GHL Doser 2.1

coweyes298 · Aug 5, 2017

Just got my doser 2.1 and have noticed something.

While I am doing the calibration with the fast flow rate speed, two of my heads were measured 35ml/min and the last head was measured as 42 ml/min.

Is it normal?

And what is the max dose amount on a single day for one doser head? I found the max dosing per day is 150, and if I am using max flow rate speed (lets say it is 35ml/min) I will probably get 1500ml dosage in a 24 hr interval. I thought I can easily get to close to 1 gallon a day but from what I am using for setting I only get 1500 ml, less than half dosage...

Thanks,

Louis

Ashish Patel · Aug 5, 2017

I'm having the same problem. Only mine is at 20 and one at 40. U current have my doser off bc of alk going up to 9.5dkh. Try calibrating in tubes final spot and don't move it around after. I kept fiddling causing these issues

coweyes298 · Aug 5, 2017

Ashish Patel said:
I'm having the same problem. Only mine is at 20 and one at 40. U current have my doser off bc of alk going up to 9.5dkh. Try calibrating in tubes final spot and don't move it around after. I kept fiddling causing these issues

I set auto water change for first two pump. And I set the flow rate for both as the same as 35 ml/min. One pump calibrated as 35, but others calibrated as 42. I set the awc happened at the same time , new water in and old water out at the same time. But when the two pump kicked in to do awc, 42 rate pump stopped first. The 35 rate will keep running for 10 or so more seconds after the 42 rate stopped.

I also have third pump for ATO triggered by level switch. And I some what noticed my ato kicks in more frequently than before (haven't have awc before). Salinity hasn't changed but I need to wait more time to see the effect.

This doesn't make sense to me that I already set the dosing speed for two pump as the same by using auto dosing, but they actually still follow the calibration rate. Any thoughts of this?

Louis

Ashish Patel · Aug 6, 2017

Yeah I don't get it.. This is my first time using a doser I figured they just moved water at a fixed rate regardless of head pressure.
I calibrated my alk pump twice and since it came to 20 both time I changed it to 20.. few days later when I calibrated it (noticing the alk jar emptying faster than CA), it calibrated at 45. Had I not caught this my Alk would have jump to 15DKH in 7 days. Both seem to be calibrating at 45 now - Make sure to remove all the air bubbles and keep the tubes unmoved. If its still doing this then something else is the problem.

coweyes298 · Aug 6, 2017

Well I calibrated directly using a short tube for intake and nothing connected (just the clear tube adaptor) for out and I got discrepancy flow rate for each pump. I did this since I have room to set the measuring cup and water source... I will change to the exact length of tubing I need from source to tank and re calibrate again.

Ashish Patel · Aug 6, 2017

Not sure why this is happen...I would not trust the calibration fully having it drop 45ML/min after being calibrated at 20ML the night before. I am sure GHL will be able to identify if its user error or some magnet in the dosing pump thats malfunctioning.

Since turning off the doser yesterday my Alk dropped from 9.5dkh to 9.1dkh. Tomorrow it should drop to ideal range for me to start the doser again so will try new method and hopefully it works. I May just dose manually until I can confirm that it calibrated accurately..

Keep us posted.

coweyes298 · Aug 6, 2017

Ok. I did the cal by setting close to finished setup I can get. Pump 1 rate measured : 36.5 ml/min. Pump 2 : 38.5ml/min. Pump 3: 40ml/min. Still have several ml difference.

Another question:

I set pump 1 and 2 to do AWC. Both are triggering at the same time with the same rate. I set dose per day at 150. Rate at 35ml/min for both pump. Only dosing for 24 hours as I am doing an initial testing. One of the pump setting shows as below:

It supposed to have 150 * 35 = 5250 ml as daily dosing amount based on my calculation and understanding. But from the daily dosing section from myGHL it shows 1500ml. I tried several value of rate and per day combo but I couldn't figure the daily dosing section shown...It is out of my math understanding...

And I took the old water from AWC (which is drained by one dose head for 24hrs) and roughly measured the volume. It is around 5500ml give or take... Still not close to 5250 ml, and it is way off than the daily dosing amount shown on myGHL... Can someone please chime in and explain how the daily dosing amount is generated on myGHL?

Support@GHLUSA · Aug 6, 2017

@coweyes298 - the reason for the 1500 mL vs 5250 mL is based on a calculation of average for the weeks schedule.
In GCC, this is more clearly labeled as Average Daily dosing amount.

Actual daily dosing amount, divided by number of days in week(7), multiple by number of days enabled - this is your average, though the label may need a do over.
In your example, you're dosing 5250 mL on 2 out of 7 days. 5250 / 7 days * 2 days selected.

If you enabled another day, it show the Daily average of dose 2250 mL.

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Regarding some of the other concerns voiced.

max dose rate / flow variations between heads: This depends on many factors; head pressure, liquid dosed(viscosity and content), tubing used, tubing routing, length of tubing etc. This will all affect the amount of liquid the doser can and will flow. Please always remember, this is a precision doser, not a flow pump. Can you do AWCs? Yes, however depending on how much liquid you need to change there may be other options.

Auto Water Change: The AWC would be best performed with level sensors, rather than set variables, IMO, but both will work, as long as your calibration is correct.

Calculation/setup of dosing schedule: The first thing I do when I want to setup a doser, I figure out my end result.
I want to dose:
99 mL of Liquid_A PER DAY on head 1
123 mL of Liquid_B PER DAY on head 2

Requirements:
Dose all liquids daily. Dose as many times a day as possible, in the smallest possible/sensible increments for least amount of change per dose.

1. I set my lowest sensible speed setting on the heads. I only use speed 2/3 for ATO / AWC. If you're going to be dosing 500+ ML's a day, I may use sp2/3, short of that, 0 or 1.
2. Change head speed, hit SAVE, then calibrate EACH HEAD! Do not assume that flow value from head 1 will automatically match head 2. Tubing, routing, length, etc can all have impact.
3. I calculate:
Head 1: Liquid_A
You could do it very simply and dose 99* 1.0 mL - BUT my goal is for smallest dose, very frequently.

99 / 150 = 0.66 ... let's get that to a rounded number..
99/ 141 = 0.7021 or 99/142 = 0.6971 ... good enough for me.

Now you plug in that you would like:
Dosings per day: 142
Rate per dosing: 0.7

ALWAYS DOSE AT THAT TIME - I start at midnight; 12:00 AM
Select either all days, or Interval: Repeat all: 1 DAYS

The doser will now figure out the schedule, and time it needs to run the head, based on your head calibration rate.
If you set head 1 for speed 0, and calibration rate of 3.5 mL /minute, then the the head would spin for 12 seconds, every time it ran. 3.5 / 7 = 5 running periods, 60 Secs / 5 running periods per minute = 12 secs

Head 2: Liquid_B
You could do it very simply and dose 123* 1.0 mL - BUT my goal is for smallest dose, very frequently.

123 / 150 = 0.82 ... let's get that to a rounded number..
123/ 136 = 0.9044 ... good enough for me.

Now you plug in that you would like:
Dosings per day: 136
Rate per dosing: 0.9

ALWAYS DOSE AT THAT TIME - Let's offset this to avoid dosing at same time as head 1 - I start with a 5 minute offset; 12:05 AM
Select either all days, or Interval: Repeat all: 1 DAYS

The doser will now figure out the schedule, and time it needs to run the head, based on your head calibration rate.
If you set head 2 for speed 0, and calibration rate of 4.5 mL /minute, then the the head would spin for 12 seconds, every time it ran. 4.5 / 9 = 5 running periods, 60 Secs / 5 running periods per minute = 12 secs

coweyes298 · Aug 6, 2017

Thanks Marco. Now I understand that I need to follow the average daily dosing amount while setting up the dosing.

I haven't got the investment for extra level switch yet, so now I will stick up with adjusting dosing schedule for AWC. Definitely will add level switch for extra protection on AWC.

For the calibration, I now am more comfortable on the discrepancy rate on each head. The head can be adjust to arbitrary flow rate number followed by the calibration result. So as long as the calibration is done perfectly the doser will figure out how to dose base on amount you want to dose and dosing interval.

welly18 · Aug 18, 2017

What does it mean when the fill bar is yellow in the app? I can't find anything referencing it.

Jerel · Aug 18, 2017

welly18 said:
What does it mean when the fill bar is yellow in the app? I can't find anything referencing it.

Dosing solution is getting low.

welly18 · Aug 18, 2017

Also in the app if I select manual dose on a pump it always doses more than I select? I selected 50ml and then it started and went to 60 ml before I had to stop it. I wanted it count down from starting at 1510 ml all the way to 1450 before I manually stopped it. Just curious if this is a common issue with the app.

bubblemytip · Aug 20, 2017

Watch out for these issues (see link). Make sure you buy spare motors and the maintenance kit so you can switch them out asap.

Squeaky GHL doser 2.1

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/Squeaky-GHL-doser-2.1.304255/

kalkwasser · Feb 14, 2018

Hi guys,

May I ask what does the " maximum " on time on the control panel means at the level control section.
Does it mean that say if you had it set to 1 min, it will dose only for 1 min max and then rest for 1 min before dosing again to the desire water level if its set as ATO?

Support@GHLUSA · Feb 15, 2018

Hi @kalkwasser - Maximum On Time is a safety feature. It's not meant as a cycle condition (1 on/1 off/on/off) but rather maximum running time, before shutting down and going into alarm.

I tend to set this to something sane; and this is all dependent on your pumps... could be 1 minute, could be 15 minutes.
If my usual runtime of pump is say 1 minute to fill up after level trips, I personally set for 5-15min, this will allow longer run times in case I pull some water out, due to say maintenance/sock changes/fragging/etc... however I make sure that I set it far short of a time that could have the potential to overfill, cause salinity swing or overflow.

FLSharkvictim · Dec 25, 2018

I am having problems with my GHL MaxSA doser for my Automatic water changes! I recently had to buy a new computer since I had a very old laptop running windows..
Anyways, I got the new HP Laptop w/ 8gb and 1 TB of memory running windows 10. I bought this tight little laptop for my Saltwater tank only!
Going to be building a little workstation off the side of the tank and that's where my laptop will be installed along with m GHL touch screen when I GET my P4 up and running.
My question to your @Marco@GHLUSA , I had my MaxiSA doser working before on my old computer for some odd reason I can get the Doser to work properly.
When i am signed into myghl, and I click the start calibration the red light comes up on the pump but the motors will not spin at all which is really weird.
I have downloaded all the latest firmware to my new laptop and I get the pump to come on and get the MaxiSA doser pump light to come on but I can get those motors working to transfer water -PLEASE HELP!! I have my MAXISA doser connected TO MY COMPUTER USB.

When I had my old dell I did a short video on how to navigate around myghl and was able to get the pumps to move as you can see in the video.

Support@GHLUSA · Dec 25, 2018

@FLSharkvictim - send me a PM please.

Ashish Patel · Dec 25, 2018

HI GHL< How comes my max doser capacity is at 1000ML and cant be updated from the phone app? I have gallon containers and hope there was a way to update this.