Watson-Marlow

[stevenc64]

Hi Simon,
I just read your article on calcium reators and have a question for you. I currently feed my reactor via a T on my return pump but would like to use a dedicated pump to feed it instead. You reccomended the Watson-Marlow pumps and I was wondering which model you were referring to?
Thanks,
Steve

 

[simonh]

I have used both the 101 and 313 pump heads. The 313 pump head has the advantage of been able to take marprene tubing which last for months and months without needing replacement. The 101 can only take silicone tubing so need replacing every six weeks or so.

I haven't bought the the ready made pumps from Watson-Marlow which are very expensive. Instead, RS Components sells the pumpheads and also high quality Swiss made DC motors suitable to drive them (still expensive but more reasonable than the WM boxed ones). I would also suggest you check on e-bay as it seems alot of high quality scientific ones appear in the US on e-bay. However, make sure that the model has a 24/7 duty cycle.

The Vario dosing pumps sold in the aquarium market aren't suitable for continous running. Likewise a couple of other models here in Europe I have tried didn't last when running 24/7.

HTH