Bubble magus Doser malfunction: a few questions

[dacaptain78]

So one of the pumps on my BM doser turned on today and never turned off. It dumped half a gallon of water into my 180g reef tank. Pretty pissed off right now as I bought this piece of equipment to make my life easier.

My anemones are noticeably upset, but everything else looks fine at the moment. I Am mixing up about 30 gallons of fresh salt water for an emergency water change. Should be ready in a few hours I should have roughly another 25 gallons ready in the morning as well, if needed. Hopefully I will be able to correct the problem quickly without suffering any coral/invertebrate loss.

The doser pump in question has somehow gotten stuck in the "on" position. Powering the doser on and off does not reset the pump. Neither has programming the pump to dose 0 ml.

Has anyone else experienced this problem with the bubble magus doser? Also, has anyone dealt with BM customer service? If so, how was your experience?

 

[kenconnect]

Going to watch this thread i am in the middle of ordering 1 .. Going to hold off on it. To see wat people say about this item ..

 

[Josh]

Half a gallon of what?

 

[ecvernon]

Half a gallon of what?

he says a half gallon of water. I am thinking he meant another supplement such as alk, mag, or calcium. half gallon of water in a 180 gallon tank should not do much harm or change the salinity drastically

 

[Tonyscoots84]

 

[Alex]

Have you tried taking the black piece off the unit. this is the piece that connects to the 1/4" hose piece, maybe taking this piece off will help.

 

[dacaptain78]

Oops. It was half a gallon of calcium

Alex, I haven't tried to take the pump apart yet. Will do so tomorrow, but even if that stopped the pump from running I think I would be wary of using it.

To make matters worse my Sybon refractometer just fell apart. A screw came loose inside the device that held the lens with the salinity readings in place. I took it apart to fix but it is impossible to screw the lens back in place due to space constraints. Just not my night.

Luckily I was able to use the refractometer one last time to check the batch of fresh salt water I whipped up. Made a 30 gallon water change and will do another tomorrow if necessary.

 

[dacaptain78]

Going to watch this thread i am in the middle of ordering 1 .. Going to hold off on it. To see wat people say about this item ..

I did a decent amount of research before buying this doser and it received very good reviews. I read some reports where a pump broke, but never where a pump didn't shut off. Maybe I got a lemon, but wanted to check and see if anyone else had a similar experience with their BM doser.

 

[mbg75]

Got mine used, no issues with it. Took the heads apart to check them before using it.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[jerl77]

Let me see was it pump number 2?

 

[dacaptain78]

Let me see was it pump number 2?

Yes pump no. 2 is the one at issue.

 

[jerl77]

I know it did the same thing to me only pump 2 and my buddy it did the same thing to him too on pump 2 I just don't use pump number 2 anymore

 

[Alex]

jeremy, what did you do when you took it apart?

shaun, maybe you can only use cal and alk on the other to pumps and manually dose mag. In the meantime give them a call and see if they will fix it or give you some suggestions on fixing it yourself.

 

[Alex]

Hey shaun if you need at refractometer for today let me know

 

[dacaptain78]

I know it did the same thing to me only pump 2 and my buddy it did the same thing to him too on pump 2 I just don't use pump number 2 anymore

Damn. Well thanks for letting me know. So I guess you have not had any problems with pumps 1 and 3. Did you contact BM for a repair?

 

[dacaptain78]

jeremy, what did you do when you took it apart?

shaun, maybe you can only use cal and alk on the other to pumps and manually dose mag. In the meantime give them a call and see if they will fix it or give you some suggestions on fixing it yourself.

Thanks Alex, i may have to swing by later to borrow your refractometer if i have time. I am going to call BM on Monday.

Back to manual dosing after I get my levels back in order. Too nervous to trust this doser right now. I Checked the calcium with a salifert test kit this morning and it was still above the maximum reading.

I have another 40 gallons of fresh salt water mixing now. I will do another large water change later this afternoon. Hopefully it will put a dent in the calcium level.

 

[jerl77]

I did. Nothing I just don't use that pump on the doser lol

jeremy, what did you do when you took it apart?

shaun, maybe you can only use cal and alk on the other to pumps and manually dose mag. In the meantime give them a call and see if they will fix it or give you some suggestions on fixing it yourself.

 

[jerl77]

No problems with pump 1 or 3 so that's what I use QUOTE=dacaptain78;1113429]Damn. Well thanks for letting me know. So I guess you have not had any problems with pumps 1 and 3. Did you contact BM for a repair?[/QUOTE]

 

[dacaptain78]

I have only been running pumps 1 & 2 since weekly manual dosing of Magnesium has been sufficient. No problem with pump 1 so far. I have not contacted the company yet but plan to do so on Monday. I will let you know what they say.

 

[NYreefNoob]

check your programming, mine has been running over a year flawless and i recently checked the dosage amount to make sure it was still on point which it is