Hydros Dosing

[dsagerman]

Hello, I would like to add dosing of Kalkwasser to my reef tank and currently use the Hydros Start for all of my controlling. I am trying to understand the difference between the Hydros Dosing Pump, Minnow, Blenny and X10. Obviously would love the X10 to be able to monitor Salinity and PH, but not sure that is necessary when just starting to get into dosing but also don’t want to waste money on a simple dosing pump if I will outgrow that soon. I am running my ATO with the simple Hydros triple optical sensor and provided pump but would like to add AWC in the future as well. Any suggestions and clarifications on what would be best would be much appreciated. I would really like to have PH and salinity measured but just not sure that is worth the cost right now for current needs.

 

[tbrown]

Blenny has the same pumps as the Minnow but 4 instead of 2.

 

[TheNative192]

Hello, I would like to add dosing of Kalkwasser to my reef tank and currently use the Hydros Start for all of my controlling. I am trying to understand the difference between the Hydros Dosing Pump, Minnow, Blenny and X10. Obviously would love the X10 to be able to monitor Salinity and PH, but not sure that is necessary when just starting to get into dosing but also don’t want to waste money on a simple dosing pump if I will outgrow that soon. I am running my ATO with the simple Hydros triple optical sensor and provided pump but would like to add AWC in the future as well. Any suggestions and clarifications on what would be best would be much appreciated. I would really like to have PH and salinity measured but just not sure that is worth the cost right now for current needs.

AWC is very simple to setup with the Hydro's start depending on how many ports/plugs you have available. If you need help setting it up I am happy to assist.

For the auto water change you just need 1 drive port for a simple doser, 1 other sense port (other than the triple water sensor) and 1 plug available. I can list the items here for what you would need. I honestly would not worry about Salinity or PH if you have an ATO and you make sure you have good gas exchange in your home near your tank. You can always get a PH test kit as well.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Hello, I would like to add dosing of Kalkwasser to my reef tank and currently use the Hydros Start for all of my controlling. I am trying to understand the difference between the Hydros Dosing Pump, Minnow, Blenny and X10. Obviously would love the X10 to be able to monitor Salinity and PH, but not sure that is necessary when just starting to get into dosing but also don’t want to waste money on a simple dosing pump if I will outgrow that soon. I am running my ATO with the simple Hydros triple optical sensor and provided pump but would like to add AWC in the future as well. Any suggestions and clarifications on what would be best would be much appreciated. I would really like to have PH and salinity measured but just not sure that is worth the cost right now for current needs.

How long have you had your tank up? What corals do you have? Do you have some full tank shots? I'm just wondering what the reasoning is for needing to start dosing.

 

[n2585722]

The only pump that is rated for continuous use would be the Sole pump. If the pump will only run for a few minutes with an hour or more of rest then the only thing that would matter is the flow rate you want on the pump. If you are doing an actual dosing like a few milliliters every few hours you might need a lower flow rate since some of the pumps like the simple doser have a minimum run time of 2.5 seconds but any of them are more accurate if the dose time is closer to 1 minute or more since they are all calibrated using a 1 minute dispense.

 

[dsagerman]

Appreciate the responses, planning on a potential tank upgrade in the next few months to a year and well so would like this to be able to be used on both my current nano setup and on a larger 100g setup in neat future. Tank is about 6 months old, no fish but 3 small BTS (split), torch, hammer, frogspawn, a duncan, kenya tree and then some small GSP and Zoas.

Seems like best options are the x10 for dosing and AWC on a small system, but would need 2 Soles for AWC on a large system. Love the idea of the x10 and would like the ability to track Salinity and PH just seeing if that was worth the cost, especially knowing I am going to have this on larger system in near future. Thanks all!

 

[dsagerman]

How long have you had your tank up? What corals do you have? Do you have some full tank shots? I'm just wondering what the reasoning is for needing to start dosing.

Hello thanks for the reply. My pH drops below 7.9 sometimes with all of the corals I have in the tank and want to make sure I can stabilize the pH. I have also wanted to test out AWC for a while since I travel a lot for work.

Right now I am considering going with the x10 (expensive/overkill) for the dosing of Kalk and for AWC, which I know would work for this nano but likely not the best options for a future 100g tank without running the pumps all day. From my understanding the Soles would be better for AWC at this level. I think I would use 2 separate pumps for AWC and not the bi-directional nature of the pumps on the x10 just for simplicity/reliability.

For now I could just use the simple Hydros dosing pumps to test but would also like to keep the near future upgrade in mind as well.

Thoughts? Thanks so much for the reply.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Hello thanks for the reply. My pH drops below 7.9 sometimes with all of the corals I have in the tank and want to make sure I can stabilize the pH. I have also wanted to test out AWC for a while since I travel a lot for work.

Right now I am considering going with the x10 (expensive/overkill) for the dosing of Kalk and for AWC, which I know would work for this nano but likely not the best options for a future 100g tank without running the pumps all day. From my understanding the Soles would be better for AWC at this level. I think I would use 2 separate pumps for AWC and not the bi-directional nature of the pumps on the x10 just for simplicity/reliability.

For now I could just use the simple Hydros dosing pumps to test but would also like to keep the near future upgrade in mind as well.

Thoughts? Thanks so much for the reply.

The X10 and the 2 Soles could be used on a larger tank down the road. It is spendy though. You might find some bargains here in the marketplace forum. (was the route I took)

 

[ianb1321]

AWC is very simple to setup with the Hydro's start depending on how many ports/plugs you have available. If you need help setting it up I am happy to assist.

For the auto water change you just need 1 drive port for a simple doser, 1 other sense port (other than the triple water sensor) and 1 plug available. I can list the items here for what you would need. I honestly would not worry about Salinity or PH if you have an ATO and you make sure you have good gas exchange in your home near your tank. You can always get a PH test kit as well.

I am not the OP, but I’d love to hear the details on setting up AWC this way with Hydros!

 

[TheNative192]

I am not the OP, but I’d love to hear the details on setting up AWC this way with Hydros!

Hydros Start AWC + ATO Setup (Cost Breakdown & Walkthrough)

Before getting into the setup, here’s a complete cost breakdown of the equipment you can use with the Hydros start for a Hydros-based Automatic Water Change (AWC) and ATO system. I personally use the control X4 bundle and XP8 bundle, but both work.

Links to all items (by name) are on page one of my build thread. All of my Hydros settings with screenshots and a more detailed explanation are in the middle of page four of my build thread.

Equipment & Pricing

Hydros Start – Main controller – $329.99

Hydros Triple Water Level Sensor – ATO + AWC control – $46.19

Hydros Water Level Sensor – Additional level sensing – $46.19

Hydros Dosing Pump – AWC drain pump (peristaltic) – $69.29

MostAqua ATO/AWC Pump – AWC fill pump – $13.99

MostAqua ATO/AWC Pump – ATO pump – $13.99

K-Mains Plug Adapter – Adapter for AWC fill pump – $10.03

K-Mains Plug Adapter – Adapter for ATO pump – $10.03

Total system cost: $539.70 (prices reflect what I paid) links on first page of build thread.

Controller overview: The Hydros Start gives you 4 sense ports, 2 drive ports, 4 controllable outlets, and a command bus to add additional controllers or an XP8 if more outlets are needed.

How I’m using the ports: In this setup I’m using 2 sense ports, 1 controllable outlet (possibly 2 depending on pump choice), and 1 drive port. The drive port is used for the AWC drain pump. I run a Hydros dosing pump here because it is peristaltic and prevents back siphon. You can run the ATO off the second drive port if you want, but I chose to run my ATO pump on a controllable outlet instead.

ATO pump choice: For the ATO I purchased a second MostAqua pump. It runs off a controllable outlet and shares the same sense port logic as the AWC. These pumps are inexpensive, have sufficient head height, and are the same pump Hydros uses for their ATOs, just without the drive-port connector. Both pumps require a K-Mains plug adapter since the output isn’t a standard wall plug.

Sense ports and water level logic: I’m using Hydros water level sensors including a triple water level sensor. This single sensor handles both ATO and AWC logic.

The upper sensor has two sense locations. When AWC is OFF, these two points function as the ATO control. The upper point is ATO OFF and the lower point is ATO ON. When AWC is ON, the lower of the two upper points becomes the AWC drain stop and the upper point becomes the AWC fill stop.

The lowest sensor on the triple sensor is always submerged and defines the maximum drain depth. This determines how much water can be exchanged. It’s important not to set this too low or you risk exposing heaters or other equipment.

How the AWC works: The drain dosing pump removes water until the lower sense point is reached. The fill pump then adds fresh saltwater until the upper sense point is triggered. I keep two buckets below the tank, one for fresh saltwater and one for drain water. I prefer running multiple smaller water changes over several hours instead of one large change for better stability.

Safety features: Hydros has excellent safeguards. You can set maximum run times for both ATO and AWC, it protects against sensor failure or dirty sensors, logs all on/off activity in the app, and sends alerts and emails if there’s ever an issue. Make sure “Run Past Max Time” is disabled or the pump will continue running after hitting the max limit.

Water change volume: For my tank, the Hydros dosing pump runs about 5 minutes per cycle, 5 times per day, which comes out to roughly 2.3 gallons per week. For larger tanks you may want a faster peristaltic or dosing pump, but sticking with peristaltic pumps is key to preventing back siphon.

Final notes: Page one of my build thread has links to every item by name. The middle of page four has all my Hydros settings, screenshots, and a more detailed explanation of how everything is configured. If anyone has questions or wants help adapting this setup, feel free to ask.