Bubble magus triple doser
- Thread starter Krogex
- Start date
MammothReefer
Active member
Glad I sent mine back and decided to go with an Apex. Wasn't happy at all with the limited programming options, and the lack of support when trying to discuss how to use the features.
For the price and what most folks do its a great value. The lack of support is driving me nuts though! It would be nice to have more time features.
sorry to drag an old thread back to life but you gotta be crazy to use one of these bubble magus dosers.
I've been using mine for about 1 year or so. Maybe 1.5 years. I dose 2 part at 40ml per day and 20ml of mg. I have to say the dosing isn't very consistent but it worked. However the pump recently failed on me. Basically the unit would run pump 1 continuously filling my tank with calcium.
When I got home the tank was cloudy white and the doser pump was still running.
I disassembled the Bubble Magus and I noticed it uses a PIC 16F877 micro controller. Not bad. Circuit seems ok but what cought my eye was 3 super cheap DC motors. Motor 2 was shorted and drawing in excess of 500mA. Motor 1 draws 200mA and Motor 3 seems week (spins slower but still draws only 250ma or so).
I think motor 2 shorted the board and probably damaged the microcontroller into just leaving motor 1 on.
I removed the pump covers and under it I found a lot of black powder. Not sure where it came from but its from the dc motors probably.
For $300, I think I'll just get me a BRS doser and use timers. No more over priced junk.
Also looking at the build quality of the Bubble Magus, those DC motors can't cost more then $1 each wholesale, PC board + Microcontroller another $10, and plastic housing $10, LCD serial interface $10. $25 retail for the pump heads ($75). misc components, $10. Total whole sale cost to produce: $118. That is a high ball park. We suckers are paying too much.
I've been using mine for about 1 year or so. Maybe 1.5 years. I dose 2 part at 40ml per day and 20ml of mg. I have to say the dosing isn't very consistent but it worked. However the pump recently failed on me. Basically the unit would run pump 1 continuously filling my tank with calcium.
When I got home the tank was cloudy white and the doser pump was still running.
I disassembled the Bubble Magus and I noticed it uses a PIC 16F877 micro controller. Not bad. Circuit seems ok but what cought my eye was 3 super cheap DC motors. Motor 2 was shorted and drawing in excess of 500mA. Motor 1 draws 200mA and Motor 3 seems week (spins slower but still draws only 250ma or so).
I think motor 2 shorted the board and probably damaged the microcontroller into just leaving motor 1 on.
I removed the pump covers and under it I found a lot of black powder. Not sure where it came from but its from the dc motors probably.
For $300, I think I'll just get me a BRS doser and use timers. No more over priced junk.
Also looking at the build quality of the Bubble Magus, those DC motors can't cost more then $1 each wholesale, PC board + Microcontroller another $10, and plastic housing $10, LCD serial interface $10. $25 retail for the pump heads ($75). misc components, $10. Total whole sale cost to produce: $118. That is a high ball park. We suckers are paying too much.
xxvietxjustinxx
New member
$118 is definitely an overestimate. But what do you expect? This is a business and it means high returns. I haven't had mine as long as yours but it doesn't seem to hvae any issue thus far. How humid was the area it was placed? If it was where your sump was, probably not a great call.
tntneon
SPSahollic
I'm sad to hear this !
I too have the BM-doser for 5 month's now , didn't experienced any problems (yet).
But now that i'm reading your post here at work i get a little bit nervous , don't wanna nuke my tank !
I have mine placed in a dry place so i hope it doesn't occur to me.
I too hear a distinctive difference in noise if i compaire the two pumps , i sometimes think that one of the pumps is heaving more difficulty in pumping (almost-getting-jammed-sound) than the other.
greetingzz tntneon
110galreef
New member
1.5 yrs+ and no issues. I just took my heads apart to clean. There was some black dust and I believe it is from the black rollers to move the fluid. Also dosing has been spot on since day 1
I am dosing 150ml on pumps 1 &2 for cal & alk. Manually dose MG.
as like anything in our hobby a backup safety measure for these should be implemented. If you are dosing say 40ml/day, only keep maybe 7-10 days max at most in your jugs (280-400ml). That way IF a pump fails ON, you won't necassarilly kill everything in your tank. 7 days should be more than enuf extra, as it only takes about 1 min max to refil a jug and you should be around at least once every 7 days! Or if you are around almost daily just keep like 4-5 days worth. Then when you know you will be on vacation just fill up a tad more than you need while your gone. That amount won't nuke a tank!
This is why I went doser opposed to a Calcium reactor. easier to prevent a mishap. Also a very cheap method to maintain.
I put extra fail safes in every where something can go wrong:
DOSERS
Reactors...
ATO,
Back flow,
Heaters,
Overflows,
skimmers
etc.....
I have a second fails safe in place for all these some even 3
I am dosing 150ml on pumps 1 &2 for cal & alk. Manually dose MG.
as like anything in our hobby a backup safety measure for these should be implemented. If you are dosing say 40ml/day, only keep maybe 7-10 days max at most in your jugs (280-400ml). That way IF a pump fails ON, you won't necassarilly kill everything in your tank. 7 days should be more than enuf extra, as it only takes about 1 min max to refil a jug and you should be around at least once every 7 days! Or if you are around almost daily just keep like 4-5 days worth. Then when you know you will be on vacation just fill up a tad more than you need while your gone. That amount won't nuke a tank!
This is why I went doser opposed to a Calcium reactor. easier to prevent a mishap. Also a very cheap method to maintain.
I put extra fail safes in every where something can go wrong:
DOSERS
Reactors...
ATO,
Back flow,
Heaters,
Overflows,
skimmers
etc.....
I have a second fails safe in place for all these some even 3
Last edited:
Roger that on you get what you pay for. Don't get me wrong the doser was working great right up until the time of failure. Humidity in the area the doser was stored in is right at 47% humidity.
You can tell in advance which motor is failing by putting a powersupply with a amp meter on it. Or simply put an amp meter between the power source and the BM. Run each pump. If you find any pumps drawing more power then the rest, you have a failing motor.
I don't hear a lot about failures from anybody else so I'm assuming I'm just an unlucky sole.
If anybody else has had failures please come forward. I do recognize that product failures happen, for everyones sake, I'd just like to know if this is a one time occurance or repeated pattern.
As for the doser, I'm still surprised , for $300 its got such cheap motors. Just started doing some research and there are better products for just a little more $.
edit: Just found some date codes. I think this was bought and in operation sometime in mid 2010. On the motor itself, I see a label 2009.11. Can't tell if thats a parter number or time stamp. Serial number says 09080711220131
Also from my order history on BRS, I can see I started ordering 2 parts around that time period.
You can tell in advance which motor is failing by putting a powersupply with a amp meter on it. Or simply put an amp meter between the power source and the BM. Run each pump. If you find any pumps drawing more power then the rest, you have a failing motor.
I don't hear a lot about failures from anybody else so I'm assuming I'm just an unlucky sole.
If anybody else has had failures please come forward. I do recognize that product failures happen, for everyones sake, I'd just like to know if this is a one time occurance or repeated pattern.
As for the doser, I'm still surprised , for $300 its got such cheap motors. Just started doing some research and there are better products for just a little more $.
edit: Just found some date codes. I think this was bought and in operation sometime in mid 2010. On the motor itself, I see a label 2009.11. Can't tell if thats a parter number or time stamp. Serial number says 09080711220131
Also from my order history on BRS, I can see I started ordering 2 parts around that time period.
tntneon
SPSahollic
-Hi 110galreef
,-Lucklely my Both my Ca and Alk storages are for 8 days max. :fun4:
On my work i also began to calculate how much the Ca level would rise when the pump goes nuts and dumps my whole Ca storage into the sump.
I came out at +50 ppm of Ca , increasing Ca to 480 ppm's in one go , this is far from ideal i think , but survivable . (or not ?)
For Alk i didn't calculated it yet , because we use °Dkh and i don't have the right conversion table to ppm's Alk , but knowing everything is in ratio with each other (Ca & Alk) , i guess that the Alk increasement will also be an +/- 15 % .
Elevating Alk from 9° Dkh to an 11 °Dkh.
Nice tip andyman :thumbsup: gonna check this out with the multimeter of my friend
greetingzz tntneon
reefdude135
New member
Sorry to hear of all these problems. Very scary.... hopefully I will not need service.
My BM3xD has been up for over 2 years without an issue. I use just two of the three pumps, not as if that should make a difference. Anyhow, it is in the basement (tank is one floor above) and all has worked fine. Maybe by locating it far enough away from the tank it has circumvented any humidity issues.
My BM3xD has been up for over 2 years without an issue. I use just two of the three pumps, not as if that should make a difference. Anyhow, it is in the basement (tank is one floor above) and all has worked fine. Maybe by locating it far enough away from the tank it has circumvented any humidity issues.
Was playing around with the doser last night and I can confirm that all 3 motors are functional (second motor consumes 2x more power then the other 2.) All 3 spins and can handle some simulated load (hand holding the spindle).
I've looked at the circuit and its fairly simply. Looks like either a bug in the software, damaged microcontroller, or damaged motor drivers (looks like some kind of h-bridge driving the motors.)
Wish I had software so I can reload the firmware. Its all DIP chips, so I could theoretically put everything on a socket. Oh well I'm going the old fashion route, BRS doser on a timer. Keep it simple, and the fix should be simple.
I've looked at the circuit and its fairly simply. Looks like either a bug in the software, damaged microcontroller, or damaged motor drivers (looks like some kind of h-bridge driving the motors.)
Wish I had software so I can reload the firmware. Its all DIP chips, so I could theoretically put everything on a socket. Oh well I'm going the old fashion route, BRS doser on a timer. Keep it simple, and the fix should be simple.
