The new dosing pump Versa by Ecotech Marine uses a long lasting pumping system. Wonderful!

The pump is more than it seems at first glance. In fact, as is Ecotech Marine itself, the Versa is the queen of versatility. If you hold the pump you can get an understanding of its weight and quality. The materials used are designed to last and the pipes are internally covered in silicon, like the ones used in labs, which assures a very little maintenance.

The Ecotech Marine Versa is available in a single version, like the one we have for our article, or in a 4 pumps version. It also exists a “base version” to which you can connect the pumps. Even the system with the template included is very simple: in the back of the pump you can extract a sort of triangle connected to the pump with some screws that come in the package. At that point you insert the pump from above, with no possibility of it moving. A very practical and well done system.

Technical characteristics of the Ecotech Marine Versa dosing pump

The incredible thing is that it can work continuously… dosing 0.5 per minute at minimum!

The video is in Italian, but you can choose subtitles in English.

How is the pump controlled?

The pump is controlled by the mobius system. That is, you create an aquarium on mobius app you add the pump and start to set it. We’ve already used the mobius system with the AquaIllumination Hydra and Radion ceiling lights, also with the Vortech and we like it very much. Easy and intuitive. You can follow the installation step by step as we did in our video. It’s in Italian, but you can add the English subs.

What are the available modes?

The pump can work through different modes. Ecotech Marine suggests using all of them to dose calcium and trace elements, and for water changes.

There are 3 available modes: Automatic, Continuous and Manual.

Automatic: the Versa can program the specific dosage for each additive and solution. This mode uses standard practicals of dosage and usual and well-known changes of the water parameters in a reef aquarium, that are based on the light ciycle and the biological activity. The pump doesn’t determine the dosage volume; it requires tests and set up. Then it will program the dosage based on the salt and the selected additive.

Continuous: the pump sets a dosage speed (volum/min) that’s done when the pump is powered. The continuous mode is always active and is controlled by external devices (controller, timer, floating switch, etc…).

Manual: you can create a program with specific dosage volumes and/or timings. The pump allows you to schedule the dosage at a specific speed or for a specific period of time. You can create up to 30 events of dosage per pump every 24 hours. With the Catch-Up feature you can correct the difference of dosage if the pump is switched off or interrupted during its daily program.

We calibrated and measured with a precision balance

It’s difficult to test a dosometric  pump. We did the only thing we could think of: we took an extremely precise balance, then we calibrated the pump with 30 ml and we chose to dose 30 ml to see how much it would have actually dosed.

The precision of the balance is about +-0.01 g, then the precision is, considering the errors, 1 cent per gram or, in other terms, a one-tenth of a milliliter. In our test we measured 29.95 cl instead of 30, a difference of 5 cents per gram! Considering the lacks in the system, we’re extremely satisfied. You can see the whole test and the calibration sped up in our video.

And the price?

We are amazed by this pump, it’s well done and easy to program. The cost isn’t among the most affordable, seeing that a single sample, like the one in the picture below, costs 175 euro ($187 USD).  The version with 4 costs 700 euro ($750 USD). But the quality, the performance, and the ease of programming are the best you can find on the market.

[Translated by Agnese Poggi]