DaStaCo2 Suddenly Alarming & Not Tuning

[inktomi]

Hi -

My DaStaCo2 started alarming about once a day, so I thought I'd turn it off and give it a good cleaning. I replaced the peristaltic pump tube, cleaned the impeller, etc. All seemed ok, but did the maintenance anyway. I cannot get it to work now, it runs for a couple minutes and then gives the long alarm beeeep - beeep - beeep - until I turn it off.

Some timings..

Blue Light Off - 2:57 after turning on power
Blue light back on/off/on almost right away - like it thinks it needs to add CO2?
No water visible in the CO2 chamber + 3:09 after the blue light is first out
Alarm at +3:29 after the blue light turns out.

It's like it's adding too much CO2 and pushing down the water level in chamber far below what it should be. The float switch is all the way exposed - not floating at all - but it doesn't seem to be dirty or jammed up - it seems to move normally.

I'm at my wits end. Any ideas? What should I try next?

 

[evelio118]

When the blue light turns off initially is it because the water level in the co2 chamber is below the float valve?

 

[inktomi]

Yes, the blue light first turns off when the water begins to lower the float valve. At that point, the water is very near the top of the float switch.

 

[inktomi]

I cleaned the reaction chamber for the CO2 just to make sure. Nothing - the sensor is clean and the float freely spins and moves. Put it back together, here's the timing from 0 turning on power...

I also recalibrated the pressure from the CO2 tank. It's set to 0.8 Bar using the regulator that came with the unit.

I raised the unit up a bit off the floor - the sensor wire had been pinched under the CO2 chamber, so raising the unit a bit lets this wire have some space instead of being pushed against the floor.

0:00 Power on, Blue Light On a couple seconds after
2:07 Blue Light Off - Water near the bottom of the float
+10 sec water back to the top of the float, blue light on and off
3:08 water pushed to bottom of float, blue light back off
4:45 the light has been on and off, but water is still visible in the chamber
7:00 Light is on and off, but water is still visible.

Maybe it's solved? We'll see.

I didn't find anything in the CO2 chamber, so I have to think maybe the wire being pinched finally broke a contact or something. That's worrying as it's not a user serviceable part..

 

[evelio118]

You may also want to check to tubing coming from the dosing pump. It can clog sometimes.

 

[inktomi]

11:00 or so the water is at the bottom of the chamber, and it's still pumping in CO2 from time to time.
12:35 the water is at the bottom still, it's not letting it recover before adding more CO2

As soon as the water is just touching the float, the CO2 turns back on.

13:20 water no longer visible but still BARELY recovering

Not sure why it's turning on the CO2 at this point, it clearly does not need any.

I'm not sure what signal it's using to turn on the CO2 at this point, as it's turning on and off without ever touching the float.

15:50 still running but I'm surprised, as the water is longer touching the float at all between C02 injections.

17:03 Cat pooped. Not sure I'll survive the smell.

No alarms after 19:00 yet - but water is not visible in the CO2 chamber at all at this point, even between injections. It's still turning on the CO2 for maybe 10 seconds at a time relatively often, and again - no water is visible.

-edit-

I will replace all the tubing if it alarms. I'll have to order some.

 

[evelio118]

When you did the reset. Did you refill the 1st chamber?

 

[inktomi]

I did the times that I opened it. Other times I reset it via the manual purge option - and those times I did not open it to fill it. It has refilled on it's own though.

28:00 I see CO2 bubbles raising in the first chamber now

 

[evelio118]

Did you check the connections into the integra controller?
blue plug is co2 solenoid
green plug is eheim pump

 

[inktomi]

Yep - I have been running this for several months (or a year) now. I didn't unplug the connections - and I did just verify that they're correct.

36:00 still no water visible in the chamber, but no alarm either.

 

[evelio118]

If the alarm goes off again. You may want to try closing the micro adjuster needle all the way. Than rotate it open 1 1/2 turns.

 

[inktomi]

Thank you for all your help, and for offering 1:1 help as well. I really appreciate it.

 

[inktomi]

An update - I'll pick this back up after work, but in the meantime if anyone has ideas I'm open. I'll be reaching out to DaStaCo as well next week.

The reactor ran for several hours, alarming after about 5 hours of run time. I left it off overnight.

This morning while I ate breakfast I ran the peristaltic pump to fill the reactor chamber, and started the reactor & a timer. It is acting the same even starting full of water - the CO2 chamber is empty already after 12 minutes of run time.

 

[inktomi]

It ran for about 13 minutes this time before alarming.