Ted_C
Active member
So after looking at my architecture/space limitations and after dosing Brightwell 2 part manually over the last 1.5 months - I decided to go the dosing route rather than the calcium reactor route.
The challenge I found - no one really takes pics and documents how they set up a doser system. I was thinking bulkheads through the buckets but bulkheads on uneven surfaces aren't a good idea (for leaks). Lots of suggestions to use uni-seals too. wasn't a fan - too flimsy.
My goal was to go months without needing to mix up chemicals and to have a system that wouldn't get contaminated being open to the air.
I started out with:
1/2 gallon BRS 2 part Total Package
3 BRS dosing pumps Mg, Ca, and CO3
3 Nalgene 3.4 gallon Jerricans
6 1/4" 90 degree john guest elbows
3 1/4" 90 degree john guest elbows with male npt thread on one end
3 1/4" female threaded to 3/8" John guest fittings
3 1/2" rubber grommets
3 1/4" pvc ribbed couplings
1/4" flexible vinyl tubing - 50 foot?
1/4" stiff tubing - 1 roll.
3/8" stiff tubing (like what we get on our RO units). 25 foot? whatever one roll is.
1. I drilled 5/16" holes through the blue lids of the jerricans and placed the 1/2" grommets into these (and anyone that's drilled through plastic can tell you - get a good pair of pliers - I chewed the crab outta my finger when the drill slipped).
2. While I had the drill out - I drilled a 1/8" hole in the handle of the jerican to allow venting.
3. I then teflon taped the male threads on the 1/4" elbows and pushed it through the grommet. Screwed on the 3/8" John guest fitting. For this system to work out right - you can't have any air getting into the system or else you wont be dosing as much as you think you are.
4. I straightened (with a heat gun) and cut pieces of the 3/8" tubing so that when inserted into the 3/8" fitting, the bottom of the tube would be at the bottom of the bucket (this maximizes my use and prevents sucking air into the system).
5. On the other side of the lid - I simply ran the vinyl tubing over to the doser intake.
6. I mounted the dosers on the back of the stand - its really the only real estate I have left in or out. I mounted them so that each one has about two inches of clearance from the one below it (and still allows me to fit a jerrican underneath them). Couldn't use my dewault powerdrill back there - to cramped - had to screw in the mounts by hand.
7. To allow easy disconnects - I used the 1/4" John guest 90's and the stiff 1/4" tubing on the nut side of the doser.
8. I than ran flexible vinyl tuning from the outlet of the doser to the 1/4" barbed fitting. Found a problem here - the 1/4" barbed fittings dont fit 1/4" tubing. They fit the 3/8" OD tubing. SO I just used some of the 3/8" tubing and inserted the 1/4" tubing inside of that.
Mixing up the chemicals was rather easy and well documented. rather than using measuring cups, I actually measured out the grams to use.
Ca: 500 grams CaCl2 per gallon (BRS 1/2 gallon makes about 3 gallons of this)
CO3: 368 grams Na2CO3 per gallon (BRS 1/2 gallon makes about 3 gallons of this)
Mg: 770 grams MgSO4 + 1040 grams MgCl2 per gallon (BRS 1/2 gallon makes about 1.5 gallons of this).
I mixed up as much as I could and filled the buckets. I then had to draw a siphon (with my mouth) to get the liquid through all the tubing so the doser wouldn't be running air for an hour. These chemicals taste horrible!
I then let the dosers run into a measuring cup for an hour and measured my output - I'm getting ~1.4 ml/min instead of the 1.1 ml / min with around a total of 87 ml (I even used a syringe to make sure of the final volume).
I backwards calculated my Brightwell usage and applied that to the new BRS 2 parts. That thread and the math check is here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2284835
My final Apex programs are (all the dosers are on mechanical relay outlets):
Ca - doses 90 ml from 11 AM to 8 PM:
and of course - pics of my set-up:
Pumps/Overall
Jerricans with elbows out the lids:
Overall
Outlet in the sump
Grommet and Elbow:
Inside the Lid:
So I hope this helps someone else in their reefing endeavors.
The challenge I found - no one really takes pics and documents how they set up a doser system. I was thinking bulkheads through the buckets but bulkheads on uneven surfaces aren't a good idea (for leaks). Lots of suggestions to use uni-seals too. wasn't a fan - too flimsy.
My goal was to go months without needing to mix up chemicals and to have a system that wouldn't get contaminated being open to the air.
I started out with:
1/2 gallon BRS 2 part Total Package
3 BRS dosing pumps Mg, Ca, and CO3
3 Nalgene 3.4 gallon Jerricans
6 1/4" 90 degree john guest elbows
3 1/4" 90 degree john guest elbows with male npt thread on one end
3 1/4" female threaded to 3/8" John guest fittings
3 1/2" rubber grommets
3 1/4" pvc ribbed couplings
1/4" flexible vinyl tubing - 50 foot?
1/4" stiff tubing - 1 roll.
3/8" stiff tubing (like what we get on our RO units). 25 foot? whatever one roll is.
1. I drilled 5/16" holes through the blue lids of the jerricans and placed the 1/2" grommets into these (and anyone that's drilled through plastic can tell you - get a good pair of pliers - I chewed the crab outta my finger when the drill slipped).
2. While I had the drill out - I drilled a 1/8" hole in the handle of the jerican to allow venting.
3. I then teflon taped the male threads on the 1/4" elbows and pushed it through the grommet. Screwed on the 3/8" John guest fitting. For this system to work out right - you can't have any air getting into the system or else you wont be dosing as much as you think you are.
4. I straightened (with a heat gun) and cut pieces of the 3/8" tubing so that when inserted into the 3/8" fitting, the bottom of the tube would be at the bottom of the bucket (this maximizes my use and prevents sucking air into the system).
5. On the other side of the lid - I simply ran the vinyl tubing over to the doser intake.
6. I mounted the dosers on the back of the stand - its really the only real estate I have left in or out. I mounted them so that each one has about two inches of clearance from the one below it (and still allows me to fit a jerrican underneath them). Couldn't use my dewault powerdrill back there - to cramped - had to screw in the mounts by hand.
7. To allow easy disconnects - I used the 1/4" John guest 90's and the stiff 1/4" tubing on the nut side of the doser.
8. I than ran flexible vinyl tuning from the outlet of the doser to the 1/4" barbed fitting. Found a problem here - the 1/4" barbed fittings dont fit 1/4" tubing. They fit the 3/8" OD tubing. SO I just used some of the 3/8" tubing and inserted the 1/4" tubing inside of that.
Mixing up the chemicals was rather easy and well documented. rather than using measuring cups, I actually measured out the grams to use.
Ca: 500 grams CaCl2 per gallon (BRS 1/2 gallon makes about 3 gallons of this)
CO3: 368 grams Na2CO3 per gallon (BRS 1/2 gallon makes about 3 gallons of this)
Mg: 770 grams MgSO4 + 1040 grams MgCl2 per gallon (BRS 1/2 gallon makes about 1.5 gallons of this).
I mixed up as much as I could and filled the buckets. I then had to draw a siphon (with my mouth) to get the liquid through all the tubing so the doser wouldn't be running air for an hour. These chemicals taste horrible!
I then let the dosers run into a measuring cup for an hour and measured my output - I'm getting ~1.4 ml/min instead of the 1.1 ml / min with around a total of 87 ml (I even used a syringe to make sure of the final volume).
I backwards calculated my Brightwell usage and applied that to the new BRS 2 parts. That thread and the math check is here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2284835
My final Apex programs are (all the dosers are on mechanical relay outlets):
Ca - doses 90 ml from 11 AM to 8 PM:
CO3 - doses 150 ml from 10 PM to 8 AM:
Mg - doses 20 ml between 11 AM to 8 PM - offset by 10 minutes to avoid interference with calcium - only runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday:
and of course - pics of my set-up:
Pumps/Overall
Jerricans with elbows out the lids:
Overall
Outlet in the sump
Grommet and Elbow:
Inside the Lid:
So I hope this helps someone else in their reefing endeavors.
