Hydros Minnow.. is it right for me?

[ItouchedThebutt]

Mainly posting this thread to get more insight on the hydros minnow. I have a Red Sea 170 that is getting to the point I can benifit from a doser and stumbled upon this guy. I don’t currently have any experience with controllers or hell dosers so I’m not sure if this would be a good or bad fit. All I’m needing is to dose a 2 part of calc and alk the controller functioning for me would just be icing on the cake and allow me to get experience with that to maybe eventually upgrade to more. But with the minnows dosing pumps i read it’ll do 25 ml a min. Is that to much for a 2 part dosing something you usually dose small amounts over a period of time? I also don’t know how much I’ll have to dose in a day to keep my levels steady either. So just leaning on you guys and anyone who has experience with the minnow at all.

 

[tbrown]

You can use that 25 mL to dose from 1 mL to 100 mL. It just moves at a speed of 25 mL per minute.

 

[JoJosReef]

I have not been able to Calibrate mine. I use a single head for AFR. Every time I calibrate, it comes out as 18mL. Then I calibrate immediately again and it comes out between 18-18.5mL.

In practice it doesn't matter too much to me, I just keep increasing the dose. But my Hydros currently thinks it is dosing 12mL 18x per day and I think it might be hitting maybe 60mL. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Maybe @Connor At CoralVue can chime in about the smaller 2-part dosing.

 

[JeffB418]

Mainly posting this thread to get more insight on the hydros minnow. I have a Red Sea 170 that is getting to the point I can benifit from a doser and stumbled upon this guy. I don’t currently have any experience with controllers or hell dosers so I’m not sure if this would be a good or bad fit. All I’m needing is to dose a 2 part of calc and alk the controller functioning for me would just be icing on the cake and allow me to get experience with that to maybe eventually upgrade to more. But with the minnows dosing pumps i read it’ll do 25 ml a min. Is that to much for a 2 part dosing something you usually dose small amounts over a period of time? I also don’t know how much I’ll have to dose in a day to keep my levels steady either. So just leaning on you guys and anyone who has experience with the minnow at all.

The minnow dosers are nice. They aren’t fancy stepper dosers like on a DOS or X10 but great DC dosers for general use. They have multiple dosing speed settings from 25ml/min and up. One very nice feature of the dosing heads that I really like is that they have positive locking heads. Which means they are not friction locking. Friction lock heads are common on cheaper jebao and similar dosers. They work ok for awhile but the plastic of the dosing rollers can wear and turn into a powder which then causes the heads to slip on the shaft. Which causes issues with irregular dosing. The minnow dosing heads use + locking mating between the shaft and dosing rollers. So slipping will never happen. Another plus, the minnow dosers can be programmed to go forward or reverse. So if you have a fancy dosing application, like feeding foods, you can program it to suck undosed food back in.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

Out of curiosity have you tried maybe dosing a different amount in a different frequency through out the day just to see if for whatever reason it hates the 12 ml setting? once again I don’t have it or anything close. But if it’s based off time I dunno.

 

[JeffB418]

I have not been able to Calibrate mine. I use a single head for AFR. Every time I calibrate, it comes out as 18mL. Then I calibrate immediately again and it comes out between 18-18.5mL.

In practice it doesn't matter too much to me, I just keep increasing the dose. But my Hydros currently thinks it is dosing 12mL 18x per day and I think it might be hitting maybe 60mL. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Maybe @Connor At CoralVue can chime in about the smaller 2-part dosing.

Note that the amount it doses for calibration will never change. Even after you upload calibration values. If you want to verify calibration, use the manual dose button after calibration. That value will be affected by calibration. But the amount it doses during calibration is fixed.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

So is it pretty intuitive to use the dosing pumps with the controller? I’m not a big programmer big wig. I can operate apps on a phone and what not. How are replacement parts for these? Pretty readable?

 

[tbrown]

So is it pretty intuitive to use the dosing pumps with the controller? I’m not a big programmer big wig. I can operate apps on a phone and what not. How are replacement parts for these? Pretty readable?

Hydros is easy to program and easy to use.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

How would you rate the quality of their other products? I was looking and like accessories for them are dirt cheap when you consider apex accessories.

 

[braaap]

How would you rate the quality of their other products? I was looking and like accessories for them are dirt cheap when you consider apex accessories.

Hydros items are far more robust. For the most part. I personally think the dosers are junk. I had multiple X10 heads crack in months of use. But they are just rebranded kaomer.

Overall the controller is better. The sensors are better. The connectivity is better.

The programming is not. But that will come.

I have a bunch of extra hydros stuff I need to sell off. I have a minnow somewhere with about 4 minutes of use.

 

[JoJosReef]

Note that the amount it doses for calibration will never change. Even after you upload calibration values. If you want to verify calibration, use the manual dose button after calibration. That value will be affected by calibration. But the amount it doses during calibration is fixed.

Ok, I need to get on this asap. I've noticed that very little is getting dosed each time and assumed it was not calibrating, thus inceasing both the amount that it is supposed to dose and frequency. But I've only been checking my Alkalinity and the Calibration volume (assuming it is meant to dispwnse 25mL), not how much a manual dose put out.

Thanks!

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

Ok, I need to get on this asap. I've noticed that very little is getting dosed each time and assumed it was not calibrating, thus inceasing both the amount that it is supposed to dose and frequency. But I've only been checking my Alkalinity and the Calibration volume (assuming it is meant to dispwnse 25mL), not how much a manual dose put out.

Thanks!

Glad that info helped you, it’s all Chinese to me. Lol

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

Hydros items are far more robust. For the most part. I personally think the dosers are junk. I had multiple X10 heads crack in months of use. But they are just rebranded kaomer.

Overall the controller is better. The sensors are better. The connectivity is better.

The programming is not. But that will come.

I have a bunch of extra hydros stuff I need to sell off. I have a minnow somewhere with about 4 minutes of use.

What makes you not use the minnow? What would you sell it for?

 

[n2585722]

What makes you not use the minnow? What would you sell it for?

I am using my 2 Minnow pumps for AWC. I am changing out 875ml at a time 4 times a day using these pumps. I have been using them for over a year now. The pumps are in the garage 35ft from the tank. The drain pump pulls water from the sump through the wall up to the attic. I then goes across to the the garage down to the drain pump. Then it goes back up through the attic across the attic down a wall and out to the kitchen sink drain. The fill pump draws from the fresh saltwater reservoir in the garage up through the attic and down the wall and out to the overflow at the tank. I have had no issues with either pump for over a year now. I did get some extra tubing for the pumps but have not had to use it. I also have 2 X10's. The first one did have a couple of the pump heads crack but I was running them full out at 100ml a minute. There were the drain and fill pumps for my iV. I replaced them and slowed down the 2 pumps to 75ml a minute and have had no other issues with either X10. It could have been that the pump heads were damaged during shipping since both were on the same side of the controller. The ones on the other side have had no issues.

 

[braaap]

What makes you not use the minnow? What would you sell it for?

Because I bought it for a project that I changed directions on. Message me