fertiliser dosing pump for aquarium

In heavily planted aquarium with high light and CO2 addition, on almost daily basis I have to add liquid fertilisers.
Problem appears when I'm going on holiday (or want to sleep bit longer and there's no time in the morning to put some fertiliser before work ;-) ).
The off-shelf solutions are quite expensive, so I've decided to give a go peristaltic pump.
The choice I've made because peristaltic pump is probably the most accurate way for dosing liquids.

Step 1 Parts and tools

I've bought used peristaltic pump from ebay. Its actually pump itself, gearbox 1:150 and DC electric 12V motor.
I also purchased electronic timer with the weekly schedule exact to 1 minute.
Airline enough to reach aquarium, and another small piece from pump to bottle
Rest of the bits and pieces I found at work/home:
There was 12V power supply from dead old netgear ethernet hub, and small pads/skid protectors again from the old hub
Small piece of aluminium angle bar
Piece of 5 mm plastic ~8x13cm
Pentium 4 air duct from ATX case ;-)
Bottle which fit inside air duct
Screws, nuts and washers

Comments

[fegundez1]

nice setup, I see more people are realizing that the cannister filters sold for home water filtration (the ones that look like mini pool filters) work better and are cheaper than the massively priced ones that the pet shops sell. How do you make the fertalizer? I must have missed something here but its been a long night

[thewhite]

Hi thanks for comment. Actually I have "massively-priced" canister filter Tetra EX600. The inline filter enclosure is only for heater and CO2 mixing. The fertiliser is made from acid salts Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Sulphate, Magnesium Sulphate, etc. see webpage http://theplantedtank.co.uk/PMDD.htm.<br />