Dosing pump for liquid food

Rhoads238 · Jul 13, 2018

Hey all,

I was wondering if any of you have any experience with dosing liquid food to your reef. I'm going on my honeymoon to Switzerland and Italy and will be away from my reef for a few weeks. I just bought three anthias a few weeks ago and they need to eat 2-3 times per day. It would be pretty impractical for someone to come to the house three times a day to do this. So I'm thinking of how I could auto feed them while I'm gone. So far they are only eating frozen food and I'm not sure that they will start eating pellets, I think a typical autofeeder wont do the job. I saw bulk reef is selling NYOS Goldpods, which is shelf stable and doesn't need refrigeration after opening. I think I could use a dosing pump to feed the tank while I'm away but I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks in advance for the input!

Jason

sa6hir · Jul 13, 2018

Well if your still at home you could try and test it. See how it goes for you, then post on here and let the rest of us know [emoji1360]

PaulK · Jul 13, 2018

I recently did this with NYOS chromys, which is mysis shrimp suspended in liquid. Some of the shrimp are fairly large. I used a BRS doser because it uses larger diameter tubing than most other dosers. It worked well for the 8 days I was away and didn’t clog. I’m sure the goldpods would work as they’re much smaller.

Rhoads238 · Jul 13, 2018

PaulK said:
I recently did this with NYOS chromys, which is mysis shrimp suspended in liquid. Some of the shrimp are fairly large. I used a BRS doser because it uses larger diameter tubing than most other dosers. It worked well for the 8 days I was away and didn’t clog. I’m sure the goldpods would work as they’re much smaller.

I'll be using the BRS doser for this as well. How long did you have to have the pump run to get the desired amount of food dispensed? Did you do anything special as far as diluting it the food, consider making the tubes the shortest distance possible. How did you modify the container?

PaulK · Jul 13, 2018

I used a timer and ran it for 4 minutes twice a day. That gave about 5ml per feeding, which seemed good. I didn’t dilute the nyos food at all, just poured it into a small bottle and ran the tubing from there. I put the doser right next to the aquarium (on top of a chair and some boxes) so the tubing was only a few inches long.

Rhoads238 · Jul 14, 2018

Awesome this is great feedback. I'll try this and post pictures.

markster33139 · Feb 16, 2019

Bump for feedback, any success using BRS Doser to dose Nyos Chromys

markster33139 · Feb 16, 2019

Also please indicate if you have successfully used any other brand dosing pump

xiaoxiy · Feb 16, 2019

I’ve been using the coralbox WiFi pump for Nyos gold pods. I’ve modified some of the connectors to increase the tube ID. Still clogs on occasion though. Tagging along for responses re mysis dosing.

markster33139 · Feb 16, 2019

I considered that pump but I suspected that it might clog. I am trying to come up with a way to auto dose Nyos Chromys in particular for short periods of time

PaulK · Feb 16, 2019

I still do this whenever I go on vacation. I use either Chromys or Artemis (which is brine shrimp) with a BRS dosing pump. The pump occasionally clogs for a feeding, so the amounts are inconsistent, but it always seems to work itself out. I’ve used it for up to a week of vacation with no issues. I’ve probably done this five or six times so far.

markster33139 · Feb 16, 2019

Thank you Paulk for the update much appreciated

xiaoxiy · Apr 3, 2019

Update: I've been dosing with the NYOS Goldpods ever since my last post (Feb 16th), using the Coralbox WiFi doser. Initially I ran into issues with clogged tubing at the connector joints, but ever since I upgraded connectors, the dosing runs flawlessly. I'm currently using the SMC 5mm quick connects and stretching the doser-head tubing over the 5mm coupler. My fish have eaten exclusively NYOS goldpods in the past 1.5 months, and now I've also ordered some NYOS CHROMYS to try as well. I'll update when I get the CHROMYS in.

xiaoxiy · Apr 5, 2019

Update: NYOS Chromys (Mysis) Fits without issue through the setup I've described above!

Denys06 · Sep 5, 2021

Thank you very much for your help and testing.
Can you confirm me which connector you bought for your metering pump as I have the same one.
Is this product? https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=85475&catid=743
Regarding the hoses, do you have a special hose or have you kept the original one?
thank you in advance for your help

Rhoads238 · Sep 10, 2021

Welcome to reef2reef! Thanks for bringing this one back and reminding me about it. I have a new tank and will try it again when the tank is stocked. I think last time i tried this with gold pods and they were able to fit through the BRS doser but my fish wouldn't eat it and i didn't have enough time to get them onto it before my vacation to try it.

Andynz2000 · Oct 23, 2021

Rhoads238 said:
Welcome to reef2reef! Thanks for bringing this one back and reminding me about it. I have a new tank and will try it again when the tank is stocked. I think last time i tried this with gold pods and they were able to fit through the BRS doser but my fish wouldn't eat it and i didn't have enough time to get them onto it before my vacation to try it.

Hi Rhoads!

I am currently trying to make my tank as automated as possible and came across your set up with the coralbox wifi doser. Did you have the goldpods pumped into your main tank or sump? I want to use the coralbox also to dose Ca/mg/alk as well and thinking about hanging it above my sump, would the tubing be too long to go up and into the display tank? (for the goldpods)

Rhoads238 · Oct 23, 2021

Andynz2000 said:
Hi Rhoads!

I am currently trying to make my tank as automated as possible and came across your set up with the coralbox wifi doser. Did you have the goldpods pumped into your main tank or sump? I want to use the coralbox also to dose Ca/mg/alk as well and thinking about hanging it above my sump, would the tubing be too long to go up and into the display tank? (for the goldpods)

I never ended up doing it because my fish wouldn't eat the nyos food. I've thought about trying this again though. Last time I was going to drip it into the display directly. I've thought about trying this again and doing it into the return box on my sump. This would probably require more frequent cleanings if done this way.

Andynz2000 · Oct 23, 2021

Rhoads238 said:
I never ended up doing it because my fish wouldn't eat the nyos food. I've thought about trying this again though. Last time I was going to drip it into the display directly. I've thought about trying this again and doing it into the return box on my sump. This would probably require more frequent cleanings if done this way.

Thanks for the reply.
I am going to feed my fish with the eheim auto feeder but I want to feed the corals with evo gel via the dosing pump. Do you think it will work?