Hex Tank Build

[n2585722]

I don't think I got around to the Sicce pump I got and setting it up on the Hydros yet. I am also powering it with a force port on my Kraken instead of using the Sicce Power supply. So I had to setup a power output for it also. I will go over that first. I have a coupe of screenshots of the settings. The app and firmware was updated recently and now there is the added category called family so the like outputs can be grouped together. This uses the generic output type and that is in the advanced family so you would select advanced for the family and then select generic for the output type. It has 2 inputs for control. One is a leak detector and the active when is set to dry. So since I used the AND combiner mode both inputs have to be in active mode for the output to turn on. The other input is the sump low sensor. This ones active mode is set to wet since when it is dry the water level is too low and we want the pump off. The internal schedule is not used on this output, The output device is force port 1 on the Kraken controller. The power safe range is set from 7.1 to 30 watts. I used to use schedules and had one for dropping the speed when it went into feed mode but I now do it differently and do not change the return for feed mode but the power range is still set so I could still do that without an alert. The pump runs normally at around 24 watts. If the wattage gets out of the set range an orange alert is sent. I either input is not available the output is setup to turn off. I have the output set to be active in all modes except low power. The Sicce pumps will not run on 12v and the force ports will output 12v insead of 24v when in low power mode so I just make it inactice. The Sicce replaced a AC pump and it was not powered when there was no power anyway so it is no different now that it has been for years. There is no depends on setting on this output. I will continue with the setup of a Sicce pump in Hydros after the screenshots for the Sicce power output.

Now for setting up a Sicce SDC pump in Hydros It is considered a third party device in Hydros and that part needs to be setup first before the output for the pump is setup. Below is a screenshot showing the 3rd Party Devs category on the status screen. Click on the three dots on the right side of the screen across from the heading and then select add third party device. A popup will come up like the one in the second screenshot below. Since I already had mine setup I used a different name to get the screenshot. You would enter the name and then click create. That would bring up the next screenshots below. You would choose the family variable pumps and the the type of Sicce pump. That will bring up the last screenshot for this section below. The last entry is the Sicce key which you have to get from the Sicce app for the particular pump so the Hydros can communicate with the Sicce cloud and command that pump. The next section the output settings will be after the screenshots for this section.

Now to the return output setup. The first screenshot below are the settings for the Sicce output. The family s variable pumps and the type is Sicce pump. The output device is the one created earlier in the above section. Since I am using this for a return pump I set it to runs constantly and set the speed to 95%. I did not change the active in modes settings here. To control the output on and off in the runs constantly mode you use the depends on settings which here are set to the original return output that was originally used by the AC return pump since I had already setup everything on it. I will also post it but all I did was set the output device to none on it. The dependency mode is set to off if off. That is it for this outputs settings. Now to the original return output settings. This one uses return pump for family setting. The leak input is set to the leak detector at the tank. The output device is set to none. In active in mode the only mode not selected is low power and is uncheck since the power will be removed from the pump if in low power mode so it does not need to be on here either although either one would stop the pump. Depends on is unused on this output. That is about it for my setup using a Sicce SDC pump for a return pump.

 

[n2585722]

A new app and firmware was released recently for the Hydros controllers. A way to access the controllers without having any internet access was added by adding an emergency login that is local only and does not require internet access. It has to be enabled in the options though. Below is screenshot of the emergency mode turned on and another to setup a password for this.

Below are some screenshot using the app to access the controllers in emergency mode. In this mode there are no pages so all inputs and outputs are on the same page. You cannot make changes to the settings, but you can select a different mode or override outputs from between off, auto or on. It uses bluetooth to communicate this way. The screenshots were from my iPad which has no way of communicating with the Hydros cloud if there is no internet. Also notice the Sicce pump Icon is red since it also requires the internet to communicate with the Sicce cloud. The output tiles that are gray are off and the ones with blue or green highlight are on. The ones that are orange are either in override or there is some other setup that has it forced on or off. The inputs that show unconfigured or none also require internet since those values are from the cloud. The ones that show none or manually added values. The ones that are unconfigured are from the automatic testing i the iV or KH Carer. All the normal probes and sensors will show their current values. I thought this was a neat new addition. Before I had to use my phone with wifi turned off so it would access the internet using the mobile service then enter bluetooth mode to access the controllers so I could login to the cloud. The new way requires no cloud login but you still have to enter the emergency mode password to gain access.

 

[n2585722]

I got a Hydros controller as a gift so I had to start checking it out. It is thr Launch. So far it is just sitting on my workbench in the garage but I did hook some things up to it to check it out. I have a pH probe, salinity probe and temp probe hooked to it. I have those in my mix tank in the garage. I am thinking up putting it out there so I will have a way of checking the salinity in that tank. I am using an old salinity probe I had for my Digital Aquatics controller so I am not sure how good it will be but ai can use it to check things out until I can get a new one to replace it with unless it appears to workout. I also setup a input for a water level sensor but that is just relay contacts with the relay driven off of one of the drive ports on a controller that is in the collective where the actual water level sensor is connected. It is the full sensor on the mix tank where all the inputs are that are on the Launch. I created 2 outputs also on it one for powering a heater from one of thr AC outlet and the other is a virtual output that is use to turn off the heater output if the full sensor goes dry. The heater is only a 25 watt heater I had so it would not do a lot in the mix tank sine it is a 20 gallon Brute can in the garage which can get get quite low in temp at night. It is 86 out there this afternoon but was down to 63.3 last night so even with the heater on all night the temp did drop in the mix tank last night. I don't normally have a heater in the tank but this give the controller something to control. Below is a screenshot of the main and the graphs pages I have setup on the controller.I am not going to do a lot on it until I decide where to mount in on the controller board. Once I add it to the collective all the inputs and outputs I have setup will be erased anyway.

Now to the input screenshots. The first one is for the temp sensor on a sense port. So it is the sense port type and the port is sense port 1. The sense mode is temperature probe. I set the save temp range quite wide since this is out in the garage and it can get quite cold in the winter and quite hot in the summer out there. The notification level is set to yellow so if it get out of the range set ai will get an alert for it. The second input is the salinity input, The type is probe port and I have the salinity port selected. That means the probe mode is salinity. The K factor of the probe I have hooked to the port is 1. The one from CoralVue for the Hydros is K factor 10 probes. On this one I set the safe range from 34-36. I don't have a notification level set for this input since it would be out of that range unless I have added enough salt mix to get it in range. The salinity port has 2 calibration points at 28 ppt and 35 ppt. I have calibrated it a couple of times so far. The next screenshot s the pH input. The type is probe port and probe port one is selected and mode is pH. The safe range is set wide since it will be off when it is drained and refilled with DI water. I also used one of my older pH probes for this. I set temp compensation to the temp input. I didn't do that on the salinity since it does not seem to work with the probe I have hooked up. It throws the reading way off. It could be something about that particular probe.I do use it on the inputs for salinity in the tank and iV and it seems to work with those probes. The last input is the mix full water level input. It is type sense port and is sense port 2. The sense mode is float water level which is normally a float switch but this is connected to the switch points of a realy. The relay is energized by a drive port from one of the controllers in the collective where the actual water level float switch is connected but there is no difference in the settings other than the port used. I have no notification level set on this input.

Now the two outputs I have setup. The first two screenshot are of the heater output I setup. So it is family type temperature controls. The type is heater. I have the turn on set point set to 77.5. Once the temp gets below this point the output will turn on. It will stay until it gets above the next setting the turn off set point. So between the two it can be either on or off depending on which set point was crossed last or if the power were to be removed from the controller it would be off. Temperature input one is set to the temp input I created earlier. I do not have a temperature 2 input selected since I only have the one temp input setup. I could use another temp sensor and setup another temp input and use both here. I do have my heaters in the tank setup with two temperature inputs since I have two temp sensors setup in the sump. That gives some redundancy in case there is an issue with one. I also have them on different controllers also. The output device is set to AC outlet 1. The input dependency is set to off. If for some reason the temp input becomes un available the output will go into that state which is set to off. The depends on is set to the other output which I will get to next. The dependency mode is set to off if on. So if the other output is on the heater will go off if on or will not come on if off. The second output is the mix not full. It uses family advanced. The type is generic. This is the output type you use if there is no output type already setup in the system such as the one already used which was heater. The other one would be combiner type but the difference is the combiner uses other outputs as inputs instead of inputs. You can have up to 9 inputs setup to control the generic output but this one only has one the water level input. It is set to active when dry. That would mean when the water level is below the float switch. Active in this case means the output will be on if there are no other inputs or depends on or a schedule stopping it from coming on. You can setup a schedule in the generic output also if you need it. For this it does not need a schedule. The output device is set to none since we are not directly controlling an output device with this. It is just for the logic and used to control another output that is setup. i did not setup the if input unavailable since I was just setting it up temporarily but in this case you would probably set it up to turn on if the input became unavailable so that the actual output the heater would default to off. The depends on was not used here. That is about it for my checking out the new controller for now. I am thinking about removing my X4 from the control board and adding the Launch in it's place in the garage. I would then mount the the X4 to the control board next to the tank. The major issue there is the X4 controls the light intensity at the tank from the garage. So I will have to figure out a way to switch it with the least down time for the lights and the collective as well.

 

[n2585722]

Some ask about using the Sole pumps with the built in AWC in the Hydros app. They cannot be used there and they did not want to use them in a dosing schedule for AWC. So I came up with the outputs below to accomplish it without using the dosing schedule. I do not have 2 Sole pumps so I tried it by using two drive port pumps instead. but I did use the single Sole I have to come up with the screenshots used here. That is why all three of the pumps have the same output device.If you do this you would use a different pump for each. The ATO was using the Sole in the same manner you would use the drain and fill pumps. The drain output has the schedule settings and triggers the AWC running output to on. The AWC running output switches between the fill pump and ATO pump. If the AWC running output is on and the AWC drain output is not on the AWC fill output will run as long as the ATO level sensor is dry.


Below is the drain output settings. I used a generic output type for this. It has one input and that is the sump low input. If you don't have one then just use the runtime only to change the amount of water that is removed, If using the input you will still want to set the runtime to a few seconds longer that what it takes to get down till the sump low sensor goes dry. This sensor cannot be one that will turn off the return or skimmer as those will need to keep running during the AWC. If you need to change out more water in a day than you can remove at one time and keep the return and skimmer running them split it into multiple times per day and remove less each time. I have this setup to do a water change 4 times a day but that was what I was already doing. Has internal schedule is set to on and also enable advanced settings is set to on. I set the start time to 2:00 am so that the water changes occur in sequence with my alkalinity testing and dosing. The water changes occur between the testing and the dosing. That is the main reason I do it 4 times a day. The runtime i set to 15 minutes and 40 seconds. That was what the pumps I was using were taking in the dosing schedule I was using. The run count is set to 4 since that is the number of time I want it to run the runtime amount each day. The run interval is how often which I set to 6 hours since I want it to do this every 6 hours. Since we will use the depends on in the Sole pump output to depend on this output there is no output device setup here. To do my testing I did setup and output device to the drive port the drain pump was plugged into for testing this out. The input dependency is set to off. If for some reason the input is not available then this output will not turn on. This output has the active in modes at their default settings which is active in all modes. The dependency setting is set to 42g AWC Pause which is an output I have setup so if I want to stop the AWC from running I can turn on a switch and it will turn on the 42g AWC Pause output and that will stop 42g AWC drain output from turning on.The dependency mode is set to off if on.

Below is an output for a Sole pump setup to be dependent on the 42g AWC Drain output above. It is set to doser family. Then the type is set to smart doser since the Sole is a smart doser. The output device is set to the Sole pump that is the drain pump. Run constantly is turned on and the flow rate is set to the speed you want the pump to run when on. Here it is set to 55 but this can be set up to the max for the pump which is 300ml on the Sole pumps. Active in modes is not displayed in the screenshot but it is the default which is active in all modes. The depends on setting is set to 42g AWC Drain and dependency mode is set to off if off. This will make the pump output turn on and off with the output setup in the depends on statement which is 42g AWC Drain. That is about it for the drain part of this. Next is the AWC Running output.

Below is the AWC running output. This output is for switching between the regular ATO and the fill pump. After the drain completes you want the fill pump to run till the ATO sensor goes wet. You also want it to stay active for a top off or two since during regular top offs they normally run a little longer that until it just goes wet. That will be accomplished by keeping the AWC running active a little longer than it normally takes to refill after the drain and by setting a minimum runtime for top offs on the fill pump output. This is done in the built in AWC also but there is no way for the user to control it. This is using the combiner output type and the only input is 42g AWC Drain output, The input is not inverted. The output type is set to none since this output is used for logic only and does not control an actual output. As soon as 42g AWC Drain turns on this output will turn on. If the input is not available it is set to turn off. Enable advanced settings is set to on. The minimum on time I have set to 45 minutes but this is dependent on how long it takes the drain output and the fill output to run and then an extra amount of time. I have is set to 15 minutes. During that time period any top off will be done with the fill pump instead of the normal top off pump. Active in mode is the default and depends on is not used in this output.

Below is the fill pump output settings. This output uses the combiner output type. It has 3 outputs. The firs one is the AWC Running output and it is not inverted. The second is the sump full dry output which is on if the ATO level sensor is dry. The third is AWC drain output. This one is inverted since if the drain pump is running we do not want the fill pump to run. The combiner mode is AND since we want all inputs to be in their active state for this output to come on.The output device would be set to none but here I forgot to remove it for this screenshot. I tested this using pumps connected to drive ports and used the outputs directly which you can also do but the built in Hydros AWC output type will also do the same without setting up all these individual outputs. So no use doing it this way unless you are using the Sole pumps and do not want to use a dosing schedule. If input unavailable this is also set to off. Enable advanced settings is set to on and the minimum runtime I have set to 15 seconds so it will run at least 15 seconds if it does turn on. Active in modes are the defaults which is active in all modes. Depends on is not used. That is about it for the fill settings.

Below is the settings for the fill pump output. These will be the same as those on the drain except it would be a different device output for the different pump. Since I only have one Sole I used the same actual pump to get this screenshot.

Below is the Sump Full Dry output. It uses the generic output type and has one input. That input is the sump ATO level input. it is set to active when dry. There is no output device since this is just used for logic. Everything else was left at the defaults. Since combiners output types only have other outputs as inputs this was needed to convert the sump full input to an output so it can be used as an input in the fill output,

I think I am at the screenshot limit for a single post I will put the settings made to the ATO output in next post.

 

[n2585722]

Here is the ATO output setting setup for use with using the Sole pumps for AWC without using the dosing schedule. Below is the ATO output but it is the same as it was before adding the new AWC settings other than the depends on settings. Those were change to use the 42g AWC Running output and set to off if on so that the ATO output will remain off while the AWC is in running mode. That is about it. I went over the other settings in this output in a previous post if interested in the other settings.

 

[Reefing102]

How’s the tank coming in?

 

[n2585722]

How’s the tank coming in?

It is doing ok. I have not got any new fish or coral in quite a while, but I have not lost any either.