Dosing Schedule

[Arne]

Well, just before 2017 starts, another suggestion...

8 dosing pumps is already great but only one dosing time to schedule is not sufficient, in my opinion... ;-))
There are situations, for instance raising the PH level, which need much more dosing times to schedule...
For a reef tank, people are scheduling up to 12 times very small amounts to dose so it's steady during the day.

[fietsenrex]

can you assign a dosingpump to a specific rule?
With a wait time to prevent sudden changes or overshoot

[Rob F]

Yeah this has been requested a couple times and I am going to add more. I think if someone has to do that much to change PH they probably need different fish. :) But yeah fietsenrex is right, using a rule you would be able to control a dosing pump so if PH does go out of control it can be brought back as much as needed. I'll need to add some extra fail safes and settings so it reacts how a person wants but that is the goal. It would be the same for any parameter the controller can read.

[fietsenrex]

As failsafe you can set a wait time.
Is it possible to make that adjustable in the rule set-up menu?
Then you won't need multiple dosing times for reaching a pre-set value.

For DSR method I can imagine you want to set up multiple dosing times to control the availability of nutriënts for the corals...

[Arne]

Yeah, you're right Fietsenrex for methods like DSR or Triton, it's better to spread the amount you have to add over more dosings.
Using these methods, you know how much you have to add every day, related to your tank and fish. But it's not a good idea to add it as one dose...

Great you'll add that Rob, thanks!

[Rob F]

Sorry I'm not familiar with DSR or Triton? I'm going to add an adjustable timer for each rule, got a lot done last night, its coming together nicely on the display.

[Arne]

I'm not sure what that means in practice Rob... ;-)
What I mean is dosing much more often but small doses of the same.

[fietsenrex]

think he means a wait timer on the rules related to changing parameters (raising or lowering PH for example)

[Rob F]

Yeah the timer is just for dosing pumps, at least for now. If you set it for 60 minutes the dosing pump used in the rule would run when it should and then not run again for at least 60 minutes. After 60 minutes it would be free to go off again if the parameter was to low.

[Arne]

Yeah Rob, but I want to use it without any parameter because I already know how much to add to the water...
I just want to let the dosing pump run every hour for a certain time.

[Rob F]

I'll put it on the list. :)

[Arne]

This never ending list you mean Rob?... ;-))

[Rob F]

Yeah soon to be a book. :) One day soon a lot will be done as some of it is easy but works been busy lately and I've been working on the custom rules.

[Arne]

Can't you copy parts of the output scheduler Rob. Maybe extend it a little... ;)

[Rob F]

My quick thought is not to use schedules for this. I'll probably make a page for the dosing pumps, here you would be able to tell it how often each dosing pump should run, this option could be turned on/off along with scheduling, so timer and schedules can be used together or only one.

[Dom59]

Hello all,
Could you tell me which dosing pumps you use? The mine are not efficient and I have some difficulties to find the right type of tube.
Rgds.
Dom.

[Rob F]

Hi Dom, I don't dose on my tank so I don't have much experience. I do have the cheap ones from ebay, they are noisy but seem accurate. The standard air tubing for a tank fits in the pump nicely which I like but if the pump sits a few days without running the liquid in the tube slowly drains so obviously the dose isn't accurate anymore. That could be solved by increasing the dose amount as it seems to lose the same amount as it sits. Any 12v pump will work and if its 6v you can use a DC-DC converter inline. Definitely better ones out there but I don't know which ones they are. :)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dosing-Pump-Peri...SwWTRWzBr6

[Arne]

Dom, I also have these cheap Chinese dosing pumps. I don't use them at the moment because I have to put them in a box and I'm waiting for the dosing scheduler to be expanded (joking Rob...;-)). I saw a commercial unit last day and these have the same pumps...

Rob, to prevent the tubes from draining, you have to add a small on-way valve at the end of the tube... ;-)
This is more or less common practice when dosing very small amounts.

[Dom59]

Thanks, I will try when I have the new boards

[niksunen]

Dom, i also use those cheap ebay dosing pumps, and they work just fine. No problems whatsoever. Well not anymore, because Rob fix strange behavior in dosing schedule.

There is picture of my dosing setup.