Sodium Hyroxide dosing with Versa?
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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Very high pH will damage polycarbonate. Do you know the material used and is it contacting the solution?
I don’t know exactly what ecotech uses but here is the tubing. You can see on the right hand side where it exists it’s cracked and this allows air inside thus stopping the dosing to continue
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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I'd check with them, or replace it yourself with a tubing suitable for very high pH (e.g., sodium hydroxide, 25%):
Yeah I will give them a ring and see but curious if anyone else has had this issue with Versa or Apex DOS as I am about to spin mine back up to use that instead, The issue also doesnt appear to be the tubbing but the connector before tubing with the pushconnect.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Ah, I see. Polypropylene is a great connector material, if you can find the right fitting.
There are folks who have reported some similar issues, but I do not recall the pump in question.
Darren in Tacoma
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EVA or flexible vinyl will work with high alkaline products.
Darren in Tacoma
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Sorry, saw you were talking about the connector. HDPE would work.
Yeah I did. Went back to my DOS for it and selling the versa as I ended up just using it for dailies so got a much cheaper Red Sea dose4 for that purpose.
not much of a solution but after owning the 4h unit and a single I wouldn’t buy them again. The Red Sea one works amazingly well
esse
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I just had the same thing happen dosing saturated kalkwasser. I was hoping it was a fluke.
Dennis Cartier
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The sodium hydroxide is a formidable solution when it comes to dosing. When I was using it I had it split one of my pharmed tubes and decimate the (Masterflex) pump head. I had never seen anything else come close to hardening and cracking a pharmed tube before. Serious stuff.
Dennis
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trevorhiller
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I’m curious if anyone else has had this problem. If I remember correctly they actually have Kalkwasser as a preloaded dosing option in Mobius, and I’m using one of mine to dose saturated Kalkwasser.
It seems like they may have changed the plastic that the tubing is crimped to as mine looks a little more opaque than the clear plastic I see in some of the online photos.
I’m also curious about the NaOH solution though.
trevorhiller
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I’ve been dosing it since the end of June and it seems fine so far. I do think I’m going to change my tubing out to RO tubing which randy has said is safe. I’m also going to pickup a spare set of Versa tubing to keep on hand just in case.
I really like the Kalkwasser, but I imagine eventually it won’t be enough to keep up with demand since I’ve already had to add a fan to be able to add more. At that point I’d like to drop the Kalk and switch to the DIY NaOH two part for the same pH boost but still just run two pumps and dose balling c weekly by hand. Im just not sure if the versa is rated for that solution, which would throw a wrench in my plan.
I know there is tubing that is rated for hydroxides, but the connectors on the versa are what I’m worried about.
If you have any issues, let me know! I saw some previous issues with cracked connectors but they all seemed to be early iterations of the pumps which I believe was a different setup.
I’d like to hear what people are using to dose the NaOH even if it isn’t a versa though.
Tuan’s Reef
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There's just something about Kalk that makes my corals grow. Coraline grows much faster as well. My kalk slurry is at max strength and fully saturated. I can't imagine running a tank without it. I like the slow drip from the Versa pump and is why i have it in use. I'll change out the tubing if needed.
Robinson
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I have been doing Kalk with the versa pump for 2-3 years now. Initially the tubing fixture will crack after 2-3 months of use. When ecotech started to ship the replacement tubing's with the ring spacer (the one you install after the tubing to hold the tubing in place) is when the tubing started to last a lot more. I was able to use one for a year no issues. I still recommend you guys to have some of those on spare because they will break at some point.
trevorhiller
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Interesting, ok. I don’t believe mine has a spacer ring. I just ordered it at the end of June so I believe it’s a fairly new model.
I’ve seen others show this in photos/videos, but this is also what makes me wonder if they redesigned it.
I’ve seen others show this in photos/videos, but this is also what makes me wonder if they redesigned it.
