I’ve been building out a Robotank controller for a little while now. I have basic functions working great.
I’m using 1/4” tub with a solenoid on the downhill side under siphon in the built in sump on my Red Sea Max nano tank. It drains down into my basement in a drain. The tub is in the last chamber of the sump near or at the bottom.
this line is how I do auto water change. The RT is set up to turn on the solenoid and drain out 1/2 gallon per day trough a timer and a macro that then fills it back up with premixed salt waterusing non contact sensors on my tank. It has been working great for a few months.
last night apparently the drain solenoid failed a little. It was dripping when I woke up and the ato chamber was empty. Approximately 3 gallons went into the 20 gal reef tank. now my water is at 1.022 instead of 1.025. Not a huge issue, I’ll gradually raise it back up with top off from the sat chamber instead of makeup water.
my question is what do I do to keep a new solenoid from failing? I assume it failed because it’s draining non-pure water. Salt, debris, who knows what from the sump. I know I need to raise up the tube in the sump to keep it off the bottom.
What else can/ should I do?
some kind of filter?
I’m using a timer on the drain function so if the filter gets a little clogged or slows down, it won’t drain the appropriate amount of water.
a second solenoid in line as a failsafe?
Good as a failsafe but I won’t know that the first one is failing until they both fail and it may not really buy much time?
some kind of flush loop to flush the solenoid before closing with the second solenoid option?
Seems overly complicated.
I don’t have much room to use a pump and a pump from my sump to my lower drain will still siphon without a siphon break.
any ideas?
I’m using 1/4” tub with a solenoid on the downhill side under siphon in the built in sump on my Red Sea Max nano tank. It drains down into my basement in a drain. The tub is in the last chamber of the sump near or at the bottom.
this line is how I do auto water change. The RT is set up to turn on the solenoid and drain out 1/2 gallon per day trough a timer and a macro that then fills it back up with premixed salt waterusing non contact sensors on my tank. It has been working great for a few months.
last night apparently the drain solenoid failed a little. It was dripping when I woke up and the ato chamber was empty. Approximately 3 gallons went into the 20 gal reef tank. now my water is at 1.022 instead of 1.025. Not a huge issue, I’ll gradually raise it back up with top off from the sat chamber instead of makeup water.
my question is what do I do to keep a new solenoid from failing? I assume it failed because it’s draining non-pure water. Salt, debris, who knows what from the sump. I know I need to raise up the tube in the sump to keep it off the bottom.
What else can/ should I do?
some kind of filter?
I’m using a timer on the drain function so if the filter gets a little clogged or slows down, it won’t drain the appropriate amount of water.
a second solenoid in line as a failsafe?
Good as a failsafe but I won’t know that the first one is failing until they both fail and it may not really buy much time?
some kind of flush loop to flush the solenoid before closing with the second solenoid option?
Seems overly complicated.
I don’t have much room to use a pump and a pump from my sump to my lower drain will still siphon without a siphon break.
any ideas?
