Scott's 270g aka Project Mayhem

[Myka]

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

Originally Posted by Scythanith

Are you doing weekly maintenance on that tank as well? If so good for you!

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.

[Snappy]

Things are looking really good.

[Scythanith]

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

[Snappy]

Originally Posted by Scythanith

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

[Scythanith]

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!

[Myka]

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.

[Scythanith]

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.

[Myka]

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.

[Scythanith]

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

Originally Posted by Myka

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.

[Myka]

Triple is good!

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.