Fmk

[Brandonsegula]

I have the flow meter kit and it seems like every time I turn my return pump off and then turn it back on the flow meter will always read a lower number and never go back to what it was reading before? Is this normal?

 

[nukinfuts72]

Mine does it too. 615 before I shut it off yesterday 605 after and still running there. I work in the industrial world and these meters are definitely hobby grade. Don't get me wrong its nice having something that most people guess at but I would not want to count on these flow meters to tell me how much feed water is going into a nuclear reactor.

 

[Brandonsegula]

Mine does it too. 615 before I shut it off yesterday 605 after and still running there. I work in the industrial world and these meters are definitely hobby grade. Don't get me wrong its nice having something that most people guess at but I would not want to count on these flow meters to tell me how much feed water is going into a nuclear reactor.

That’s exactly what mine does. Thank you

 

[Newb73]

Mine does it too. 615 before I shut it off yesterday 605 after and still running there. I work in the industrial world and these meters are definitely hobby grade. Don't get me wrong its nice having something that most people guess at but I would not want to count on these flow meters to tell me how much feed water is going into a nuclear reactor.

Is it hobby grade meters or is it possible that the hobby grade pumps are also giving variable performance?

 

[Brandonsegula]

Is it hobby grade meters or is it possible that the hobby grade pumps are also giving variable performance?

I’m not sure but I’d love to figure this out. I’m going to call Neptune and talk to them about this issue. Because I turned my pump off earlier today and the sensor is doing it’s funky thing it always does.

 

[Jamie7907]

It’s the meters. A simple bucket test will show how inaccurate they are, it’s more important that they are consistent. They also don’t always show up as the right flow meter so you may need to fix that.

 

[erk]

Not sure how often you clean them, but they will get biofilm build up on the blades. This will reduce your accuracy and will continue reducing it.
Also, I know on my return line I get a lot of bacterial/sponge growth that shoots into the tank after a power cycle. If that stuff got in a flow meter, it would reduce the reading every power cycle.

These are hobbiest grade flow meters, but they operate in very much the same way as industrial ones. Just a hall effect sensor that pulses every time the paddle wheel turns. The controller has a frequency counter and converts the pulses into flow rate. The gap around the paddle wheels may allow a small amount of flow to escape, but that really only affects the low end measurements, not the higher ones.

 

[Brandonsegula]

Mine basically brand new. Idk how dirty it would get in 2 weeks

 

[Brandonsegula]

I’m not a fan of this one by Neptune

 

[erk]

In our tanks, it could get pretty dirty. Might consider doing a cleaning every week considering its location. I've never run a calcium reactor, but since the pH is low on it's output, there should be less growth if you placed a flow meter on the output. I say this because this is the only situation I can see a flow meter not becoming fouled quickly. All other locations, like reactors or return pumps, the conditions are good for growth.

 

[Newb73]

Definitely hard plumb these with removable junctions, take note of how the flow is when new, accept that they will drop over time and mainly use them to tell if pumps are working and a gereral idea of which mode you set pumps to, clean them twice a year which i guess would be a great time to also clean the main pump connected to it.

 

[Brandonsegula]

Definitely hard plumb these with removable junctions, take note of how the flow is when new, accept that they will drop over time and mainly use them to tell if pumps are working and a gereral idea of which mode you set pumps to, clean them twice a year which i guess would be a great time to also clean the main pump connected to it.

Got mine hard plumbed in