I'm excited to see how your Orange Passion grows out - beautiful piece!

Yeah, I've been looking after that tank for a year now. It was just a few months old when I started with it. It's come a long way. I'll post some pics sometime.

Things are looking really good.

Thanks Greg! Won't be long till I am looking at another order ;)

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

So I am debating getting the local aquarium manufacturer to build me two water reservoirs. One for RO and one for fresh saltwater. The Profilux ATO and AWC systems will utilize the reservoirs. I am not skilled enough to make a system that automatically makes new saltwater based on conductivity and a salt hopper. I will still make the SW by hand, ~60-100g at a time. The system will change ~10g a week, or around 15% a month.

I am thinking the RO stacked over the SW, as many have already done. A manual valve to dump RO into the SW reservoir. An ATO pump will be located in the RO resevoir to take care of tank evaporation issues. I will have the RODI machine on a timed solenoid so it only turns on once a day, or maybe even once every couple days to ensure a good volume of water goes through the RODI membranes.

The SW reservoir will have a mixing pump, heater & transfer pump which will be controlled by the profilux. If I was smarter I could design a solenoid system that reduced my needs to one pump but I'm not that crafty :) The lower sump on my main system will have a dirty SW pump that empties a chamber (lower left, bottom sump). Once the profilux level sensor detects it's empty, it will shut that pump off and turn the transfer pump on until it reaches the full level sensor then shut off. Voila, water change :)

Anyone have suggestions or ideas? I may have it so I can add some probes as well. I bought an expansion box for the profilux so I can level sensors to the two reservoirs which will let me know if they are too full, too low, wrong temp and maybe even salinity in the fresh SW reservoir.

Thanks for the help!

Hey Scott, does the Profilux ATO have a valve, or is it just a pump with a line on it like the Tunze? If it's like the Tunze, it will siphon if the new RO container is higher than the end of the hose. Maybe the Profilux version operates with a valve??

Maybe you can figure out adding the salt automatically by using a hopper with a scale on it? Then the system will add a certain weight of salt.

Profilux ATO is accomplished with water level sensors and receptacle controls. No solenoids, specific pumps, etc. The siphoning is definitely a concern and that's why I have the SW tank on the bottom... that and gravity flowing RO water into the SW resevoir.

The auto salt making doesn't really appeal to me. I like a little manual labour, and I test parameters the same day. Too much to go wrong the other way around. I'm nervous enough with the AWC lol! But the profilux has some great built in safeties for that.

I think you misunderstood me, or I don't understand you (lol). I'm worried about the RO water siphoning into the sump through the ATO line.

Yeah, I hear you about full automation. I do like the idea of having things automated, but manually triggered. Such as, push button, salt is weighed and dumped in. There's a name for that isn't there? Same with the AWC, it would be nice to have the system do it itself, but I'd still like to be "monitoring" - can do testing while I'm waiting or something.

Yep, I had it in my head you were talking about the AWC line. Maybe I leave my tunze system where it is. And plug it into a receptacle controlled by the profilux. Then it turns on the tunze when it needs a top up. That would be like a triple redundancy system lol!

Automated vs autonomous :)

I'm fine with it doing the water change on it's own, but I want to make the salt :)

Triple is good! :D

Another way to do the salt mixing would be to have a mixing container that is big enough for a full bucket. Then you don't have to worry about settling or anything like that. That's how I did it with my breeding setup. Would that make you feel more comfortable with the automation?

I wish I had a fish room next to my tank so I could think of cool things like this too. :D

The TM bio-actif seems to get scummy if you let it circulate in the reservoir for too long. I'd be afraid to let 200g go scummy and waste the carbon dosing element as bacteria in the reservoir consume it. I could add UV I guess... Smaller batches (50-100g) seemed like a good idea.

I'm not worried about the actual AWC automation (aside from siphoning), more so the making actual sw automation. Some elaborate scale or hopper that adds salt to water, etc. That's an unwanted bit of automation for me.

When I am planning I may call you to come check it out and put in your 10 cents :)

Some new pictures :)

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Lookin good Scott! I hate photo quoting, but you posted so many...

What's this one? You have a shot of it top down too...
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Bonsai valida Acropora from Coral Masters.

Here is what I have come up with. Tanks are 24 x 30 x 24. I'd also like a spot for the JG float valve drilled in the top edge of the upper sump for the fresh RODI. Bulkheads are 3/4" I'd want tops to keep contaminants out but would need it to be easy to add salt (to the bottom reservoir). Also there would be some level sensors and piping coming out of the top of the bottom sump, sending clean SW to the main tank. I'd want styro on the bottoms of the tanks as well.

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Looks good! You could put trim on the top edges (maybe bottom too so it matches) and put regular ole glass tops with hinges.

(Sooo...what's the color I posted above?? :p )

I don't know what you mean by colour you posted above?

Auto correct... coral. :)

Scott, you can't source any plastic containers that will work for you? With such a wide selection available it's always seemed weird to me to use glass tanks for water storage, especially custom made ones.

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Scott the corals look to be doing well, glad to see that green dragon taking off for you.

I wish I had a fish room. Especially a neat one

Here was the answer for you a couple posts back Mindy ;)

Those tanks you posted Steve would cost me probably $200+ a piece here in S'toon. CA had a post on their blog about price of plastic vs glass and I wanted to give them a shot at pricing it for me.

Thanks! It's definitely starting to do something. The base is really beginning to encrust and there is vertical growth.

Whoops, sorry...missed it in between all the pics!

Hey Scott I'm a local guy building tanks shoot me the dimensions you want and I'll quote them no problem and if you let me deliver to your house I'd love to see that master piece of yours

I ordered up the glass reservoirs from Concept Aquariums :) One step closer to being done my main system as I envisioned it.

You can come see my tank whenever you like :) Just shoot me a PM.

A couple new shots.

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Do you feed your favia? I have a small frag but it never grows.
Have you seen any growth out of it

I always feed my favia's. LPS pellet food mostly at night. The smaller it is the slower it will grow. As it develops mouths it will start to grow much quicker. Feeding it at this early stage is pretty pivotal to getting faster growth.

I think If I feed mine LPS fuana marin it would just fall off the coral. Sucks to be me