Automation

[Guest Kimo]

Hey everyone -

 

I am going on vacation in July to Norway for 3 weeks(!), so I'm trying to automate as much of my tank as I possibly can.

 

The first step I'm going to take is to automate my water top off, since that's the most time consuming thing that I do.

 

Snapper - When we were at your house for the tank tour, I noticed that you have a pretty extensive automation for your top off.  Think you could explain it to me/us?  Maybe some time I could stop by and you could show me what you did.

 

Basically, I'd like to hook up my RO to a freshwater resevoir in my garage (brute trash can), which I will hook up to a kalk reactor via a dosing pump.  

 

I chose the dosing pump because it will add water slowly enough so that if there is a failure, it will not be a disaster.

 

The kalk reactor will then feed the sump.

 

I would like to have everything rigged onto float switches -

 

One to control the level of the resevoir by shutting off a solenoid connected to the feed line of the RO.  

 

One to control the level of the sump by controlling the power of the dosing pump. (is this possible?)

 

One to prevent floods by shutting the top off system off if the water in the sump gets too high.

 

Please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.  I'd like to get this right the first time, avoid disaster and make it easy on whoever tank sits while I am away.

 

Thanks!

 

Jamie

[Guest Kimo]

Another thing I may try to do, if you all think it's a good idea -

 

A 3/4" bulkhead in the upper part of the sump connected directly with the drain in case there is a problem with the top-off and the sump fills up too high.  I would make sure that during a power outage the sump, if the water is at the correct level to begin with, will only rise to the bottom of the bulkhead due to back siphoning.  I keep my returns close to the water surface to reduce back siphoning.

 

Jamie

[pez]

Jamie,

 

I think I still have a water level control unit you can borrow.  I've never used it, but it did work when I tested it.  It keeps the level in the sump basically the same, within a 1/2" or so.

 

-T

[Coral Hind]

I use a solenoid valve off of a dish washer that I found in a junk yard to feed my R/O unit which empties into my sump.  This is operated by a cheap float switch I got off of Ebay which is placed in the sump.  There are two tees w/ a ball valve to bypass the solenoid for when I make water changes.  I did the same thing at a relatives house but we used a solenoid from the back of a fridge w/ an icemaker.  Also a salvage yard find.  :D

 

If you do this make sure the wattage rating of the valve does not exceed the float switch you get.

[Guest snapper]

Kimo, you could always have Grim from TRT take care....no nevermind.

 

You can stop by anytime, just give me a little head's up so I'm not walkin around in my bloomers.

 

Although my system looks involved, it's pretty easy in practice.

 

RODI filter goes to float valve in RO reservoir.  From reservoir a pump (that is activated by a float "level" switch in my sump) pumps water through my nilsen to top of my system.

 

and voila, so easy the french could understand it, maybe.

 

Snapper

[Guest JFish]

I have a system similar, but I don't dose kalk.

 

I have the R/O go to a resevoir that has a float valve...the float valve when UP causes pressure in the R/O system which shuts water off going into it.  Then I just have a small minijet that came with a bucket of salt feed from the resevoir to the sump.  The level is controlled by an ultralife float switch.  Been setup like this since june of last year...only thing I would change is to get a bigger resevoir.

 

It's pretty simple to do right...you only need one float switch in the sump and an R/O float switch in the resevoir.