automatic water change

[flamron]

Quote from wife....



"What are those tubes doing coming out of my wall?!?!?!?"

Pretty much.

Once I told her what they were, she was actually excited. When I'm away, she takes care of the tank (and actually knows quite a bit from 10+ yrs of putting up with my addiction). So when I told her she wouldn't have to do water changes or haul water for top off, she gave me a hug.

 

[Sacohen]

Should have told her that you did it to make her life easier.

 

[SpectraPure]

Is that a special shroud for the wall?

Is that a special shroud for the wall?

View attachment 272680
View attachment 272681

Is the tubing on the inside of the drywall contained? It appears as if you have a shroud inside protecting such.

Very curious and very nervous at the same time. Especially with that union right there.

Jeremy

 

[Sacohen]

Good point Jeremy.
Got to remember safety.

 

[flamron]

It's all protected.

 

[SpectraPure]

Is the line with the union the ATO DI water? because if that is salt water line and it pops, your GFI and breaker will pop. If it is fresh DI water then you are safe. DI water is not conductive. Just a little FYI. I would really hate to see something freakishly happen while you were away.

Jeremy

 

[flamron]

That is the ATO line. I will have it shut off except for the 1-2hrs it takes to refill the 5g built in reservoir in my sump. I just put an additional shut off there in case I need it for whatever reason.

There is an additional shutoff on that line right by the RODI unit.

 

[SpectraPure]

Also where did you get that outlet cover, and what did you do inside to protect it? I am curious, because I may want to try this one day. I take care of the tank at work, but my build is not up and running yet. I work full-time, and I also am a full-time college student. It is hard to find the time as a father and a husband to get the build going. I will patiently wait until I am done with school.

=)

Jeremy

 

[flamron]

I found it at monoprice. It is used for cable pass throughs in home stereo.

For protection on the lines, I ran conduit down the wall and then tied it into the box (rough fit).

 

[SpectraPure]

Great. Not all people know that DI water is not conductive. Just wanted to share, and perhaps someone who didn't know will find out because of this. You can use 90 degree double push fittings at the base of the floor, and people have used cord concealers to hide the tubing. Or you could make a PVC fixture to run along the base of the wall and paint it a nice color.

I can’t wait to get a house and get a build going!

 

[SpectraPure]

Nice! Thanks for the share!

 

[nivram]

Well, rps3 if you look at the beginning pages of this thread Dr. T has done a good job at explaining the Liter Meter, and also you can check out his other threads. The reason he chose Stenner is that he likes the APEX system Randy Holmes-Farley also has great speeches about the Lm3.



Some of my posts in the recent past have been removed. Until I get a go ahead that I am allowed to directly speak about it, then I will stay away from it. I am simply here to offer technical advice if any is needed. When your club president give me the go ahead to talk about the Lm3 and pump modules, then I will be fine with that. I just want to be respectful, and Dr. T specifically told me not to on the DIY thread.



IF you want to learn more you can email me.



Jeremy

Jeremy,

I am the club president and would love to know as someone else mentioned how the Litermeter can be used in a similar setup and controlled by an apex or similar device.

I think the issue prior was around you coming off sales pitchy and some feeling you were talking down the previously mentioned setups. I believe if you can keep it educational all can benefit.

And thank you for the very generous offer to donate a lm setup to our club.

Marvin Ballard
2014 Fmas President

 

[nivram]

One small step towards setting it up. LOL

Fancy! I need you and Rick to come over and clean up my birdsnest of electrical chaos.

 

[DRThompson]

I like to keep my salinity at 1.024. I started the AWC system back in Nov and noticed the shift 1.021 in Feb. That's when I started using higher salinity freshwater (1.026) to balance it out. Back in December I started cycling my denitrater 3 times a day which increases my skim-mate so I'm not sure what the true shift is. My system volume is 200gal and I change out 2.5gal per day; maybe a smaller system would show more shift. Not sure.

I'll try to monitor the month of April closely to double check.

It's been 5 days; Decided to update stats and test salinity.
I posted a salinity reading of 1.025 on april 1st.


Salinity today at 1.025 on my Milwaukee digital tester. Maybe my drift isnt so bad; I will test again at about 10 days.

 

[rps3]

Fancy! I need you and Rick to come over and clean up my birdsnest of electrical chaos.

:hmm2::rollface::debi::fun5:

Some day I'll drop by, I've been wanting to see your set up!

 

[zachts]

Progress

Progress

I see others have made good progress this weekend so I'll post mine as well.

Saltwater mixing station stand all done, room for three cases of salt and assorted junk below to keep my basement a bit more tidy. Just need to do the plumbing now.

Control box about 75% complete, I'm hungry so calling it a night but all that's left is to finish wiring up all the connectors for the float switches, etc and put a cover on the bottom box. Hopefully when it's all done it will look nice a pretty with a clear window in the box cover to see if the relays are operating as they have built in indicator LEDs which will be nice for checking that everything is working properly.

Hopefully I'll not have to work late tomorrow and can get the control wiring done so I have my kitchen counter back, LOL!

 

[SpectraPure]

Oh!

Oh!

For some reason I thought Dr. T was the president. My apologies. Yes we do have pumps that will work with the apex. The can push vertically of at least 60 feet, and they can push hundreds of feet horizontally. What makes the LiterMeter so special is that if two pumps do not have the exact flow rate, then the LiterMeter is programmed to balance it out depending on what your desired GPD of exchange is. A common misconception about the LiterMeter is that it has to be periodically re-calibrated. This is not true. When Dr.T and Eddy gave their speeches on the LiterMeter, it was a few years ago. Every year we make improvements to our pumps, and we will have some nice surprises for you folks soon to come.

We are always running test on these pumps. We try our hardest to test the limits of the water exchange rates per day. We also run test on a minimal scale as well.

We designed these pumps specifically for what we all are trying to accomplish with reliability. I didn't mean to disrespect another's set up, but those stenner pumps are loud and big. They are decent pumps, and it is a very cool set up. Even as a consumer I would choose smaller and quieter. With technology we as a society have a tendency to want smaller more efficient pieces to our puzzle.

I sell many pump, and I will always sell them. People want them. I am not here to sell you a pump, but to make your lives easier. I believe with pumps that are not accurate cause us problems with AWC. It throws of our salinity, and creates a perpetual cycle of dosing this and dosing that. No thanks! That is not for me. Even as a consumer I know better than to worry about a few dollars when I already potentially have thousands invested into a reef tank.

It breaks my heart when people just look for the cheapest thing that they can find, because I know more than likely something will go wrong at some point.

Our pumps are not just used in the aquatic application. They are used for many methods of transferring water, dosing, etc.

Here is a link to the Apex compatible pumps that we make.

http://spectrapure.com/AQUARIUM/LIT...sic-Dosing-Pumps/Basic-LiterMeter-Dosing-Pump

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

Jeremy

 

[rps3]

For some reason I thought Dr. T was the president. My apologies. Yes we do have pumps that will work with the apex. The can push vertically of at least 60 feet, and they can push hundreds of feet horizontally. What makes the LiterMeter so special is that if two pumps do not have the exact flow rate, then the LiterMeter is programmed to balance it out depending on what your desired GPD of exchange is. A common misconception about the LiterMeter is that it has to be periodically re-calibrated. This is not true. When Dr.T and Eddy gave their speeches on the LiterMeter, it was a few years ago. Every year we make improvements to our pumps, and we will have some nice surprises for you folks soon to come.

We are always running test on these pumps. We try our hardest to test the limits of the water exchange rates per day. We also run test on a minimal scale as well.

We designed these pumps specifically for what we all are trying to accomplish with reliability. I didn't mean to disrespect another's set up, but those stenner pumps are loud and big. They are decent pumps, and it is a very cool set up. Even as a consumer I would choose smaller and quieter. With technology we as a society have a tendency to want smaller more efficient pieces to our puzzle.

I sell many pump, and I will always sell them. People want them. I am not here to sell you a pump, but to make your lives easier. I believe with pumps that are not accurate cause us problems with AWC. It throws of our salinity, and creates a perpetual cycle of dosing this and dosing that. No thanks! That is not for me. Even as a consumer I know better than to worry about a few dollars when I already potentially have thousands invested into a reef tank.

It breaks my heart when people just look for the cheapest thing that they can find, because I know more than likely something will go wrong at some point.

Our pumps are not just used in the aquatic application. They are used for many methods of transferring water, dosing, etc.

Here is a link to the Apex compatible pumps that we make.

http://spectrapure.com/AQUARIUM/LIT...sic-Dosing-Pumps/Basic-LiterMeter-Dosing-Pump

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

Jeremy

Walking that fine line again Jeremy...

Not everyone has money to drop on an expensive system. They have other things to worry about, this is just a hobby after all. We are aware of problems and issues already. As with anything and EVERYTHING, something will always go wrong.

 

[CHSUB]

any opinions on which is better? LM3 vs Stenner, without concern of $.

IMO, the Stenner fits my needs better. sound and size doesn't matter because it's going in the garage. its seems one pump with 2 heads(Stenner) make more sense than 2 pumps(LM3). any thoughts?

 

[rps3]

Also, Jeremy that link you put up is... a pump. That's just a pump with an AC adaptor, you still need a timer or whatever. At $120, sale price, I would rather go with an eBay set up or spend the money on a Stenner. That's a single channel pump with no way of calibrating in correlation with another head. How do we combine two of them and get equal rate without the fancy controller that the Litermeter is, which "calibrates" the heads. Or am I missing something?