Apex conversion to GHL

[Hydrored]

If you're interested in having ATO and AWC I'd highly recommend going with the litermeter 3 (or are they up to LM4?) and the ATO units from Spectrapure. Mine will pump water 40 feet vertically and horizontally without any difficulty. I'd have to say out of all the junk made for this hobby, spectrapure nailed it with their ATO and AWC systems. Significantly better than the competitors.

I'm interested in hearing more about your automated setup as it stands. I'm in the same position looking for aquarium controllers and want to stay away from the Apex system.

Would I place the Litermeter in the garage on a powerbar so the outlet just turns it on with the sensor or is it strong enough to use as the full ato system pulling from the garage?

 

[t5Nitro]

I have a LM3 and extra pump in my basement that pumps water about 20 feet horizontally before going 30ish feet vertically before the tank. I have the native LM3 unit pump working as the push pump to feed new water to the tank. The addon pump (now called G7 dosing pump) I have also in the basement remote from the tank to drain the tank water.

You set the volume on the LM3 how many liters you want changed in a day. I think it can go up to around 26 gallons a day. Then it divides the number of mL from your total volume into 140 cycles per day.

Around every 10 mins you get small water change.

I additionally have their ATO set up. This pump i have up next to the stand beside the tank, but the 1/4 wster lines are running the same distance vertically and then over to the storage tank in the basement.

Not sure you need it connected to a PowerBar unless im missing what you're looking for it to do.

 

[Hydrored]

I have a LM3 and extra pump in my basement that pumps water about 20 feet horizontally before going 30ish feet vertically before the tank. I have the native LM3 unit pump working as the push pump to feed new water to the tank. The addon pump (now called G7 dosing pump) I have also in the basement remote from the tank to drain the tank water.

You set the volume on the LM3 how many liters you want changed in a day. I think it can go up to around 26 gallons a day. Then it divides the number of mL from your total volume into 140 cycles per day.

Around every 10 mins you get small water change.

I additionally have their ATO set up. This pump i have up next to the stand beside the tank, but the 1/4 wster lines are running the same distance vertically and then over to the storage tank in the basement.

Not sure you need it connected to a PowerBar unless im missing what you're looking for it to do.

I was just going to power it off a profilux power bar so when the sensor shows water it needed it turns the outlet and on and powers the litermeter until the profilux shuts it off, this is only for ATO.

 

[t5Nitro]

Got it. If you're looking to use the PowerBar to switch on and off the outlet to be used along with GHL level sensors? Then you'd only need a pump. Im not sure the G7 dosing pump from spectrapure can be used standalone in this way, if it turn on without the litermeter unit. Id definitely email them to ask. They respond within a day by email.

This is the ATO system I use, and I use the quick setup which takes 3 seconds to set and it keeps my sump level within 0.1". I have GHL 2.1 doser. Im all for GHL and will likely go with their full controller when I upgrade the tank, but the ATO will stay spectrapure. Its an amazing device. Can't believe I didn't get it sooner.

SpectraPure - Innovators in Water Technology

SpectraPure, Inc. is an Industry Standard in the Water Purification world. From Drinking Water to Aquarium Systems, you don't just want pure water, you want the PUREST Water! Get it with SpectraPure!

spectrapure.com

 

[vangvace]

I will likely have to create a cable to connect the GHL Expansion box 2 with my P4. I already ordered a 30m Pab cable, but its part of my IOND order, SO, who knows when I will receive it.

Keep in mind you can go to Best Buy, Microcenter, or some hardware stores for a 100 foot premade Ethernet cable.

If you have the tools, you can technically go up to 100m cable runs between GHL devices.

 

[Billldg]

I pulled the trigger on a full GHL setup, what optical mount do I need for ATO?

I am going to get some magnetic mounts made for the photo sensors from Cromag. I like his magnetic mount setup.

 

[Billldg]

Keep in mind you can go to Best Buy, Microcenter, or some hardware stores for a 100 foot premade Ethernet cable.

If you have the tools, you can technically go up to 100m cable runs between GHL devices.

Trust me, Microcenter is my candy wonderland...LOL!!! Every time I go there I end up building a new computer...LOL!!!

I know that I can purchase a cable that will work, BUT, Ironically, I have found that the 30m cable is cheaper when buying it from GHL. I will likely buy a cable from someone else to get it up an running as I hate waiting around to get it connected and show what GHL can do. It will give me 2 points to compare the GHL Conductivity probe and temp probe with the Apex Salinity probe and temp probe.

The salinity probe in my mixing station is the one I am most interested in.

The 17.3 mark, that is where I added the last batch to get the salinity up to 1.025. I tested this with a refractometer that was calibrated. The top of that graph is at 31 ppm. I add salt to 5 gal buckets and mix it several times before adding it to my 100 gal mixing tank. I just cleaned the Apex salinity probe a few weeks ago and I am getting these readings...HMMM!!! I will no place judgement until I add the GHL to the mixing tank and have comparison.

OHHH...and that sudden drop to 0, that was before I added RO/DI water to start the mixing...HMM!!!

 

[Billldg]

I signed an NSA about what will be done to my Trident, not about the customer service and response. The have had my Trident and FMM module that was an issue with the ATK for 2 weeks now with no response. This is ridiculous, Neptune should be better!!!

@Terence

This transaction is slowly causing me to actually have issues with Neptune. I clearly stated that I have never had any major issue with Apex in my Apex to GHL conversion thread...BUT...its things like this that will make me slowly say otherwise.

 

[Operator Wrasse]

I thought this thread died after the merger! I'll be catching up tomorrow

 

[Billldg]

I thought this thread died after the merger! I'll be catching up tomorrow

Curious as to why you say that?

 

[Billldg]

I just picked up a Cat-5e cable, so I will be hooking up my mixing station to the GHL P4 this weekend. The funny thing is that it is cheaper to get the 30m Pab cable from GHL than buying it locally...LOL!!! So let the mixing station, adding salt to a tank, battle begin on the salinity and temp probes.

This is hard on any probe, I don't care who makes it, as you are adding salt to a container and precipitation occurs. I mix the salt in a 5 gal bucket and mix it several times before adding it to my mixing tank. It is still hard on a probe, no matter, whether its a GHL conductivity probe or a Apex salinity probe. Just how hard it effects it will be interesting.

So no matter which probe is better in this instance, I will not be hard on the other.

 

[Operator Wrasse]

Curious as to why you say that?

There was a point where you weren't sure if/how you were going to continue with the comparison. I think it was because something you said was censored on a live stream? I was never able to find out for sure what happened. I never received notifications from R2R that this thread was continued!

 

[Billldg]

There was a point where you weren't sure if/how you were going to continue with the comparison. I think it was because something you said was censored on a live stream? I was never able to find out for sure what happened. I never received notifications from R2R that this thread was continued!

I have every single thing that was censored on the live stream. I hate Facebook, BUT IN THIS CASE, I love Facebook for preserving them and adding them to my profile.

As far as notifications, sometimes, when Rev recodes things on the forum, it can effect other things. It can cause followed links and such to be deleted.

 

[Billldg]

As most GHL users may have seen by now, I am the one that made sure GHL had a sticky thread for videos. When I asked if any new videos were in the making, @Vinny@GHLUSA asked me what GHL users want to see videos on. So please give me some ideas on videos that you would like GHL and @Ditto to make. I will post them on my sticky thread.

 

[Hydrored]

KhD setup like Ditto did for the ION

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

KhD setup like Ditto did for the ION

Setup video like these?

 

[Billldg]

I was able to get to 5% on my KHD reagent before I received a no reagent alarm. I just changed the reagent. If I add a glass tube to the cap part of the reagent I will likely get more out of the Reagent bottle as the soft tubing almost never reaches the bottom on the bottle.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

As most GHL users may have seen by now, I am the one that made sure GHL had a sticky thread for videos. When I asked if any new videos were in the making, @Vinny@GHLUSA asked me what GHL users want to see videos on. So please give me some ideas on videos that you would like GHL and @Ditto to make. I will post them on my sticky thread.

Setting up a heater and chiller so that GHL only shuts them down as a back up, letting the heater and chiller control temperature otherwise....e.g., the chiller chills too much, the heater heats too much, or the chiller heats the tank too much because it's running but not chilling...

There is how to link on setting up a virtual temp probe, but it would be nice to have a video going from A to Z on this commonly needed control feature. It should address things like when the GHL temp probe, heater probe, and chiller probe have slightly different temperature values.

 

[Billldg]

I have my GHL Expansion Box 2 installed and assigned to my P4. I also have the temp probe installed. I am currently floating my calibration fluid in the mixing tank and will install the conductivity probe and calibrate it later. IT was pretty easy to install. Below in the was you assign PAB devices.



Also, how to calibrate the Conductivity probe.

How to calibrate the Conductivity probe

www.aquariumcomputer.com

 

[Billldg]

Now that I have my mixing station attached to my GHL P4, I will start some test, or as I call, the Conductivity/Salinity probe torture test...LOL!!! A probe in a mixing container is hard on any probe, so we have to be reasonable, but I have had issues with the Apex probe in my mixing tank. I will need to calibrate my Conductivity probe on the GHL EB2, as I see it is off, but then the testing will begin as I need to make another 100 gals of saltwater.