Dosing Pump Questions

[Myka]

Originally Posted by phi delt reefer

I dont believe doser's can back siphon just given their design (liquid is pinched out in one direction) It's not a free flowing tube so its not like the return line in your tank.

Some dosers will back-siphon because they use fewer rollers. Dosers should have 4 rollers to prevent back-siphon. Some only have 3. Drew's Dosers and Profilux both use 4 rollers.

[lastlight]

So I solved my crusty hose issue =)

I dose into my external overflow box and I had the outlets very close to the weir so water coming over it mixed with the dose. With the addition of the wavebox the water was actually washing over the pipe's end every now and then and this I think was causing the drip leftover at the end of the hose to skin over.

[TDP]

I'm a regular lurker on this site but I felt compelled to post on this topic. I bought an sa3 and I use the third pump for evaporation water instead of an auto-top-off unit. Works awesome and without the risks associated with ATO failures. I was always curious why no one seems to do this but I haven't found any downsides yet.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by TDP

I'm a regular lurker on this site but I felt compelled to post on this topic. I bought an sa3 and I use the third pump for evaporation water instead of an auto-top-off unit. Works awesome and without the risks associated with ATO failures. I was always curious why no one seems to do this but I haven't found any downsides yet.

It isn't recommended because dosing pumps aren't designed to run that much. On a tank with a lot of evaporation the dosing pump wouldn't keep up anyway. If it works for you though, all the power to ya!

[kien]

Originally Posted by TDP

I'm a regular lurker on this site but I felt compelled to post on this topic. I bought an sa3 and I use the third pump for evaporation water instead of an auto-top-off unit. Works awesome and without the risks associated with ATO failures. I was always curious why no one seems to do this but I haven't found any downsides yet.

That's cool that you can pull that off with your doser. I evaporate about 8 gallons every 3 days so I could not imagine trying to run that much volume through the doser. That certainly would shorten the life of the motor dramatically. Also, the amount of evaporation varies from day to day. I would find that difficult to manage with a doser.

[TDP]

I knew there must be a reason people don't us them for evaporation. My tank is an open top 110 gallon evaporating a little over a gallon a day pretty consistently. I guess I'll have to see how long before the pump craps out but for the $100 to replace it I thought it was worth trying - might be a good solution for smaller tanks.

[kien]

Originally Posted by TDP

I knew there must be a reason people don't us them for evaporation. My tank is an open top 110 gallon evaporating a little over a gallon a day pretty consistently. I guess I'll have to see how long before the pump craps out but for the $100 to replace it I thought it was worth trying - might be a good solution for smaller tanks.

$100 to replace my doser pump, for $10 to replace my ATO pump.. hmm..

[phi delt reefer]

for those of you with tanks close to your mini bar maybe throw some phyto on a magnetic stirrer (or other liquid foods) in the fridge. Then drill a hole into the mini fridge for the feed line to the dosing pump (use a bulk head so you can replace the lines if ever needed). Have the output line dump into your tank or sump and you've totally automated your feeding as well!

FWIW you can get a really cheap mini fridge for like $69.99 when all the back to school sales start. I built my stand big enough to house that sucker when the tank finally gets setup