Bored? How about Mentoring a Newbie?

[road_runner]

When you leaving?

 

[road_runner]

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[Scott Christenson]

When you leaving?

25th, thanks again!!

 

[road_runner]

25th, thanks again!!

Ok let me see what I can do

 

[road_runner]

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[Scott Christenson]

ok so while we are waiting on your ATO, here is some quick write up on what I do. this will be irrespective of the controller, any controller can do what I am about to describe.
you will get 2 floats with their magnet bracket for mounting. I like these magnet brackets mounting cause they give you the ability to adjust each float independently off the other, even you can place them in different locations while the other brackets that mount both floats force you to have certain config.

reason why I sent 2 floats is because one float will be used to trigger your ATO pump to push water to the system, the 2nd one will work as a fail safe trigger if your ATO had and issue and kept pushing water to your sump, once the 2nd float is triggered it suppose to shut down the ATO completely. I usually set an alarm on this event so if it happened I will get an alarm.

since you have Apex already, I sent you a break out box and 2 floats with their brackets. the floats are basically on/off also called closed/open (electrically short/open) stats. if float is mounted vertically without water, its position it will normally be on/closed (short circuit), if the float is pushed up by water, it will be off/open (short circuit).

once you get the floats, place them in the sump, have one float right at your desired water level just enough before its tipped to off/open. the float will have a moving part that move with the water, the more water raise, the more that part is pushed vertically up to at a point it will trigger the on state. have the first float just enough to be on that if water level dropped a bit it will go on/closed state.
then place the 2nd float couple of inches above the first float level. this float will always show on/closed stat unless water level go way over the desired water level which will trip it to off/open state..
install the float in regular vertical position both of them

once you do that, each float will have simple 2 wires, take these wires and connect them to the BOB. on the BOB you will see ground and channels (annotated by S for switch). each float you take one wire and connect it to the BOB ground, the other wire connect it to one of the switches ports.
then connect your BOB to your apex, on your fusion you should start seeing switches added to your fusion these are the switches that fusion recognized from the BOB

this conclude the triggering hardware.
now you need to connect your ATO part to one of the outlets on your EB. this outlet will be controlled based on your float conditions to turn off or on the pump. I like using tom aqua lifter but any pump should do.
connect your ATO tubing from the reservoir to the pump and from the pump to your sump.

you are done from hardware wiring stand point
now programing (this part is Apex dependent since you have apex)

lets assume float 1 is the (ATO) float that you want to trigger your pump on. lets assume its connected to S1 on your BOB
lets assume float 2 is the overflow float that you can override the ATO if it triggered. lets assume its connected to S2 on your BOB
lets assume you connected your ATO pump to outlet x
go to your outlet x programing in fusion and use the following(programing can be as complex and as simple as you want it to be, you can add more conditions if you like, as an example you can add a condition when your return pump if off, ATO is off, but I will not go in to it rather focus on the foundation of ATO programing):


Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Sw1 CLOSED Then ON
If Sw2 OPEN Then OFF
Defer 001:00 Then ON
Min Time 030:00 Then OFF

what this programing do is the following:

if float 1 closed (water level dropped) it will turn on the outlet so pump is turned on
if float 1 is open (water level went back on to its target) the outlet will be off
if float 2 is open (water level is above float 1 which might indicate a too much water for any reason ) the outlet will be off hence pump is off

the other statements (defer and min) are designed to do the following:
"defer" will force ATO not to trigger unless the condition (water level is low) stayed for 1 full min. this will help you avoid turning on off if the sump water level was turbulence rather than really lower than the target level
Min statement, I use it in this context to force my ATO to not trigger less than 30min apart. meaning, if you have evaporation of way too much turbulence, ATO will trigger once, once its done and pump is off, ATO will not trigger again until 30min later if the triggering event stayed there. I used this on my setup cause during the summer my ATO will trigger every 15min or so, I wanted to minimize the number of times my ATO trigger so it trigger to fill good enough amount instead of triggering to fill in tiny bit then trigger again in 10min or so.

you can change the defer and min minute counts as you please and based on your own situation.

let me know if something in the write up confusing you or not clear....

Looks good, thanks

 

[road_runner]

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[Scott Christenson]

BTW one thing I forgot to send you is the pump. just buy TOM aqua lifter pump, they are cheap and easy to install. I have one extra but I do not want you to depend on me shipping again just incase you travel before I get a chance to send it..

Like this: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BOD9JI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[road_runner]

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[Scott Christenson]

yup, I use this one. its cheap and I can change it if it get faulty which has never happened to me in years.
as I said any pump will do. I like the aqua lifter cause its reliable.
just make sure your water reservoir will not be higher than your sump, because it can siphon.
if this is the case in your end, you can add a float valve like this one or similar
https://www.amazon.com/Reverse-Osmosis-System-Connect-Fittings（ball/dp/B076HDV3Z2/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=float+valve&qid=1563231323&s=gateway&sr=8-6

this way you will have a protection against siphoning...again this is only if your fresh water container is above your sump level. so install and check first then you can add that if you like.

So does the lifter act as a pass through device? It sucks the water up from the reservoir and pushes it to the float and the BOB is the switch to the Apex?

 

[road_runner]

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[Scott Christenson]

yes more or less,
aqua lifter is the pump that will push water from your reservoir to the system
floats and BOB will give the order to the pump. what what the float and BOB is doing is reporting a status of the water level of your sump to the apex controller
the programing will control the outlet that the pump is plugged in to, to turn on/off the pump based on the water level reported by the floats.

So then the lifter doesn't actually lift, it pushes the water like you said. So is it submerged in the reservoir and both the outputs push?

 

[SKYHIGGh]

Wow. This is amazing. Great job helping a fellow reefer

 

[Scott Christenson]

Wow. This is amazing. Great job helping a fellow reefer

Thanks Skyhiggh !!

 

[road_runner]

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[Scott Christenson]

It does lift, that's why it's called lifter
This is not submerged, it will be out of the water at any position regardless of the height (to a point) pull water from one port then push it to another port..
Make sense?
I do not like submerged pumps cause they tend to he high flow ones and if they gail you might not know..

Got it, thanks

 

[Scott Christenson]

It does lift, that's why it's called lifter
This is not submerged, it will be out of the water at any position regardless of the height (to a point) pull water from one port then push it to another port..
Make sense?
I do not like submerged pumps cause they tend to he high flow ones and if they gail you might not know..

So do you own an Apex?

 

[road_runner]

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[Scott Christenson]

I purchased the Apex automatic feeder as well today

 

[road_runner]

I purchased the Apex automatic feeder as well today

I also have it. If you told me I would have gave you mind cause I got diffrent one now ha ha ha