Automation and controller

[BeanAnimal]

The alkatronic has no pinch valves, maybe you are thinking mastertronic? Everyone I know with an alkatronic loves it.

You may be correct, the mastertronic is likely what I was referring to.

 

[All_talk]

I have to clean my tunze 3155 optical sensor 1-2 times a week due to heavy kalk dosing and thus have to have a separate rodi line plumbed to my tank I can top up with when it craps out when im traveling. Last week I put an extra MP10 I had in the return chamber to hopefully mix the kalk better to prevent precipitation on the optical eye, so far its been working, but my return chamber is a washing machine lol.

I'm looking at the new red sea ato. I really like the titanium conductivity sensors on my reefmat.

Not to go off to far on a tangent, but still automation related...

Speaking of ATOs in general, about a year ago I went to a system based on a dosing pump (Apex DOS in my case). The main control is based on volume, not sump level. The pump output is set based on typical evaporation rate plus a little extra. The primary float switch will shut down the pump when it is tripped, and I still use a secondary float switch above the normal water line (dry and unlikely to fowl) as a redundancy. The big advantage to this setup is that at the pump's fill rate it would take a day or more to create a major shift in salinity and even if both float switches failed it would take many days to cause a flood. Its proven to be VERY consistent and reliable.

I am working to apply this idea of balanced and metered inputs, outputs and controls to my whole theory of reefing. Setup the system for a baseline of steady state and make small inputs for short term variation or long term growth/changes.

 

[Trizz]

I have been in the apex ecosystem for 8 years now. I'm ready to try something different, in watching the kraken from Hydros closely, its going to be my next leap soonish as I feel that Neptune has gone stale on innovation and its just living to suck your pocket dry with incremental equipment updates as the 'new' fancy thing is/has been lame as of late. The A3 apex release is/was a joke imho.

Same here, have the apex and going to sell it with the trident, and going Hydros and the kraken on all my tanks after the move... so the apex system will be up for sale soon...

 

[n2585722]

Same here, have the apex and going to sell it with the trident, and going Hydros and the kraken on all my tanks after the move... so the apex system will be up for sale soon...

I have the Hydros and switched from the Archon to the Hydros. I could not be happier with how it has turned out. The Hydros can do some very complex things once you know how it works. Ask questions if you want to do something with it and are not quite sure how to do it. All controllers have a learning curve to them. I started with the Hydros in early November of 2020. I started with the X4 starter kit. Now I would probably go with the X4 pro pack instead but that was not an option at that time. I start with the Hydros in my build thread here on R2R on page 6 post # 119. I have post on how I did things which include a lot of screenshot with the settings. I have quite a bit automated using the Hydros. Here is a link to page 6 of my build thread https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/canopy-and-stand-build-for-42-gallon-hex-tank.317822/page-6 .

 

[Borat]

My ATO is an 85 litres RO container (placed outside of the house) connected by a 10 metres run of 4mm RO tubing to the sump where there is a float valve.

Gravity is all you need - and there is plenty of it on planet Earth.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I feel that Neptune has gone stale on innovation and its just living to suck your pocket dry with incremental equipment updates as the 'new' fancy thing is/has been lame as of late.

From my perspective - they spend far more time on the "artistic" part and the feel of the ecosystem than they do on quality engineering and design. Like I said the stuff is all oddball and form does not follow function. It feels like they are more concerned about setting themselves apart visually than they are with technology.

 

[Wolf8895]

I bought a Reef Angel many years ago as it was a more polished version of the DIY controller I had built. I use it to run heaters, ATO, and lights. It also shows me pH and temperatures. I have float switches for the ATO and one to shut off the return pump should my overflow clog. I like tinkering with things and I can try almost anything I can think of as long as I can figure out how to code for it.

 

[BeanAnimal]

My ATO is an 85 litres RO container (placed outside of the house) connected by a 10 metres run of 4mm RO tubing to the sump where there is a float valve.

Gravity is all you need - and there is plenty of it on planet Earth.

MY RO is 6 gallons slightly above sump level. and uses a float valve. High level fail-safe in sump prevents RO reservoir from refill. RO Reservoir is filled via latch circuit (2 float switches and a solenoid) there is a float valve fail-safe in the reservoir. So sump level never fluctuates more than a fraction of a mm and reservoir fills and empties as needed.

 

[Borat]

MY RO is 6 gallons slightly above sump level. and uses a float valve. High level fail-safe in sump prevents RO reservoir from refill. RO Reservoir is filled via latch circuit (2 float switches and a solenoid) there is a float valve fail-safe in the reservoir. So sump level never fluctuates more than a fraction of a mm and reservoir fills and empties as needed.

I never felt a need to fiddle with ATO automation - since mine worked flawlessly since I put it on.. As for the risk of flooding - float valves are unlikely to get jammed (by design). They may get clogged up - it's true (never happened to me) but very unlikely to get jammed in open position.

And even if they do - I restrict the flow into sump to be a slow trickle a couple of drops of water a second, so it would take a full day to flood the sump. By then I will know there is a problem as the overflow pipe will start to be noisy.

 

[n2585722]

I never felt a need to fiddle with ATO automation - since mine worked flawlessly since I put it on.. As for the risk of flooding - float valves are unlikely to get jammed (by design). They may get clogged up - it's true (never happened to me) but very unlikely to get jammed in open position.

And even if they do - I restrict the flow into sump to be a slow trickle a couple of drops of water a second, so it would take a full day to flood the sump. By then I will know there is a problem as the overflow pipe will start to be noisy.

It would be hard to implement gravity feed at my tank. There is no room there. I have my DI reservoir and fresh salt water reservoir in my garage which is about 35ft from the tank. I ran the tubing inside PVC conduit up through the attic and inside the wall next to the tank to a wall plate to the tank. Also the AWC I use does a drain and then a refill so the ATO has to be part of the AWC since the water level for ATO has to be in the wet state for the AWC to start the drain process. The ATO is disabled until the AWC sequence is complete once it starts. The fill pump runs until the ATO full sensor is back in the wet state. Also there is no room in my small sumps return chamber for a float valve. The three float switches are about the the room that is left after adding the pump in there. I do use dosing pumps for the three pumps so that helps when you have a small sump chamber. I can see where using gravity feed would be good if you have a way to do that.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I never felt a need to fiddle with ATO automation - since mine worked flawlessly since I put it on.. As for the risk of flooding - float valves are unlikely to get jammed (by design). They may get clogged up - it's true (never happened to me) but very unlikely to get jammed in open position.

And even if they do - I restrict the flow into sump to be a slow trickle a couple of drops of water a second, so it would take a full day to flood the sump. By then I will know there is a problem as the overflow pipe will start to be noisy.

I have had 2 fail. The first were the seat gasket disintegrated the second the nylon washer and nut on the adjustable model swelled and sheared.

 

[ClownSchool]

I run Neptune Apex a3 Pro with DOS, COR and Trident. Apex runs my power and on/off schedules for my heater, Tunze ATO, skimmer, and Jabao powerheads. If you include my AI Hydra 32s app, almost everything but my feeding is automated (though, I have the Neptune AFS too).
These are the first automated systems I’ve ever used, so I don’t have anything to compare them to. But, I can say incorporating them hasn’t come without it’s adjustment period.
The feeder was my last purchase before a trip and plugging it in fried my Trident just before Thanksgiving and customer support was so backed up, it wasn’t resolved until mid-February.
The most recent issue is that my LLS (liquid level sensor) is failing; it reads 3 inches higher than actual and fails recalibration attempts.
I bought the entire system about 8 months ago.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I run Neptune Apex a3 Pro with DOS, COR and Trident. Apex runs my power and on/off schedules for my heater, Tunze ATO, skimmer, and Jabao powerheads. If you include my AI Hydra 32s app, almost everything but my feeding is automated (though, I have the Neptune AFS too).
These are the first automated systems I’ve ever used, so I don’t have anything to compare them to. But, I can say incorporating them hasn’t come without it’s adjustment period.
The feeder was my last purchase before a trip and plugging it in fried my Trident just before Thanksgiving and customer support was so backed up, it wasn’t resolved until mid-February.
The most recent issue is that my LLS (liquid level sensor) is failing; it reads 3 inches higher than actual and fails recalibration attempts.
I bought the entire system about 8 months ago.

Thats automation !

 

[madmarks]

I run dual ReefAngels. I am an Engineer and I like the open source programmability ReefAngel offers.

I had tank failure while I was traveling once upon a time that devastated my tank. I travel for business a lot so redundancy is a must. Now every system is now duplicated over the two controllers, on separate power circuits and in most cases with a manual back ups as well. The cost was more than reasonable as I bought most of the kit was used.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I run dual ReefAngels. I am an Engineer and I like the open source programmability ReefAngel offers.

I had tank failure while I was traveling once upon a time that devastated my tank. I travel for business a lot so redundancy is a must. Now every system is now duplicated over the two controllers, on separate power circuits and in most cases with a manual back ups as well. The cost was more than reasonable as I bought most of the kit was used.

havent seen these around for a while

 

[madmarks]

havent seen these around for a while

They are still there. I can still buy most of the equipment new if I choose. The biggest issue is there has been no new developments. I have programmed most of my own apps to read the units and compile the data to add modern capabilities.

 

[rknapp]

I run an Apex that controls all my lights, pumps, skimmer, Calc Reactor, heaters, etc. Several different ph, temp and salinity probes monitor along with the built in power monitoring. Had some form of Neptune controller going back maybe 20 years.

 

[jmatt]

I like my Apex A3 Pro very much... just struggling with it a lot. The ATK is great.

 

[NickHolmes]

I had a profilux on my previous SPS tank but due to my own stupidity when programming it, it dumped about 2 litres of pure kalkwasser into the tank when the perfect storm of other factors activated that switch on the plugbar to “always on”. Took 12 years before I was ready to start again

 

[OlafsReef]

Have had hydros on my tanks for about 2 years now. Very happy with my decision.