Key takeaways if you don’t want to read the long post:
1. Very small footprint
2. Mechanical and electronic redundancy against water accidents
3. Only maintenance is adding salt once a week and pushing a button
Makes this ultra low maintenance!
In preparation for my upcoming build, I decided to tackle getting my AWC in place. I'm looking to go ultra low maintenance and have limited space. The typical AWC two container solution with plumbing, valves, and pumps was not going to work.
My space is limited to a cabinet under my sink and a small 24"x12"x72" behind the door of my bathroom. This eliminates seeing any equipment and making my wife happy.
Another constraint is that no water accidents can happen that would cause any damage.
The tank will be a Red Sea Reefer 525xl which will have roughly 140gal of saltwater (including sump)
To minimize the need for water changes i decided to go with the Triton dosing method which I implemented with the GHL KH Director and a GHL 2.1 Doser. With this, I figure I only need to change out 12% of my water or less per month or about 17gal.
In the end, this is what I came up with for ULM AWC:
1. AquaticLife Twist in compact RO/DI installed under my sink; easily fits and makes cartridges easy to replace.
2. Flow-lok leak detector to provide mechanical shut off to RO/Di in case of leak in cabinet
3. Added an additional 1/4 tube saddle drain for tank waste water
4. Plumbed 2 lines of 1/4 inch tubing from under sink to behind the bathroom door. One to supply RO/DI and the other for waste water. Then plumbed 3 lines of 1/4 inch tubing through my closet to behind my tank. Just a couple of drywall holes with plates...went high up and they really aren't noticeable.
5. Installed 24"x12" Elfa shelving behind the door for equipment.
6. Went with a single 10gal Bashsea ATO container for the RO/DI AND fresh saltwater with a heater and Tunze nanostream 6020 for mixing. It is dead silent!
7. To the Bashsea, I added a vertical mechanical float valve and a RO/DI Flood Guardian - RODI Auto Shut Off Solinoid. The mechanical float valve is the backup incase the electronics fail.
8. Then I automated this by adding GHL float sensors, PowerBar, and a Maxi doser. The Maxi dosers provide precise high-speed metered water exchange and are on a day schedule due to the fact that they aren’t silent…they are not loud either. One Maxi takes water from the Bashsea and adds it to the tank while the other take water out of the tank to the waste.
So here is how it all behaves:
A. The Maxi does small AWC throughout the day
B. When the low water sensor in the Bashsea is triggered, the Maxi is turned off, and the RO/DI Flood Guardian turned on. It takes about 1.5 hours to fill the Bashsea, as only about 8 gal can be filled with the float valve and I leave 2 gal so as not to have to turn off heater and Tunze pump.
C. GHL notifies me when the sensor was triggered
D. At some point, I just add salt to the Bashsea and hit the Maintenance button on my GHL which is basically a two hour delay for turning the Maxi back on. This gives it enough time to properly mix the salt.
So with this setup, I only need to add salt and push a button about once a week.
One caveat is that the GHL is not the easiest to do automation with and took some creative thinking to do this.
1. Very small footprint
2. Mechanical and electronic redundancy against water accidents
3. Only maintenance is adding salt once a week and pushing a button
Makes this ultra low maintenance!
In preparation for my upcoming build, I decided to tackle getting my AWC in place. I'm looking to go ultra low maintenance and have limited space. The typical AWC two container solution with plumbing, valves, and pumps was not going to work.
My space is limited to a cabinet under my sink and a small 24"x12"x72" behind the door of my bathroom. This eliminates seeing any equipment and making my wife happy.
Another constraint is that no water accidents can happen that would cause any damage.
The tank will be a Red Sea Reefer 525xl which will have roughly 140gal of saltwater (including sump)
To minimize the need for water changes i decided to go with the Triton dosing method which I implemented with the GHL KH Director and a GHL 2.1 Doser. With this, I figure I only need to change out 12% of my water or less per month or about 17gal.
In the end, this is what I came up with for ULM AWC:
1. AquaticLife Twist in compact RO/DI installed under my sink; easily fits and makes cartridges easy to replace.
2. Flow-lok leak detector to provide mechanical shut off to RO/Di in case of leak in cabinet
3. Added an additional 1/4 tube saddle drain for tank waste water
4. Plumbed 2 lines of 1/4 inch tubing from under sink to behind the bathroom door. One to supply RO/DI and the other for waste water. Then plumbed 3 lines of 1/4 inch tubing through my closet to behind my tank. Just a couple of drywall holes with plates...went high up and they really aren't noticeable.
5. Installed 24"x12" Elfa shelving behind the door for equipment.
6. Went with a single 10gal Bashsea ATO container for the RO/DI AND fresh saltwater with a heater and Tunze nanostream 6020 for mixing. It is dead silent!
7. To the Bashsea, I added a vertical mechanical float valve and a RO/DI Flood Guardian - RODI Auto Shut Off Solinoid. The mechanical float valve is the backup incase the electronics fail.
8. Then I automated this by adding GHL float sensors, PowerBar, and a Maxi doser. The Maxi dosers provide precise high-speed metered water exchange and are on a day schedule due to the fact that they aren’t silent…they are not loud either. One Maxi takes water from the Bashsea and adds it to the tank while the other take water out of the tank to the waste.
So here is how it all behaves:
A. The Maxi does small AWC throughout the day
B. When the low water sensor in the Bashsea is triggered, the Maxi is turned off, and the RO/DI Flood Guardian turned on. It takes about 1.5 hours to fill the Bashsea, as only about 8 gal can be filled with the float valve and I leave 2 gal so as not to have to turn off heater and Tunze pump.
C. GHL notifies me when the sensor was triggered
D. At some point, I just add salt to the Bashsea and hit the Maintenance button on my GHL which is basically a two hour delay for turning the Maxi back on. This gives it enough time to properly mix the salt.
So with this setup, I only need to add salt and push a button about once a week.
One caveat is that the GHL is not the easiest to do automation with and took some creative thinking to do this.
