Coral-Shop Channel One is an impressive food-dosing solution

By on Nov 19, 2012

Coral-Shop Channel One 11

The Coral-Shop Channel One may very well be one of the most impressive pieces of equipment we’ve laid our eyes on in a long time. Build out of stunning acrylic and with so many features, handling the Coral-Shop channel one is like dealing with a sate of the art piece of laboratory equipment. Yes, it really it is that impressive. The Channel One as we discussed in the previous post is modular, and can be configured into any configuration that suits your needs.

For the purpose of our review we went with the autofeeding configuration as it packs the most impressive features and since it serves as a  great example just what the Channel One can do. If you instead want to dose chemicals however the Channel One is more than capable of doing that as well however. We’ve yet to install the Coral-Shop Channel One, and this is a hands on rather than a review, but if this thing works as it claimed, we may have a game changer on our hands.

We received the Channel One pre-assembled, but it consist of several different parts that all attach to the main body with plastic screws. Thus if something breaks, or if you want to lets say  change out a dosing pump for a higher flow model it can all be done with ease. The main body consist of the dosing container to which everything else is attached. A stirrer with pump fits right on the top, a dosing pump is attached to the side, and the chiller slides right onto the bottom. Additionally brackets that allow the Coral Shop Channel One to be mounted on either the side of your tank, or in a stand alone configuration with an acrylic base can be easily attached. It is modularity at it’s best.

The Channel One chiller is attached to the underside of the stirring/dosing chamber which contains a stainless steel base for better conductivity. The surface of chiller is in direct contact with the underside of stainless steel base of the reactor, but is mounted on the exterior. Thus heat from the reactor is effectively conducted into the chiller, without actually exposing the chiller to any water. As a result you can expect a much longer lifespan out of your chilling element, without any cooling compromise or wasted energy.

The dosing pump of the Coral Shop Channel One is controlled by the Channel One Controller which allows dosing amounts and dosing frequencies to be adjusted on a 24 hour basis, but more on that in a different post. The stirrer also plugs into the controller, although it appears the stirring cycles cannot be controlled. The chiller plugs directly into the wall. Like we mentioned before, we’ve yet to do some thorough testing with the Chanel One, so we cannot yet speak for it’s overall performance, but both on paper and in person this is one very impressive dosing configuration. Expect a full review of the Coral Shop Channel One soon.

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  • CaliReefer

    For the DIYer I went with the cheaper “coral food only” version… $15 ebay Haier wine bottle chiller + $15 Aqualifter + $5 digital timer.. works great for automating coral food feeding.

    Price for this from their website for the ‘full’ version is $928.17 US dollars.. I think I will stick with the cup and water for my fish food. ;)

  • jedimasterben

    Sounds like a good alternative! Got any pics/info of the setup?

  • http://www.facebook.com/robin.lutchman Robin Lutchman

    Nice, clean and innovative, This is a great addition to the reef hobby…but while I was writing this I noticed CaliReefers reply :0 at $928.17 us……I will definetly wait for prices to drop much much lower or build a DIY.

  • TerenceF

    To me it looks like a lot of ways to fail. Lots of parts in a hand-built, one-off style design. That is why the price is so high.

    For the same $900+ I could easily buy a complete controller like the Apex or ReefKeeper, a quality peristaltic pump, and single bottle wine chiller (If I needed to stir I would simply use a small DC motor attached to the bottle cap that had a long piece of surgical tubing that would be activated ahead of feeding by the controller and whip around inside the bottle). I would have way more configurability options and ease of programming and for just the cost of another pump and chiller could easily double up to feed two different liquids. The bonus is that I would also now have a complete controller system for my tank.

  • CaliReefer

    Sorry, haven’t taken any pics of it, but this is the thread that I learned about that method. http://tinyurl.com/d4d9ppk

  • jedimasterben

    That’s the link I found when I looked something like that up. :)

  • http://www.Reefbuilders.com Joost de Vries

    The problem with the wine cooler is that, because they are not meant to run 24/7 users report them breaking after just a few months of use. There are other DIY solutions, such as a mini fridge with peristaltic pump that pumps food into the return line. But that method comes with it’s own set of problems (humidity & peristaltic pump, along with potential flooding) not to mention you’d need the space and ventilation for a refrigerator under your cabinet.
    I’m sure that there are other cheaper DIY alternatives to the Channel One, but that can be said of any product in the industry.

  • CaliReefer

    True, I just think there is a lot of ‘sticker shock’ with this product. It would take a lot of wine coolers and pumps going bad to come close to the cost of this (which I undertand is much better built to be able to last AND can handle fish food so the DIY idea and this product are barely in the same league).
    Since I have 3 temperature probes on my Reef Angel controller I use one of them on the wine bottle cooler so I get notified on my iPod if it ever gets above 40 degrees, and the LED temperature readout also lets me know it is still working. So far been using the wine bottle cooler non stop for about 18 months and still working, but I was honestly expecting to have to replace it yearly from what I have read about them not lasting. Even if I had to replace the cooler and pump yearly, that is only $30, which is pocket change in this hobby. I spend more than that replacing heaters yearly.

  • http://www.facebook.com/pettit.todd Todd Pettit

    Thank you for sharing that. I like your method.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1003011279 Matt Wandell

    Looks pretty slick. Are we sure that is a stainless and not titanium chilling element? Just like the last unit similar to this one, I would want the body made of thicker acrylic or wrapped in neoprene to insulate the water inside.