The Red Sea ReefDose 2 and ReefDose 4 are the long awaited fluid dosing systems from the aquarium hobby’s leading producer of premium glass aquarium setups. In addition to their tanks and additives Red Sea has been diligently filling out their catalog of reef aquarium gear to create a nearly complete ecosystem of aquarium devices which already include the Reefer Skimmer, ReefWave Water Pump, ReefLED multichip aquarium light, and is now practically complete with the release of the ReefDose 2 & 4 dosing pump system.
It’s been over three years since the ReefDose was first revealed at InterZoo 2018 and while it’s taken Red Sea a really long time to bring this dosing pump system to market, it seems that Red Sea has completely nailed a peristaltic dosing pump specifically geared for precise and accurate dosing of chemical aquarium additives. It might come as a surprise to some reefers that the ReefDose is not designed for automatic water changes, it can’t perform auto top off of evaporated water, or anything other than managing reef aquarium chemistry.
While many other dosing pumps have aimed to be the ultimate utility pump to perform a wide range of functions, it’s actually quite refreshing that with the ReefDose Red Sea kept their focus on a building a peristaltic dosing pump fine tuned for metering minute amounts of fluids. This hyper focused approach to additive dosing is apparent not only in the features and functions of the ReefDose but it is also reflected in the accompanying accessories of colored tubing, tubing organizers and line holders that help to streamline the experience of using the Red Sea dosing pump.
在我们安装并编程了一个测试箱中的Reefdose 4之前，我们对Reefdose的构建进行了漫长的探讨，以发现其大多数组件都将其放在高于平均平均水平但其他平淡的组件中。启动的物理启动按钮是一个受欢迎的触摸，内置指示灯LED可用于确定泵的状态，例如电源和无线连接性，深层嵌入后板中的O型圈应防止任何水进入水中，电动机的橡胶座椅有助于减少噪音和振动。
In a landscape where many dosing pumps are built with cookie-cutter off-the-shelf components it’s refreshing to see that Red Sea has created dosing pump heads of their own with special emphasis on accessibility and servicing of the rollers and the tubing by end users. We later learned that the ReefDose may not use costly and hyper precise stepper motors to turn the dosing pump heads, but Red Sea actually recreated their function by designing a new component they call ‘Step-Controlled Heads’ even while using regular DC brushed motors.
虽然我们不完全了解台阶控制的雷夫实际上是如何工作的，但它是这样向我们解释的：”校准头后，固件记录了特定补充剂的每个步骤的音量，然后通过控制相应数量的步骤来控制头部旋转来实现所需的剂量体积。当每日剂量分为多种剂量时，控制器会跟踪每个剂量中给出的实际体积，并进行弥补，以使累积体积保持在0.05ml的精度内。”
You don’t have to completely wrap your head around how the ReefDose accomplishes this feat but from our testing with a digital scale it’s quite clear that the step control heads of the ReefDose 2 and ReefDose 4 are very accurate at dosing a fluid volume above 0.2 milliliters as we witnessed when dosing 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5 ml of freshwater with pinpoint accuracy. We’ve always calibrated all of our dosing pumps with pure freshwater but it had never occurred to us that if you want the最多可以准确的给药，您需要用打算在该频道上使用的特定添加剂来校准。betway必威手机客户端下载
用淡水进行校准可能足以在大多数礁石上足够，但是不同制造商的添加剂或您自己的DIY溶液由干燥的化学粉末制成的浓度会有所不同，从而导致一系列密度和粘度。betway必威手机客户端下载如果大多数剂量泵betway体育客户端官方下载系统是由大多数彼此相同的硬件制成的，那么剩下的真正的不同功能可以增强用户操作给药泵的体验，这是红海雷夫糖真正发光的领域。
我们经常通过智能手机控制应用程序的软件强度以及到达用户界面相关部分所需的步骤数量以及所需的步骤数量。The ReefBeat app has come a long way since it was first released for the ReefWave pumps and it has become much faster to connect, snappier to navigate, and we’re in love with how much information is provided about the dosing schedule even on the landing page.
A lot of dosing pump control apps provide some kind of dosing feedback and logging but we find the ReefBeat’s implementation for the operation of the ReefDose to be one of the most refined with both a graphical representation of daily dosing volumes as well as a log of the weekly dosing regimen. We may have not appreciated when the ReefBeat app sent us a phone notification when the ReefWave or ReefLED lost connectivity but we will surely love it when it reminds us that the dosing container is getting low with a notification right on our phone’s lock screen!
Since we only have one 4-channel ReefDose 4 we haven’t yet tested how the ReefBeat app manages the automatic adjustments of the Red Sea Reef Care Program which bases the additions of their four-part trace elements on how much calcium is added, or how it navigates calcium inputs from other sources such as kalkwasser and calcium reactors. However when we get our hands on a second unit we will be very interested in discovering the synergy between the Red Sea ReefDose and their own line of additives and trace element supplements.
For a company with one of the largest user bases of additives it would be easy to criticize Red Sea for being a relatively late entry to the dosing pump market now that the hobby has its choice of dozens of options from many different manufacturers. But if you’re going to be a newcomer to a mature product category you better make sure you have some strong selling points such as accuracy, ease of use, novel software features, and especially a competitive price. By all these accounts Red Sea’s $229 ReefDose 2 and $349 ReefDose 4 make for a very compelling dosing system which is specifically designed for dosing additives in a reef aquarium setup and should enjoy some added benefits when used with Red Sea’s own line of additives.
