Automated Reefing: How "automated" are you?

[vetteguy53081]

I'm a big fan of my Apex and use it both for convenience of automation as well as safety of my reef and home. Here are some of the things my Apex does for me:

• Detect power outages to shut down non-critical devices to prolong power on my battery backup
• Control dual heaters in my sump, and a heater in my saltwater mixing station
• Control lighting schedules including lunar schedules
• Adjust my Gyre for different flow rates throughout the day and night
• Test Alk, Cal, and Mag and produce graphs over time
• Control 2-part dosing and automatically adjust based on test results
• Monitor water flow rate through my carbon reactor, as well as return pipe
• Turn off my UV sterilizer when water flow goes below 250 gallons/hour
• Shut off the skimmer when the Avast skimmate locker is full and send me an alert
• Clean the skimmer neck every 6 hours with the Avast Swabbie
• Control auto feeder when I'm away from home
• Shut down pumps and send an alert if a leak is detected in my sump cabinet or the carpet below my tank
• Daily automatic water changes
• Remote ATO pump in my garage mixing station feeds water to my tank in the living room
• Alert me when RO/DI tank is low, or too full
• Alert me when saltwater storage tank is too low, and shut down auto water change until full
• Turn on a cooling fan when temps are too high in summer
• All alerts are sent to both email and text message

I explain much of this automation in my series of Apex tutorials:

Articles by SuncrestReef

www.reef2reef.com

What you actually need to do is come to my house and see my tank and before you leave, help me get set up like yours- My ultimate wish list

 

[Dburr1014]

Some what automated.
Auto ato, to purge filter and refill rodi.
Auto water changes, refill the water and shut off water changes until I manually add salt.
Shut off pumps incase of leak.
Lights do sunrise /sunset and recently lunar cycle.
I had a heater stuck off and had to call my wife today to walk her thru dropping in a spare. Need to automate that next.

 

[Karen00]

Is there a particular brand of smart plugs you use? I’ve been trying to find a reputable/solid one to use, and I think they are a great idea for budget friendly convenience. I’d been looking at the Kasa (I think) smart plug on Amazon because it has an app and says it monitors power consumption. It isn’t too much money and I’ve had it in my “cart” for a few weeks, but haven’t pulled the trigger yet. It seems like the only real option, because I haven’t heard any other brands mentioned anywhere!

And unfortunately, my clownfish are just plain mean and have acquired the taste of human flesh lol. Crazy how much two aggressive clowns “scare” me and have made me hate having to do anything on their side of the tank haha.

It was the evil clownfish I was thinking of when I made my eating human flesh comment. I bet you if someone did a poll on injuries suffered in reefing #1 would be being attacked by clowns and #2 would be injuries from dragging corals.

Kasa is the one I bought. I have two smart power bars and I'm looking to pick up a third. I think they sell them with more plugs per power bar as well. The pic below is the power bar. My next mission is to label all of my cables and clean the dust off my baseboards. Haha.

 

[TheDuude]

I voted somewhat.. my tank is mostly automated. Dosing, Apex, ATO, ATO level sensing, and afs.

My next upgrades will be automated RODI production, auto water change, and maybe a filter roller( not sure about this yet as I don't currently run much mechanical )

The holy grail for me would be automated glass cleaning.

 

[evo187]

the only automation i have is ai primes come on and turn off by themselves

 

[WVNed]

I have to feed the fish, mix saltwater, fill dosers, maintain a few reactors, clean the glass and empty the skimmer bucket.
Lights, pumps, water levels, water changes, temp and ozone run themselves but I control them from my chair here.

 

[revhtree]

Thanks for the input so far!

So what could be automated that’s not yet automated?? Glass cleaning is already going with the Robosnail or something like that.

 

[Vnomus]

Everything's automated via reef-pi exept for the filter socks. And working on a 3D printed solution for that now....

 

[BrandonS]

Thanks for the input so far!

So what could be automated that’s not yet automated?? Glass cleaning is already going with the Robosnail or something like that.

If you have enough money everything can be automated. IMO

 

[WVNed]

If the system does everything for you, are you or it the reefer?

 

[BrandonS]

If the system does everything for you are you or it the reefer?

no one knows.

 

[ReefGeezer]

DT & Refugium Lights, ATO, Dosing, Wave Makers, Temperature Control are automated. Each has individual controllers though.

 

[shakacuz]

AI lights/pumps
inkbird + heating
ATO

that’s it!

 

[revhtree]

If the system does everything for you, are you or it the reefer?

The big question is this. If a maintenance company takes care of your tank is that physical or automated?

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Very little automation.
Tunze ATO and a Bayite temp controller.

Lights run on a schedule and that's it.

 

[14 foot reef]

https://www.control4.com/

Control4

Controls the following:
Kessil lighting scheme color and intensity
overflow protection, email text alerts
Low & high sump alerts email & text
RODI water transfers to Salt mixing station
Kalk top off - moved too Apex
Kalk stirrer - moved to Apex
powers off feed pumps and UV in event of overflow or high water in reef email and Text alerts
Skimmer neck wipe motor 7:00 am & 7:00 pm 2 minutes on
Contor4 controls the every 2 month 300 gallon water change.
Control4 controls power outage to engage 30KW whole house generator.



Apex Neptune & Trident controls
AWC
monitor and control alk, calcium and magnesium
Dosing of Kalk reverse light schedule
monitor salinity
monitor ORP
Monitor and control PH, apex will pause Kalk if PH goes above 8.39
Precision marine 6 foot Dual Beckett skimmer control on off pause
monitor skimmer performance through Apex energy bar
Apex Dosing Iodine

 

[WVNed]

The big question is this. If a maintenance company takes care of your tank is that physical or automated?

I guess that would depend on how you pay them. If they just come and bill your card without you ever seeing them I think that is pretty much automated.

(My mind would like one of those little firecrackers we used to call lady fingers going off, one that got a bit damp.
Pffft.)

 

[Jbell370]

So far the below, want to add a Mastertronic for nitrate and phosphate tests and sort out some skimmer programming.

• Battery backup units on MP40's
• Control dual heaters in my sump, and a heater in my saltwater mixing station
• Control lighting schedule with Mobius
• MP40's x5 with Mobius different flow rates throughout the day and night
• Test Alk, Cal, and Mag - Trident
• DOS for ATI Essentials 1 and 2
• Flow meter on media reactor and return lines
• Daily automatic water changes
• Solenoid on RO/DI feeds water to ATO

 

[GuppyHJD]

Only if I win the lottery! Reefing has become the playground for people making above six figures. Retiree's not so much.
Very little - ATO.
Some day when lower priced options become available, I would like to get testing and dosing done.
My house is not setup to allow auto-water change.
My testing costs recently dropped when I stopped using Hanna checkers because I could not source the regents and went back to Salifert.

 

[BrandonS]

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