Conductivity monitors

[Chad]

Anyone have recent experience with these?

 

I know a few years back they were pretty maintenance intensive and unreliable. Since It's one of the weak points of my system (salinity drift caused by the auto water changer... which I have been good about manually guiding it), I figure it's worth looking into it again as a safety function.

 

Thanks, y'all!

[Matt LeBaron]

You might want to check out the Reef Angel forums. Reef Angel has a conductivity module expansion and some of the folks over there may have some experience using and maintaining it. I haven't really looked into it though.

[DCReefer1964]

I have a old DUPLA conductivity meter from back in the day. I removed from storage rinsed it in distilled water, and it's reading were on spot after all those years being inactive. I hear they really never go bad unless the wire that lead to the probes are damaged. OldReefer uses one on his APEX to my knowledge. In fact I am in Norfolk now on TDY assignment. When I call home it feel good to say " Hey tell daddy what the numbers are on that display on the tank. Once I order a APEX Conductivity module I will be able to get that info over the web, or text to my cell. Just my .02

Edited March 2, 2013 by DCReefer1964

[OldReefer]

I have been using an Apex Conductivity Module PM-2. For a couple of years. I see some people on RC have had trouble with them, but mine has been great. They can be a PITA to calibrate, but I just get my SG nailed with a carefully-calibrated refractometer, and then manually adjust the probe to match. Mine stays within 0.1 ppt after it settles in.

 

I mostly use it to flag any slow drift in my system, and it works very well for that. If I skim a little wet for a couple days, or have a slow leak anyplace in the system, it is obvious. Even a quart of water loss in my 150 gallon system is immediately apparent.

 

I was inspired to get mine after Dan from AVAST killed his 400 gallon system with a slow leak that caused his salinity to take a dive.

 

[Rosco's Reefs]

Reef Angel does have a Conductivity module ( a salinity probe) and some of us are using it both to monitor salinity as well as determine whether to pull top off water from the RODI unit or from the fresh salt water bucket. Because controller preferences are like opinions, everyone has one, I'm sure the other models will do this as well. If anyone want s to see what I'm doing with RA, let me know. Thx

 

Ross

[DCReefer1964]

Reef Angel does have a Conductivity module ( a salinity probe) and some of us are using it both to monitor salinity as well as determine whether to pull top off water from the RODI unit or from the fresh salt water bucket. Because controller preferences are like opinions, everyone has one, I'm sure the other models will do this as well. If anyone want s to see what I'm doing with RA, let me know. Thx

 

Ross

I would like to check it out when I return from sea

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[Chad]

Cool, thanks for the feedback, y'all! Bill, that's precisely why I'm looking into it!

[OldReefer]

Cool, thanks for the feedback, y'all! Bill, that's precisely why I'm looking into it!

 

I was thinking of that leak scenario when I saw your garage setup. A little leak could easily go unnoticed when you run your sump in your garage. it reminded me of that sump shed that Dan used to run. He had a leak go unotticed there for a couple weeks. His SG went down to something like 1.010 before he figured out what was going on.

 

When I was on one of my trips I saw my salinity was dropping by about 1 ppt per day. One of the catridges on my BRS media reactor was a little loose and was dripping behind my sump. Without the conductivity probe, I would have lost the whole system.

 

Great setup you have by the way. Hope to see you back on NoVa again someday.

[Chad]

Thanks, Bill. You are more than welcome to come by and see it, talk reefs, and have some scotch with me any time you want!

 

I think you've given me the info I need to be convinced.