Question - ReefKeeper Lite Controller / Dosing Pump

[ben]

I recently purchased a reefkeeper lite controller with two dosing pumps. One of the pumps is supposed to be the "master", and the other is the "slave." The master shipped with a 6v power adapter and a bus cable. The slave was just the pump.

I'm new to the ReefKeeper, but from what I can tell, everything is supposed to daisy chain together using the bus cables. I assume this is the case for the pumps too. The problem is, even though I bought a master and slave pump, I only have one bus cable. This means I can only attach one of the pumps to the controller.

So, am I missing something or do I just need an extra bus cable?

 

[fredfish]

you will need another bus cable

 

[ben]

FredFish;1085454 wrote: you will need another bus cable

Thanks! I thought that was the case. I was unsure since they did not ship enough cables to accomplish this. I was able to make a bus cable with some cat5 and rj11 connectors. It's working like a champ now.

 

[fredfish]

Great!..... Are you going to be using the RKL for dosing only? Or will you be adding more modules?

 

[ben]

FredFish;1085529 wrote: Great!..... Are you going to be using the RKL for dosing only? Or will you be adding more modules?

I've got the power bar and I've ordered the lab module to measure Ph and Salinity. I plan on using it to control my heater and power heads, as well as dosing. I'm excited to have all of these tasks automated now, but I'm a little disappointed that the RKL can only be expanded to four modules. I'm kind of wishing I'd sprung for the elite now.

 

[fredfish]

With the RKL being maxed out with 4 modules I felt the same...... And I have been using it for about 8 years now. I use the BRS dosing pumps and they have worked great....... Curious to know how the DA dosing pumps work for you?

 

[ben]

FredFish;1085665 wrote: With the RKL being maxed out with 4 modules I felt the same...... And I have been using it for about 8 years now. I use the BRS dosing pumps and they have worked great....... Curious to know how the DA dosing pumps work for you?

I've only been using them for a couple of days now. That said, I like them. They seem well built and work consistently. Also, you only have to power one of them. The rest daisy chain, and use the power from the master. They also act as modules. This is cool because you don't have to control them with the powerbar. That frees up spots for you to control other things with the powerbar, and just plug the dosing pumps into a regular outlet. The fact that they are modules also is bad in a way (especially with the RKL). With two pumps, a powerbar, and the SL2(Ph, Salinity, Temp), I've maxed out all of the available modules on the RKL.

One more thing that that I think is kind of weird about the pumps, you calibrate them by regulating the voltage supplied to them. This means that you have to set them up with all your tubing attached, and then figure out how much time & voltage translates into ml being dosed. It was easy to do, but I didn't find this info in the instructions anywhere.