Doser fail safety?

[Battlecorals]

Well now that I have joined the world of dosing, and have heard the story too many times about dosers doing things they aren’t supposed to.

Wondering what are some common fail safe tricks.

I’ve dreamt up some ridiculous gizmos with float sensors and stuff and redundant shut downs. Not really sure it would work.
More stuff to go wrong lol.


Currently using the DOS and hydros but am slowly moving over to full hydros

I think these systems are a bit safer than a simple on off outlet set up. But I’m still nervous about it.

 

[Gtinnel]

Pretty basic and obvious but make sure to setup the dosing container lower than the dosing line output so that when the rollers in the head wear out it can’t cause a siphon and dump the entire dosing container into the tank.

 

[Gtinnel]

I also set up a few of my less frequently dosed chemicals so that the pump is on a wifi controlled outlet so that it only turns on for the few minutes that the doser is scheduled to dose. Setting up solenoids to only open when the pump is scheduled to run shouldn’t be hard with a controller either though.

 

[Tamberav]

Smaller volume containers means less total that can dump in if it gets stuck on.

 

[ryshark]

.

 

[klc]

Use a Litermeter, they'll work reliably for 20+ years.

 

[Reefing102]

At least for the dos, make sure your dosing containers can’t get pushed between the dosing heads so that they are constantly pressing the manual dos button (ask me how I figured that one out ).

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I personally am in the fail safe as much as possible camp. I rely on optical sensors in all my dosing containers (only where they are submerged 99% of the time as haze or buildup can be an issue when left to dry out) as a low-ish level alert to refill the container. By low-ish, I mean an alert several days before it could possibly run out as to give me ample time. Depending on what’s being dosed I set alarms to kill power to the doser upon over dose (of course not everything will affect typically monitored values and can’t be used in this manner, but power monitoring history works for those). For this reason I don’t use the 1-link option on dos units. I use a power supply plugged into an energy bar and aquabus. Some things (like kamoer dosers) that aren’t plugged into an energy bar I use kasa energy monitoring smart plugs. Those have saved my bacon a few times. I can’t see to read and rely on screen readers that audibly read out the apps to me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve either accidentally and unknowingly hit “stop” or the slider that adjusts the dose rate to min/max while swiping through the app using the screen reader when making dosing adjustments. An hour later, I’ll get an alert that power consumption is out of whack and I can check things out. I haven’t used hydros so don’t know how their data/power is split (combined like 1-link), or if they can be power monitored without using an energy bar type setup.

 

[Battlecorals]

I also set up a few of my less frequently dosed chemicals so that the pump is on a wifi controlled outlet so that it only turns on for the few minutes that the doser is scheduled to dose. Setting up solenoids to only open when the pump is scheduled to run shouldn’t be hard with a controller either though.

I like the way you think!

 

[piranhaman00]

my moto is that the volume in the container must be able to be “safely” be dumped into the tank. Lots of refilling, not much worrying. Also redundant pH meters for Alkz

 

[FishyJoe91]

you can set limits via ph, salinity, orp, etc. and run the pump powered off a relay controlled outlet on your controller. I believe some of the auto testers will terminate dosing if they get an out of range reading given the correct settings.
You can also set alarms for conditions that aren’t met so you’re immediately notified if something is wrong.

 

[Jasonak]

I do not have my DOS setup to dos per ALK CAL readings from my trident. I have it set to add X many mils each day, its set to shut off if my ph exceeds 8.6 I have to adjust it couple times a week to keep in parameters. I just dont trust my trident fully.

 

[Jasonak]

Smaller volume containers means less total that can dump in if it gets stuck on.

Good idea, I like this!

 

[FishyJoe91]

I do not have my DOS setup to dos per ALK CAL readings from my trident. I have it set to add X many mils each day, it’s set to shut off if my ph exceeds 8.6 I have to adjust it couple times a week to keep in parameters. I just dont trust my trident fully.

I wouldn’t let it dose too many inconsistencies. That being said it’s nice to use as a permissive to dose or to at least alarm. I would absolutely keep a Hanna checker on hand to double check any readings.

 

[Gtinnel]

I wouldn’t let it dose too many inconsistencies. That being said it’s nice to use as a permissive to dose or to at least alarm. I would absolutely keep a Hanna checker on hand to double check any readings.

I also do controlled dosing with my trident and when setup you set limits that only allow it to dose a certain percentage above and below the dosage that you initially set. You also set a limit where it will ignore the tridents reading and go back to the default dosage, so it won’t dose based upon an obviously wrong reading.

Controlled dosing is the best part of the Apex IMO

 

[Cali Reef Life]

Running rodi through the lines after refilling the supplement. Make sure to not let the rodi go into the tank. Good Preventive maintenance.
Also mine can be recalibrate and test it by measuring it out how much it doses. Haven't had to recalibrate it yet.

 

[SaltyArms]

With the DOS you can set rules in the advanced set up that watches for ph changes, or even power usage that would stop it from running after certain periods.

I primarily run Red Sea dosers and they’ve been good for intermittent dosing across a day.

I ran a DOS for a while to run kalk at night and limited the total amount with the schedule and then in the advanced rules had ph limitations on it to avoid over dosing.