Hi, I’m Robin.
This video explains how to set up,
prime and calibrate
a dosing head for your ReefDose.
Let’s start with connecting the supplements.
To connect the tubing to the head,
first remove the dosing head
by gently squeezing the top and bottom fasteners,
then, pull it away from the unit.
As you can see,
the inlet and outlet hose barbs
include lock nuts designed for flexible tubing.
The inlet is on the left,
and the outlet is on the right.
Rotate the lock nuts clockwise
to the fully raised position.
Push the flexible tubes on to the hose barbs,
until they touch the lock nuts.
Now rotate the lock-nuts counter-clockwise over the tube,
but be careful not to overtighten.
Once both the inlet and outlet tubes are secured in place,
push the head back onto the unit.
Please note that there is no need to align the drive shaft,
as it automatically engages when the head begins to rotate.
A dosing head cannot be used
until it has been named and calibrated for a specific supplement,
so the next stage is to enter your ReefBeat App,
and name the head according to your supplement.
Once you are done, we will prime the head.
Priming makes sure that the supplement completely fills the tube
from the container to the tip of the outlet tube,
without any air trapped inside.
The head can be primed either from the priming button on the device,
or the “Start/Stop” priming buttons in the App.
Of course,
if the head is already primed, then just press “Next”.
Now that the head is primed, we can calibrate.
However,
there’s a few tips to make sure that this is done accurately:
1) Make sure that the measuring cylinder is clean and dry,
and that you have absorbent paper
available to clean and dry the cylinder between each measurement.
This is very important,
as any drops left inside will affect the accuracy of the reading.
2) When reading the cylinder,
it is vital to make sure that it is perfectly vertical and at eye level.
3) The surface of a liquid inside a measuring cylinder
is flat in the middle, but rises slightly at the sides.
The correct measurement is always at the lower central part
of the surface, and not the sides.
4) The measuring cylinder has graduations every 0.1 ml,
however, they are set far enough apart
so you can estimate the volume to the nearest 0.05 ml,
which is of course half way between the printed graduations.
5) Always hold the tip of the dosing tube at the center of the cylinder,
so that the drops do not stick to the cylinder walls.
ReefDose will perform a calibration dose
with a predetermined number of rotations of the dosing head,
which should give a volume of between 4 and 5 ml.
Once ReefDose has finished its calibration dose,
enter the exact volume into the App,
down to the nearest 0.05 ml.
Now empty and dry the cylinder,
so it’s ready for a confirmation dose.
Then press calibrate.
The result should be between 3.95 and 4.05 ml.
If it is not,
repeat the calibration process again.
Once a head is calibrated,
you can move on to making accurate manual doses
or setting an automated schedule,
all of which is shown in a separate video.
That covers the setup, priming and calibration,
but here are just a few tips before closing:
1) Before onboarding the ReefDose to your ReefBeat account
the physical priming buttons are active
so that you can connect your supplements
and prime the heads in advance.
2) Once ReefDose is on-boarded,
the priming buttons are automatically deactivated
to prevent accidental dosing.
However,
they can be activated through the ReefBeat app whenever required.
And 3) It is important to use quality tubing
that is highly impermeable to air,
such as the Red Sea’s color coded TPE tubing.
Have fun dosing with your ReefDose,
and thanks for watching.