Best dosing pump for Triton

Fishinwall · Oct 25, 2015

I have the Jabao on its way so it better do.

djbetterly · Oct 25, 2015

You'll be fine with the jebao, its not that well made though. Also, make sure you check the calibration at least once a month as it seems to get a bit out of wack at times.

Reefahholic · Mar 23, 2016

I'm thinking GHL 2 and the Kore 5TH are most popular right now? Yes or no?

gpwdr · Mar 23, 2016

I would get 4 Ice Cap Dosing Pumps

Sangheili · Mar 24, 2016

Reefahholic said:
I'm thinking GHL 2 and the Kore 5TH are most popular right now? Yes or no?

I switched from Kore 5th to Apex Dosers. With Triton you end up dosing a lot of volume if the tank is large and mature. All these chinese doser motors last about 300hrs, which when dosing roughly 400ml per day is under a year of life before the motor may fail. I had to switch to stepper motor design (Apex) because of this alone. Also the Kore 5th has a software limit of 650ml per day per channel which I am already running up against on my 450g coral farm tank.

gpwdr said:
I would get 4 Ice Cap Dosing Pumps

See my comments in the previous paragraph. The IceCap units are nice but they suffer the same poor motor life problem. I use one for dosing Acropower though.

Honestly at this point I would suggest if anyone has a tank over 100g that is primarily SPS and they are doing Triton, to get the Apex dosers. Otherwise you may run into a doser pump motor failure on the 2nd or 3rd year of your tank. The Stepper motor version of the Vertex doser may be ok, but its only 3 channel if I recall right.

djbetterly · Mar 24, 2016

I totally agree about the pumps. I have found two manufacturers that make really good pumps, one being Welco which Vertex uses and the other is an American company...have the info bookmarked some where. I bought a jebao and switched out the pumps for Welco pumps.

Right now I'm about 90% into a custom doser build that is all programmed over the interweb. I built this one on a very basic principle, total dosage over 24hrs. You figure out the dose rate of each pump, and how much you want to dose over a 24hr period and it doses the proper amount over 12 doses. It's nothing fancy but it works. Right now its programmed via a command line interface but I'm hoping by next week to have a webpage built for programming, retrieving program data, manual on/off and a very basic semi-manual calibration tool.

I'll have a DIY up after its finished.

Reefahholic · Mar 25, 2016

The Apex DOS is loud, too big, only two heads, and too expensive. Other than that, I'm sure they're great. I like my Apex controller though.

Jebao dosing pumps are cheap problems waiting to happen. It's not like a power head that just stops running or stays running with no ill effects. They could dose the whole reservoir of ALK and wipe out ur entire tank. I don't trust them for dosing. Yes I do own RW20's, so I'm not against Jebao.

Sangheili · Mar 25, 2016

Reefahholic said:
The Apex DOS is loud, too big, only two heads, and too expensive. Other than that, I'm sure they're great. I like my Apex controller though.

I tend to agree on all these points, however they are one of the very few stepper motor options available to us, and the Apex control is quite nice. Also agreed on the Jebao.

djbetterly · Mar 25, 2016

Having owned both I completely agree. I run triton as well so having minute (.01mL) capabilities isn't as big of a deal to me as consistency and reliability.

Marcus E. Mommer · Mar 26, 2016

So is the general conclusion that Jebao is unreliable?

djbetterly · Mar 26, 2016

Personally, I think the programming hardware is fine, I think the pumps are the downfall. The programming is just a pain in the butt.

Reefahholic · Mar 26, 2016

I like some Jebao products like my RW20's, but I just can't put my faith in their dosing pumps. Plus their customer service...ahh yeah.

GHL 2 for me. Replacing a motor after a year or two isn't a big deal for me as long as it's quiet, small, has great features, and top notch customer service.

Torqued · May 19, 2016

Have any of you seen the dosers from BulkReefSupply? These seem pretty solid, and not all that expensive either. They are single dosers, but i would think having an apex should make that a non-issue (which i do happen to have)

djbetterly · May 19, 2016

In case you're wondering, the company that makes the pumps that BRS uses, is called APT instruments. You can buy the pumps and build them out how ever you like. The only thing I don't like about that setup is that it occupies three ports on the Energy Bar.

gpwdr · May 19, 2016

I really like the Ice Cap dosing pumps.

d2mini · May 19, 2016

I went through the same decision and decided on the GHL Doser 2.
Based on my previous experience with GHL equipment, it was pretty much a no brainer, but I did compare to all the others.
The GHL still came out on tops for me.

Torqued · May 19, 2016

djbetterly said:
In case you're wondering, the company that makes the pumps that BRS uses, is called APT instruments. You can buy the pumps and build them out how ever you like. The only thing I don't like about that setup is that it occupies three ports on the Energy Bar.

Though for our purposes, couldn't you just use an extender and run all 4 off of one port?

djbetterly · May 19, 2016

Yes and no....if you dose calc and alk solutions at the same time it could pose precip issues.

Torqued · May 19, 2016

I have an Apex so I am thinking DOS..especially since I have a fish room in the basement. But the pricetag is a shocker.....

Torqued · May 19, 2016

djbetterly said:
Yes and no....if you dose calc and alk solutions at the same time it could pose precip issues.

Naw...you just don't dose to same spot. I used to use two part dosing with a dual channel dosing pump for years. Worked fantastic. I just had each hose go to opposite ends of the sump