Hydros Control 2 , Control 4 and accessories question and answer thread.

JeffB418

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Some notable features:
- can run stand alone, has same controller internally as other Control devices
- internal meanwell power supply that can power other hydros devices off the command bus ports
- passively cooled, NO fans to break or replace
- individual outlet power monitoring
- international version using IEC plugs
- internal dedicated controller, reliable outlet control
- can be paired with other hydros controls or wave engines as part of a wired collective
- available around the end of the year
- $279 price tag
 

jhuntstl

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I have a Kamoer ATO on my wifi strip. I'm experimenting with a little kalk in my reservoir. Is it possible to control that outlet's power based on pH? Like if pH hit 8.6, I could shut off power to the ATO via wifi strip. This is a failsafe in case the ATO pump was stuck on and not a method to control pH. Thanks.
 

n2585722

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I have a Kamoer ATO on my wifi strip. I'm experimenting with a little kalk in my reservoir. Is it possible to control that outlet's power based on pH? Like if pH hit 8.6, I could shut off power to the ATO via wifi strip. This is a failsafe in case the ATO pump was stuck on and not a method to control pH. Thanks.
You do know that if the wifi strip were to loose communication with the controller when the pump was on it will stay on until communication is restored no matter how long that takes. I do not use wifi outputs to control ATO, AWC or dosing. I use the drive ports for that. You can set a maximum on time for any output and set the run past maximum to off and it will only run that long before turning off and sending an alert As long as communication with the wifi strip is good.
 

jhuntstl

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You do know that if the wifi strip were to loose communication with the controller when the pump was on it will stay on until communication is restored no matter how long that takes. I do not use wifi outputs to control ATO, AWC or dosing. I use the drive ports for that. You can set a maximum on time for any output and set the run past maximum to off and it will only run that long before turning off and sending an alert As long as communication with the wifi strip is good.
The ATO pump has it's own controller. I only have it plugged into the strip to tell me if there's a loss of power.
 
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The ATO pump has it's own controller. I only have it plugged into the strip to tell me if there's a loss of power.

I would post your question on the support forum.
People are using their ph to control their calcium reactor so there should be away to do this.

My issue is kalk run this way probably should be run separate from your ATO. If the Kalk pushes your PH up that would shut off your ATO and could cause salinity swings.

Personally I usually run kalk separate from my ATO so it does not get over dosed or vary based on evaporation rates which can be really different here based on season and weather. There are several other reasons to.

I am going to say though that is a very interesting idea I might play with. I might set my Kalk reactor to shut off on a high PH. This can prevent accidental over dosing of kalk. I am not sure I would use it to control the dosing but maybe shut it off. I have not tried it but I am guessing the Hydros could.
 

n2585722

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The ATO pump has it's own controller. I only have it plugged into the strip to tell me if there's a loss of power.
You can try a generic output with the pH as an input setup similar the screenshot. it will come on when pH drops below the low point and turn back off when it gets above the high point. There has to be at least a .2 pH difference between the high and low points. But like David said this will kill your ATO when it goes too high. Test it it to make sure it will work the way you want it.

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jhuntstl

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I would post your question on the support forum.
People are using their ph to control their calcium reactor so there should be away to do this.

My issue is kalk run this way probably should be run separate from your ATO. If the Kalk pushes your PH up that would shut off your ATO and could cause salinity swings.

Personally I usually run kalk separate from my ATO so it does not get over dosed or vary based on evaporation rates which can be really different here based on season and weather. There are several other reasons to.

I am going to say though that is a very interesting idea I might play with. I might set my Kalk reactor to shut off on a high PH. This can prevent accidental over dosing of kalk. I am not sure I would use it to control the dosing but maybe shut it off. I have not tried it but I am guessing the Hydros could.
I truly do appreciate the concern. But as mentioned I'm just experimenting. It wouldn't be a long term solution in the ATO. I dose AFR, but kalk alongside it is something I've been interested in trying. I don't want to drop the $$$ on a better solution until I feel it's worth it. The hydros shutting it off would ensure my experiment doesn't bite me in the butt.
 

jhuntstl

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It looks like maybe I can just change the ATO to a calcium reactor. Set it to kill power at a high pH. This would save me from an ATO pump stuck on situation. The only time my pH would rise to say 8.6 would be in that situation.
 

jhuntstl

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It looks like maybe I can just change the ATO to a calcium reactor. Set it to kill power at a high pH. This would save me from an ATO pump stuck on situation. The only time my pH would rise to say 8.6 would be in that situation.
Nevermind, that's not going to work with pH capping at 8.

You had it right @n2585722. I do believe this is the only way. ATO is on as long as pH is below 8.5, but is shut off at 8.7. This should do for the time being.

kalkato.png
 

Kayanarka

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Has anyone gotten their hands on the new hydros wifi auto feeder? It looks to be available on the coralvue website right now
I have this. I found this thread because My hydros keeps going offline. Twice now in two weeks the hydros control 4 went offline. I do not get a notification right away either.

The feeder works ok, I used it when we went camping a few weeks ago. I do not know if the feeder keeps working when the hydros control goes offline.

Does anyone know what causes hydros to go offline? I have no problems with my hydros controller for my 4k Icecap gyres. When the hydros control 4 goes offline offline I can still get into the icecaps. I am wondering if I got a bad used unit from my lfs. It was attached to the tank originally when they had the tank setup as a display.

I am curious if anyone else has had issues with hydros going offline. If they have I may switch to apex. If this is a one time fluke with this unit I may exchange it for a new one.
 
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shred5

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I have this. I found this thread because My hydros keeps going offline. Twice now in two weeks the hydros control 4 went offline. I do not get a notification right away either.

The feeder works ok, I used it when we went camping a few weeks ago. I do not know if the feeder keeps working when the hydros control goes offline.

Does anyone know what causes hydros to go offline? I have no problems with my hydros controller for my 4k Icecap gyres. When the hydros control 4 goes offline offline I can still get into the icecaps. I am wondering if I got a bad used unit from my lfs. It was attached to the tank originally when they had the tank setup as a display.

I am curious if anyone else has had issues with hydros going offline. If they have I may switch to apex. If this is a one time fluke with this unit I may exchange it for a new one.


What do you mean goes offline?

If the cloud sends you a notification it most likely is internet drops.

The the unit will still function as normal but the cloud wont be able to communicate with the unit while the internet is down..
 

jrill

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I have this. I found this thread because My hydros keeps going offline. Twice now in two weeks the hydros control 4 went offline. I do not get a notification right away either.

The feeder works ok, I used it when we went camping a few weeks ago. I do not know if the feeder keeps working when the hydros control goes offline.

Does anyone know what causes hydros to go offline? I have no problems with my hydros controller for my 4k Icecap gyres. When the hydros control 4 goes offline offline I can still get into the icecaps. I am wondering if I got a bad used unit from my lfs. It was attached to the tank originally when they had the tank setup as a display.

I am curious if anyone else has had issues with hydros going offline. If they have I may switch to apex. If this is a one time fluke with this unit I may exchange it for a new one.
I had some drops until I changed from the cable company router to one that seperates 2.4g from 5g WIFI
 

n2585722

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I have this. I found this thread because My hydros keeps going offline. Twice now in two weeks the hydros control 4 went offline. I do not get a notification right away either.

The feeder works ok, I used it when we went camping a few weeks ago. I do not know if the feeder keeps working when the hydros control goes offline.

Does anyone know what causes hydros to go offline? I have no problems with my hydros controller for my 4k Icecap gyres. When the hydros control 4 goes offline offline I can still get into the icecaps. I am wondering if I got a bad used unit from my lfs. It was attached to the tank originally when they had the tank setup as a display.

I am curious if anyone else has had issues with hydros going offline. If they have I may switch to apex. If this is a one time fluke with this unit I may exchange it for a new one.
Are you around the X4 to look at it when this happens? Breathing yellow or green is no internet connection. Breathing red is no wifi connection. What is in between the router and the X4? Wifi has issues with some material including water. I had a wifi strip that would drop out like this. I eventually moved it to put a control unit were it was. Now the control unit drops out but not the wifi strip. There are other control units and a wifi strip within a foot of this location and they have no issue. The wifi strip that was having an issue with until I moved it was the one between the DA modules and the Hydros controllers in the photo below. The one above it and the controllers never have any issues with wifi.

E2F605BC-B35B-45E8-B11C-7C94E8A3673E.jpeg
 

jtichenor

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Anyone know why the wifi strip would cut power to only one outlet uncommanded? Twice this week my heaters lost power on the strip. The log does not show an off event. You can see on the attached screenshot there are two ON events next to each other - Nov 8 and today.
The heaters are two 300w on a single Inkbird controller.

All other outlets on the strip remain on.

Screenshot_20211110-113415.jpg
 

jtichenor

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No. Only the drop on 11/8, which created the notification that temp was out of range due to the outlet being off. I discovered the outlet being off this morning by chance when checking on the sump and noticed the temp controller wasn't on. It must have just turned off as the water temp hadn't dropped.
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n2585722

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Another thing to try would be to swap the outlets with other outlets. Even better is to swap them to a different wifi power strip to see if it still happens. To do this you would have to have a unused outlet to swap it to or clear an outlet on another output. Then you can switch it once switch you can use that outlet for the other output. This would let you know if it was the actual outlet or the X4 causing it. I doubt it being a issue with the Hydros hardware though.
 

jtichenor

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Thanks Danny. I also doubt it's the X4. I'm suspecting the power strip may be tripping a resettable PPTC on the outlet due to an inrush spike from the 600w of heating elements. I've moved the heaters to a non-controlled power strip for now. Not going to experiment with my tank to troubleshoot the wifi power strip.
 
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