# My journey into automated dosing of ferts



## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

So I love my planted tank but hate dosing it in the morning before I go to work. 

I ended up purchasing dry ferts from GLA since I have been using seachems line for a while. I mixed them with 1500ml of distilled water and calculated out doses of 10ML (1/3 dose as recommended for low tech).

I bought a Jabeo DP-4 so it has 4 dosing heads, its pretty straight forward on how to set up and use. If you have any questions let me know, took me all of 10 mins to figure out. Just make sure you calibrate it when you first get it. 

My programming is

PUMP1: 1 dose every day of 5ml @7:00 am Excel
PUMP2: 1 dose every 3rd day of 10ml @8:00 am CSM+B 
PUMP3: 1 dose every 3rd day of 10ml @8:05 am KNO3
PUMP4: 1 dose every 3rd day of 10ml @8:10 am KH2PO4











This is my first day with it set up, so I'll try and answer questions and update it as I go, or find issues, etc. I know a few people have looked into it but I haven't found much info on it in the freshwater community.


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## Say Car Ramrod (Oct 9, 2011)

I'm surprised more people don't do this since its pretty popular for dosing 2 part in the reef community.


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

I've seen some pretty complex auto-dosing setups on here, from arduino controlled magic to jerry rigged peristaltic pumps. After googling the price for the Jabeo DP-4, I'm also really surprised people don't go this route more often. Good luck and thanx for sharing.


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## HBdirtbag (Jun 15, 2015)

Look forward to see how this works out for you. Has anyone also tried dosing food for vacation time?


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## chocological (Nov 13, 2012)

That's pretty cheap. Let us know how it goes.


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

will do, seems like everything is going as planned, seems to be dosing accurately and i can sleep through it haha.

total cost is under $90

$73 for the pump, 
$6 for tubing
$6 for hard tubing for dosing containers (glass milk jugs)


This is prob the best thing I've spent money on in a while!




HBdirtbag said:


> Look forward to see how this works out for you. Has anyone also tried dosing food for vacation time?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



Theres a few options for timed feeders for pretty cheap.


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## Timmy!! (Jun 26, 2014)

This is a really sweet idea! I also can't believe more people don't do this, especially on bigger tanks. 

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## Audionut (Apr 24, 2015)

I'm using mine to dose 1-3ml (depending on the solution) every hour. Combined with an automated water changing system, this allows the maintenance of a consistent TDS of the water.

You can also purchase the DP-4S which is the slave unit and will be controlled by the main unit as in the OP.


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

So i was checking on it today and noticed a decent amount of air in the lines, looks like i didnt spend enough time bleeding the lines, so i manually dosed them into their containers until most the air was out.


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

Version 2 of this was released, pretty sure i have version 1 :frown2:. V2 apparently fixes the issue with air in the lines. Fish-Street seems to be the most active jebao retailer and it might be worth it if you are looking for one to pay them the extra money to make sure you get a v2. 

I ran into this thread saying that the pumps internals may be installed incorrectly compared to the other higher end pumps that they copied. 

Marine Magic Dosing Pump - Head Assembly - Reef Central Online Community

I went ahead and tried it and i still get air in the line from it not pinching 100%. So I ordered Check valves to install into the intake of the pump to stop it from happening. Ill get them Friday and try to update you if it fixes the issues.


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## Fiala06 (Mar 17, 2013)

This looks amazing! I know what I'll be using my play money from my next paycheck for!

It will be really nice to have something that will dose my tank right before the lights come on while I'm at work. 

Thanks for the share!


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

Fiala06 said:


> This looks amazing! I know what I'll be using my play money from my next paycheck for!
> 
> It will be really nice to have something that will dose my tank right before the lights come on while I'm at work.
> 
> Thanks for the share!


No problem! 

I installed the check valves tonight and ill keed you updated if they work or not. 

If you have any questions let me know!


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## vilenarios (Jan 28, 2015)

I have a very similar setup. The pumps work very well, but sometimes the tubing gets air in it. I put in check valves in the outputs but it doesn't seem to help that much. It makes it tricky to do daily smaller doses since 1 of the 3 ml may be an air pocket.


Overall, it beats doing it manually for sure!


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

vilenarios said:


> I have a very similar setup. The pumps work very well, but sometimes the tubing gets air in it. I put in check valves in the outputs but it doesn't seem to help that much. It makes it tricky to do daily smaller doses since 1 of the 3 ml may be an air pocket.
> 
> 
> Overall, it beats doing it manually for sure!


i have put mine on the intake, its litterally the first thing that the solution goes through, my check valves are inside the bottles. Ill let you know how it goes.


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## vilenarios (Jan 28, 2015)

Hey Slythy, any luck with your setup? Have you seen less or no air in your auto dosing lines?


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

vilenarios said:


> Hey Slythy, any luck with your setup? Have you seen less or no air in your auto dosing lines?


Still some air in the lines but i dont think i got it all on the initial bleed, i think a lot of it came from the checkvalves them selves working it out, another issue is i only dose 10ml ever other day, so it doesnt move a ton of fluid every day. 

i just rebled the system to account for that air,ill post back soon with progress. 

:wink2:


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## Calestus (Oct 1, 2015)

I have this same setup, couple months in and still love it. 

For my larger tank I'm setting up I think I will go with a higher end pumps though.


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## screamble (Jun 28, 2014)

Definitely getting one of these next few weeks 


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## Fiala06 (Mar 17, 2013)

Just ordered one. Can't wait to give it a shot!


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## ichy (Apr 6, 2015)

This is on my todo list!!


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## Liplant (Oct 7, 2015)

Here's mine been running for a month 
Love it


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## Fiala06 (Mar 17, 2013)

Received mine today. Like you said pretty easy to figure out. 

I do see what you mean about the air. I've "calibrated" it multiple times and the amount it dispenses is never right but its at least consistent.


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

Fiala06 said:


> Received mine today. Like you said pretty easy to figure out.
> 
> I do see what you mean about the air. I've "calibrated" it multiple times and the amount it dispenses is never right but its at least consistent.


Glad i could help!

Enjoy not having to dose your tank by hand! did you get yours from fishstreet? id be interested in knowing if yours gets bubbles or not in line


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## Fiala06 (Mar 17, 2013)

slythy said:


> Glad i could help!
> 
> Enjoy not having to dose your tank by hand! did you get yours from fishstreet? id be interested in knowing if yours gets bubbles or not in line


I got mine off amazon. After playing around with it some more last night, I think I got almost all the air out. 

When I was bleeding the lines, I would hold them straight up so the air could travel easier to get out while holding the manual dosing button.

The only air bubble I can see at this point is a small one at the output connector on the machine. I've tried pinching it etc and it wont go away so I just left it. 

I'll be officially hooking it up this weekend. Right now I just have the lines going to cups of water to make sure everything is working how I want it.


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

Fiala06 said:


> I got mine off amazon. After playing around with it some more last night, I think I got almost all the air out.
> 
> When I was bleeding the lines, I would hold them straight up so the air could travel easier to get out while holding the manual dosing button.
> 
> ...


Mine somehow keeps getting air bubbles but it doses consistently enough for me not to even worry about it. Others in the reef community seem to come to the same conclusion.


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## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

Is the trapped air a recurring problem? I have been using the BRS peristalsic pumps so far but they are expensive. If this one works well it could be good for use with multiple tanks.


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## Audionut (Apr 24, 2015)

Pump number 4 on mine just wont hold it's prime.

From what I've been reading on peristaltic pumps, it seems to be a balance of pressure of the pump on the tube.
To little pressure causing loss of prime, and to much pressure causing premature destruction of the tube.

My other pumps get tiny amounts of air in the lines, but it does not affect functionality. I've got my trace elements on pump 4 atm, so don't mind the loss of prime every now and then, but might get the courage to see if I can increase pump pressure on the line at some stage.


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

Axelrodi202 said:


> Is the trapped air a recurring problem? I have been using the BRS peristalsic pumps so far but they are expensive. If this one works well it could be good for use with multiple tanks.


yea, apparently V2 of it has solved that issue. How i dont know. My pumps have air but its not really affecting how much its dosing. 



Audionut said:


> Pump number 4 on mine just wont hold it's prime.
> 
> From what I've been reading on peristaltic pumps, it seems to be a balance of pressure of the pump on the tube.
> To little pressure causing loss of prime, and to much pressure causing premature destruction of the tube.


im curious how my airs in there too. i get it on the exit of my pumps, i may put zipties on the lines but i doubt it will help.


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## Fiala06 (Mar 17, 2013)

So not sure if I have this setup incorrectly, but it worked for 3 days in a row alternating days on pump 1 and 2. 

The fourth and fifth day it didn't do anything and we shall see what happens today....

I'm trying for every other day on pump 1 and 2. These are my current settings:

pump 1, 1 time every 1 days dosing 10ml.
pump 2, 1 time every 2 days dosing 10ml.


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## myswtsins (Nov 1, 2008)

Almost 2 months of use now. You're review would be that although there is some air in the lines they dose adequately and it's the best thing you've bought in a long time? Or has anything changed?

At this price point I don't expect them to be perfect but boy oh boy would I be happy about not having to dose daily! Or more precisely forget to dose daily. 

Thanks for sharing!


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

myswtsins said:


> Almost 2 months of use now. You're review would be that although there is some air in the lines they dose adequately and it's the best thing you've bought in a long time? Or has anything changed?
> 
> At this price point I don't expect them to be perfect but boy oh boy would I be happy about not having to dose daily! Or more precisely forget to dose daily.
> 
> Thanks for sharing!



I havent had a problem other than the air in the line, it doses everyday before i wake up. It seems to dose the same amount every day. 

Dont regret it at all or "cheaping out" on it.


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## tmccarty (Aug 29, 2010)

Haha, was just talking about this since we keep reef tanks and planted tanks. Any issues with maximum push height on my those Jaebos? (I have their rw4 as a power head on my 72g planted tank)


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

tmccarty said:


> Haha, was just talking about this since we keep reef tanks and planted tanks. Any issues with maximum push height on my those Jaebos? (I have their rw4 as a power head on my 72g planted tank)


I dont know about maximum or what that is, but it sucks it up about 1.5 feet then pushes it up about 3 so total length is about 4.5 feet but i bet it could do a decent amount more, maybe not 10+ but who knows


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## Liplant (Oct 7, 2015)

10 plus my guess


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## alpha1172 (Sep 5, 2005)

ive been using the jebco doser for about a year now, didnt know there was a manufacturing issue . i wonder if they will sell the better motors/pumps .check valves help the air issue but it seems to not stop it completely, Same issue on the marine color unit i have, you could replace the motors with the higher quality ones from bubble magus. I ended up diluting the solution and dosing a bunch more each day, this made the few ml of loss due to air not have such a large impact.


im seriously considering switching to the BS pumps, but i dont see the 10ml per minute one they used to have. only the 1.1ml version, it would be on for over a hour on my setup with that configuration.


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## Fiala06 (Mar 17, 2013)

Ok I still haven't been able to reliably dispense my fets on alternating days. 

Can someone post what settings they have for alternating days?

Thanks


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

Fiala06 said:


> Ok I still haven't been able to reliably dispense my fets on alternating days.
> 
> Can someone post what settings they have for alternating days?
> 
> Thanks


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0rmCrv4ShQ


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## Fiala06 (Mar 17, 2013)

slythy said:


> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0rmCrv4ShQ


Thanks not sure why that one never came up in all the vids I watched! Got it working now :grin2:


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## gmdiaz (Feb 3, 2016)

What a fabulous idea. I definitely want to try this in the future when I know more about plants and dosing. I am still at the reading like mad stage.


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## PortalMasteryRy (Oct 16, 2012)

I love these dosing pumps and own 3 of them. 

Instead of doing alternate dosing, you can dose daily but keep an 8-12 hour gap between the micro and macro or P04. I use all 4 pumps for N03, P04, Micro and Fe(Seachem). My P04 is dosed around midnight and my micros are dosed 1 hour before the lights turn on. I dose a very tiny amount of micros so I prefer it to be dosed right before the lights turn on.

Also to get more accurate with the dosing amount, I suggest you calibrate it based on the amount you want to dose and not do the 100 ml calibration. You simply get a graduate cylinder with the amount of liquid you want to dose and calibrate it until it doses the right volume. Also I calibrate the pump with all the tubing plugged in and even in the right position to make sure the pumps are as accurate as they can be.


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## alpha1172 (Sep 5, 2005)

PortalMasteryRy said:


> I love these dosing pumps and own 3 of them.
> 
> Instead of doing alternate dosing, you can dose daily but keep an 8-12 hour gap between the micro and macro or P04. I use all 4 pumps for N03, P04, Micro and Fe(Seachem). My P04 is dosed around midnight and my micros are dosed 1 hour before the lights turn on. I dose a very tiny amount of micros so I prefer it to be dosed right before the lights turn on.
> 
> Also to get more accurate with the dosing amount, I suggest you calibrate it based on the amount you want to dose and not do the 100 ml calibration. You simply get a graduate cylinder with the amount of liquid you want to dose and calibrate it until it doses the right volume. Also I calibrate the pump with all the tubing plugged in and even in the right position to make sure the pumps are as accurate as they can be.



How does that calibrate it? Wouldn't it be all messed up then. Im guessing its based on the time it takes to dose 100ml. so if you only cal with 25ml , then it would dose only 1/4 of what u program in.


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

Hes calibrating it to a dose, so if you want 10ml he cals for 10 ml then when you dose you have to set it to 100 since your cal for 100ml is actually 10. It probably works out great as long as you dont need to change the dose.


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## PortalMasteryRy (Oct 16, 2012)

I'm sorry my statement was confusing but Slythy is correct. I dose to a certain dose and make sure it doses that amount properly. So if my target dose is 20 ml then I keep calibrating until it perfectly doses 20 ml. 

Based on my observation if you dose lower than the calibrated dose, the dose is slightly lower. So dosing 10 ml from a calibrated dose of 20 ml sometimes yields 9 ml. A higher dose does the complete opposite so if I dose 30 ml then it doses slightly higher.


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

Thought i would update over a year later, still running no issues!


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## Fiala06 (Mar 17, 2013)

slythy said:


> Thought i would update over a year later, still running no issues!


Same here! The only addition I did was add a battery backup so I never lose my settings in case of power loss. We lose power here seems at least a dozen times a year.


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

Fiala06 said:


> Same here! The only addition I did was add a battery backup so I never lose my settings in case of power loss. We lose power here seems at least a dozen times a year.


it keeps its memory! you shouldnt have to worry about it! but mines also on the battery backup with the return pump!


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## diverjoe (Oct 21, 2016)

Thanks for you sharing about your success! I have been delving into this for about 2 mos now and am getting several of the pieces and parts working. I don't want to hijack this thread or cause it to become any kind of this is better than that. But, I do have some questions of the several folks on this thread as we seem to be of like minds. I am wanting to enjoy my tank and let automation take care of the mundane tasks. I am exchanging ~50% of my water weekly by draining 1/7 each day and replacing with RODI. I am then dosing 1/7 of my weekly PPS-pro dosage daily. TDS is ~10uS RODI and am attempting to keep the tank at ~115 uS. My question to you kind folks is which (if any of EI, PPS or other) program do you follow and how much water is being replace daily/weekly? Are you doing anything to drive dosing/water changes off of TDS?

Thanks in advance.


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## Fiala06 (Mar 17, 2013)

slythy said:


> it keeps its memory! you shouldnt have to worry about it! but mines also on the battery backup with the return pump!


Interesting, every time I lost power it would reset. Ohh well battery backup fixed my issue ha


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## slythy (Sep 1, 2015)

diverjoe said:


> Thanks for you sharing about your success! I have been delving into this for about 2 mos now and am getting several of the pieces and parts working. I don't want to hijack this thread or cause it to become any kind of this is better than that. But, I do have some questions of the several folks on this thread as we seem to be of like minds. I am wanting to enjoy my tank and let automation take care of the mundane tasks. I am exchanging ~50% of my water weekly by draining 1/7 each day and replacing with RODI. I am then dosing 1/7 of my weekly PPS-pro dosage daily. TDS is ~10uS RODI and am attempting to keep the tank at ~115 uS. My question to you kind folks is which (if any of EI, PPS or other) program do you follow and how much water is being replace daily/weekly? Are you doing anything to drive dosing/water changes off of TDS?
> 
> Thanks in advance.


when i did EI it was 50% in one change a week. 1/7th of the tank every day is 100% waterchange. while not bad for fish it prob makes your ferts struggle. also you dont get that over abundance by daily water changes. I do pps-pro and i think it recently changed to 50% weekly but i dont even remotely do that. a 100g waterchange in my tank isnt going to happen weekly.


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## diverjoe (Oct 21, 2016)

Slight clarification I am doing 1/7 of the 50% daily so that it adds up to about 50% per week. So it seems we are doing the same thing basically. I am running a 75g


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