Dosing pump - your experience of expensive vs cheap versions

Dkmoo

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Hi All,

I have a cheap 4 head jebao doser for about a year now. The peristalic seal from the silicone tube isn't perfect so if you put the dosing bottle either too high or too low, the other end would either slowly drip out or recede back up the tube. In the beginning, the seal was good enough that if I get the dosing bottle at just the right height, it isn't that big of a deal and I was able to dial the dosage in correctly to more or less maintain stability.

However, this past month I've been busy with a newborn baby so didn't check for 4 weeks until this past weekend. To my shock, my alk, which is typically maintained at 10, was at 6. The dosing bottle didn't run out, and the doser still worked, so the only thing that appears to be causing this was that the silicone tube was worn out that it couldn't hold the seal so the liquid was receding back really fast and have a lot of air bubbles, which resulted on a lot of "dry pumps" and under dosing.

Now, I'm thinking about if I should bite the bullet and get a more expensive doser but before I do, I want to hear some of your experiences:

1) with the more expensive ones, like the neptune, for ex, does the peristalic seal hold the liquid in place?
2) does the tube get worn out too or can it hold the seal long term (like years)
3) if high end ones like neptune still wears out the tube then maybe ill just consider replacing the silicone tube on the jebao instead.

Thank you in advance.
 

Yazannreef

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Honestly I had the Jbao doser and I didn't like it. It worked but I find myself tinkering with it all the time to get it to dose the right amount.

Now I have Neptune dose and it works exactly how I wanted it to.
 

Pistondog

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Depends on the application. For triton dosing, brs pumps timer controlled by apex. For AWCs, versa. Bought the DOS 1st, they are too loud.
 

malacoda

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Question 1: What size/type of corals do you have and what kind of growth do they exhibit?

I've been using a Coral Box doser for two years ... which is considered a low/mid end doser. It does slowly leak a little bit of air. But not enough to have any real effect on my alk levels.

However, a few months ago my corals kicked into a strong growth phase ... and my alk began to drop fast and frequently if I didn't keep up with it with testing and dosing adjustments at least every other day. To the extent that I went from about 46 ml/day of CarboCalcium to 70 ml/day in a matter of just 10 weeks.

So, are you certain increased coral growth didn't account for a significant portion of the drop you saw over that 4 week time span?

Question 2: How much are you dosing each day ... and how many doses is that broken down into?

If you do smaller amounts more often, the doser will have to push fluid more frequently, and may keep any air 'creep' at bay.
 
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Dkmoo

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Question 1: What size/type of corals do you have and what kind of growth do they exhibit?

I've been using a Coral Box doser for two years ... which is considered a low/mid end doser. It does slowly leak a little bit of air. But not enough to have any real effect on my alk levels.

However, a few months ago my corals kicked into a strong growth phase ... and my alk began to drop fast and frequently if I didn't keep up with it with testing and dosing adjustments at least every other day. To the extent that I went from about 46 ml/day of CarboCalcium to 70 ml/day in a matter of just 10 weeks.

So, are you certain increased coral growth didn't account for a significant portion of the drop you saw over that 4 week time span?

Question 2: How much are you dosing each day ... and how many doses is that broken down into?

If you do smaller amounts more often, the doser will have to push fluid more frequently, and may keep any air 'creep' at bay.
A lot of valid points!

I did add about 7 acro frags and a couple of other small acans frags over this span so could very well be a factor. I did start recalibrating and rechecking my daily need today. It used to be pretty consistent at 1.5dkh per day (it's pretty stocked) but today's test result indicate around 2dkh. Over the next few days I will retest daily to see if it really is just caused by the increase in alk consumption.

I break it up to 3 doses. Maybe I will break it up to 6 now
 

BillyW

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I have 2 DOS, if they work a lot they’re great, the second one only doses a little and sometimes air will get in the line and then I have to purge it and it’s kind of a pain in the butt, but they’re accurate!
 
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Dkmoo

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Hi All, thanks for all the feedbacks.

Just an update for the last couple of weeks. I tried to re-dial the jebao in. Consumption def increased due to new acro frags but the Calcium dosing heads tube seal is just too bad at this point - i actually turned it off but in 2 weeks cal went down about 50ppm, which makes no sense considering i do about 2 DKH alk DAILY. Turns out the cal head is slowly leaking by itself...

So, decided to chuck the jebao and got myself some new toys this week from BRS =)
16344753949504038336142027545964.jpg
 

BroccoliFarmer

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I use two Kamoer X1s and they are fantastic!!!. A little bulky if you are using more than one or two. Very precise, reliable, great app. for 50 bucks per pump head...fantastic stuff. I am waiting for BlackFriday and hoping they go on sale as a door buster.
 

PeterC99

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Hi All, thanks for all the feedbacks.

Just an update for the last couple of weeks. I tried to re-dial the jebao in. Consumption def increased due to new acro frags but the Calcium dosing heads tube seal is just too bad at this point - i actually turned it off but in 2 weeks cal went down about 50ppm, which makes no sense considering i do about 2 DKH alk DAILY. Turns out the cal head is slowly leaking by itself...

So, decided to chuck the jebao and got myself some new toys this week from BRS =)
16344753949504038336142027545964.jpg
Great move - you are going to love the Apex & DOS!

And congratulations on the new baby!
 

Scorpius

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I've been using an eshopps doser for many years. I prefer buttons over an app.
 

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