Syringe Pump For Carbon Dosing
Have not been achieving much in the way of progress with the aquarium over the last 2-3 months however been working on getting a 3dprinter assembled/calibrated and the first project planned and underway. Waited ages for the ebay parts for this in terms of stepper motors and small driver boards.
This project is a syringe pump where you can load two x 30ml syringes and via a small stepper motor mounted inside the unit it will dispense (in my case No3Pox) into the tank over a two week period. Granted you can use a peristaltic pump however the fact the alcohol can evaporate off makes a syringe pump a great choice.
Why:
After dosing Redsea No3Pox for the last 6 months my nitrates are very much under control so want to continue with this regime. Although at the moment I am not too consistent on when I dose and will forget quite often. So the plan is to try and get consistency/stability and to also try and dose smaller amounts over the day. this will also allow me to fine tune the dose over the coming months to achieve an optimal amount for both $$ and Nitrate levels.
Design:
What the pic does not show is the threaded shaft, stepper or plunger plate which slowly winds the syringes in. I have printed the first prototype last weekend and all going well will print the final product and complete the first unit. the trouble with being able to design something you are never satisfied always able to tweak some element of the design. I gotta stop and commit a final design.
Control:
In my case it has a small arduino controlling the stepper motor. I did buy a screen and buttons however have now decided to control this direct from my profilux. All I have to do is program the arduino to dispense 1ml every 15 seconds whilst powered, thats about 2 rpm of the motor. That way the profilux can simply power it (12VDC) and within the profilux program you tell it ml per minute of the pump and how much per day to dose (ml) and how many doses to split. So in my case I dose around 3 ~4 mls a day so will split this in 2 doses of 2 mls each. That means the profilux will turn it on twice a day for ~30 seconds
I'll take a pic of the real thing soon however here is the model as it stands now
This project is a syringe pump where you can load two x 30ml syringes and via a small stepper motor mounted inside the unit it will dispense (in my case No3Pox) into the tank over a two week period. Granted you can use a peristaltic pump however the fact the alcohol can evaporate off makes a syringe pump a great choice.
Why:
After dosing Redsea No3Pox for the last 6 months my nitrates are very much under control so want to continue with this regime. Although at the moment I am not too consistent on when I dose and will forget quite often. So the plan is to try and get consistency/stability and to also try and dose smaller amounts over the day. this will also allow me to fine tune the dose over the coming months to achieve an optimal amount for both $$ and Nitrate levels.
Design:
What the pic does not show is the threaded shaft, stepper or plunger plate which slowly winds the syringes in. I have printed the first prototype last weekend and all going well will print the final product and complete the first unit. the trouble with being able to design something you are never satisfied always able to tweak some element of the design. I gotta stop and commit a final design.
Control:
In my case it has a small arduino controlling the stepper motor. I did buy a screen and buttons however have now decided to control this direct from my profilux. All I have to do is program the arduino to dispense 1ml every 15 seconds whilst powered, thats about 2 rpm of the motor. That way the profilux can simply power it (12VDC) and within the profilux program you tell it ml per minute of the pump and how much per day to dose (ml) and how many doses to split. So in my case I dose around 3 ~4 mls a day so will split this in 2 doses of 2 mls each. That means the profilux will turn it on twice a day for ~30 seconds
I'll take a pic of the real thing soon however here is the model as it stands now
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