Bubble Magus BM-T01 and BM-T02 doser review

blurry

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I wrote this review up on RC over the weekend, thought some folks here might be interested.

As part of my new build i order the new Bubble Magus Doser pump. During the summers weeks the flexibility of spending some time at the local parks camping is a big part of our family life. The other part of this is my wife - she is wonderful and will do anything to help - with that said I think she would be permanently traumatized if the tank crashed while I was on travel for work - with a dosing system she is abstained from any liability which is good for both of us! Unfortunately the reef tank can be a bit of a ball and chain - primarily for top-off and dosing. For peace of mind and the well being of the corals this is a must have in our household!

Currently I keep it simple and dose KH, Alk, Mg, and KoralKolor. As time goes on I might look into more advanced dosing such as Strontium.

I have an RKE and was planning on dosing using the 1.1ml pumps from BRS. To do this I would have to use one power port on the RKE. This equates to about $20 for the power port + $90 for the pump, totaling at about $110 per dosing pump. the BM-BT01 is less money overall and makes dosing.

The BM-BT01 is under $300 for three pumps showing a $30 savings which is increased by adding the BM-T02 add-on of 4 pumps at about $65/pump.

The price price difference in addition to the dedicated unit was enough to make the splurge worth it.

The unit arrived nicely boxed. Setup is as easy as it gets, plug in power and wait a few seconds for it to load.

I forgot to take a "normal" picture of the doser, so here are the pictures from the BM site:

primary unit:
970.jpg


secondary:
973.jpg



To setup:

(1) set the time
- press escape
- use the up/down buttons to select set time, press enter
- set the time using the up/down buttons for each digit and press enter

(2) connect lines
- I used standard air line tubing which seems to fit nice and snug
- input is on the left, output on the right

(3) prime the pump
- press escape
- use the up/down buttons to select manual control, press enter
- select the pump using the up/down button - pump 1,2 & 3 are on the primary unit, 4,5,6 & 7 on the secondary (I'm guessing an additional add-on would continue the trend)
- press and hold enter to manually run the pump till the air bubbles are out and the line is full

(2) configure pump for dosing
- press escape
- use the up/down buttons to select setup program
- use the up/down button to select 1-3 for the primary unit, or 4-7 for the secondary
- use the up/down to select the pump number
- set the ml/day using the up/down buttons for each digit and press enter. you can select from 1-1999 ml.
- set the cycles per day and press enter. these are based on the following table:

Dose amount (mL): Cycles/day
1: 1,2
2: 1,2,3,4
3: 1,2,3,4,6
4-5: 1,2,3,4,6,8
6-11: 1,2,3,4,6,8,12
12-160: 1,2,3,4,6,8,12,24
161-319: 2,3,4,6,8,12,24
320-479: 3,4,6,8,12,24
480-639: 4,6,8,12,24
640-959: 6,8,12,24
960-1279: 8,12,24
1280-1919: 12,24
1920-1999: 24

- set the start time (take note you can only select the start hour, press enter. the minutes are pre-determined based on the pump number). for example P1-:00 P2-:05 P3-:10 and so on.

*** NOTE - the pumps are forced to run one at a time to prevent mixing of chemicals.

-press esc to return to the main screen

testing:
To test I used a cup of RO/DI and a BRS 250ml flask. For each channel I put a 100 ml single dose and set the time so that it would run a minute after programming.

results for 100 Ml test on each pump:

1- 111 ml
2- 99 ml
3- 109 ml
4- 110 ml
5- 99 ml
6- 100 ml
7- 100 ml - 102ml - 102ml

* as a side not I found it interesting that the pumps are either 100 ml or 110 ml - I was expecting more of a distribution.

as you can see there is variance with each pump, though they seem to be fairly consistent between runs as noted with the multiple runs on pump 7. I have not tried a "head pressure" test, though I suspect the values will not change.

Overall impression:
The unit seems well made, though I'm not a fan of the buttons. Then again, hard to press buttons are a pet peeve of mine. The unit is very easy to use! The pumps are not quiet, but not overly loud either. I'm not sure I would want this in my bedroom, but in the living room with the TV it wouldn't be an annoyance like the automatic cat litter box by the kitchen is. The accuracy seems to be on par with the hobby pumps I looked at, though I'm not expert and have not seriously researched accuracy of dosing pumps. consistency is most important to me.

I also ordered the bracket and line holder - both are fantastic quality and are show-case worthy! WARNING - apparently when buying Bubble Magus pumps it is assumed you have a rimless sump - the bracket will only fit facing down, compared to the horizontal it is made for. this will not impact usage, just something noteworthy.

The only downsides are:
(1) although you can select cycles per day (within the limits of the table above) - you can NOT do a number of cycles within a time frame less than 24 hours - for example you can NOT say dose 100 ML 4 times between midnight and 6 AM. You have to spread the split doses of 24 hours
(2) my grip - calibration tables are not hard to implement - it would have been nice to allow the user to dose a set amount such as 100ml and put a correction value in to increase the accuracy.

overall review:
highly recommended!

English manual: www.fish-street.com/downloads/bmt01.zip

connecting the two units is a single wire for signal and power:

img3272small.jpg


installed in new sump:

img3274small.jpg


Bracket to hold dosing pumps:

img3273small.jpg


Line Holder:

img3275small.jpg
 

CoralBandit

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Im getting mine this week sooooo excited.... With exams and all my dosing has been sub par so it pushed me to finally get a doser. No excuses for FAIL's anymore lol
 

soccerbag

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Line Holder:

img3275small.jpg
[/QUOTE]


Where did you find this? Did it come with the doser or did you buy in online? Can you post a link? Nice organization for a doser! Thanks!
 

soccerbag

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I am pretty sure if you purchase the kit it comes with this line holder

Gotcha...I would assume that someone sells these things - just gotta find out who. If anyone knows where to get one, please let me know or pm me a link. Sorry for the hijack!
 

nivram

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Gotcha...I would assume that someone sells these things - just gotta find out who. If anyone knows where to get one, please let me know or pm me a link. Sorry for the hijack!

nuocean

or socaltropicalfishoutlet.com
 

Mavjoy

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A couple of store here in NCali sells them. Neptune Aquatics got them and SocalTropicalFish in Socal.
 

Hammmerhead

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Just got mine going good and man my life is easier now. Simple to setup as well. Once you program it the procedure is so easy you dont have to go back and read the directions again. I notched a few mm off the lip of my sump so the hose bracket would fit normally. It doesnt catch air, stays primed and is pretty quiet. Thumb up to Bubble Magus for offering this to us.
 

Emoney

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TY VERY much for sharing that with us! Ive been looking at them for a long time and nice to hear a review on it..Ill be buying one for sure in the next few months
 

Y-Diver

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I received my Bubble Magus BM-T01, shelf, and tube holder yesterday! Total set up time was less than 5 minutes! VERY Easy to set up!

As a test, I set each pump to dose 20mL of RO/DI water per day in 12 cycles. At the end of the cycle, all pumps had dosed exactly 20mL! This was also with 3ft of head pressure!

This thing seems SWEET! I would highly recommend and think it is well worth the money! I will let everyone know how it is working a few months from now!

Tyler
 

FLSharkvictim

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@blurry - Do you happen to know the specs on the Bubble Mangus Dosing Pump Bracket by chance? I wanted to see if my Eshoops IV Master Doser pump will fit. The specs on my doser are the following:
7-1/2" x 4-1/2" x 3'' 1/2" high. I'm trying to make more room for a bigger ATO storage container so I thought the bracket would be perfect.
Let me know?


EshoopsDoser.JPG
 
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