Dosing Pump Safe?

[Jeremy K.A.]

Hey reefers I have a question. I manually dose my 55 gallon tank every day/ every other day depending on consumption of alk/calcium, but would much rather get a dose and have it dose daily throughout the day for increased stability. HOWEVER, I'm extremely curious, how often have dosing pumps been known to Over Dose a tank and/or cause a crash? I don't have a sump on my tank so I'd probably have to hang the dosing pump on the wall etc.

 

[reefwiser]

If you buy a good dosing pump system you don’t see many issues. If you go cheap you will have issues.

 

[landlubber]

it'd be an interesting stat but I bet more tanks have been lost to manual dosing than to automated. life gets in the way of husbandry practices sometimes and losers get forgotten. as @reefwiser said, quality equipment is imperative as the horror stories you've heard about 1000mL of Alkalinity being dosed is usually in the case of el-cheapo dosing pumps.

 

[Jeremy K.A.]

So would a jebao be included in the cheapos? Just asking because I've known plenty of people who use their products and have had better luck with them then some of the more expensive ones

 

[ca1ore]

No way to reliably know unfortunately. I'd not personally go anywhere near the jebao doser though. Although mire expensive, I went with the GHL 2.

 

[Jeremy K.A.]

No way to reliably know unfortunately. I'd not personally go anywhere near the jebao doser though. Although mire expensive, I went with the GHL 2.

If I could afford that I'd go with it too haha

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Just my $0.02, most of the "horror stories" I read about dosing pumps are either user error (creating the wrong schedule or dosing logic) or something that appears to be a software bug, but can't be confirmed as such. I've been using a Jebao doser for well over a year now with no issues, and I know I'm not the only one. Dosing pumps are relatively simple. It's a circuit that turns a pump on and off on a schedule. It's not impossible for one to spontaneously go wrong and dose a whole bunch of solution to your tank, but solid state circuits don't go bad very often. A much more likely outcome is that the pump would malfunction and stop dosing at all, not nuke your tank by emptying your reservoir.

Any time you set up a dosing pump, it's a good idea to test the program with some RO/DI water and visibly watch it dose the right amount a few times. Check on it a few times a year to make sure it's operating as expected still. As long as the pump behaves as expected and you don't spill a ton of saltwater on it, you should be good with whatever you buy.

 

[PanchoG]

I have wandering the same, I made some reading and found scary cases, tanks completely wasted due to pumps or controllers failing. I decided not to do it as dosing daily gives the opportunity to daily check all the other equipment and check if everyone inside is in good shape. Also pumps and controllers maintenance can be less predictable than manual dosing. I guess at the end, it is a personal choice.

 

[Sobiech]

I used dosing pumps and put them on independent outlet timers.... day 3 my alkalinity timer failed and instead of dosing 50ml it dosed half a gallon. I fortunately only lost one large birds nest, but I learned a very valuable lesson. I should have done more research and bought a better quality product. I’m back to dosing manually until I figure out the controller system I bought. I will also be using substantially smaller dosing containers when it gets to that point.

 

[Jeremy K.A.]

I used dosing pumps and put them on independent outlet timers.... day 3 my alkalinity timer failed and instead of dosing 50ml it dosed half a gallon. I fortunately only lost one large birds nest, but I learned a very valuable lesson. I should have done more research and bought a better quality product. I’m back to dosing manually until I figure out the controller system I bought. I will also be using substantially smaller dosing containers when it gets to that point.

What pump did you use?

 

[PanchoG]

I used dosing pumps and put them on independent outlet timers.... day 3 my alkalinity timer failed and instead of dosing 50ml it dosed half a gallon. I fortunately only lost one large birds nest, but I learned a very valuable lesson. I should have done more research and bought a better quality product. I’m back to dosing manually until I figure out the controller system I bought. I will also be using substantially smaller dosing containers when it gets to that point.

Unfortunately for all equipment the question is not “if it fails” but “when it fails”...

 

[cracker]

I understand the Jebao's need to be calibrated. To be honest ,I'm not good at that sort of thing. Are all dosers this way? I think I can buy one that is already known to dose so much per minute or such ? I'd rather pay for the peace of mind.

 

[WWIII]

I understand the Jebao's need to be calibrated. To be honest ,I'm not good at that sort of thing. Are all dosers this way? I think I can buy one that is already known to dose so much per minute or such ? I'd rather pay for the peace of mind.

They all need to be calibrated as far as I know. Some make it easier than others, but all in all it's a pretty simple task. A graduated cylinder comes in handy!

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I understand the Jebao's need to be calibrated. To be honest ,I'm not good at that sort of thing. Are all dosers this way? I think I can buy one that is already known to dose so much per minute or such ? I'd rather pay for the peace of mind.

They do need to be calibrated, but it's not difficult or time consuming to do. You press up to get to the calibration screen (I think, been a while since I did this), then you select the pump, and press enter to start the calibration. You let the pump fill a 100ml measuring device. Then, when the pump has put out 100 mL (a graduated cylinder is best for precision), press stop. It's now calibrated. You don't have to worry about how many mL per minute it doses, you just tell it a dose (in mL) and a time to dose. I just tell mine to dose 7 mL of sodium bicarb at 9:00AM and it does it. No clue how many mL per minute it doses.

 

[Ryan Rosales]

Get the GHL Profilux 2.1

 

[cracker]

I really need to toughen up here. Even my Gyre controller intimidates me !

 

[cracker]

Ryan, I'm afraid to even see how pricey that is ! LOL

 

[Zack K]

Ryan, I'm afraid to even see how pricey that is ! LOL

$400 [emoji263][emoji102][emoji263]

 

[Ryan Rosales]

Lol, that’s the best in the market that’s why

 

[BigJohnny]

So would a jebao be included in the cheapos? Just asking because I've known plenty of people who use their products and have had better luck with them then some of the more expensive ones

Don't get a jebao. They either work great or fail miserably, luck of the draw. IMO the best blend of budget and reliability are brs 1.1ml/min dosing pump plugged into either timers or an aquarium controller. If you want a standalone unit, bubble magus dosers are pretty good but GHL are the nicest.