GHL walked us through their new dosing unit prototype, the Doser 2, at Interzoo 2014. This doser incorporates a lot of new features that set it apart from all the other dosers on the market today. Starting with a new look, the Doser 2 body uses a mixture of plastic and aluminum. The top has a semi-transparent GHL Logo that is backlit with an LED. The idea of using the LED is to add a quick indicator that all is well or not. If the Doser is glowing blue, then you know all is ok. If it glows red, you’ll be aware that there’s an issue. For example it can indicate that you are out of dosing fluid. There is also an audible alarm to help alert the aquarist.
There is no buttons on the unit to control the Doser 2. Interfacing with the controller is done via Bluetooth, USB, and of course via the ProfiLux Controller. The great thing about Bluetooth is that you can program and even manually dose via your smartphone or tablet. By simply pressing on the pump icon on the screen, the doser will start dosing that numbered doser. And the web interface will let you know how much fluid is left.
There is also a temperature sensor port, allowing you to measure and monitor the temperature with just the dosing unit. Temp values will be reported on their new software and web interface. There is a level port, which allows you to add float switches for auto top-off or even program small daily water changes. If you need more than 4 dosers, you can daisy chain up to 2 slave units making the total number of dosers to 16.
This is a welcome update to their previous dosing pump. We really like the idea of monitoring and controlling the doser from any web enabled device. The additional touches like the LED glow indicator, auto-top off float switches, and water temp monitoring are a nice touch to set it apart from other dosing units. Again, this is just a prototype. No pricing yet, but they hope to make it available in August of this year. Going back to the web interface and software, GHL has done an extensive update in this department. The new software interface is designed to handle all of their major products. From one application, you can control your GHL Mitras, the Dosing System, and the ProfiLux controller. One interface to rule them all. This really simplifies the process of checking on and updating all facets of your reef. The fact that you can also do all of this from a smartphone or tablet seals the deal. They expect to release these software and web updates shortly after Interzoo.
