Automation: What do you have automated!
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Karen00
2500 Club Member
I voted 25% but I'm thinking it might be closer to 50%. I have automated the lights (prime), pumps/powerheads and ato. For my tank the only other things I could automate would be feeding, water changes, testing and temperature (this would be easy with an inkbird). Can cleaning be automated? ;-) Edit: I don't need to dose yet but that might be a future automation as well. Maybe I'm at 40%. 
AFR dosing, fuge lights, Inkbird heater controller and an Eheim pellet feeder 2x/day. That's it. Some things are too easy to automate and make life easier but I try to avoid it as much as is possible in this hobby. I have a masters in cybersecurity lol. I sure could automate an awful lot but it's my opinion that this is not the way.
I have been bitten hard by the automation bug. I have every Neptune Apex option available. I love it all. When problems pop up I use Neptune support Staff and I use one other source for tech support that gives me a quicker response. The only thing I can think of that I have not automated yet and that is a fleece roller mat. Thinking hard about the Red Sea 1200 roller mat but I have to get a bigger sump1st. Currently running a Trigger 44 gallon sump and it's not big enough.
tc760
Active Member
I have an auto water change setup to do 1.8 gallons a day, I have a solenoid connected to my RODI and a float valve in my reservoir to auto fill it. It's set to turn on the solenoid for 3 hours which let's in about 7 gallons in to my 10 gallon reservoir. I have a trident but have come to the conclusion it's only loosely accurate and once the B and C reagents get below 30% the accuracy goes way down. It's paid for so I use it a a rough guage but manually test anything before changing or dosing. I have 2 part running but just switched to calcium reactor so apex is monitoring PH. I have a auto pellet feeder but it's just on a timer. I have float switches in a few.places to alert me of low water. Lots of alarms and reminders.
hello just want an idea i see where they sell dosers pumps around 90 dollars just want to know it has 4 wholes for different items whether is alk mg ca and on and on for what you want to use i know i need tubing and bottles for the dosser i have the chems need some help on this the price is for a new one and yes how hard to hook up
I am just setting up my 210 gallon reef tank, with plenty of previous experience in Reef Tanks....I intent to automate everything and as far as I can see Apex can do everything that's required. Already have the Cor 20 pump and ATO kit...all in good time.
Bipolarbear
Active Member
- Joined
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Apex Neptune system with:
Automated water changes
Sensors in both my 50 gal saltwater mixing station and 50 gal DI water to trigger my RODI to refill them
Sensors in my 5 gal alk and cal buckets to notify me if they are empty
Avast Marine swabbie with a drain in the skimmer to outside
Trident controlled dosing
Smart outlets connected to Google Assistant to trigger lighting, powerheads and a connection to my Apex to trigger feed mode by saying "OK Google, feed the fish"
And the standard controls on the heater, chiller, lighting, UV, Kalk stirrer, ato
An average week of maintenance for me involves just cleaning the glass and swapping out the filter socks.
Automated water changes
Sensors in both my 50 gal saltwater mixing station and 50 gal DI water to trigger my RODI to refill them
Sensors in my 5 gal alk and cal buckets to notify me if they are empty
Avast Marine swabbie with a drain in the skimmer to outside
Trident controlled dosing
Smart outlets connected to Google Assistant to trigger lighting, powerheads and a connection to my Apex to trigger feed mode by saying "OK Google, feed the fish"
And the standard controls on the heater, chiller, lighting, UV, Kalk stirrer, ato
An average week of maintenance for me involves just cleaning the glass and swapping out the filter socks.
Treefer32
Valuable Member
I believe in a hybrid manual / automation approach:
1. Auto Roller mat for water clarity
2. apex classic - redundancy for temperature, controls a doser, monitors PH and temp.
3. Bubble Magus 3 pump doser: All for reef, baked baking soda / RODI for alk supplementation, calcium chloride dosing, and Vodka Dosing via BRS dosing pump / apex.
4. AI light automation for ramp up down / schedules.
5. T5 Aquatic life fixture tied to Apex Classic for light automation
6. Hydros Wave Engine to automate my 4 gyres and eliminate 3 power bricks!
7. Genesys Renew monitoring system for my RODI bin and sump monitoring- auto refills my 75 gallon freshwater bin when it's empty and auto monitors my sump with multiple fail safe float switches and timer to not over fill sump if float switches fail.
8. Plumbed my sump and water change station so that I can quickly do a 20-30 gallon water change by flipping a valve on my return manifold and pump my sump water into a floor drain, then flip my water change station pump to pump water from the salt water bin to the sump. I could do small water changes daily of 20-30 gallons in under 5-10 minutes if I wanted to.
9. I manually feed frozen and nori on an algae clip. I am in line for a preorder of an auto frozen feeder when it gets mainstream! I'm hoping in the next 6 months!
10. I manually test alk, nitrate, and phosphate. I don't see the point in automating calcium testing and alk testing is only as good as the reagent so, doing the alk testing every few days is fine with me.
11. I manually perform salinity testing with Calibrated refrac.
12. What do I wish I could automate - Something that reliably would clean the wet side of all four sides of my glass. The tank is in wall and the two ends I can't get to very easily. I need a goo automatic glass cleaner robot that would move across corners and do all the sides and back glass navigating around all the plumbing.
1. Auto Roller mat for water clarity
2. apex classic - redundancy for temperature, controls a doser, monitors PH and temp.
3. Bubble Magus 3 pump doser: All for reef, baked baking soda / RODI for alk supplementation, calcium chloride dosing, and Vodka Dosing via BRS dosing pump / apex.
4. AI light automation for ramp up down / schedules.
5. T5 Aquatic life fixture tied to Apex Classic for light automation
6. Hydros Wave Engine to automate my 4 gyres and eliminate 3 power bricks!
7. Genesys Renew monitoring system for my RODI bin and sump monitoring- auto refills my 75 gallon freshwater bin when it's empty and auto monitors my sump with multiple fail safe float switches and timer to not over fill sump if float switches fail.
8. Plumbed my sump and water change station so that I can quickly do a 20-30 gallon water change by flipping a valve on my return manifold and pump my sump water into a floor drain, then flip my water change station pump to pump water from the salt water bin to the sump. I could do small water changes daily of 20-30 gallons in under 5-10 minutes if I wanted to.
9. I manually feed frozen and nori on an algae clip. I am in line for a preorder of an auto frozen feeder when it gets mainstream! I'm hoping in the next 6 months!
10. I manually test alk, nitrate, and phosphate. I don't see the point in automating calcium testing and alk testing is only as good as the reagent so, doing the alk testing every few days is fine with me.
11. I manually perform salinity testing with Calibrated refrac.
12. What do I wish I could automate - Something that reliably would clean the wet side of all four sides of my glass. The tank is in wall and the two ends I can't get to very easily. I need a goo automatic glass cleaner robot that would move across corners and do all the sides and back glass navigating around all the plumbing.
o2manyfish
Valuable Member
My system is bigger than most people so I have some automation outside the norm -
1) Sump level sensor - I built a bar with 6 optical floats sensors. My sump is 340g and this lets me know the water level in the sump to within 50g. If the topoff fails to run or runs to long not only are there double checks but there are alerts.
2) Topoff Double check - My topoff system is capable of 4000k gallons a day. So it's important that it doesn't run too long. When the topoff turns off it shuts off the flow not only to the RO System but also the water leaving the RO system.
3) Kalkwasser Bypass - My system consists of almost 1000g of the system which is outdoors and driven by sunlight. On a hot sunny day the system can evaporate as much as 75g a day. Almost all water replenished is kalkwasser. In the event the pH of the system is greater than 8.4 the Kalkwasser reactor is bypassed and the topoff goes directly into the sump.
4) Temperature control - Heating is controlled by a pair of Ranco controllers each of which controls a 220v 3500w heater. In the event either of these fails there is a back up that shuts down the Ranco controller. For cooling I use evaporative cooling. There are 5 fans over the tops of the tanks. However, in the 20 years I have been keeping tanks outside the summers keep getting hotter and hotter for longer and longer periods. So 2 years ago we installed an electric shade for the outdoor frag tanks. In the event the temperature gets to 102 deg the sunshade extends over the frag tanks to provide extra shade. There is a double check so that if it's too windy the shade doesn't open.
5) RO/DI Checks - Making 75gpd of top off water requires a bigger than normal RO system. We don't want it running all day long and sometimes we contemplate doing a water change. I built a TDS monitor. It monitors the TDS going into the RO system, the TDS after the filters and the TDS after the DI. Whenever the output TDS is greater than 3 for more than 5 minutes an alarm goes off alerting me it's time to change the filters/DI.
6) Redundant Pumps - I run dual Abyzz A200 pumps - In the event either pump fails I can remotely activate a 2" motorized ball valve that allows either pump to take over the flow for the entire system. I was able to adjust the flow rate of the pumps remotely using the Apex and Abyzz controller but found it too unstable to rely on regularly and have since disabled it.
Dave B
1) Sump level sensor - I built a bar with 6 optical floats sensors. My sump is 340g and this lets me know the water level in the sump to within 50g. If the topoff fails to run or runs to long not only are there double checks but there are alerts.
2) Topoff Double check - My topoff system is capable of 4000k gallons a day. So it's important that it doesn't run too long. When the topoff turns off it shuts off the flow not only to the RO System but also the water leaving the RO system.
3) Kalkwasser Bypass - My system consists of almost 1000g of the system which is outdoors and driven by sunlight. On a hot sunny day the system can evaporate as much as 75g a day. Almost all water replenished is kalkwasser. In the event the pH of the system is greater than 8.4 the Kalkwasser reactor is bypassed and the topoff goes directly into the sump.
4) Temperature control - Heating is controlled by a pair of Ranco controllers each of which controls a 220v 3500w heater. In the event either of these fails there is a back up that shuts down the Ranco controller. For cooling I use evaporative cooling. There are 5 fans over the tops of the tanks. However, in the 20 years I have been keeping tanks outside the summers keep getting hotter and hotter for longer and longer periods. So 2 years ago we installed an electric shade for the outdoor frag tanks. In the event the temperature gets to 102 deg the sunshade extends over the frag tanks to provide extra shade. There is a double check so that if it's too windy the shade doesn't open.
5) RO/DI Checks - Making 75gpd of top off water requires a bigger than normal RO system. We don't want it running all day long and sometimes we contemplate doing a water change. I built a TDS monitor. It monitors the TDS going into the RO system, the TDS after the filters and the TDS after the DI. Whenever the output TDS is greater than 3 for more than 5 minutes an alarm goes off alerting me it's time to change the filters/DI.
6) Redundant Pumps - I run dual Abyzz A200 pumps - In the event either pump fails I can remotely activate a 2" motorized ball valve that allows either pump to take over the flow for the entire system. I was able to adjust the flow rate of the pumps remotely using the Apex and Abyzz controller but found it too unstable to rely on regularly and have since disabled it.
Dave B
jfoahs04
Well-Known Member
I'll say 75%. Lights and Wavemaker run automatically via the AI app. I have an ATO to manage evaporation, as well as an inkbird for temperature monitoring. I also have an automatic dosing pump to maintain alk/calcium/magnesium. I do have an automatic feeder which I use when I'm out of town, but I manually feed most of the time. I also perform manual water changes weekly.
Dav2996
Well-Known Member
Here is what I have automated
My 2 ai prime lights have a daily schedule.
X1 blue tooth dosers
Mp10 is on battery back up and runs a schedule
My coral food is dumped once a day.
My skimmer is controlled by a Kasa plug that is amazon they are cheap and program able.
Ink-bird controls my heaters. 12$ on eBay and will turn off my heater before it cooks my fish and coral. Heaters break
when I feed my coral my mp10 turns into feed mode at the hour my doser dumps the food. My Kasa turns off my skimmer at the same time. Than they turn back on after an hour. I learn return pump on to cycle the food around. I feed Red Sea AB + it brought back some dying corals so love the stuff now in my expirence.
I manually feed my fish because I like my fish to associate me as their owner and food. I like when they come out when I am near the tank like doggies and follow me around.
My 2 ai prime lights have a daily schedule.
X1 blue tooth dosers
Mp10 is on battery back up and runs a schedule
My coral food is dumped once a day.
My skimmer is controlled by a Kasa plug that is amazon they are cheap and program able.
Ink-bird controls my heaters. 12$ on eBay and will turn off my heater before it cooks my fish and coral. Heaters break
when I feed my coral my mp10 turns into feed mode at the hour my doser dumps the food. My Kasa turns off my skimmer at the same time. Than they turn back on after an hour. I learn return pump on to cycle the food around. I feed Red Sea AB + it brought back some dying corals so love the stuff now in my expirence.
I manually feed my fish because I like my fish to associate me as their owner and food. I like when they come out when I am near the tank like doggies and follow me around.
Dj A-Ron
Active Member
Lights with the Apex / Sky
Return Pump flow monitoring and control with the Apex - Vectra
Two Heaters / Temp with the Apex
Auto Water Change with the Apex / DOS
Dosing Alkalinity and Calcium with the Apex / DOS / DDR
Tropic Marin Part C dosing with a Kamor doser and their app
Skimmer monitoring and control with the Apex
Automate a bypass ball valve from my CO2 scrubber to my Skimmer via Apex and the PH level to maintain 8.3+
Auto Top Off with the Apex ATK
Auto refill of the ATO RODI container with the Apex / FMM via high and low sensors
Leak detection with the Apex and FMM
Auto Feeder with the Apex / AFS
Automate the pump in my salt water mixing bin to run for 5 minutes four times a day to circulate the water
Auto water testing of Alk, Calcium, and Mag via the Trident
I use Mobius for control of my Vortech and Nero pumps (hopefully Mobius releases WiFi capability SOON!)
The only things that I don't have automated but would like to implement is a roller mat some day. I change out the filter socks every 3-4 days. I also would like to automate Nitrate and Phosphate testing some day if possible via Neptune equipment.
Return Pump flow monitoring and control with the Apex - Vectra
Two Heaters / Temp with the Apex
Auto Water Change with the Apex / DOS
Dosing Alkalinity and Calcium with the Apex / DOS / DDR
Tropic Marin Part C dosing with a Kamor doser and their app
Skimmer monitoring and control with the Apex
Automate a bypass ball valve from my CO2 scrubber to my Skimmer via Apex and the PH level to maintain 8.3+
Auto Top Off with the Apex ATK
Auto refill of the ATO RODI container with the Apex / FMM via high and low sensors
Leak detection with the Apex and FMM
Auto Feeder with the Apex / AFS
Automate the pump in my salt water mixing bin to run for 5 minutes four times a day to circulate the water
Auto water testing of Alk, Calcium, and Mag via the Trident
I use Mobius for control of my Vortech and Nero pumps (hopefully Mobius releases WiFi capability SOON!)
The only things that I don't have automated but would like to implement is a roller mat some day. I change out the filter socks every 3-4 days. I also would like to automate Nitrate and Phosphate testing some day if possible via Neptune equipment.
ZombieEngineer
Valuable Member
Lighting
Heating
ATO
Water changes
Dosing
Rodi
Feeding
Flow
Parameter testing.
The only things I can't automate because they don't really exist (at least for the apex ecosystem) are, adding salt to by saltwater reservoir, feeding frozen food, feeding nori, changing Carbon/GFO, removing cheato clumps, testing for nitrate/phosphate, refilling dosing containers, equipment cleaning every 6 months. Everything but the non pellet feeding is something that occurs no more often than every 2 weeks.
Heating
ATO
Water changes
Dosing
Rodi
Feeding
Flow
Parameter testing.
The only things I can't automate because they don't really exist (at least for the apex ecosystem) are, adding salt to by saltwater reservoir, feeding frozen food, feeding nori, changing Carbon/GFO, removing cheato clumps, testing for nitrate/phosphate, refilling dosing containers, equipment cleaning every 6 months. Everything but the non pellet feeding is something that occurs no more often than every 2 weeks.
Seascapes
Active Member
The apparatuses I have automated are ATO, hydra 26s, 2 gyres, sicce pumps, a 4 head doser which 3 only work, Sterilizer, skimmer which I empty and clean every other day and 2 sicce xstream power heads. I've been looking at adding a filter roller. I still feed manually. I haven't ventured into reactors yet.I am a BIG fan of automation as I think it's a cool component to reefing. That being said I don't always trust automation. It is pretty cool though that you can feed your fish from across the world and watch them eat! Anywho....Let's talk about what you have automated on your reef tank today!
What do you have automated on your reef tank? Share a list please!
I can’t show pics since my tank is not up atm, but i like everything possible automated *except* feeding. Maybe I’m just paranoid, but the spector of an overfed tank is terrifying to me! For the new tank, we’re upgrading to Trident, so I’m looking forward to possibly automating more.I am a BIG fan of automation as I think it's a cool component to reefing. That being said I don't always trust automation. It is pretty cool though that you can feed your fish from across the world and watch them eat! Anywho....Let's talk about what you have automated on your reef tank today!
What do you have automated on your reef tank? Share a list please!
Crotalus
Active Member
Lights on Timers Wifi, Roller Mat with audible alarm, Temp Wifi, Alk and Cal auto dose bluetooth, water auto top off, two gyres for wave action.
All are completely separate so a failure doesn't effect more than one thing.
All are completely separate so a failure doesn't effect more than one thing.
Susan Edwards
5000 Club Member
Close to 100%. This new tank I wanted as much automated as I could handle as it is a bigger system (3xl900/240g)
Apps for:
Reef Beat for RS equip
4 RS 160 Lights
2 RS 45's
2 Dosers. Only one hooked up. Need a free day to get the second one going to dose trace elements.
Other Apps
2 Mp40's--Mobius
2 Cor 20's--Apex Fusion
1 AI Prime Fuge --AI's app
Apex for:
Ato/ATK--still getting bugs worked out. If sump level/overflow level get messed up, the water level is too high in return area or if too low, then ato keeps turning to off.
AWC--I turn on when I want to do. I prefer to be here when it is going. So semi auto. I just turn off when I don't want it to run.
Trident for testing
2 apex Energy bars. Working on getting equipment programmed and feed timers set
spare DOS I may use for AB+
No App but plugged into Apex energy bars
Skimmer
Heaters plugged into Apex plus 1 inkbird to hook up yet. 2nd heater has its own controller
UV Pump. DC controlled
I think the only thing not automated is:
testing po4 and no3 and checking up once in a while on CA and Mg and Alk
feeding as I mostly use frozen
Additional doses of phyto and broadcast AB+
Mixing the salt in garage. I have 20g brutes for my ato and awc so I have to refill from the 60 gal containers. Hubby designed an adurino box to alarm and shut of RO and salt water mixing pump.
Apps for:
Reef Beat for RS equip
4 RS 160 Lights
2 RS 45's
2 Dosers. Only one hooked up. Need a free day to get the second one going to dose trace elements.
Other Apps
2 Mp40's--Mobius
2 Cor 20's--Apex Fusion
1 AI Prime Fuge --AI's app
Apex for:
Ato/ATK--still getting bugs worked out. If sump level/overflow level get messed up, the water level is too high in return area or if too low, then ato keeps turning to off.
AWC--I turn on when I want to do. I prefer to be here when it is going. So semi auto. I just turn off when I don't want it to run.
Trident for testing
2 apex Energy bars. Working on getting equipment programmed and feed timers set
spare DOS I may use for AB+
No App but plugged into Apex energy bars
Skimmer
Heaters plugged into Apex plus 1 inkbird to hook up yet. 2nd heater has its own controller
UV Pump. DC controlled
I think the only thing not automated is:
testing po4 and no3 and checking up once in a while on CA and Mg and Alk
feeding as I mostly use frozen
Additional doses of phyto and broadcast AB+
Mixing the salt in garage. I have 20g brutes for my ato and awc so I have to refill from the 60 gal containers. Hubby designed an adurino box to alarm and shut of RO and salt water mixing pump.
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