DIDOSY Stirrex doses, stirs and chills food for the ultimate reef aquarium and baby fish doser

By Jake Adams on Aug 22, 2012

The Stirrex from Digital Dosing Systems (DIDOSY) is a new dosing device for aquariums unlike anything we have seen before. The Stirrex handles automatic dosing, with built in stirring functions to keep particles in suspension and also with cooling built right in so that fresh food can maintain nutritional value over a long period of time. Can you imagine the implications for constant feeding and dosing of live and refrigerated foods for both azoox and photosynthetic corals as well as delicate reef species and marine fish breeding?

stir chil doser

Measuring in at 45cm tall (~18 inches) by 150mm (~6 inches) in diameter, the Stirrex is fully loaded to deliver the right type of nutrition to your fish and corals when you need it and how often you need it. A built in stirring mechanism can be outfitted with different “propellers” for different kinds of particle suspension for the 1.5 liter cooling and stirring chamber of the Stirrex. Think of using a non-destructive propeller paddle so as to not damage live feeds such as rotifers and baby brine shrimp.

stir chil doser

Cooling of the Stirrex chamber is handled independently by one of two options of thermoelectric chilling. The Stirrex can be outfitted with either a single or a twin peltier cooling base for ambient temperature pulldowns of 12C and 18C (21.6F and 32.4F) respectively, the choice of which will be based on the temperature of the room in which you plan to use the Stirrex.

An onboard controller handles all the stirring aspects of the Stirrex from stirring frequency, duration and RPM but an external controller handles dosing frequency and volume. The Stirrex can dose anywhere from 5 to 200ml per 24 hours with up to 12 dosing cycles per day. The dosing pump and tubing has been specifically selected to handle large feeding particle sizes up to 4mm without damaging the foodstuffs.

Physical buttons on the controller/stirring head of the Stirrex allows the user to program all functions as well as to access manual dosing, and to reverse the direction of the doser for cleaning the the peristaltic mechanism or to refill the Stirrex without even having to open it!

At the moment the Stirrex is only available in Europe but the cost of all these sweet suite of features is a paltry 399€ or just about $500. We know that DIDOSY is hard at work to establish distribution in the United States but something tells us that at this price an entrepreneurial aquarium product vendor will import the Stirrex sooner than later.

stir chil doser

mpedersen

If only this had a greater pulldown, as most of our liquid feeds need to be down in the safe 33-40F range. (This seems like, with a 32F pulldown max, in a 72F room it’d be right at the cusp…but you know folks are going to want to put this under a stand or in a room that’s warmer than 72F..so…just needs a bit more umph!)
JakeAdams

I think the pulldown temperature is without any kind of insulating sleeve which I have already discussed with DIDOSY. With a little stryrofoam “condom” you could easily freeze the dosing fluid
XD_1

This is good stuff. The dosing pumps you covered before seemed like just another “me too” product, but I like this a lot. I’ve seen a few tanks where people run hoses out of a minifridge and dose from that, but this could make live dosing as mainstream as calcium reactors.
XD_1

Upvoted for use of the word “condom.”
Mathieu Gagné

This is awesome!
claire fletcher

Awesome. Been waiting for something like this for awhile!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1003011279 Matt Wandell

Pretty slick. For those on a budget, cheap dosing pump + air bubbler + ice pack accomplishes the same thing…
JakeAdams

Yeah, that will work exactly the same ?_?
XD_1

This reminds me of a guy on RC once who wanted to make a “sand chiller.” The idea was that whenever you touch sand it feels cold, so if you fill a bucket with sand and circulate water through a loop inside it would keep his tank cool.

An ice pack on a liter of rotifers will probably work about as well.
Justin Casp

I wonder what will happen to non-live food (e.g., frozen cyclopeeze) that remains in the tube between feeding cycles. I have a somewhat working prototype of this exact device that’s been sitting on the project bench for the past two years. The last revision was working on how to rinse the feeding tube clean without having to introduce yet another pump and associated logic to the system. Any food left in the room temperature portion of the tube will quickly spoil, so aquarium water really does need to flow through the chilled portion of the device. I think the reversible pump is a clever idea, but unless the tube is sterilized often, you’ll introduce potentially nasty bacteria back into the chilled solution when you suck up the new food. The dorm refrigerator designs with the passthrough venturi to suck in chilled food is IMO the best way to go. Maybe for live food this wouldn’t be as big a problem, but to me the real value is being able to deliver frozen food continuously for days/weeks at a time with minimal maintenance. I agree that with a suitable neoprene insulation “condom”, probably even the single peltier chip will be sufficient to freeze the solution. I got a ~30F delta with an 80w chip and only basic insulation. I’m definitely curious to see how this device performs in the real world. Kudos to Didosy for bringing it to market!
gerd

Thanks Justin…You are right ! Its a weak point…we solved it here on the spot:after every dosing event the processor will govern to suck this outside liquid back to container…and hoses to tank should be as short as possible. Do You agree to this modification ? Thanks for ur professional consideration ! reg gerd
http://twitter.com/MLukaczyn mlukaczyn

Good start for commercial supplier to deliver a compact, single source, refrigerated feeding device to the masses. Would like to see 3-4 narrower, removable mixing chambers instead of a large single stationary one and internal temp sensor for the chamber with an audible idiot alarm. Weekly cleaning/maintenance of the system could be a pain if running frozen foods through it (constantly taking the unit offline, physically removing system from your set up and cleaning properly). Willing to try one out & abuse one once they hit US soil.
gerd

to response Your consideration….stirrex is formed by 3 independent units ..container , stirrer head with dosing pump and cooling bottom unit… all can be removed easily for any purpose. Good idea with temp. probe and alarm..we will consider it. Thanks
http://twitter.com/MLukaczyn mlukaczyn

@gerd
Thank you for the information regards to the seperation of the units.
Justin Casp

Gerd, that is a good idea. I think it would certainly help. Some foods are so oily though (mysis, cyclopeeze) that the residue will stick to the tube (especially in the rollers) no matter what, which will still be a breeding ground for bacteria at room temperature. I think making the tubing (including the roller tubing) very quick to replace would be a nice feature. Also if the system is designed to use freshly mixed saltwater to fluidize the food, it could be run well below freezing, which should help prevent spoilage due to tank water intrusion. I had originally planned to use RO/DI water in the food chamber and was thinking of rigging it so the tank’s ATO would flush RO/DI evaporation water through the tubing. This gets complicated with a series of solenoids etc. I wonder if you could design the housing and peri pump location so that the insulation sleeve allows the pump head to be kept near the chamber temperature. That should help alleviate the need to clean the roller tubing as often.
gerd

Hi Justin,
Tha again for ur consideration of all…u hit the point basically > this food dosing device is not so easy in detail…but we had to arrange some compromises, cause production is really time consuming…we hope to launch a basic starter device of this new product.
Ivf U consider, what was done last 10 years to higher up techn. standard for reefkeeping…amazing variety of all this skimmers, pump and reactors and pellets and and and….
But in the ocean almost all species are taking nutrition permanently, or at least timewise …beside ridiculous flake food feeders, what has been invested to solve this tremendous basic condition of reefkeeping….? I mean nothing, only a few crazy guys like U or me ..and others….spent attention to this…here i see the most important aspect of stirrex > we guide public to the requirement, that our tank has to be supplied continuously with food stuff in any form. Let me compare this non-feeding behavior ( special here in Europe, Germany ! OMG my phosphates and NO-3 rising up, my Zeovith will be spoiled …) with a guy, buying a wonderful BMW and then after saving gasoline , place his car in the garage….everyone would consider him stupid, or?
So everyone is talking from nature condition in tanks, but those are not fulfilled with a bubble master skimmer…yeah its not so easy to bring it matching to everybody.
These are my aspects and if u enter deeper, u will detect exactly all this techn. problems, which U were talking about..i know it all, was confessed with Stirrex last 2..3 years. Sometimes i wane give up, cause various know-it-all-better will blame u on net platforms…
But no complains, i look forward . 2nd. generation of stirrex will offer all bits and pops, which are doable….
Nice to talk with U, have a good day and more inspirations….
RG
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1003011279 Matt Wandell

Why the skepticism Jake? You know I have done exactly what I suggested minus the ice pack. Sure, it may not come in a sexy European $500 package “as seen in the wild”, but the results speak for themselves.
http://www.Reefbuilders.com Joost de Vries

I’m pretty sure that icepacks would not keep the food cold for more than a couple hours. Not something that is exactly practical in the long run or when away from the system…
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1003011279 Matt Wandell

If the intention of this device is to keep food inside for several days, then my comment doesn’t apply. Obviously something utilizing ice packs would require daily maintenance. I just don’t know if I would trust a Peltier chiller near a fish tank to keep food below 40 degrees long term. The idea is very slick, I just hope it works as advertised.
Phanboy

Something like this would be perfect if the ATO could be incorporated into it so that it would flush the tubing on a regular basis.
http://twitter.com/MLukaczyn mlukaczyn

Matt, have to agree. With my refrigerated system I have gone through 2 so far. After a year or so the temperature pull down in not as efficient…and starts keeping food in the mid 40′s.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1003011279 Matt Wandell

Ice packs will work very well at keeping preserved rotifers cold for several days. This is how they’re shipped, after all…

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