AKA: Learn from all of my (many, costly) mistakes
I was inspired by this thread when I ran into multiple failures of BRS 60mL/min peristaltic pumps. My tank kept crashing and the only way forward was to get a more reliable set of pumps. Unfortunately, there just aren’t pump options in our hobby that are both powerful and reliable for peristaltic purposes. The main problems that was causing pump failures was that I was forced to produce RO and new salt water in my garage and pump it to my aquarium room. The BRS pumps couldn’t handle the long runs from this setup. Additional pump failures occurred from ATO abuse due to Texas climate and my desire for automated water exchanges. On top of this, my lifestyle is so busy that by the time I realized a pump had failed, it was always too late and the unbalanced chemistry would cause a tank crash.
I invested in two big upgrades to improve the reliability and maintenance of my system: a Neptune Apex aquarium controller and ColeParmer peristaltic pumps. Those 4 transducers and wattage monitors on the Apex really give you instantaneous awareness of problems via telephonic means. I also changed all of my 60mL/min BRS peristaltic pumps to Masterflex 7543-30 peristaltic pumps. The process for doing this wasn’t very simple (despite this truly excellent reef central thread), and I’d like to show others exactly how to do this so they don’t waste time, money, and you understand what exactly you are getting yourself into. You should think of these pumps in terms of three components: Pump, Head, and Tubing/fittings.
Noise should be a primary decision point for a buyer of these pumps. it was not a concern for me (and the pumps I eventually chose are a bit noisy so beware if they are attached to a wall with someone sleeping next to it). I actually prefer the standard heads versus the easy loads since they hold the tubing tighter and you don’t have to fiddle with them as much as with the Easy Loads. It does take a bit of math to plan exactly how much fluid you want to exchange and back calculate the tubing diameter (mL/rotation) and RPMs of the pump when you are going with a fixed RPM. Tubing is unfortunately expensive, and there’s really no way around this. The tubing is abused and it needs to be high quality if it is going to handle the forces placed upon it by the pump. You don’t need much of it (12” or so per pump), so that’s a positive.
Structurally, you’ll see I’ve mostly been able to keep the electricity above the liquids. That was intentional since you never know where your next leak will come from. I pump the new salt and RO water from the garage and store them in Davy Jones lockers from AvastMarine, next to my CO2 bottles (always have a backup) that are locked in place. The water level pressure transducer that comes from Avast Marine has never failed me in 10+ years of use. I’m a fan. I use a dual head Masterflex 7543-30 w/ L/S 17 tubing for daily water exchange to accomplish 3-4 gallons of water exchange automatically. The cool thing about the Masterflex tubing is that it is very exacting in diameter, so it’s probably the best way to do an even water exchange without risking over or underfillling the tank. You also need to think about the RO tubing strategy, not just L/S tubing for the pump heads. I wanted the long run from my garage to my small holding tanks for RO and fresh salt water to use large bore L/S 35 Norprene tubing and 3/8” RO tubing to reduce resistance and strain on the pumps. That Norprene is tough and meant for abuse. The rest I used L/S 17 w/ 1/4” RO tubing as suggested on the first page of this thread.
The pump setups are as follows:
Pumps:
Pump: ColeParmer 7543-30
Noise: Loud (maybe 60-70dB)
Cost: $45-$70 on eBay
Size: slightly larger than BRS (see picture). VERY convenient.
Strength: Above requirements for 100’ RO tubing run.
Heads accommodated: 1 or 2 (need appropriate hardware to attach it to pump).
Fluid dynamics: w/ LS17 - 84mL/min ; w/ LS35 - 114mL/min
Pump: ColeParmer 7553-60 (variable speed for Ca reactor)
Noise: Medium (maybe 50dB)
Cost: $41 on eBay
Size: Requires stand. Big and bulky (think toaster)
Strength: Above requirements for 100’ RO tubing run.
Heads accommodated: 1 or 2 (need appropriate hardware to attach it to pump).
Fluid dynamics: wide range due to pump speed variability. Definitely perfect for a calcium reactor.
Pump: BRS 1.1mL/min
Noise: Silent
Cost: ~$80 from BRS
Size: Perfect for mounting in a clean line.
Strength: Adequate for short 1/4” RO tubing run. Low flow likely prevents major pressure problems and permits pump longevity plaguing 60mL/min pump.
Heads accommodated: 1 only. Has built-in tubing and fittings, thus cutting down on secondary pump costs dramatically and simplifies things.
Fluid dynamics: fixed at 1.1mL/min. Perfect for Ca/Mg/Alk/Carbon dosing
Tubing:
Type: PharMed® BPT Biocompatible Tubing (L/S 17) 1/4" ID x 3/8" OD x 1/16" Wall PharMed® Tubing 10’ cut into ~12” lengths.
Purpose: Flexible and tolerant of steel rollers in pump head.
Cost: $38.50 ($3.85/foot)
Endurance: medium
Fluid dynamics: 2.8 mL/min/revolution
Type: Masterflex Norprene tubing (A 60 G), L/S 35, 50 ft.
Purpose: Flexible and tolerant of steel rollers in pump head.
Cost: $125.00 ($2.50/foot)
Endurance: Extreme
Fluid dynamics: 3.8-4.3mL/min/revolution (depending on head type)
Technical data on Masterflex tubing:
Tolerance to cuastics/UV/porosity:
http://www.coleparmer.com/TechLibraryArticle/700
Sizing chart for L/S tubing:
http://www.coleparmer.com/TechLibraryArticle/772
Life chart for tubing:
http://partners.coleparmer.com/techinfo/techinfo.asp?htmlfile=Tubing_LSLife.htm
Type: LLDPE (Low Density Polyethylene tubing) 1/4” or 3/8”
Purpose: RO tubing for low cost runs away from Masterflex tubing
Cost: Inexpensive
Endurance: Years maintenance free
Heads:
L/S35 Head: Standard Head 7035-21
Cost: $50 on eBay
L/S17 Head: Standard Head 7017-21
Cost: $50-$75 on eBay
L/S17 Head: EasyLoad 7518-60
Cost: $75-$150 on eBay
Additional Info: Hardware for double stacked heads:
http://www.coleparmer.com/Product/S...sterflex_L_S_Easy_Load_pump_heads/EW-07013-05
Purpose: main tank ATO
Pump: 7543-30
Set Up: L/S 17 tubing w/ 1/4” RO tubing from RO water container feeding into a Avast Marine Kalk stirrer. Requires a water level pressure transducer controller to turn ATO on/off.
Purpose: RO or Salt New water supply - sub-station ATOs
Pump: 7543-30
Set Up: L/S 35 tubing w/ 3/8” RO tubing 100’ run from large garage based 60 gallon drums to tank filling Avast Marine Davy Jones lockers x 2 w/ float valve controller to turn ATO pumps on/off.
Purpose: Daily water exchange
Pump: 7543-30
Set Up: L/S 17 tubing w/ 1/4” RO tubing, two stacked L/S 17 standard heads on one pump. Effluent waste water drawn off near skimmer (due to lack of algae or animals) and directly fed into sink waste, new salt feeds from a Davy Jones locker into same area.
Purpose: Calcium Reactor Feed pump
Pump: 7553-60 variable speed
Set Up: L/S 17 tubing w/ 1/4” RO tubing fed through an Easy Load head (to allow a variety of tubing options if flow ends up too high with L/S 17 at lowest flow rate). Calcium reactor set up is complicated. I’d recommend
http://reef.diesyst.com/crarticle/crarticle.htm as a good read for the complexity involved in tuning them.
Lessons learned: 1) Almost any of the ColeParmer pumps will work for the peristaltic aquarium applications, even the small ones, like I got. They are WAY stronger than anything on the aquarium trade. 2) Noise - putting pumps and equipment in a closet or remote location allows a lot more diversity in inexpensive options. 3) Model numbers - overwhelming from ColePalmer standpoint. However, it’s the head that you are worried about - all of the pumps that I saw will handle the heads, so model number is somewhat irrelevant. The main thing you should be worried about is to make sure the RPMs and tubing size make for delivery in the 50-150mL/min for ATO/water exchange purposes OR 1-2mL/min for Two part and carbon dosing. Do the calculations with the L/S 17 (2.8mL/min/revolution) and L/S 35 (3.8-4.3mL/min/revolution) tubing and multiply by the revolutions per minute before you buy a pump and make sure the output is in range for your application. 4) 1/4” RO tubing for short runs, 3/8” RO tubing for long runs. 5) Cost - tubing costs a lot! You must consider all 3 aspects of these commercial grade pumps to get a price point figured out. I’d probably start with making sure you get the L/S 17 head and then go from there. Better yet, get a L/S 17 on the pump you want. 6) Size - if you get a bunch of big peristaltic pumps that will always run at the same RPMs (like an ATO), you are probably wasting money and space. Fixed RPM pumps are fine for this purpose and can be rather small.
Fittings are another problem for another write up. L/S 17 uses 1/4” barbs and we conveniently always connect it to 1/4” RO tubing with a John Guest fitting. L/S 35 uses a 3/8” barb and we conveniently always connect it to 3/8” RO tubing with a John Guest fitting.
Best of luck! I hope this helps!
:fun4:
