Autodosing for Dummies

[Betowess]

Originally Posted by Wasserpest

Using Flourish/Flourish Iron solutions I had always growth in my container, pump, and tubing. After a while, the stuff in the tubing would get loose and eventually block the injection hole.

Excel did not help, at least in concentrations that I used.

Dosing full strength Flourish works better for me.

Just curious, did you ever try HCL? Because I've heard it stops mold in CSM+B?

[Martin]

An aquaintance of mine uses a bit of Nitric acid(HNO3) to prevent P & Iron messing with eachother.

[vidiots]

I think reguardless of the form of concentrated Iron in liquid form you use you are probably going to get atleast a yellowish staining of your reservoir or bottle over time, and possibly a buildup of of some sediment overtime in your reservior and plumbing.

I think the only way to completely avoid that would be dry dosing your FE & traces.

Even the bottles of flourish get crusty around the rim eventally.

[calihawker]

I can see this threads been inactive for a while but after reading it several times I'm ready to build my autodosing system and I have an idea that has not been discussed. I have a large tank (300 gallons) and I want to mix enough for at least 4 weeks. My idea is to use a 5 gallon cornelius keg (soda keg we use for brewing) and hook up a regulator with a solenoid controlled by a timer. The advantage of having a completely sealed container is that I can push the liquid out with an inert gas (nitrogen). The question is, when mixing and storing the solution, what effect does oxygen have on the degradation/mold growth and can that be countered by purging the container of oxygen?

I'll be using the keg idea regardless as I have a large tank to dose.

Steve

[Wasserpest]

Looks like you are going to set up a very expensive system, when you can do the same with a cheap pump and a regular 5gal bucket. Unless you have those parts laying around anyway. The pump also mixes up the solution each time it doses.

I can't answer your question wrt the oxygen, but I noticed that when I only mix KNO3, K2SO4 and maybe MgSO4 I can go for 4 weeks without mold growing or strange smells developing.

[calihawker]

The funny thing is, it would be more expensive if I had to buy a couple pumps. I have corny kegs, gas cylinders and regulators up the wazoo from years of brewing.
I did read your posts on leaving out the KH2P04 and I figured worst case I mix them seperate and dose from 2 containers.
I don't recall reading anywhere that the chemicals seperate and require constant mixing. That would be an issue with the setup I'm planning.

Thanks a lot for these awesome threads.

Steve