DD
"Rambo"
Hey everyone,
Just wanted to let everyone know what I think of the marine color dosing pump.
I ordered it through ebay, but you can order direct from their website http://www.reefshops.com/marine-color-dosing-pump-mcd-3-m.html
Before ordering this I spent about a week reading through threads on every site I could find. Here are some of the things I've found through my research.
The Good: It works well and is $100 less than the BM triple dosing unit, their customer service is top notch, the unit works very well
The Bad: Some people found that the clock gains a little time, some found that one of the pumps didn't work when it arrived, it's made in China
My experience with it is actually pretty good once I figured out how to get it working.
First thing when setting it up that aggravated me was that the tubing fittings weren't pushed on all the way and slipped off. This was quickly remedied by pushing it all the way on for all three pumps. No biggie.
After I ran all my hoses into the various vessels, I then plugged it in. Thing fired right up! Well, it works is what ran through my head!
So first thing the manual says to do is to set the date and time. So following the directions, which of course are not translated very well, I hit the enter key. Well, nothing happened. Now I started getting pissed. I'm pressing every button and nothing is happening. So I reset the unit. After going through this three to four times, I then got a bit angry and pressed the button really hard repeatedly. Well now it works! WTF? It turns out that you have to press the buttons kind of hard. Not a big deal, but when you get an audible click, to me that means it should register but it doesn't. So okay I have to press hard.
Next you have to calibrate the pumps which couldn't be easier. You hold the up button until you hear the pump working and you keep the button pressed until you get some fluid coming out of the end of the line. Next you press the down button to clear the mL counter. Once you've done that you then take the 10mL vial they give you and press the up button until it fills to the 10mL line. Done. Then you go on and calibrate the last two pumps.
Third routine you have to program is how much you want to dose. Say you want to dose 100mL of calcium on pump 1 every day. You set the amount, then you set how many times per day you want it to dose. You then do this for the other two pumps.
Fourth routine is setting up the times you want each pump to run. The way I have mine set is to dose calcium 5 times per day when the lights are on. Alk is dosed 10 times per day when the lights are off. Mag is dosed once a day right before the lights go out.
Last step is to turn the unit to auto, then turn dosing on.
Seems pretty easy, although I have to admit to WTF'ing several times lol!
So far I've heard the pump come on doing it's thing and watching my ph climb slowly as it doses alk.
Once I have my dosages dialed in I'll keep it on maintenance dosing to keep the parameters stable. All in all I really like it.
One thing I wish it could do is interface with my apex. I just threw it on outlet 4 and set it to turn off if ph >8.40 I know this is being picky but it would have been nice to control it through the apex rather than their display on the unit.
I think altogether I paid around $170 shipped and it took roughly a week and a half to get it.
Replacement pump heads I believe are 5 bucks each. All in all I have to say that aside from the couple things I mentioned above that bothered me, it seems to be pretty well made and works well. You can set it to dose up to 24 times per day and up to 5000 mL per day.
I would recommend this to anyone who is considering getting into automated dosing. I would have gotten the brs dosers, but just don't have the room for them on my energy bar. Some may not want to dose mag, and that's fine because you can dose whatever else you want with the third pump, or just don't use it and consider it a spare.
One last thing that's pretty cool: you can add another 3 pump unit to this that would act as a slave unit. I'm not sure what anyone would need six dosing pumps for, but it has the capability there if needed.
I'll update this as time goes by. Just wanted to share this with everyone as an option.
Just wanted to let everyone know what I think of the marine color dosing pump.
I ordered it through ebay, but you can order direct from their website http://www.reefshops.com/marine-color-dosing-pump-mcd-3-m.html
Before ordering this I spent about a week reading through threads on every site I could find. Here are some of the things I've found through my research.
The Good: It works well and is $100 less than the BM triple dosing unit, their customer service is top notch, the unit works very well
The Bad: Some people found that the clock gains a little time, some found that one of the pumps didn't work when it arrived, it's made in China
My experience with it is actually pretty good once I figured out how to get it working.
First thing when setting it up that aggravated me was that the tubing fittings weren't pushed on all the way and slipped off. This was quickly remedied by pushing it all the way on for all three pumps. No biggie.
After I ran all my hoses into the various vessels, I then plugged it in. Thing fired right up! Well, it works is what ran through my head!
So first thing the manual says to do is to set the date and time. So following the directions, which of course are not translated very well, I hit the enter key. Well, nothing happened. Now I started getting pissed. I'm pressing every button and nothing is happening. So I reset the unit. After going through this three to four times, I then got a bit angry and pressed the button really hard repeatedly. Well now it works! WTF? It turns out that you have to press the buttons kind of hard. Not a big deal, but when you get an audible click, to me that means it should register but it doesn't. So okay I have to press hard.
Next you have to calibrate the pumps which couldn't be easier. You hold the up button until you hear the pump working and you keep the button pressed until you get some fluid coming out of the end of the line. Next you press the down button to clear the mL counter. Once you've done that you then take the 10mL vial they give you and press the up button until it fills to the 10mL line. Done. Then you go on and calibrate the last two pumps.
Third routine you have to program is how much you want to dose. Say you want to dose 100mL of calcium on pump 1 every day. You set the amount, then you set how many times per day you want it to dose. You then do this for the other two pumps.
Fourth routine is setting up the times you want each pump to run. The way I have mine set is to dose calcium 5 times per day when the lights are on. Alk is dosed 10 times per day when the lights are off. Mag is dosed once a day right before the lights go out.
Last step is to turn the unit to auto, then turn dosing on.
Seems pretty easy, although I have to admit to WTF'ing several times lol!
So far I've heard the pump come on doing it's thing and watching my ph climb slowly as it doses alk.
Once I have my dosages dialed in I'll keep it on maintenance dosing to keep the parameters stable. All in all I really like it.
One thing I wish it could do is interface with my apex. I just threw it on outlet 4 and set it to turn off if ph >8.40 I know this is being picky but it would have been nice to control it through the apex rather than their display on the unit.
I think altogether I paid around $170 shipped and it took roughly a week and a half to get it.
Replacement pump heads I believe are 5 bucks each. All in all I have to say that aside from the couple things I mentioned above that bothered me, it seems to be pretty well made and works well. You can set it to dose up to 24 times per day and up to 5000 mL per day.
I would recommend this to anyone who is considering getting into automated dosing. I would have gotten the brs dosers, but just don't have the room for them on my energy bar. Some may not want to dose mag, and that's fine because you can dose whatever else you want with the third pump, or just don't use it and consider it a spare.
One last thing that's pretty cool: you can add another 3 pump unit to this that would act as a slave unit. I'm not sure what anyone would need six dosing pumps for, but it has the capability there if needed.
I'll update this as time goes by. Just wanted to share this with everyone as an option.
)).
