RKE along with RO/DI

[usmc121581]

I know I have to get 1 or 2 electronic sensor's for my reef keeper. What I am trying figure out what I would need to get to shut off the RO/DI. Right now I have the float vavle connected to my RO as an ATO. But since I hooked up my RKE and added numorous module's and seen what I can do I want to be able to see what the water level is and in case my skimmer goes crazy and decides it wants to skim out all my water I want to be able to shut down the RO.

My plans are to have one switch in my sump to sense when the water level gets low it will trigger something to turn the RO to top off the water. Then the 2 sensor will go into my skimmer overflow jug. The second sensor will be a fail safe measure, if the skimmer goes nuts and starts to fill up the jugs that 2nd switch will over ride the RO and shut it down to keep my tank salinity from lowering.

First I wan to know if this could work, and if not what do others do as a safe measure. I have come home or been wakin up to my basement flooded from an issue like this and forbid to have it happen again.

 

[SeedlessOne]

Seems like a low high dual float switch would work. Not sure if the RKE has the ports for it but if not look at autotopoff.com.

There are tons off places that offer ato kits lie that. And no need to put a switch in your skimmer. That would just cause issues.


Edit. Looks after going back over your post you are looking for actual sensors. If so forget my post. Lol.

 

[ReeferGil]

I have the same setup. Float switch to trigger the RO water when water level goes down. A second float switch to shut off the RO water if the water level gets too high. That second float switch is in my sump. If the water gets too high, my RKL will automatically cut off power to the ATO pump and my skimmer will also shut off. The second float switch is hooked up to my SL1. I actually did a video on it if you want to check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJJxFIJy_9Y

 

[bugs713]

^^Nice video!

Here is another link on float switches.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2275769
I hooked up two switches in series,as you are talking about; one as primary, the other as a backup and only used one (SW1) of the two SW ports on the SL1; you can see this in the last picture in the thread. When either float switch is tripped, it shuts off the skimmer,ATO and Dosing pumps until level returns to normal.

This freed up the other SW port (SW2) for another float switch on my external skimmer overflow container; if I get lazy and do not empty the container and it fills up, this switch will shut off the skimmer until I empty it.

Every time SW1/SW2 is tripped, it goes into alarm and sends me an email.

My idea and goal is to have fail safes on all backups...haha All my heaters on my salt tanks are controlled with a Ronco controller while using the RKE's as the fail safe backup and temperature monitoring only.

Also check out DA's forum for a ton of good info on setting these up.
http://www.forum.digitalaquatics.com/viewforum.php?f=27&sid=b822dd92869c977b62e01c257d52f5f2


Redundancy is worth the effort and expense in this hobby!

 

[usmc121581]

Is it possible to put a Solenoid on the RO line going to my tank, and when the water level hits a preset point, the float sensor will trigger the RKE to shutoff the Solenoid. When the solenoid shuts off it will cause back pressure to shut off the RO. Its the same as having a float vavle on your RO except its a solenoid instead.

I am actual going to do the skimmer float switch to shut down the skimmer when the overflow container gets full.

In the past what has happened is, the skimmer would go crazy filling up the over flow container. As it is filling up the overflow container the RO/DI would kick on because the esshops float would open up due to low water level. Due to the skimmer constantly skimming causing the over to flood and allowing freshwater to come in. This would cause salinity to lower and flood my room.

So what I want to do is basically what you did. One float switch for skimmer(SWA) would trigger to shutdown the skimmer once the overflow container reach's full.

The second float switch(SWB) would control the Solenoid for the ATO(RO/DI). I would hard wire a plug for the solenoid to plug into the PC4. When the tank water evaporated this would cause the float switch to trigger the RKE to turn on the solenoid and allow freshwater from the RO/DI to enter. Then when the water level hit the float switch it would then trigger the RKE to shut off the solenoid.

Or plan B

I just go with the skimmer float switch and when that is tripped it will shut down the skimmer.