"Bolus Flush Dosing Method" - I think I'm finished with manual dosing finally...

[dhof]

I've had Alkalinity + Calcium automatically dosing on a DOS for about 2 years, but I still have been manual dosing the following things daily:

1. Magnesium
2. Trace Elements (Red Sea A, B, C, D)
3. Amino Acids (Red Sea Reef Energy A & B)
4. Iron (Brightwell Ferrion)
5. Phytoplankton (Homegrown Nanno)
6. Nitrate (Sodium Nitrate hand-mixed)

That's 10 things I draw up and manually dose every day (11 if you consider I dose Phyto in AM and PM). All that manual dosing is getting old, and I had some available funds to secure additional DOS units to help automate things a little better....

Also noteworthy: About a year ago, I developed a system for feeding liquid food via a DOS Pump ( https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/o...d-goldpod-vacation-feeder.517037/post-5448159 ), and I still think it is a unique concept. In that system, the liquid food is advanced into the RODI line past a T-connector, and then is flushed (or "Chased") into the tank with RODI, and finally the liquid food is reversed back into refrigeration. This allows the RODI line to the tank to be fresh and clear at all times and ensures the entire bolus dose of liquid food arrives at the tank and isn't stuck rotting in the RO tubing. I've been feeding my tank using this "Bolus Flushing method" for the Liquid food every day for the past year without any issues at all, so the system works really well and is reliable.

NEW DOSING LAYOUT:

1. DOS-1 (tubing goes all the way to the DT in sump)
   1. Tropic Marin All-For-Reef (DIY mixed per thread on this forum). Provides Alk, Cal, Mg, and Trace elements in one solution
   2. Sodium Nitrate
2. DOS-2
   1. Auto-Water-Change - Fresh Water IN
   2. Auto-Water-Change - Dirty Water OUT
3. DOS-3 * (connected in-line with the Bolus Flush and is routed to top of DT)
   1. Brightwell CoralAmino (with stirrer, but I'm not really sure that is absolutely necessary)
   2. Brightwell Ferrion (with stirrer, but I'm not really sure that is absolutely necessary)
4. DOS-4 * (connected in-line with the Bolus Flush and is routed to top of DT)
   1. Refrigerated Liquid Food (currently using ReefNutrition Brine Shrimp)
   2. Refrigerated Phytoplankton (with stirrer, necessary)
5. ATO PMUP to Flush bolus contents from DOS-3 and DOS-4 through a single RO tube to the tank

The key concept here was not to have 10 different RO tubing lines going to my tank producing clutter, and I wanted to do keep clean lines without any parts mixing with each other. All my DOS units are in a separate room, so I didn't want 55mL of phyto or iron settling in a non-refrigerated RO tube most of the time. So, I adapted the programming concepts of the liquid food dosing to accomplish "Bolus Flush Dosing" on DOS-3 and DOS-4 above.

What actually happens on DOS-3 & DOS-4 is:

1. @ 0 seconds, the Liquid Brine Shrimp advance past it's T-connection to the desired volume
2. @ 10 seconds, the Amino supplement advances through it's T-valve to the desired dose volume
3. @ 20 seconds, the Iron advances through it's T-valve to the desired dose volume.
4. @ 30 seconds, the Phytoplankton advances through it's T-valve to the desired dose volume.
5. @ 60 seconds, the PMUP and it's corresponding solenoid allow RODI to push all 4 Bolus doses above through the single RO tube which enters over the screen in my DT
6. @ 75 seconds, the liquid brine up to the T-connection retracts back into it's refrigerated container.
7. @ 89 seconds, the Phytoplankton up to the T-connection retracts back into it's refrigerated container.
8. All 7 of the above are scheduled to happen at the various times of the day. I programmed 8 time-slots and any combination can be dosed at any time-slot and whatever is dosed is flushed as a bolus through the single RO tubing to the DT . For example, I have my phytoplankton spread over all 8 slots throughout 24 hours, but iron and amino are only spread over 2 slots each (because their volume is too low to be spread out 8 times)

Here's a diagram of the design that might make more sense:

It was a very fun project to design and program, so I wanted to share. It certainly beats any method that has dozens of RO tubes going to the tank, or tubes filled with rotting gunk. The Apex programming of all this was pretty challenging, but I have it all nailed down and I'm willing to share the programming if someone is interested.

Happy reefing!