission to find a solution to some, but not all, of my 1.1ml/min dosers ending up with air in the airline tubing I use for both the suction and discharge sides of my pumps. I'm using a mix of stock BRS 1.1ml pumps and a couple locally sold similar pumps from my LFS. These similar pumps...

www.reef2reef.com

Greg P · Jul 21, 2020

I've updated the thread I started - linked above.

I do not feel leaks using this or any other tubing are an issue, even with airline tubing.
After some testing, it appears gravity causes dripping from runs which are too far below pumps, and other issues covered in the thread ...