DIY dosing pump-- anything cheap and easy?

[Ophidia]

I will begin going to school and working out of town four days a week. My wife will be the one doing daily maint. on my reef and FOWLR, and I need to make it easy for her. To start with, I have 30 gallons of RO water on hand at all times for top off. Next I will get 2 pill things with days of the week on them and get food ready for her (and set up an automatic feeder on the reef). The next thing is that B-Ionic needs to be dosed every day, and I KNOW that it will not be. Anyone have any idea for an easy design for a dosing pump, or a way to get something cheap that will work well for a two-part additive? I told my wife that she should steal an IV pump from work, but she didn't think she could get away with it...
Any ideas would be appreciated
Chris

 

[Doug]

Hi Chris,

Here is a link to about.com with a few different ideas for dosing pumps.
http://saltaquarium.about.com/pets/saltaquarium/msubdiydosertopoff.htm

HTH

Doug

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Doug's Reef and Fish Page

[This message has been edited by Doug (edited 04-11-2000).]

 

[lakee911]

Reviving this oldy.... checked out that link and found a link to this:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/topoff/siphon/index.html

Anyone using this siphon business for top off? Kind of neat, no?

Thx
Jason

 

[kurtg]

I'd get a drip gate. The problem with a knot in airline tubing is that it's very impercise. I'm currently using this for kalk dosing, but every once in a while, the knot is too tight or too loose. I end up dosing a gallon in any where from 15 minutes to 18 hours. :-/

Here's one for 5 gallons:
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_dosing_pumps_top_off_kent_marine_aquadose.asp?CartId=

I have a house sitter for my frequent trips. I just wrote out the instructions of what to do and she checks them off everyday. She's not very good at chemistry,etc, but she'll email me if things don't look right. I have a magic marker line where the water needs to be and to refill for evaporation. I think I'll buy the 5 gallon above (if I can't find larger) and just let it run while I'm gone.