ATO/AWC with a Hydros XS Starter kit

RSnodgrass

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@WVNed
Not being having experience with Hydros I'm wondering if part of the steps are lost on me. For instance, what's a combiner? I'm confused how you are using an ATO reservoir (freshwater) in this setup beyond simply telling your ATO to not fill the display tank with freshwater while the AWC is running.

In general this sounds like what I've been unable to do cleanly on an Apex in an automated fashion. Large volume/fast AWC that uses actual pumps and not peristaltic pumps.

Let me know if this sounds like what you did...

I have a saltwater mixing bin, a freshwater bin, and want to add a measuring bin. The measuring bin will have a low and high float switch.

1) Pump 1 moves water from the display to the measuring bin.
2) Pump 2 drains the measuring bin.
3) Pump 3 fills the measuring bin will fill with new saltwater from the mixing bin.
4) Then pump 4 fills the display with new saltwater.
 
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@WVNed
Not being having experience with Hydros I'm wondering if part of the steps are lost on me. For instance, what's a combiner? I'm confused how you are using an ATO reservoir (freshwater) in this setup beyond simply telling your ATO to not fill the display tank with freshwater while the AWC is running.

In general this sounds like what I've been unable to do cleanly on an Apex in an automated fashion. Large volume/fast AWC that uses actual pumps and not peristaltic pumps.

Let me know if this sounds like what you did...

I have a saltwater mixing bin, a freshwater bin, and want to add a measuring bin. The measuring bin will have a low and high float switch.

1) Pump 1 moves water from the display to the measuring bin.
2) Pump 2 drains the measuring bin.
3) Pump 3 fills the measuring bin will fill with new saltwater from the mixing bin.
4) Then pump 4 fills the display with new saltwater.
A combiner in Hydros looks like a device but what is actually is a logical statement used in programming
so it can say if pump 1 is on or if pump to is on then combiner is on.
It can do more than 2 things at a time as well. SO you can make logical statements like if A or B+C is true than combiner is true.

This fake combiner device can be used in the programming of a real device like the ATO to say if the combiner is on keep the ATO pump off

What my combiner statement says is if the drain pump is ON OR the fill pump is ON then the Combiner is ON
The ATO pump has programming on it's page that says if Combiner is on then ATO is off.

Not sure what the purpose of the measuring bin is for. But you could make it work that way.

The issue with the small Hydros is you are limited to 4 inputs and 8 AC outputs (but only 4 come with the kit).
You must use them wisely.
So instead of a measuring bin you could use 2 level sensors in the sump

The top one would be the normal level sensor the ATO uses and the fill level sensor for a water change.
The bottom one would be the drain down to sensor.

You plug the drain pump into a normal electric outlet and measure how much water is pumped to find your desired
water change amount and set the sensor levels.
I simply chose to time the drain time and use that value instead.
I only used one. I use a timer to control the drain pump and one level sensor to stop the AWC fill and sense the normal level for the ATO.
That allowed me to use 3 ports to sense the skimmer drain bucket needs emptied, The ATO reservoir need filled and the water change mixing tank need filled.

The power bar that comes with the kit will control 4 AC devices
I chose
1 ATO pump In RODI reservoir
2 Drain Pump in sump
3 Saltwater pump in mixing tank
4 Skimmer shut off if my bucket is full of skimmate

and my 4 sense ports all have water level sensors.
1 in sump for ATO and AWC fill level
2 in RODI reservoir to tell me it is low
3 in saltwater mixing tank to tell me it is low
4 in skimmer drain bucket to tell me it is full.
 

RSnodgrass

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A combiner in Hydros looks like a device but what is actually is a logical statement used in programming
so it can say if pump 1 is on or if pump to is on then combiner is on.
It can do more than 2 things at a time as well. SO you can make logical statements like if A or B+C is true than combiner is true.

This fake combiner device can be used in the programming of a real device like the ATO to say if the combiner is on keep the ATO pump off

What my combiner statement says is if the drain pump is ON OR the fill pump is ON then the Combiner is ON
The ATO pump has programming on it's page that says if Combiner is on then ATO is off.

Not sure what the purpose of the measuring bin is for. But you could make it work that way.

The issue with the small Hydros is you are limited to 4 inputs and 8 AC outputs (but only 4 come with the kit).
You must use them wisely.
So instead of a measuring bin you could use 2 level sensors in the sump

The top one would be the normal level sensor the ATO uses and the fill level sensor for a water change.
The bottom one would be the drain down to sensor.

You plug the drain pump into a normal electric outlet and measure how much water is pumped to find your desired
water change amount and set the sensor levels.
I simply chose to time the drain time and use that value instead.
I only used one. I use a timer to control the drain pump and one level sensor to stop the AWC fill and sense the normal level for the ATO.
That allowed me to use 3 ports to sense the skimmer drain bucket needs emptied, The ATO reservoir need filled and the water change mixing tank need filled.

The power bar that comes with the kit will control 4 AC devices
I chose
1 ATO pump In RODI reservoir
2 Drain Pump in sump
3 Saltwater pump in mixing tank
4 Skimmer shut off if my bucket is full of skimmate

and my 4 sense ports all have water level sensors.
1 in sump for ATO and AWC fill level
2 in RODI reservoir to tell me it is low
3 in saltwater mixing tank to tell me it is low
4 in skimmer drain bucket to tell me it is full.
The measuring bin is to avoid ever having to time anything. Reliability is based on the switches with perhaps a timing fallback to prevent issues.
 
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The measuring bin is to avoid ever having to time anything. Reliability is based on the switches with perhaps a timing fallback to prevent issues.
You dont need a special bin for that to work.
You just use 2 level sensors in the sump. One for the ATO/AWC fill level and one to tell it where to stop draining for the AWC.
 

kemdds

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I have the Hydros 2 controller and plan to use it as an AWC. At this point being a novice using this device I am having difficulty getting the set-up correct. It would be helpful to post screen shots of your settings for each the ATO, drain, fill, and WC combiner. My needs may be somewhat different, but it would be a helpful starting point. I just now joined R2R.
Post #1.
 

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I have the Hydros 2 controller and plan to use it as an AWC. At this point being a novice using this device I am having difficulty getting the set-up correct. It would be helpful to post screen shots of your settings for each the ATO, drain, fill, and WC combiner. My needs may be somewhat different, but it would be a helpful starting point. I just now joined R2R.
Post #1.
Check out the Hydros form here https://forum.coralvuehydros.com/ . There are discussions on this with screenshots on the forum.
 
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I have the Hydros 2 controller and plan to use it as an AWC. At this point being a novice using this device I am having difficulty getting the set-up correct. It would be helpful to post screen shots of your settings for each the ATO, drain, fill, and WC combiner. My needs may be somewhat different, but it would be a helpful starting point. I just now joined R2R.
Post #1.
HYD1-L.png

HYD2-L.png

HYD3-L.png

HYD4-L.png

HYD5-L.png

HYD6-L.png

HYD7-L.png



And welcome to Reef2Reef
Quote the message to get my attention if you have any questions.
 
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kemdds

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The settings you provided were spot on once I saw what you did. I have had 2 Autoaqua AWC's both which bit the dust in about 1 year ea. No wonder they don't make them any more. Perhaps the new one they are putting out is better but I'm willing to give this method a go rather than chance the Autoaqua again.
 
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The settings you provided were spot on once I saw what you did. I have had 2 Autoaqua AWC's both which bit the dust in about 1 year ea. No wonder they don't make them any more. Perhaps the new one they are putting out is better but I'm willing to give this method a go rather than chance the Autoaqua again.
This hasn't failed once yet.
Glad it worked out for you.
I got lucky. The Maxijet 1200S I am using pump 1 gallon a minute on my system. Makes the timing easy to deal with and adjust.
 

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The power bar that comes with the kit will control 4 AC devices
I chose
1 ATO pump In RODI reservoir
2 Drain Pump in sump
3 Saltwater pump in mixing tank
4 Skimmer shut off if my bucket is full of skimmate
I'm thinking about setting up a Hydros ATO/AWC and found this thread. I haven't bought the controllers yet, still planning. Thank you for posting all of this. One question I have is about the risk of using the wifi bar to control the pumps. Seems like if the pump loses wifi during a water change it could possibly continue running the pump indefinitely......do you know if that is true? Or is there some failsafe built into the system for that situation?
 

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I'm thinking about setting up a Hydros ATO/AWC and found this thread. I haven't bought the controllers yet, still planning. Thank you for posting all of this. One question I have is about the risk of using the wifi bar to control the pumps. Seems like if the pump loses wifi during a water change it could possibly continue running the pump indefinitely......do you know if that is true? Or is there some failsafe built into the system for that situation?
The way the wifi strips work is if they loose communication with the control unit they stay in the state they are in except if there is a power failure. In that case they should power back up in the off position. I use the drive ports for my ATO, AWC and dosing. The rest are on the power strips. There are other options coming but not sure how far off it will be. It can loose internet but not wifi without causing an issue. The ATO, AWC and dosing pumps are on the right side. Three of the pump in the photo are in use and all are powered by the 12v drive ports. The solenoids controlling the RODI in the upper right are aslo powered by drive ports.

A6B08F64-0A39-4D7C-AC43-0FC14CDEAE4A.jpeg
 
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I'm thinking about setting up a Hydros ATO/AWC and found this thread. I haven't bought the controllers yet, still planning. Thank you for posting all of this. One question I have is about the risk of using the wifi bar to control the pumps. Seems like if the pump loses wifi during a water change it could possibly continue running the pump indefinitely......do you know if that is true? Or is there some failsafe built into the system for that situation?
I do not know the answer to that
 

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The way the wifi strips work is if they loose communication with the control unit they stay in the state they are in except if there is a power failure. In that case they should power back up in the off position. I use the drive ports for my ATO, AWC and dosing. The rest are on the power strips. There are other options coming but not sure how far off it will be. It can loose internet but not wifi without causing an issue.
Wow, nice setup you have there! Thanks for the info on the strips. That makes sense. In that case, if I ran any pumps off the strips I would add some sort of failsafes.
 

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Wow, nice setup you have there! Thanks for the info on the strips. That makes sense. In that case, if I ran any pumps off the strips I would add some sort of failsafes.
Thanks, I started with a single Control 4 last November. I have been slowly adding to it since then. I am up to 8 control units now. I was controlling everything with an Archon before getting the Hydros. The first things I transferred to the Hydros was ATO and AWC. I was passing signals back and forth between the Archon and the Hydros with relays. The din rail in lower left of the board was almost full of relays at one time. The only thing still on the Archon is lighting so there is not much need to pass the signals any longer. I still have a couple going to the Archon from the Hydros and one to the Hydros from the Archon, but they are not really needed. I just have not got around to removing them.

If you need AC power there is a device you can control with the drive port that has switched AC outlets. They are working on a wired option for AC control also but like I said I am not sure how far along they are with it. A big issue has been getting enough parts to make enough of the control units they want to introduce. So it has been slow going. Also they are in Slidell La and had hurricane Ida come through so that is sure to slow things down some also.
 

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All interesting stuff, thanks again. Maybe I'll start with the x4 starter kit and hold off on getting a second controller and setting up AWC for a bit....see what else Hydros comes out with down the road.
 

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All interesting stuff, thanks again. Maybe I'll start with the x4 starter kit and hold off on getting a second controller and setting up AWC for a bit....see what else Hydros comes out with down the road.
I took it slow also. Nothing wrong with that. That gives you a chance to make sure what is setup is work as intended before moving on to other things. I was lucky enough to have the other controller so I was able to take my time switching things over. Most of the time had to do with woking in the purchases into my budget though.
 
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