Hex Tank Build

[n2585722]

This is about the new output type named alert. You can set the output up for Yellow, Orange or Red alert. If there is that type of alert or greater it will be active. So Yellow alert will come on for Yellow, Orange or Red alerts, Orange alert will Come on for Orange or Red alerts and Red alert will only come on for a Red alert. Below are three screenshots of the setting for the three alert outputs I setup. I do not have an output device set to these since I will be sharing them with another purpose. My wife has some ornaments on display that have lights. I already use the Hydros to turn them on in the afternoon and off at nights. So I decided I would use them. More on that later. These outputs are fairly simple to setup since there are not a lot of settings. It has been suggested to add the depends on settings to these so you could use a push button once setup to turn off the output. Turning it off also will silence the lights and sound if that alert type is set for sound at the controllers and not just the output it controls. So you can use it to silence the alarm on the controller even without an assigned output device. I checked it out and it did work. I now have 10 controllers and they are very loud when the audible alert goes off even with 5 in the garage and the rest in the tank stand with the doors closed.

Below are two photos of the lights I will use for this. The first photo is when the are all on. The first one is with the lights off and the second is with them all on which are normal depending on time of day. One of the light houses has a bad light right now but there are 4 outputs controlling them. At the top the left side of the clock are on one output and the right side of the clock are on another. Then down below the TV on the left is some globes all of those are on the same output including the one on the right at the top. Also on the left below the TV is a jellyfish crystal that lights up it is on its own output. There is also one of those in the upper right but it is on the same output as the light houses in that location. If there is an alert they will not all be lit or all off no matter what time it is.

Now to do this I had to create several outputs, but I will get into that in the next post. Below are the light patterns if there is an alert. The first one only has the jelly fish crystal lit which is a yellow alert. This will happen regardless of time of day. The second photo has the jelly fish crystal and the globes lit. This is an orange alert. The third photo has the jelly fish crystal, globes and the left side light houses lit. This is a red alert. So if the right side is off then there is an alert of some kind active on the controller. I did it this way just to test it out. This way I did not have to add any hardware that was not already connected to the Hydros. Since these are in the living room where we spend the most time I can tell just by the lights there is an alert and also how important it is. For now the only way to silence the alerts are to override the alert output to the off state. You just have to remember to put it back to auto. This is where a push button would be a help since you can set a timer as to how long it remains active to silence the alarm and also allow a second push to reset it if you don't want to wait the predetermined amount of time once the issue is resolved.

The next post will be the setup of the different outputs to accomplish this other than the ones already posted here.

 

[n2585722]

Now for the output setups to do the alert lighting. The first one below is the output that turns on the light houses on the right. I had to add a depends on output that turns this off if there is an alert active. That was all the changes made to this output since it is off on all alerts.

Below is the original output for the globes. I had to add the same depends on but also had to set the output device to none. since it will be used in a different output which is a combiner output type.

This is the original output for the left side light houses. It also had the output device set to none and the same depends on settings.

Below is the settings on the jelly fish crystal. The output device was changed to none and the depends on setting set the same as the other outputs.

Below is the output that is active if there is an active alert. It is used to turn off the previous outputs using their depends on settings. It is a combiner type output with three inputs. Those are the three alert outputs created in the previous post. The combiner mode is OR since we want this output on regardless of which of the alerts is active. It has no output device set since it is only used as logic to turn off the original light outputs.

Below is a output setup to combine the Yellow alert and the jelly fish light output. It is a combiner output type. It has 2 inputs. Those are the jelly fish output and the yellow alert output. The output device is the output port where the jelly fish light is plugged in. So this output is the one that actually turns on the jelly fish light now. The combiner mode for this is OR since we want the light on if either input is active.

Below is the combiner output for the globes. It also uses the combiner type output with 2 inputs. The inputs are the original globe output and the Orange alert output. This also uses the OR combiner mode since we want it on if either of the inputs are active.

The last one is the combiner for the left side light houses and the Red alert output. It is also a combiner type with 2 inputs. The inputs are the original left side light house output and the Red alert output. It also has the combiner mode set to OR like the other two.

That is about it. The way I did this is lot more complex than it would be if I used something that was only intended to give the alerts but using lights that already had a purpose I had to work around allowing them to keep their original purpose and also alert me when there is an alert. This accomplishes this and it also shows some more complex setups for the controller.

 

[n2585722]

I had a Cooler Guys fan fail. It just quit working and does not even try to turn. My guess is it is a electronic failure. I got it in August of 2021 so it almost lasted 2 years in a harsh environment since it was used for cooling the tank water as it flows through the sump. There are two fans doing this and both failed. The other would try to turn but would not turn unless you spin it by hand and it would eventually quit. That was a mechanical failure. I got two more Cooler Guys fan to replace the two bad fans. I moved the exhaust fans down to the cooling fan bracket for the sump since they do have some protection for use in that environment and used two backup fans in the exhaust position until I could get replacements. The first photo is of the failed fan after I clean off all the salt creep. The second photo is of the two new fans mounted to the fan bracket for the sump. The screenshot is of the temp graph. The 1.2 degree increase was during the replacement of the fans. Both the exhaust and cooling fans were off line when the temp increased. It takes both sets of fans to keep the water cool since it uses evaporative cooling. If there was no exhaust for the sump area the humidity and temp would increase to the point that evaporative cooling would no longer work. So there is two of each fan just in case of a failure of one fan it would continue was an impaired level until the failed fan can be replaced. I do keep a couple of spare fans of the same size. Eventually they will be Cooler Guys if all goes well with these.

 

[n2585722]

I got a Parwise meter this weekend to check my lighting with. I have a PAR meter but it does not do a spectrum graph of the light. So I decided I would try this out. I have a DIY LED fixture that has 6 neutral white LED that are driven by a 1.5 amp Meanwell LDD driver. These LED's will take 3 amps but the 1.5 amp driver is the largest one in the LDD series I use. There are 2 strings of 6 royal blue one driven by 1.5 amp LDD driver and one drive by a 1 amp LDD driver. There is also a string of 6 UVA LED's driven with a 700 ma LDD driver. I also have two RGBW LED's, a deep red LED and a Cyan LED. There is 4 strings with these. The deep red is in the string with the red diode of the RGBW's and the cyan is with the green string of the RBGW strings. All 4 of the strings are driven by 700 ma LDD drivers. The RGBW strings are controlled by my Archon at this point. The other high power strings are controlled by the Hydros system via 0-10v to PWM converters. The normal maximum settings are below.

Hydros:

Neutral White 55%
Royal Blue 45%
UVA 38%

Archon:

Red 50%
Green 50%
Blue 50%
White 60%

The first screenshot below is the lights when they were at there normal maximum settings listed above at coral depth. The second screenshot is with all lights at 100% at coral depth. The third screenshot is at the surface of the water at normal maximum settings. The forth screenshot is at the surface with all lights at 100%. At the moment all I have is a colony of Duncan coral and a coupe of candy cane corals but they seem to be doing very well under the max settings I have set. Also the light seems natural when looking at the tank and even any photos look ok without using any filters. There is a photo of the tank without using any type of filters under the LED settings listed above. So with this I can tweak the spectrum by changing the specific strings maximum settings but at this time I will leave it since the coral I have is doing good and the photos come out ok.

 

[kharmaguru]

I got a Parwise meter this weekend to check my lighting with. I have a PAR meter but it does not do a spectrum graph of the light. So I decided I would try this out. I have a DIY LED fixture that has 6 neutral white LED that are driven by a 1.5 amp Meanwell LDD driver. These LED's will take 3 amps but the 1.5 amp driver is the largest one in the LDD series I use. There are 2 strings of 6 royal blue one driven by 1.5 amp LDD driver and one drive by a 1 amp LDD driver. There is also a string of 6 UVA LED's driven with a 700 ma LDD driver. I also have two RGBW LED's, a deep red LED and a Cyan LED. There is 4 strings with these. The deep red is in the string with the red diode of the RGBW's and the cyan is with the green string of the RBGW strings. All 4 of the strings are driven by 700 ma LDD drivers. The RGBW strings are controlled by my Archon at this point. The other high power strings are controlled by the Hydros system via 0-10v to PWM converters. The normal maximum settings are below.

Hydros:

Neutral White 55%
Royal Blue 45%
UVA 38%

Archon:

Red 50%
Green 50%
Blue 50%
White 60%

The first screenshot below is the lights when they were at there normal maximum settings listed above at coral depth. The second screenshot is with all lights at 100% at coral depth. The third screenshot is at the surface of the water at normal maximum settings. The forth screenshot is at the surface with all lights at 100%. At the moment all I have is a colony of Duncan coral and a coupe of candy cane corals but they seem to be doing very well under the max settings I have set. Also the light seems natural when looking at the tank and even any photos look ok without using any filters. There is a photo of the tank without using any type of filters under the LED settings listed above. So with this I can tweak the spectrum by changing the specific strings maximum settings but at this time I will leave it since the coral I have is doing good and the photos come out ok.

View attachment 32384732

View attachment 32384729


View attachment 32384731


View attachment 32384730

View attachment 32384733

Cool new toy. Those CCT values appear wonky. Your tank would look like Mars with those values, so what exactly are they referencing? Corals look happy!

 

[n2585722]

I think my LED's have them fooled since it is at the surface. I got some readings outside with clouds and sun today that seem to be right. The first one is in the sun. That overloaded my Apogee meter. The seconds is with clouds blocking the sun. The Apgee was reading on that but both were varying quite a bit but they looked fairly close. I got some to compare in the tank with both on the bottom both read 79. With both at midpoint for the corals both were within 5 of each other with the pumps off. they varied too much with the pumps on. I think one read 200 and the other 205. So I think it is close enough to use. Today with the pumps off it would not give a CCT value in the tank. I guess my LED's have it fooled somehow. Those values seem more like it outside in the sun or clouds.

 

[JohnL]

I got a Parwise meter this weekend to check my lighting with.

Certainly a lot of information to study.

 

[JohnL]

Corals look happy!

They sure do.

 

[kharmaguru]

I think my LED's have them fooled since it is at the surface. I got some readings outside with clouds and sun today that seem to be right. The first one is in the sun. That overloaded my Apogee meter. The seconds is with clouds blocking the sun. The Apgee was reading on that but both were varying quite a bit but they looked fairly close. I got some to compare in the tank with both on the bottom both read 79. With both at midpoint for the corals both were within 5 of each other with the pumps off. they varied too much with the pumps on. I think one read 200 and the other 205. So I think it is close enough to use. Today with the pumps off it would not give a CCT value in the tank. I guess my LED's have it fooled somehow. Those values seem more like it outside in the sun or clouds.

View attachment 32384803
View attachment 32384802

Yep, the outdoor values seem more reasonable so I'd say your assumption is correct.

 

[n2585722]

I have a Hydros X10 and iV. The iV is a vessel that is used to do alkalinity testing using Hydros controllers. Below is a photo with the beaker in place. There are slots for 2 probes and it comes with three pieces of hard tubing to use with the flexible tubing and place them in the slots made for them in the top at the back. The iV has a magnetic stirrer built in that runs off of a drive port.

The X10 is a controller with 4 precision dosing pumps built into it. These pumps can have the flow rate varied. I have set one as low as 3ml a minute to as high as 100ml a minute. The pump use stepper motors and are bidirectional also. The X10 also has a probe port for either a pH or ORP probe. It also has a salinity port. If you are using this with the iV you will use these ports for it. It also has 2 drive ports. The iV requires 1 so that leaves one for another dosing pump. More on that later. It also has 4 sense ports. These can be used for several things such as temps sensors, leak detector, flow sensor and more. The photo is below. Power is supplied by either a power supply that it does come with or you can also use the Kraken to supply power when it becomes available. It will also supply power to the bus for controllers that do not have a power input other than the command bus.

I built a tray to sit the iV on and my KH Carer. It has a lip to hold a minimal amount of water. I also have a leak detector to place in the tray to halt the test if water is detected. Below is a photo of the tray in place on a cabinet. The camera on the front right corner is aimed at the tank. The tank to the left of the KH Carer is not in use but in case of an emergency it could be filled and used I guess.

I have it setup to do alkalinity testing. It also get a sample reading for salinity and pH just before the test starts. I have a Apera salinity probe. It is the same one that comes in the salinity kit which is the probe and 2 bottles of the 2 calibration fluids needed for calibration. The test sequence is basically a drain of the beaker using the drain pump. I have mine going back to the sump. I am also using a Intllab dosing pump set to 50ml a minute for the drain pump. It is the one in the bottom of the photo above, Once it runs a specified time it stops and the fill pump comes on and fills above the normal amount for the test. It turns on the stirrer for a few seconds. It then drains using the fill pump this time. It stops after it has had plenty of time to empty the beaker. Then it starts a fill using the fill pump long enough to start filling the beaker. This is to make sure the fill tubing is full. The drain pump comes on again long enough to make sure the beaker is again empty. It then fills the beaker with 100ml of tank water for the test. It stirs and for a few seconds then get sample readings for pH and salinity. It then starts dispensing reaget into the beaker and measure the result. It keeps this up until the pH gets to around 4.05. It then stops and drains the beaker while the reading is calculated for alkalinity. There are several methods you can choose from when setting up as to how the reading is calculated. once the beaker has had time to completely drain. It fill with tank water and the stirrer is turn on for a few seconds. then it remains idol until the next test. The reason for the drain and fill after the test is if the pH probe were to sit in the pH 4 solution till the next test the pH reading would be about .1 low from a realtime probe reading. So it sits in near normal tank water till the next test. I originally had this setup stand alone with just the X10, iV, drain pump and leak detector and also controlled a wifi strip so I could power down the KH Carer if a leak was detected. It will also halt the iV test. I now have the X10 in my collective with my other controllers. Since then I have added a water level sensor and a flow sensor to the inputs on the X10. I now only have one sense port left at the tank. That is about it for this post. I will post more detain on the setup for doing this along with the two pumps on the X10 I am using for dynamic dosing.

 

[n2585722]

Now on to the setup for the X10 using the iV for testing. There are quite a few screenshots so it will take more than one post dor this. The first screen is the top part of the iV output type. I named it 42g iV Test. The output type is IV (Beta). I guess they have yet to remove the beta from the name. A newer feature is the arrow point to the right corner next to the selection. In you have not created the input or output and click the arrow it will start the creation. If you have one created and selected Like I do here it will got to the edit screen for the input or output. I will go through them in order.

The first one is for the reagent pump. For this I used pump 1 on the X10. The output type in the case is smart doser which I have selected. All 4 of the dosing pumps on the X10 are smart dosing pumps which means the Hydro can control either or both flow rate and flow direction along with run time. A simple dose the only control is run time and you have to enter into the Hydros the flow rate of the pump. The X10 can control flow rate and flow direction on the 4 pumps it has built in. The output device is doser 1 on the X10. For this one it is recommended to use a flow rate of 3ml a minute. So that is what I have selected here. I have notify when reservoir below to 100ml which is as low as it will go. I usually fill the container up to a little more than a liter at a time. I set the notification level to yellow, Since all I have set is for push notifications for alerts there is no difference between yellow and orange as far is the push notifications but I do have some lights in my living room that will turn on if not already on in a different pattern for yellow, orange or red. Otherwise they are either all on or all off depending on time of day. They are actually my wife's ornaments that light up and the Hydros has been controlling them sinceI got it. Then there is calibrate doser but I wait to do that after everything has been setup.

The next output is the drain pump. For this one I am using a separate dosing pump form the X10 since 8 wanted to use 2 of the precision pumps for dosing instead of testing. The drain pump does not have to be a precision dosing pump since all it does is empty the beaker in the iV. On mine it runs for a while after the beaker is dry. I guess this is to insure it is as empty as it can get. So this one is just a simple doser. The pump I used has a flow rate of 50ml a minute so that is selected for the pump speed, The output device is the second drive port on the X10. I have not set the power level or notification for this pump yet. In fact I did not calibrate this pump since it has been emptying the beaker without any issues. I did check it before I started using it and adjusted it to 50ml a minute before using it for this so I guess it is probably close to that. It is a Intllab 12v dosing pump that has an adjustable speed.

The next output is the fill pump. This uses the second dosing pump on the X10. It is also the smart doser type. The output type is doser 2 on the X10. This one has a recommended speed of 100ml a minute but since I was not that interested in getting the fastest test I set it to 75ml a minute hoping that will add some life to the pump head and tubing. These are the same pump heads as the Kamoer F4's with the exception the tubing is a larger size than the F4. Since this pump is not pumping from a reservoir I set the notify when reservoir is below to 0 so it will not alert for low reservoir. AgainI waited until everything was setup before calibrating anything.

The next screenshot is the lower part of the iV output settings. The stirrer on the iV is plugged into drive port 1 on the X10. So I set that on the iV output. The power range and alert for that I do not have setup.

The next setting is the pH input for the iV this is a realtime input so it is only accurate to the tank at the initial readings part of the test. This input type is probe port which is a port for either a pH or ORP probe. In this case pH so the probe mode is pH. The probe port is probe port 1 on the X10 which is the only probe port on the X10. The safe range and graph rage should be at the max or near it since there will be a wide range from below 4 to whatever you highest pH reading for your tank are. For temperature input I use the temp input for the temp sensor in my sump where the water for the test is pulled from. It is on a different controller. When I had this setup as stand alone I did not have a temp input setup since ai did not have a spare temp sensor to use. The X10 dose have 4 sense ports so you could add a temp sensor to do this if you want to use this stand alone and want to use temp compensation. I have the offset set to -.01 so that it matches my in sump realtime pH probe most of the time. Occasionally they will differ as much as .02 but that is very close considering one is not in the sump and I have not had any that would agree exactly all the time and I have had 4 to 5 in my sump connected to modules for my Archon when I was beta testing for Digital Aquatics. If the module had a pH port I had a pH probe connected to it for testing purposes. The ther are the three calibration points which I did a while back. It is about time to do it again now. I have notification level set to none since it will more than likely drop below the minimum at the end of the test while it is draining before refilling. The next setting is is invisible. This is a new setting and when on this output does not normally show on any pages or is available to select for page view. The default for this when creating from the iV output is on. They figured it might be confusing to some to have both the realtime output and the sampled output on the page since this one is not accurate most of the time anyway. If you want invisible inputs to show on a particular page you can set that in the settings for that page,

The next input on the iV output is a new type for the Hydros. It uses a conductivity port which is new. The X10 is the first controller to get this port, I would imagine there will be others that have this in the future. The type for this input is salinity port. the probe port is salinity port 1 on the X10. I am using a Apera K10 probe for this. I think that is the same one that is in the salinity kit along with 2 bottles of calibration fluid. I have the probe K set to 10. You can choose either 1 or 10. So if you want to you can use a K1 probe but my understanding the K10 is a better fit. I set the safe range from 30.1 to 36.2 for now. You can use ppt, SG or PSU for the salinity readings that is set in the options menu with other units of measure. I used PPT since I have used that from my Digital Aquatics days. I set the graph limits from 20.1 to 50.2 This is quit wide and has not got near any of these limits. When I used their calibration fluid I found out my salinity was high. It is over 36 on the Hydros. I calibrated my Pinpoint salinity meter with the 35ppt solution that came from CoralVue and it also shows high at 55.0ms. I calibrated my refractometer with a solution from BRS and it is close to the same ans the CoralVue. So i guess my Pinpoint solution is off compared to both of them. I have mixed my next batch of fresh salt water to 50ms on the pinpoint. Since it is AWC a small amount a day it will take a while to get it down. The temp input on this uses the same input as the pH input already discussed. The offset on this is set to 0. This does use 2 point calibration. One is at 28ppt and the other at 35ppt. I have the safe rage set wide on this since the reading drops during the alkalinity testing as reagent is added to the beaker. I left the graph range settings at max. There will be a sampled reading input setup for this and the pH also so safe range and graph setting can be setup on them and those are taken during the initial reading point in the test. I will have post those on a different post since this one is already near the limit, I have the notification level set to orange on this input. Is invisible is also defaulted to on for this input as well. That is it for this post. More to come.

 

[n2585722]

Now to the sampled inputs, The first is the one for alkalinity. Below is the setup for the sampled alkalinity. They type is iV test. The the particular iV tester is selected since there can be more than one in a system if you have more than one tank that needs testing. Then the test type is selected. In this case it is alkalinity. Then you set the safe range and graph limits you want. Then there is an offset setting you can use to set it to match another alkalinity test if needed. The stale sample notification is the length of time it will go between readings before it considers the reading stale or old. Notification level is the level of importance of the notification. In Hydros there is none, yellow, orange or red. None is no notification.

Next is the pH sampled input. The type again is iV test and the tester is the same as the alkalinity since I only have the one. The test for this is sampled pH. The rest of the settings are about the same as alkalinity except it is pH values on the safe range and graph value limits.

The last one is the sampled salinity input. the type and is the same as the other two. The test is sampled salinity in this case. The rest of the setting are the same except for the values on safe range and graph value limits.

The next screenshot is of my input page for my hex tank where the X10 and iV are at. The sampled and static inputs have the date and time of the last test which is what is being displayed in the tile. The static input is a new inout you can setup and enter data from manual test auch as the Hanna tester. The other new input is from a flow meter on the output of my return pump. The salinity probe for the Hydros is reading about 1 higher than the pinpoint was. If i use the Hydros calibration fluid om the Pinpoint it reads the same as Hydros. So I am working on slowly dropping the level some. I used BRS refracto juice on my refractomer to calibrate it and it reads the same as the Hydros. I tested the Pinpoint calibration fluid with it and it read just shy of 36. Not sure which is right but neither is far enough fro the other to be to concerned.

 

[n2585722]

I got one of the new Hydros Kraken's and so far I really like it. It is mounted on the new control board I made. I did not have any more room in the stand for the new controller. Just below the sign is the power supply that comes with the Kraken. It is a Meanwell 480 watt 24v supply. The Kraken is a controller with 8 24v and 4 12v DC outputs. The 12v outputs are the same connector used with the drive ports on the other controllers. They are compatible other than these can deliver more current that the others. The 8 24v outputs use a 4 pin GX12 connector the same as the power input ports on the controllers that have them. So it can power almost any 12v or 24v device with the correct adapter and cable. The cables are sold separately since it will depend on what you are going to power with them. I currently have 7 of the 8 24v ports and 2 of the 12v ports in use already. The Kraken is the controller just below the Meanwell power supply. There is also a port to hook up a 12v battery as a backup source. It also has a built in trickle charger for sealed lead acid batteries. The Kraken can power the bus and the ports with regular power or batter backup. On backup the 24v ports will only provide 12v but quite a few pumps will run on 12v at a lower flow rate. I have both of my EcoTech MP10's power on it, LED lighting is powered by it. The cooling fans in the stand and canopy are powered by it. Also in the photo on the left is the X10 controller and a XD controller. The wifi strip below the Kraken powers the sign and my KH Carer. The sign tuns on and off with the tank lights. So it is off at night.

Below is a photo of the thing I was able to remove now that the Kraken is powering the devices these supplies once powered. I have added one more since the photo. That is the power supply for a Sicce SDC return pump. I am going to change out my current pump a Sicce Syncra Silent 3.0. It has been on the tank for 8 years now ai will keep it as a backup. I ran into an issue trying to use the SCD 3.0 with my current overflow. It has a self starting syphon that with the SEC will not startup before the sump runs out of water it the power were to go off and come back on. So I got a new overflow that the siphon stays intact even without flow. I am currently testing it with the pump on a 10 gallon tank I keep around for emergencies. So i have the pump in a drains from the tank back into the bucket. I have been running it at different speeds and modes along with powering it off and on. So far no issues so I plan to install it this coming weekend.

In the screenshot below the 9 outputs at the bottom of the output section are the 9 outputs I have setup on the Kraken. The last one is the only one that s not using the constant output type. That output controls the port to the new pump I was talking about. I have a float switch in the bucket with the pump so if the level in the bucket get below a certain point it will power down the output. So far that has not happened but better to be safe. I have outputs setup for powering my X10, XD and wave engine so that is what three of the 24v ports are used for. Another 2 are used for my MP10's. I also power most of my lighting with another 24v port and the remaining lighting with one of the 12v ports. The other 12v port in use power the ventilation fans in the stand and canopy.

That is about it for now.

 

[griss]

That’s cool, congrats.

 

[kharmaguru]

I got one of the new Hydros Kraken's and so far I really like it. It is mounted on the new control board I made. I did not have any more room in the stand for the new controller. Just below the sign is the power supply that comes with the Kraken. It is a Meanwell 480 watt 24v supply. The Kraken is a controller with 8 24v and 4 12v DC outputs. The 12v outputs are the same connector used with the drive ports on the other controllers. They are compatible other than these can deliver more current that the others. The 8 24v outputs use a 4 pin GX12 connector the same as the power input ports on the controllers that have them. So it can power almost any 12v or 24v device with the correct adapter and cable. The cables are sold separately since it will depend on what you are going to power with them. I currently have 7 of the 8 24v ports and 2 of the 12v ports in use already. The Kraken is the controller just below the Meanwell power supply. There is also a port to hook up a 12v battery as a backup source. It also has a built in trickle charger for sealed lead acid batteries. The Kraken can power the bus and the ports with regular power or batter backup. On backup the 24v ports will only provide 12v but quite a few pumps will run on 12v at a lower flow rate. I have both of my EcoTech MP10's power on it, LED lighting is powered by it. The cooling fans in the stand and canopy are powered by it. Also in the photo on the left is the X10 controller and a XD controller. The wifi strip below the Kraken powers the sign and my KH Carer. The sign tuns on and off with the tank lights. So it is off at night.

View attachment 32392466



Below is a photo of the thing I was able to remove now that the Kraken is powering the devices these supplies once powered. I have added one more since the photo. That is the power supply for a Sicce SDC return pump. I am going to change out my current pump a Sicce Syncra Silent 3.0. It has been on the tank for 8 years now ai will keep it as a backup. I ran into an issue trying to use the SCD 3.0 with my current overflow. It has a self starting syphon that with the SEC will not startup before the sump runs out of water it the power were to go off and come back on. So I got a new overflow that the siphon stays intact even without flow. I am currently testing it with the pump on a 10 gallon tank I keep around for emergencies. So i have the pump in a drains from the tank back into the bucket. I have been running it at different speeds and modes along with powering it off and on. So far no issues so I plan to install it this coming weekend.


View attachment 32392462

In the screenshot below the 9 outputs at the bottom of the output section are the 9 outputs I have setup on the Kraken. The last one is the only one that s not using the constant output type. That output controls the port to the new pump I was talking about. I have a float switch in the bucket with the pump so if the level in the bucket get below a certain point it will power down the output. So far that has not happened but better to be safe. I have outputs setup for powering my X10, XD and wave engine so that is what three of the 24v ports are used for. Another 2 are used for my MP10's. I also power most of my lighting with another 24v port and the remaining lighting with one of the 12v ports. The other 12v port in use power the ventilation fans in the stand and canopy.

View attachment 32392463

That is about it for now.

So are you cutting wall warts off to use that or is there patch cables?

 

[n2585722]

So are you cutting wall warts off to use that or is there patch cables?

I used cables from Hydros. On some I got adapters off of Amazon to use with the Hydros cables if needed. I did not do anything to the power supplies other than store them away.

 

[n2585722]

I got a Minnow to test out a few months back. They are now available for purchase. I decided that using the 2 pumps for auto water change would give them a good workout so I decided to do that. The Minnow is a controller with 2 dosing pumps and 4 sense ports for inputs. The sense ports are not new but they do get used quickly especially in larger collectives so they are nice to have. The dosing pumps are considered smart dosers since the flow rate and direction can be controlled. The Minnow has 3 speeds and can run in both directions. The speeds are 25, 40 and 55 ml a minute. To go in reverse you would add a - sign in front of the speed you set. My original pumps I was using are in the garage and the tank is 35ft from the garage. The drain that the drain pump empties into is 25ft away so in both cases the tubing is run through the attic and down the walls so that limits the types of pumps I can use. I don't have an actual photo since it is a beta unit and is not mounted and just sitting on my work bench. I will post a photo from the CoralVue website. Now that it has been released I will see if I can make a mount but it will require some more woodwork to do. Below is a photo.

Ok now I will get into setting this up. The first two screens are the two output setups one for the fill pump and one for the drain pump. The output type is set to smart doser. The output device in the fill pump output is set to doser 2 on the Minnow. The output device on the drain pump is set to doser 1 on the minnow. It does not matter which is which though since the pumps are the same other than color of the pump head. I have the default flow rate set to 55 ml a minute for this use. Since I am not using a reservoir I need the output to keep track of the notify when reservoir below is set to 0 so no alert or output tile will not turn red. All doser on the hydros calibrate the same. You would need to run it using a manual dose until the tubing and pump are completely full of liquid, Then you would click calibrate I usually do that after everything is setup and ready to go though. I will get into that in a later post.

Now on to the schedule for the water change. Since these are smart doser they will not work in the auto water change regimen that is currently in the Hydros. But you can still do it by using a dosing schedule. So the schedule type is dosing regimen. Dynamic dosing is turned off for now, but if I get a nitrate input I can use with this I will setup dynamic dosing that will change the amount of the water change based on the nitrate level. That will be a plus for doing the water change this way. The most I have done this way so far is 5500ml a day which is about 1.2 gallons a day but my tank is a 42 gallon tank.The dose count is set to 4 so the 5500ml are spread out to 4 times a day. That keeps the run time down on the pumps per instance and it is also timed to happen between my auto alkalinity testing and the dosing that is done so there is an alkalinity test, then a water change, then a All For Reef dose and then a KH buffer dose. So the 4 times a day fits in with my alkalinity testing and dosing schedule. The doser count is set to two since this will be controlling the drain and fill pump. The first doser to run is doser 1 and that is set to the drain output with a speed of 55ml a minute. Here is where I would set it to -55ml if I wanted it to run in reverse for this schedule. Also I could change the speed from either 25, 40 or 55. The only thing is it is best if at all possible to to run at the speed calibrated at which would be the speed set in the output settings. Doser 2 is set to the fill pump output. It is set to the same speed as doser 1 for this use and it is the same type pump. The next setting is the delay between when the current doser stops and the start of the next doser. In this case I don't want a delay so it is set to 0. There is still a small delay of a few seconds between the stopping of the drain pump and the start of the fill pump but that is ok since I do have a minimum off time set on my ATO and that counter will not start until the depends on used to halt the ATO is released. I don't have the active in modes showing but this is active in all but the low power and water change mode. This schedule dose not place the controller in the water change mode and the only way on my system is if I manually place it in that mode so if it is in that mode then I don't want this schedule to run. The same with low power mode since it is only in that mode normally whan there is a power outage and the controller is running on batteries. I don't want it to run a a water change in that case. The start time is 2 am and that is between the 1 am test and the 3 am All For reef and the 3:30 am KH buffer dosing. The end time is set to 2 am so the schedule runs a complete 24 hours. Run ever N days is set to one since I want it to run every day. Also all the days of the week are selected since I do want it to run on all days of the week. The depends on setting is set to the AWC Halt output with a dependency mode of off if on. I have the AWC Halt output setup to come on if a switch on one of the button boxes is on. This will prevent the schedule from running. So if I want to halt the water changes for a few days all I have to do is press that switch to turn it on. It s located at my mixing station in the garage. That switch will also disable all the other switches on the button boxes in the garage also. So if I go out of town for a long weekend I can press that switch and will halt the water changes and also prevent the dispense buttons that are out there from activating. That is it for the schedule. Now on to the ATO OK output used to halt the ATO.

Below is the ATO halt output. It is named ATO OK and when on that means it is ok to run the ATO as needed. When off then keep the ATO off. This output is a combiner output type since it uses other outputs as inputs. Input count is set to 2 since this will have 2 inputs the drain pump output and the fill pump output. Input one is the drain pump. Invert input is on. That makes the input active if the actual output is off which in this case we want it active if the pumps are off. Input 2 is the fill pump and it is setup the same as input one. The combiner mode is AND since we want the output active only when but outputs used as inputs are off. There is no output device since this output is only used for logic. If input dependency unavailable then turn on. If either of the two pump output become unavailable we want the output to stay on so the ATO will still run when needed. Next I will post screenshots of my ATO so you can see how it gets halted by this output. I had to split this into two post so this is continued on the next post,

 

[n2585722]

Continued from previous post. Now on to the ATO with the screenshots below. Sorry it took 3 screenshots to get all of it but it is a complex output since there are 5 inputs used to control it. I use the generic output type for this but I did change the icon to the ATO icon by clicking on the pen in the upper left. It comes up with a popup and if you click on the icon in the popup it takes you to s screen where you can choose the icon you want for the output being edited. The input count is set to 5. Input one is the sump level input. This is the one used for the top off control. It is set to active when dry since we want the output on when dry and the other inputs are active also. Input 2 is the leak detector in the stand. All leaks are funneled to the bottom of the stand where the sump and leak detector are at. This is also set to active when dry. If it is wet then there is a leak and we do not want to add more water if there is a leak. Input 3 is leak RODI and it is also set to active when dry. The reason for this one is it is on the floor of the garage where the ATO pump and reservoir is at. If a leak is detected there is no way to know where it is actually coming from but to be safe if it is wet this keeps the ATO from running until it can be checked into. Input 4 is Di reservoir low reading. This one is set to active when wet since I want the ATO to run if there is not a low water level. This sensor will also start the refill of the DI reservoir when it goes dry so this condition should not last too long unless there is an issue like a leak. Input 5 is the sump high input. This is set to active when dry since we want the ATO to run when needed as long as the sump is not in a high level condition. The combiner mode is AND since I want all the inputs in their active state for the output to come on. Has schedule is off since there is no schedule for top offs to happen. They happen as needed. The output device is the port that my ATO is connected to in the garage. The power safe range is the normal range that the pump will draw when the output is on. I do not currently have it set to send an alert if it gets out of range but I can set it to either none, yellow, orange or red alert level. If input dependency unavailable is set to off since if any of the inputs are not available then I don't want the top off to occur. On this output active in modes is active in all modes except for water change sine if I was doing a manual water change I defiantly don't want the top off to occur. Now we are to the part where the ATO OK output is used to halt the ATO. The depends on setting is set to the ATO OK output and the dependency mode is set to off if off so if the ATO OK output is off the top off will not occur. This prevents the ATO from topping off when either the drain or fill pump outputs are on. Invisible is set to off since this is not an output ai want to be invisible. Enable advanced settings is turn on so I could set minimum and maximum settings. Since I use a pump that has only a 43ml a minute flow rate some of time will seem high to someone using the Hydros ATO pump. There are set to a particular tanks needs anyway so they will be different on each tank. I have a minimum off time set to 5 minutes. Under normal circumstances that time counter starts as soon as the output turns off. The exception is if a depends on is active and has the output forced off. Then the counter will start when the depends on has been released. So in the case of the ATO OK halting the output the counter would star as soon as the fill pump turns off so it will take at least 5 minutes after the water change completes before a top off would occur. The next setting maximum off time is set to 6 hours. If there is no top off done in 6 hours then something is wrong with my tank. This setting will not turn on the output and will only send an alert if it is set to do so. The next setting minimum on time is set to 35 seconds so the output will stay on at least that long once it turns on regardless of the inputs used to control it other than depends on settings. Those have priority over all actions. The next setting maximum on time I have set to 3 minutes. This depends on the next setting as to what happens other than an alert if that is setup. That setting is run past max on time. I have it set to off so once it get to maximum on time the output will turn off and send an alert if set to do so. It will stay off until one of the input settings becomes inactive which would normally turn off the output or you intervene using the overrides cycling it to on or off and back to auto. The next setting is the notification level for the advanced settings setting. This is set to the orange level. So this setting will generate an orange level alert of maximum off time or maximum on time is exceed or met. So as long as you have a device with the app with you with internet access and the wifi and internet is work that the controllers are hooked to then you would get a push notification for this. It will also send one if the cloud looses contact with any of the controllers for period of time. I think that is something like 5 minutes but not exactly sure. That is about it for this post. I can get into the calibration on another post.

 

[n2585722]

I am trying out a smart dosing pump for ATO. The new app and firmware for the Hydros makes it a little easier if it is one of the smart dosing pumps that can use one of the new features. At this time the pumps that can use this feature are the Minnow pumps and the Sole pumps. The Sole is not out yet but will be their highest volume dosing pump with flow rates from .1 to 300ml a minute. So I figured I would try it out. The screenshot below is the actual pump output settings. A new setting is family which here is set to doser. Then there is output type which will depend on which family you choose as to what is available. Here it is set to smart doser. This sets the other settings for the particular family and type of output selected. The output device is set to the doser I am using for this. The next setting which is a new one is runs constantly which we want on in this case. This setting will not show for pumps that are not supported for this. Next is the flow rate setting which is set to 55ml a minute. This sets the output to run constantly at 55 ml a minute. The next setting is active in modes. All are checked except for water change mode. I don't want the ATO to come on if doing a manual water change. The next settings are important since those are used to turn this output on and off. Those are the depends on. This is et to the original ATO output which was already setup to control a pump so it did not need any big changes other than setting the output device to none on it since it will be controlling this output instead of directly controlling the pump itself since generic outputs which it is cannot control a smart doser directly.

Below is a screenshot of the choices for the new family setting. It basically groups like type outputs together since the list now would be quite long since the family list is long but not as longs as it would be if all the output types were listed together.

Below are the type choices for the doser family which is only 2 currently.

Below is the output settings for the original ATO output that now controls the actual pump output using the depends on setting in the actual pump output. The first screenshot has the family which is advanced. That is where the generic output type is now. I guess it is there since it is used when setting outputs with more advanced conditions than the predefined output types such as ATO and Skimmer. The input count is set to 5 since that is how many inputs are used to control this output. The first input is sump ATO level. The active when is set to dry for this output since dry means low and needs to be topped off. The second input is a leak detector in the stand of the tank where water will pool if there is a leak. The active when for this input is also set to dry. Also this input is also used to stop other things such as the return pump and skimmer. So a input can be used to control multiple outputs if you want. The third input is a leak detector in the garage at the RODI unit which is where the ATO and AWC pumps are at so if there is a leak detected there we do not want to run the ATO just incase it might be the source of the leak. Input 4 is on both the first and second screenshot below. That one is a low DI sensor in the DI reservoir. This is set to active when wet since that is when it has enough water to do a top off. This sensor also triggers and auto refill of the DI reservoir from the RODI unit. The last input which is sump high is set to active when dry since if it is wet something is wrong and needs to be checked. Under normal operation this should not be wet unless the return is off. The combiner mode is set to AND since we want all inputs to be in their active state for the ATO to run. The internal schedule is not used with a ATO output but the generic output does have that if you want to enable those settings by turning on this setting. Output device is set to none since the actual output being controlled is setup in a different output. If you use a pump that connects to a drive port, force port or AC output you would set that here. If input / dependency is unavailable I defiantly want this output to default to off. So if any of thr 5 inputs or the depends on output become unavailable for any reason the output will remain off. These inputs and outputs may not be on the same controllers if you have a collective like I do. So if something were to happen to the one they are on this will stop the output to be safe. Next is enable advanced settings. Since I used these this is turned on. The first one is minimum off time. This is set to 5 minutes. So once the output is turned off for any reason the output will stay off for at least 5 minutes. The next one is maximum off time which is set to 6 hours. If it has not done a top off in 6 hours I want to know so I can check things to find out why. This will only cause an alert to be sent depending on how that is setup in this same section. The next setting is minimum on time which is set to 35 seconds so the output will stay on at least that long once it comes on. The next setting is maximum on time. This is set to 3 minutes so if it run that long it will send an alert depending on how that is set and if run past max on time is set to off it will also turn off the output which is how I have it set. So the maximum top off at any one time is 165ml. The notification level is set to yellow so if either maximum off time or maximum on time is met it will send an yellow alert for this output. Once the output runs to max on time it will stay off unless one of the sensors forces the output off and then clears or you override the output. Active in modes are all checked except for water change just like the first output, The depends on setting is set to the ATO OK output which is used to keep the output off during a AWC or the return pump is off. The dependency mode is set to off if off. That is about it for the new ATO settings. Also this gives a glimpse at the new look of the new app. The is invisible setting when on will make the inout or output invisible on all pages unless the page is set to show invisible inputs and outputs. That was started with the iV. The real time pH and salinity inputs are automatically setup as invisible if setting them up from within the iV output type.

 

[Reefing102]

Very interesting. Hydros is making lean towards them everyday lol