Aquamedic vs Bubble Magnus?

I'm looking to buy a dosing setup for my alk/ca 2part. I'm looking at either the aquamedic 2 head system or the bubble magnus. they cost about the same.

Does anyone have experience with these? Is there anything that would make one particularly better than the other? The BM has a 3rd pump, but I don't know of anything I'd need to use it for..

thanks

doog

 

Tagging along as I'm in the exact same boat right now.

I'm leaning towards the BM as it seems to be a better value and also seems to be reviewed a bit more positively.

 

i know i've seen comments from many here about each of these. just wondering if there may be pro's or cons.

is either very difficult to program?
is tubing difficult to find for replacement or fail quickly for either of these?
is one more prone to back-siphoning that another?

d

 

i dont think you can go wrong with anything bubble magnus makes,,jme personally..

 

So, I gave in and ordered the Bubble Magus yesterday. TB Aquatics (a sponsor here) has an eBay special right now on them: $309 with free shipping, but this also includes the mounting shelf (~$25 value) and the tubing holder (~$12 value). I was going to want those anyways, and would have paid for shipping on them if I ordered elsewhere. So all in all, seemed like a deal to me.

There's also this review of the Bubble Magus on here, and it reads quite well: http://www.3reef.com/forums/filters-pumps-etc/bubble-magus-bm-to1-doser-review-90150.html

 

I have the aquamedic. It's worked flawlessly.

I did add one way valves to make sure the tubes stayed 'primed'.

I did have to replace the pump tube thing once, aquamedic sent me some extras free when I called...

 

I am currently using the Bubble Magus TM-01

Not used the aqua medic, so I cannot directly compare (but the name Aqua Medic certainly gives me confidence it would be a good product)

The Bubble Magus is a good unit IMHO and one of the things that even months later I look at and feel pleased I purchased it

there is one drawback with the Bubble Magus unit and I am not sure if this applies to the Aquamedic

you mix up the RODI and supplement based on your daily demand
you work out how much in mils you then need to add to your tank
(example - I am dosing for 1/4 ppm DKH dissolved into 100 mils of water and need to dose 100 mils per day)
you can decide how many doses it takes to add that 100 mils
you can set it to do 100 mils in 1 dose (not a great idea, just giving it as example)
you can set it to dose 2 x 50 mils
you can set it to dose 3 x 33.3333333333 mils
you can set it to dose 4 x 25 mils
etc etc etc
right up to 24 doses per day of under 5 mils ( but I have never tested this)

what happens is the doser then divides 1 day by the number of doses/ cycles you selected

so you cant decide to dose just Alk at night and Calcium during the day, unless you select 1 cycle only ( if you select 2, with 1st one at 9pm, the next dose would be at 9 am approx as its split the 24 hours in 2 and doses at 12 hourly intervals)

Pump 3 - Mine is vacant at present, my Mag demand seems so low that using to dose Mag seems a bit wasteful to me - I currently dose only 20 - 30ppm of mag per week which is nothing and can be done manually with minimal effort IMO

I am considering using Pump 3 to ATO - I know that I lose up to 1.5 litres per day through evap, so I am considering dosing 1000 ml divided by 12 increments over 24 hours
which at times will keep tank topped up perfectly and at other times will mean I just need to add an additional half litre manually

and with half a teaspoon of mag per litre of water, I could probably achieve ATO and all my needs for Mag dosing on the 1 pump

Steve

 

the timers for the aqua medic have nothing to do with one another. you can set them completely independent.

They work on the idea of intervals. If you wanted to dose 12x a day, you'd have it dose every 2 hours, etc. Since I just dose Alk once at night and Ca once at lunch, I have them both set to every 24 hours.

I don't auto dose Mg bc Mg falls out of solution and needs to be reshaken.

I wouldn't auto dose for an ATO bc, frankly, the best you can do is guess. There is no sensor to engage it.

 

thanks all for the input. i ordered the BM - the first that arrived did not function, but I think it's replacement is here today, so hopefully I'll get it up and running tonight. I'm a little hesitant about the timer system - the documentation didn't look too good...

i do have to give kudos to champion lighting - they had the replacement unit out in the mail minutes after i called them to report the dud!

 

a quick summary for you doog

plug the power in
press the button marked ESC
use the Up button and press until it shows set clock
using the up or down button, adjust the time
example if you set it up at 7pm today you set the clock to 19.00 as its a 24 hour clock
once you have the right time, press enter

fill containers with water/ solutions - I used RODI only for 24 hours so I could monitor it into 2 bottles and ensure it dosed what I set

press esc button again
using up button- toggle to manual control
then enter
should be on pump 1
press enter button and keep finger on button and it will start sending water through the airlines once all the bubbles are out - stop

press esc button
and repeat above for pump 2
when pump 1 shows on display - use up arrow and it moves to pump 2 - hit enter and water travels through airlines on pump 2

press esc

use up down button and get to set programme
hit enter
it shows pumps 1 -3 - hit enter

it then shows pump 1 P1 - hit enter
you need to know how much fluid you want to dose
example if its 200 mils
you set 0200 using the up or down arrow to get to that number (the default is 0000)

hit enter
set number of doses you want that 200 mils delivered between
using up arrow to select between 2 , 4, 6, 8, 12 ( I chose 6)
hit enter

screen goes to start time
again set timer using up or down arrows
so if you want your 1st dose to start at 09.00 am - set that time
if you have selected 6 doses over 24 hours - it automatically doses every 4 hours for you

once time is set hit enter

press escape
repeat process for pump 2 - using the up arrow to get you from pump 1 to pump 2

once you have programmed both pumps and set the fluid QTY and amount of doses

press esc and the clock should be displayed

seems complicated
but its OK once you get used to it

Steve