Dos AWC - Leaving More Water In Sump

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sanzz18

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So I set up my dos to do daily water changes. It does 2.5 gallons every day. What I can't seem to understand is it always leaves more water in my sump. It is either taking out not enough water or putting in too much. I have done the calibration 3-4 times. Everything seems to be in check. Doesn't appear to be any air in the lines (no bubbles coming out of them when submersing NSW/OSW lines under water). I use RODI tubing, may switch to John Guest fittings to have a better connection though it didn't seem to be an issue when I first used the DOS for AWC.

I have no idea what to do to fix this problem. Any advice would be great appreciated as this is driving me nuts.
 

SuncrestReef

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Have you removed and examined the DOS head? It's possible the internal rollers or soft tubing inside the head have a problem. You could also swap the left and right heads, then see if the problem follows one of them.

Also, have you double-checked if there's any programming in the Advanced tab for both DOS outputs to see if some additional conditions may be impacting it?

Read my DOS tutorial for advice on tubing connections:
 
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sanzz18

sanzz18

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Have you removed and examined the DOS head? It's possible the internal rollers or soft tubing inside the head have a problem. You could also swap the left and right heads, then see if the problem follows one of them.

Also, have you double-checked if there's any programming in the Advanced tab for both DOS outputs to see if some additional conditions may be impacting it?

Read my DOS tutorial for advice on tubing connections:
I am not sure what I would be looking at when examining the dos heads to see if there is a problem. I can switch them and see. I was also thinking of putting the water water into a 5 g bucket and measure to see if it is accurately removing enough water. I am so stumped on this.
 

IKD

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For me it was my tubing line not being fully secured. If I did a calibration it was fine because only when it stopped did the water drain back to the reservoir (must have been a small gap). I only found it by manually stopping and starting to see an occasional air pocket come out.
 
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sanzz18

sanzz18

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For me it was my tubing line not being fully secured. If I did a calibration it was fine because only when it stopped did the water drain back to the reservoir (must have been a small gap). I only found it by manually stopping and starting to see an occasional air pocket come out.

What do you mean secured? Secured to the dos head or secured somewhere else?
 

Jon's Reef

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I would suggest using the Neptune tubing. The ID is larger than standard RODI so the pumps can work more efficiently when moving a large quantity of water.
 

((FORDTECH))

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What do you mean secured? Secured to the dos head or secured somewhere else?
For me was having the same issue always adding more than taking out but it was not like this in the beginning or after a calibration only after a little time and what I have found is that of course the dirty water side is the problem not the fresh salt water added because the dirty side sucks up LG snails pods sand and other kind of junk from your sump and clog the line I’ve had this happen multiple times I’ve had to remove the heads from the dose and take the tubing out and talk long hangers through them to get the snails out. I also have a couple couplings because my quarter inch lines were not long enough and I’ve had the snails clogged the coupling also. The dose does not like hair LG it’ll suck it from your sump all the way to the head and then clog at the input to the head
 

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What do you mean secured? Secured to the dos head or secured somewhere else?
Secured to my intake line where my fresh saltwater was coming from. The other option is to replace or swap the lines and that will isolate if it’s the tubing or the pump head.
 
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sanzz18

sanzz18

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So I literally just set my dos to take out 1000ml of both my NSW and OSW. I made it go into their own buckets so I can measure it. They were all checked for prime and calibrated before doing do. My right dos head that pulls NSW in equalled out to 1000ml perfectly. The left dos head only took out 400ml from my tank.

This so frustrating. Next step I guess is to switch the lines to isolate if it is clogged tuning or the dos/dos head.
 
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sanzz18

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So I switched the lines. Now my NSW output was 400 and OSW was 1000. So it is the left side of my dos not working properly. What do I do from here? Is it the dos head or the motor?
 

Jon's Reef

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Swap the heads and see if the problem follows the head.
If all else fails you could manipulate the calibration…. Instead of 40 ml, tell it that you only had 16 ml in the grad cylinder (40 x (400/1000)) But that does not solve the root cause.
 
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sanzz18

sanzz18

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Swap the heads and see if the problem follows the head.
If all else fails you could manipulate the calibration…. Instead of 40 ml, tell it that you only had 16 ml in the grad cylinder (40 x (400/1000)) But that does not solve the root cause.

So I switched the heads now. It is 100% the head which is a relief cause that is cheap and easy to fix.
 

((FORDTECH))

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Take the head apart and take hose out of it and check if the hose is clogged. I say to do this because if it is clogged this will not be the last time it will happen to you. And better then continually replacing heads it’s better to unclog them and then install a plastic strainer to the input line.
 

Dburr1014

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Take the head apart and take hose out of it and check if the hose is clogged. I say to do this because if it is clogged this will not be the last time it will happen to you. And better then continually replacing heads it’s better to unclog them and then install a plastic strainer to the input line.
A few interesting finds I found on my DOS. Took the cover off and found it was cutting into the tube. I used the flat of a screwdriver to deburr the flaw from injection molding.
Also, if you shine a light behind the exiting tube and see air bubbles, that means you don't have a good seal. I had to use dc111 grease on the fitting to get it to seal. That was the only thing that worked. Again, I think it was the injection molding process. I think I'm going with the John guest fittings myself.
 

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((FORDTECH))

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A few interesting finds I found on my DOS. Took the cover off and found it was cutting into the tube. I used the flat of a screwdriver to deburr the flaw from injection molding.
Also, if you shine a light behind the exiting tube and see air bubbles, that means you don't have a good seal. I had to use dc111 grease on the fitting to get it to seal. That was the only thing that worked. Again, I think it was the injection molding process. I think I'm going with the John guest fittings myself.
Be careful some of those tabs are used to keep the head in place otherwise it tends to walk back-and-forth left and right I’ve had the same thing happened to me and those tabs broke off makes the dose have a loud clicking noise while running
 

Dburr1014

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Be careful some of those tabs are used to keep the head in place otherwise it tends to walk back-and-forth left and right I’ve had the same thing happened to me and those tabs broke off makes the dose have a loud clicking noise while running
The spot where I deburred is strictly for feeding the tube around the roller. It was pretty sharp. The dose was only 2 months old doing 1 gallon per day 5 days a week. You can see how far in the tube was cut.
 

((FORDTECH))

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The spot where I deburred is strictly for feeding the tube around the roller. It was pretty sharp. The dose was only 2 months old doing 1 gallon per day 5 days a week. You can see how far in the tube was cut.
Yes that was a good chunk for sure. I have had one be cut length wise a slice before from this aswell. Just have to be careful that tube is pushed all way in before install head
 

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