TheKipf Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 Ugh... I hate writing these types of posts.. My Hope: By listing a number of "reasonable" Chinese manufactured dosing pumps - the masses will rally behind a Chinese-Champion thereby spurring a purchase that both fits my available tank-spending-budget and meets the needs of dosing additives into my reef tank. My Expectation: The masses will tell me "you get what you pay for", and "Don't cheap on dosing" or a number of other reasonable responses when trying to avoid spending 300.00 or more on a decent dosing pump. But still - I'll present it to you, the people, my question. Has anyone ever tried, or heard of any success stories surrounding the more 'reasonable' dosing pumps out there? Jaebo WP-4 Jaebo FS NT-01 Bubble Magus BM-TO1 (pretty much the same as above?) Marine Magic Triple Doser Reviews / Videos out on the interweb are a bit sparse. Anything ranging from raging excellent reviews to others that aren't so great. Some of the information points to 'newer' versions that are better, (FS NT-01 specifically) that were vastly improved from the past versions. I'm particularly curious around the Jaebo WP-4. I have a WP-25 in the tank running, and it runs like a champ. That being said, it's Chinese quality is evident, especially around the electronics, and I'm not sure how it all comes together for the WP-4. I'd currently plan to install and use it w/o a controller (being that hasn't found it's way into my hobby budget yet... as much as I would want it to) so I wouldn't have any external 'safety' controls in place (unless there's other options out there?). I had been looking at the BRS auto dosing solution - but from what I can tell - I'd need a Reef Controller for that to program the pumps? So, has anyone had any luck? If not - have any other 'reasonable' auto-dosing solutions to recommend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 I use the bubble magus. Very nice pump, only problem was caused by me which i had to replace some pump heads at 15 bucks a pop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKipf Posted October 27, 2014 Author Share Posted October 27, 2014 I use the bubble magus. Very nice pump, only problem was caused by me which i had to replace some pump heads at 15 bucks a pop. Do you find you have to calibrate often? Or have you tried to verify the dosing amounts months into it working? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 I dont know if you can calibrate. But every time i change heads i test, and they've been within a mL or two. IME, tank needs change more rapidly than i can account for with dosing inaccuracy. In other words, i dont go by nominal dosing rates (i.e., 5 mL = hard and fast 5 mL). If my alk is losing week over week, i bump up alk by 1 mL/day. If its gaining week over week, i reduce alk by 1 mL/day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKipf Posted October 27, 2014 Author Share Posted October 27, 2014 I dont know if you can calibrate. But every time i change heads i test, and they've been within a mL or two. IME, tank needs change more rapidly than i can account for with dosing inaccuracy. In other words, i dont go by nominal dosing rates (i.e., 5 mL = hard and fast 5 mL). If my alk is losing week over week, i bump up alk by 1 mL/day. If its gaining week over week, i reduce alk by 1 mL/day. I gotcha - that makes sense to me, and in all honesty, probably how I would approach it as well. How has programming the Bubble Magus been? Do you have to re-program it everytime power is cut to the pump? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 nope. it keeps the settings. programming is easy as pie. set up the volume you want dosed, the number of times you want it dosed and the dose start time. you dont have the flexibility you would if you used individual pumps on a controller, (you cant set specific dose times on a per chemical bases, only the offset). So you can make one start dosing at 00:00, one at 00:15 and one at 00:30 and it will divide the remaining doses evenly throughout the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
something to reef on Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Do these pumps have enough power to pump from the inside a the stand, up into the tank? I don't have a sump; or any experience with this type of pump. Hand dosing is getting old, and the amount is too much at one rime creating wide paramater swings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Yep. That's what I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
something to reef on Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 What type of tubing do you use with these? Would polyethylene suffice? I'm finally getting around to trying one of these out, I picked up the cheapest one, lol, Jaebo DP-4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 For the pump head or for The party bag goes into the tank? Very different purposes and tube types. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
something to reef on Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 The one I purchased has tubing on pump heads already, like most come I believe. I need to connect between the pump and mix and pump and tank. Was thinking to use just polyethylene or pvc? Not sure what party bag your talking about? I cant figure out that autocorrect, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 Wait your pump doesn't have a party bag ? Boooooring I use polyeurethane, but polyethylene will work just fine. The only rub will be making sure tubing diameters link up, as the dosers sometimes use weird metric diameters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 Jebao's pumps have been very good for the price in my experience but I haven't tried the dosing pumps. Off topic, but in case you haven't seen them, they just came out with a new line of wireless RW pumps which look to be a substantial upgrade over the WP pumps and they sync together without requiring a separate controller. You get what you pay for is sort of subjective. The only significant upgrade you are going to get with dosing pumps, assuming they have decent motors, and a basic controller, is going from brushless DC motors to DC stepping motors, which is a huge price and quality difference. Unless one has some magical controller, they're all pretty much set the duration and number of doses per time, and that's about it. Stepping pump dosers start at around $500, but the pumps may last for 10 or 15 years and are very controllable compared to the normal ones. They can be accurate enough to dose specific volumes instead of just a duration based regime. I would use silicon or santoprene tubing if you can especially for the alk which has a tendency to degrade tubing and containers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
something to reef on Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 Awesome, thanks for the tips. I'll see how things workout,and maybe opt for a higher quality pump next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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