"Balling Method" Timer question

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I am going to start the balling method to maintain Alk, Ca, Mg, ect.

But I don't want to spend $400 on the dosing pump. I am going to use four $17 Aqualifter Pumps instead. The only thing is, I need to find a timer that will turn the pumps on and off in a matter of seconds once per day. So I can figure out how many ml per second would be dosed. Essentially dosing the salts the same way the expensive controller/pump does.

I know someone on RC is doing this but I can't find the thread anymore.

Any ideas for a timer that can do this?

Or is there a way to make my Aquacontroller do this? I guess not since it does deal with seconds I don't think.

[Reefer Rob]

I used Aqualifter pumps at one time. I wasn't able to find a timer that did seconds, but minutes was adequate (but not great) for my tank. I didn't find Aqualifters were consistent enough, it was very frustrating. As well, the alk supplement hardened the pump diaphragm making it gradually loose flow. Better to bite the bullet and get peristaltic pumps you'd spend that much on a Ca reactor anyway.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

I used Aqualifter pumps at one time. I wasn't able to find a timer that did seconds, but minutes was adequate (but not great) for my tank. I didn't find Aqualifters were consistent enough, it was very frustrating. As well, the alk supplement hardened the pump diaphragm making it gradually loose flow. Better to bite the bullet and get peristaltic pumps you'd spend that much on a Ca reactor anyway.

Ya I know. I was going to buy it this month actually from Progressive Reef but not having a job and all means its not exactly the best time to be spending $500 on a dosing pump. Just thought after seeing the guy one RC who has been using the aqualifter pumps for a while now, I would check it out.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Think I will just stick with two part from BRS then and use this pump:

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Two-Pa...duct_info.html

[Myka]

How many pumps are you going to be ordering? I want to get a couple of those Drew's Dosers too...maybe we could get 5 or more pumps together to get the $79.99 price...? Might not work with us being so far away from eachother though...

[Reefer Rob]

1.5 ml per minute, that's SLOW! Should work great with a minute timer.

My Profilux dosers put out about 50 ml per minute, but I of course dose in seconds.

Look for timers that allow for as many cycles per day as you can get, to keep your parameters stable. I dose Alk and Ca 20 times per day, so I get no spikes at all.

[mark]

nice find on the pump

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Myka

How many pumps are you going to be ordering? I want to get a couple of those Drew's Dosers too...maybe we could get 5 or more pumps together to get the $79.99 price...? Might not work with us being so far away from eachother though...

Well actually BRS does the group buy for anyone on the board because everyone has to pay there own shipping. So we can just start a group buy open to everyone here. You don't save on shipping but you get the discount price.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

1.5 ml per minute, that's SLOW! Should work great with a minute timer.

My Profilux dosers put out about 50 ml per minute, but I of course dose in seconds.

Look for timers that allow for as many cycles per day as you can get, to keep your parameters stable. I dose Alk and Ca 20 times per day, so I get no spikes at all.

I can use my Aquacontroller to dose a minute at a time all throughout the day. Shouldn't get too many spikes.

I think these pumps would work great for the balling method or even just the regular two part. I might just go two part since I already run ZEO which includes the AA and such. I really don't want to be adding more of them.

[golf nut]

try these guys, use a standard timer to time when in the day you want to dose and use one of these for the micro seconds your pump needs.

http://www.airotronics.com/site/home.php