Okay, I'm not the best at describing things clearly, but I'll give it a shot. A while back when I got tired of dosing my tank for Alk and Ca everyday, I decided it was time to start thinking about getting a dosing pump. Well after a little research I realized that the LitermeterIII w/ the additional pump was a bit out of reach for me. I started thinking about it, and all a dosing pump does is pump a set ammount of liquid, at a set time, in set incriments over a period of time, right? So I brainstormed and came up with my DIY budget dosing system.

I'll start with the parts / equipment needed and what they cost.

2x's aqualifters .....around $12 each ($24)

2x's DIGITAL lamp timers....around $12 each at walmart. ($24)

THE LAMP TIMERS HAVE TO BE DIGITAL!!! The one's with the little tabs will not work for this application.

8'ish of airline tubing.....I don't remember exactly, but I'll guess it cost $8.

2x's airline ball valves....about $3

containers for your two part (optional, you could just use the ones they come in if you want).........$5 for two one liter containers with a lid at wal mart.

test kit vial (API works well since it's set at 5ml).

Total cost (estimate)...... <$60.

Here's how it all works.

First, you need to know how much two part solution your tank consumes in a 24 hour period. My tank requires 25mL of each part so we'll use that as an example.

Plug one of the aqualifters into one of the digital timers. Now connect a piece of airline tubing to the nipple on the aqualifter that sucks air in. This piece of airline tubing will be placed in whatever container you decide to use for each of your two parts. Next connect another piece of airline tubing into the nipple on the aqualifter that pumps air out. At the end of this piece you will need to attach the airline ball valve.

Now that you've got it all put together it's time for the "hard part". Set the timer to turn one for ONE MINUTE, and then turn back off. While the pump is on adjust the valve so that it restricts the flow quite a bit. Basically you want to adjust the flow rate until it will only let the pump produce 5mL in one minute. This part will take a few tries to get it dialed in perfectly (took me about 5 or 6 attempts), you just have to be patient.

Now that you've got the pump dialed in it's time to set your lamp timer. As stated earlier, my tank requires 25mL of each part daily. So I have my timer set to turn on and off for one minute 5x's throughout the night to dose for Alk. I don't remember at exactly waht times I have the timer set to dose, but it's about every 2 or so hours. I have it set to dose throughout the night to help prevent Ph swings, which works outstanding I might add!!

In case you guys are wondering, the lamp timer can turn on and off up to 6x's a day. Whenver my SPS and clams are starting to use more than 25mL of each part daily adjustments to the system won't be a problem at all. I'll simply reset one of the times that the timer turns on and off from one minute to 2 minutes. Thus dosing 10mL. You could apply the same prinicple until you reach the desired dosing amount.

For Ca I do basically the same thing as above except I have that pump set to only turn on and off once a day. It turns on a 3:00pm daily for 5 minutes, dosing the full 25mL at once.


I hope that makes sense, and that some of you guys can use this sytem. It's worked quite well for me and my tank for well over 6 months. My readings fro dkh stay extremely consistant at 10, and Ca at 440-460 (API test kits). According to the data log on my Acjr. Ph doesn't fluctuate more than .12 in a 24 hour period.

This should be common sense, but I'll go ahead and state it anyway. MAKE SURE THE THE OUTLET NOZZLE IS PLACED HIGHER THAN THE LIQUID LEVEL IN YOUR 2 PART RESERVOIR CONTAINERS!!! If not then once the pump turns on for the first time it will start a syphon and drain the resErvoir......this will obviously cause BIG problems. Be careful!!

I've been using this system for close to a year without any problems.

I need to see a pic of this hot mess.

Thread is useless without pics!
At least a diagram of some kind.

I'll see what I can do. The inside of my stand is a mess.

I must be psychic !

Sounds good, I think i'll give it a try for my 2 part dosing, thanks!

Looks like this. Well, kinda... I threw this together real quick with spare parts that I have. Let's just pretend that the timer is digital.



told ya it was easy.




thanks again for all of your help when I was first setting this thing up, btw.

That does look good, but those aqualifters are only good for lifting the solution 2-3 feet max. It wouldn't work if i wanted to place it in my stand, i think it's 3feet to the top of my tan

Im only moving 5-8ml of solution, so if it just trickles out it shouldn't be a problem?

Could you place the tubing so that it dosing right into the back chambers???

You're right, the aqualifter won't lift the 2 part very high, at least not at high volumes. Since we aren't talking about moving a ton of fluid at once you could probably still use this system. I run my ATO with an aqualifter and it sucks water from the bottom of a 3' tall reservoir and then it pumps about another 1.5' above where the pump sits.

I have my dosing pumps in my stand and they dose into my sump. I don't see why you couldn't run the tubes into the rear chambers of an AIO.

This sounds like exactly what I need. Thanks for the writeup!

Good job Glenn ! ( You know I was just busting your ballz )

Hey man you have helped me just as much so no thank you need at all.

u2 get a room!

Only if you get a condom for your nose.

i love this idea because ive been trying to figure out how to dose my tank like this. i have 2 questions though. is the 2 part actually going through the aqualifter. i thought these were for air and couldnt pump liquid through them. my other question is about the sipon. dont you mean the output has to be above the water level wherever you are dosing into so that it doesnt creat a siphon when it turns off.

Nice one Glenn. Can't get any more simple than that.

Interesting concept - I've been thinking about a DIY dosing pump in the back of my head ... but this makes me really want to jump in and build one.

So let me get this straight, the basic idea is:

Plug an Aqualifter Pump into a digital timer, let the pump run for 1 minute, and using a valve, calibrate the openness of the valve so that it only allows the amount of chemicals through in 1 minute that t you require.

That's pretty cool - so what is the fail rate of the little cheapy valves? I mean, if one of those failed, you'd be dosing wayyyy too much.

question 1... aqualifters can pump either air or fluids. Hence the name "AQUAlifter", lol. Sorry man, I couldn't let that one pass.

question2... Yes, you are correct. However, that's not what I was talking about in the write up. What I was saying is to be sure that you don't have your 2 part reservoirs higher than the outlet or once the pump kicks on for the first time it will suck the resrvoir dry. Kinda like when using a tube to siphon water for a wc.

You could do it like that (have it dose the entire amount necessary at one time). I prefer to have mine dose in smaller incriments to spread out the dosage through the night to help keep Ph stable. But yeah, you've got the basic concept down.

I've been running mine for close to a year (just guessing on that one) and haven't had any issues at all. Honestly, the only way it could fail is if the timer screwed up, or if you messed with the valve itself. The way the valves are made it would be pretty much impossible for it to fail on its' own.

Another good reason to set the valve so that it only allows 5ml per minute is if you need to tune the sytem later on. When I first set mine up I was using 20ml of each part. Now I'm up to 30ml and all I had to do was go back to the timer and set it to run for two more minutes per night to dose my tank. I guess that kinda contradicts my original post so I should probably clarify that I originally wrote that on another forum months ago. I'm lazy so I just copied & pasted it rather than re-write the whole thing.

So I set mine up tonight, I'll post pic's later. As I was getting it all together, and plugged in my digital timer, I was thinking the same thing, about the timer failing ( I've had two in 5 months fail) it would fail with the pumps on. Every time mine failed, it turned all outlets on. I don't know if there is a way to build in a fail safe, but if I can't think of anything, I think I might just take it apart, and try and come up with something else. It is a cool idea, but I’m not sure if I want to take the chance with my track record.

I was thinking about it last night, and the only thing I could think of was to plug the digital non reliable timer into a wheel or analog timer….lol…I know it sounds retarded, I have now in affect doubled my chance of failure. If my digital timer failed, then the analog timer would kick in and kill the pump after 10 min, and after 10 times the amount of 2 part will have entered my tank….lol….It’s better than the whole bottle, but I’m sure that ten times the daily dosing amount would kill my tank anyways?....Maybe I’ll just go out, and spend the 500 or so on a dosser.

maybe you should just buy a better digital timer, lol. mine has been working without fial for a long time now.

I don't trust them!

what kind do you have?

Honestly, I have no idea. I haven't looked at it in a while. It's back behind my tank but I'll get back there and see what brand it is later today.

Also, were you having problems with your flow rates and trying to calibrate them? I would have it right one second, then the next test, it was way off, without me changing anything. I think I have a variation of maybe 1 ml + or – half the time. Do you get build up in any of your hoses?

Nope, mine is dead on every time I've tested it.

I do get some build up on the nozzles but I just pull it off every week or two.

At first glance, this looks like it might work on the same principles as this DIY of yours:
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/m...ory_Code=Dosers
It's just more expensive!

Also, it looks like the dosers like Litermeter, etc. work with peristaltic pumps.
I don't know a lot about this kinda stuff, can you explain to me how an Aqualifter is different from a peristaltic pump?

So here I go off on a tangent, but it is related. Your plastic tabbed timer gave me an idea for how I can add my top-off lime water. Correct me where I am off please. Using your setup I could theoretically take my gallon jug of top off lime water and in multiple 15 minute increments add it to my tank. I could dial in and meter the half gallon that I need on a daily basis using the valve. My concerns are:
1) Is there too much back pressure in the line using the valve to meter the flow?
2) What type of fail safe could be installed?
3) Valve metering ability over time?

Anybody?

Ok, this is my set up, thanks for all the good info glennr1978!

good job! yours is much cleaner than mine.

Is it working better for you now Nosey?
Have you been able to overcome the issues you were previously having, and if so, how?
I'm really interested in doing this, but am nervous about having it not always be consistent about dumping in the same amount of Alk component.
I will be going away on vacation for a few days over spring break and I will need to have some kind of reliable dosing set up.

It’s working now, I had several problems at first. If you look at my pic of the two part, you can see that both of my bottles were in the same spot, on the right side of my tank. I was calibrating with a glass of water, and every time I ran a test I would take the hose off the back of the tank, and bring it down to waist level ( I don’t know what I was thinking) Of course when I got it calibrated at waist height, then brought it up that extra 1 ½’ to put it on the back of the tank, It wasn’t working anymore. The next problem that I had was that my part “B” ( I think) of my two parts, had a heaver viscosity than that of the water so you can see the problem with that. My 3rd problem was that I had to move my pump with the part “B” to the left side of the tank stand to shorten the hose length, and give me more drip volume. 4th problem was that I was getting a creep back of the fluid in the part “B” hose, so that when the timer kicked in for a minute, it had to first move the fluid back up the hose before it started to drip, so it would shorten the volume by about 10sec. I fixed this unknowingly when I moved my pump to the left side of the tank. Before that I had the hose stretched across the back of the tank, making the hose line strait with no dips. After moving the hose over, It put an elbow or loop in the line , that stopped the creep back ( Well I think that’s what was causing it). Last but not least, there seems to be a sweet spot with the ball valves that I’m using, and I couldn’t find it. It was either too much flow or not enough, so what I did was just dose a little more ( 1/2ml) than what is recommended on the back of the bottle per Gallon. Not the end of the world, but only time will tel. I’m also going to plug my digital timer into a serge protector for peace of mind, as this is the weak link IMO…As you can tell most of my problems were common sense issues, but I’ve never really had much of that in the first place…..Sorry for the novel!

If your going to be dosing for Alk, it shouldn't be a problem if your a little short or over. The variations I was seeing were small. Your best bet would be to set everything up, then test with everything in place.

so I could use this:
http://www.petsolutions.com/default.aspx?I...amp;SID=FROOGLE

+the aqualifter and a timer...

Looks like the same thing, just a store bought version. If your using it to dose your 2 part buffer, then your going to have 2 get a second one!

IMO save the 25.00 and do it yourself!

Well my new timer just failed and now i have a clowdy mess in my tank. I'm going 2 do an emergency water change of about 20%. It's so clowdy that i can't see anything. This was exactly what i feared might happen. The only good thing was that i'm at home. This is my third digital timer to fail, and this one didn't even last a week!

Wow, do you eat your timers for breakfast?

what brand of timers are you using?

Hmmm, this is making me nervous about trying this...

mine works..

Yeah if you use cheap timers from wally world, or big lots you run the risk of getting cheap crap that will fail easily. ( tell the truth ! I know you did ! )
I have always had the best luck using digital HD out door timers used for flood, and Christmas lights and such form Lowes or HD.

I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t the most expensive timer. I went to lowes looking for a digital timer. All they had was what I picked up. When I get home tonight I’ll have a look at the brand name. Trust me It’s not the money thing that’s making my decision for me, it’s choice. I’m looking but can’t find a good one. For those of you that are using the digital HD timers, are they a power bare type of timer, do you have any pic’s etc. I NEED A GOOD TIMER!......It might be too early to tell, but my tank is looking better apart from the white film, everything is still alive. On a side note, My female clown isn’t picking on the male anymore. They were actually swimming with each other, I think it was them, it was kind of hard to tell with the white out conditions.

i just thought of something else that may be relevant. I know that even the timers on ACJR's sometimes may not work correctly if they are controlling something that runs at a very low wattage. And IIRC the problem was not with the ACJR being able to turn the low wattage device on, it was turning it off that was the problem. That's why they recommend using plugs 4 and 8 for low wattage devices (apparently those two are designed for lower watts).

I'm pretty sure aqualifters run at a low wattage so you may be having a similar problem. You could try hooking something else up to the timer too, like a small alarm clock etc. The two combined should draw enough current for the timer to turn on and off properly. I hope that makes sense.

Or just buy a better timer, lol.

I would love to buy a better one, but what kind and from where?.....My first timer that packed it in for me had a mj1200, 150w sunpod, 100w stealth heater(i think). The last one to quit on me had 2 aqulifters plugged in

wow! I'm definitely interested in trying this out. I'll try this out tomorrow and see how it goes! Where did you guys get the aqualifters anyway?

Any LFS should have them. My advise to you, get a GOOD timer!

I found this.

http://www.maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=46953

same poster it seems.

and the same post too, pretty much. im lazy so i just copied & pasted.

This is such a cool DIY.

I set one of these up today on my BC29 -- I'm currently testing it with RO water. Seems to work pretty good ... I've been using this digital timer on my submersible fuge lights for a year, so I'm not too concerned about timer failure.

I think I'll let it run in the morning, before my lights turn on, but also while I'm awake, for a week with RO water. That way I can test it fully before I let it loose with the Alk dose.

Edit: Just wanted to add that I found the Aqualifter in the used sections at my LFS for $10 - I had the airline tube, valve and timer - so this was a great, CHEAP, way to dose my tank daily. Thanks!

i use this setup as an ATO works great.
i got my 6x daily digital timer from wally world .

Ahh Good idea!

Basically, I can run 3 aqualifters one for Cal and the other 2 for ALK and MAG I have an aqua controller and could run the pumps with that.

your a genius!

PS
I also been using these aqualifter pumps for quite some time for top-off and they work flawlessly.