Wanted: refrigerated fluid containers for DOS

[droog]

Hi,

I like the concept and design of the DOS system and have pre-ordered online.

Would like to be able to use the system to dose liquid coral foods that require refrigeration and or agitation before use - for feeding NPS, SPS etc.

Form factor could be similar to the photos Neptune have released of Dual-Dos liquid storage containers with say the bottom 50% given over to electric cooling technology to keep the liquid cool. The container could also be powered to allow for agitation of the liquid for a certain time before dosing occurs. Either a stirrer in the container or maybe pumping air bubbles into the bottom to sir particles into suspension. The combination of small containers with power and programming gives a lot of options!

Put this together and I think you have a product that would be compelling to a large number of reefers. Follow up with comments and +1 if you would consider buying something like this if it existed.

--
Cheers,
Droog

[Whiskey]

Fascinating thought, but I can't help but think about the food trapped in the hoses especially if it goes a few days between doses.

A way to get around that issue might be a loop that keeps the food moving through the hoses when not dosing, then a valve that opens to dose it at a certain time. Like a hot water pump on really large homes to keep warm water near the back of the house.

Whiskey

[droog]

The pump could run until dose delivered and then reverse direction... pump the food back into container.

Would want to dose at least daily...

-droog

[zombie]

A ready made one would be nice, but there isnt enough demand for someone to mass produce them (otherwise, they would already exist). Your best bet is to get a cheap minifridge drill a hole in it, run tubing through the hole, seal it up, and insulate the tubing a little bit.

You might be an engineer if...You have no life and can PROVE it mathematically.

[Whiskey]

Reversing the pump is a good idea too! You could even reverse the pump before dosing to use bubbles to stir it.

You could use one of those Peltier devices attached to the container which would cool it, but when it got too low it might freeze.

Whiskey

[droog]

A ready made one would be nice, but there isnt enough demand for someone to mass produce them (otherwise, they would already exist). Your best bet is to get a cheap minifridge drill a hole in it, run tubing through the hole, seal it up, and insulate the tubing a little bit.

I take your point and have thought of that too. Hobby demand is evolving and becoming more popular. Production costs are coming down so much I think there may be a big enough market for this already.

One could make the same thing about aquarium controllers, kalk stirrers, and liquid containers with optical sensors, yet here we are

I have seen builds on ReefCentral - with a lot of traffic - where hobbyists install mini fridges or "electrically operated wine coolers" for just this purpose. I don't really have room in my sump for a mini-fridge. While I might do the DIY thing at some point in the future it seem a bit much. A product like this, I would buy today.

-droog

[aquamanic]

It always amuses me when people speculate on whether some idea would or would not be a big seller especially when they've done no market research, no focus groups, no surveys - nothing to back up their claim.

That's not to say that developing a product based on gut feel is a bad idea - look at Steve Jobs and the iPhone. But putting up your own money to develop prototypes, develop the software, packaging, documentation, marketing materials, figure out how you'll distribute it, what you'll do with returns... will change your view pretty quickly on what will/won't sell. And you have to have some confidence that you can sell enough units to recoup your development costs, then even more to give you a reasonable rate of return vs. all the other things you could invest your money in.

If I thought it was that good an idea, I'd develop it on my own and sell it as a third party 'Apex Ready' accessory. Why let them make all the money?

[iCephalopod]

I agree it would be great to have off the shelf chilled containers with built-in agitators, especially if it could be fit into a small form factor. I have no idea if it would be feasible given the current chiller technology, but I would imagine that size, heat generation, power consumption, and cost could be potential obstacles.

In regards to a DIY solution, I don't have any first hand experience with this so if anyone does and would like to comment on my post please do. I've looked for solutions as well and the mini fridge seems like the most practical (and most implemented) idea, especially if you want to dose several foods. One user on reef addicts posted an article on his build of a refrigerated automated system that uses a mini fridge. Another potential obstacle is that most foods need to be shaken before use, however the poster of the article mentioned that the Reef Nutrition foods he used remained in suspension and he just gave the bottles a little shake every few days. He said that if it was issue he would look into setting up magnetic stir plates. I read somewhere else, although I can't remember where, that someone had implemented a similar system and wasn't concerned with potential food decay in the tubes because it was flushed through within a couple days. I don't know how comfortable I'd be with that, but I guess it depends on how much you feed and the length of the tube run.

[alb]

Really depends how fast you flush it through, I guess. I once opened a bottle of Mysis Feast that had gone bad, and it resulted in a exploding volcano of stank that still haunts me to this day.

[tdaviau]

It will be interesting to see what outputs Neptune puts on the Dos containers in the works. It may be possible to rig a peltier cooler to them. Better yet, you could set up a system like the refrigerated dosing set up by Michael Lucazyn for his stunning Non-Photosynthetic Reef. Mike’s continuous feeder was inspiredby Steve Weast’s set up, with a bit of insight from Matt Wandell on the venturi.
In this set up, a programmabledosing pump adds specified quantities of perishable reef foods within a smallrefrigerator. They are then dosed and simultaneously sucked into the flow viathe venturi injector. As water flows through the fridge (and the venturiinjector), the food is added directly to the aquarium. Simple, effective, andmuch appreciated by filter feeding animals.
The biggest downside of this type of setup is cost and space.
Dosing.png
From<http://glassbox-design.com/2010/azoo...nuous-feeding/>

[slief]

Get yourself a bottle cooler used for wine and other bottled drinks. This particular cooler is discontinued but can be found on eBay. It will cool to 32* but can be adjusted to various temps including 37*. The cooler works well but the fan is noisy and runs 24/7 even when the chiller isn't on.

That is the route I am going for feeding thawed frozen foods. I'm just working on the programming now. I will pump in reverse flow to mix it up, then forward to feed and then in reverse again to flush food out of the lines and back into the bottle. Here is my thawed frozen food setup coming together. I will start a thread detailing it once I get it all dialed in.



Water bottle with John Guest Bulk Head fitting in the top.


Bottle in cooler.

[droog]

Sleif,

Looks very promising. Did this setup work for you in the end?

-droog