Mounting Osmolator in Sump

[MolaMola]

Tunze Osmolator in sump - do you have the sensors on separate or same magnet?
I'm in the process of installing them separately because my sump level rises a few inches when return pump is off. But since it's rarely off and the float sensor will be sitting high and dry am I just negating the value of having the float sensor?

 

[Vhuang168]

The float sensor is a safety, in case the main sensor fails, water will rise hitting the float sensor which will trigger the pump to stop pumping.

 

[MolaMola]

Understood. So if my optical sensor fails, water can be added by the ATO all the way up to the float sensor. But that is much higher than the optical sensor and if the return pump then turns off, the drainback will flood my sump. AHA! - it now seems obvious that I should place the float sensor a bit above the optical on its own magnet so I can work in the tank and disrupt the level a bit without triggering alarm but still enjoy the redundancy of the float sensor. For some reason I thought I HAD to place the float way up at the drainback level if I wanted it separate. Thanks for helping me figure this out Vincent.

 

[jonmos75]

Maureen,

Also remember with the apex you can turn off an alert outlet with your programming through virtual outlets, as I have float switch that will turn on and alert me if the sump rises to high, but I turn off this float switch alert (VO) when I feed my fish as my return pump turns off and the sump fills up a bit and would turn on the float switch, but I programmed in the vo for the high sump alarm (If Outlet Return_Pump = OFF Then OFF) so when the return pump is off it will ignore the float switch that would be normally going off

 

[MolaMola]

Cool. I actually checked out your programming last week from the Apex forum (thanks for the link in your sig) and will check it out again once I read more and get up to snuff on how it all works.

 

[jonmos75]

Your welcome on the link this is why I posted it so others can look and ask questions on what I am trying to accomplish buy my programming, ....and my links are actually from Reeftronics One of the key helpers on the Apex Forum (Russ M) created this for not only Apex, but Digital Aquatic and Reef Angle controllers.

I would Highly recommend tying your apex to it as other can see your programming and reeftronics will email or send you a text if you loose internet connectivity with the Apex, which Fusion will only let you now if your apex looses power not internet...plus he has some cool tools that anyone can use to figure out dosing calculators or setting up using the season table for your lighting

I am currently working on my second Apex for my RO/DI tank & Salt Mixing tank programming that will do an automatic flush before adding rodi water to the tanks, flush during the filling of the rodi every hour for 15 sec and finally flush after filling up the tanks...I am also working on the programming to alert me me it refills the salt water mixing tank and will keep alerting me until I add the correct amount of salt to the tank ....it is so fun to make it automated...complicated trying to program it but very satisfying when it works....lol

 

[MolaMola]

Holy cow - that sounds awesome! What a fun project for you.
I was thinking about Reeftronics in the future when I know what I am doing with Apex. I think it would be wise b/c when school power and/or internet goes out there is no backup so I would like to know what is going on there.

 

[jonmos75]

Really Reeftronics is just another way to view graphs and programming of your Apex....Why I would recommend this now is you can save or print your current programming in a PDF so if you ever had to reenter your programming or some reason...

You give it access to your controller and that is about it for setting it up...

http://www.reeftronics.net/apex-guide
http://www.reeftronics.net/faqs

Interesting article about how Russ & Reeftronics got started
http://www.reeftronics.net/about

 

[650-IS350]

I got my Tunze Osolator, first time using it ever. Man do I love it. Keeps my salinity stable, no more manual pouring of top off. First time I've been really able to keep SPS happy.

 

[Vhuang168]

+1 I was manually topping off in my 10g but I setup an ATO in the 40g and its been sooo easy! Except when it started not to work.

The optical sensor was getting fooled by micro bubbles my skimmer was releasing and the ATO dumped all its reservoir in. Good thing is the ATO has an overflow sensor so if the optical sensor fails, water will rise till it hits the electrical contact sensor and that stops the pump. And if that fails, there is a timer built in that stops the pump after a few mins. It also has a run dry float sensor that goes into the reservoir to prevent the pump from running dry. I like it so far. Its the new Aqua Medic Refill system and the best thing is its $99.

I've since put a sponge where the water from the skimmer chamger dumps and that seems to have fixed it. I will be draining the back chambers and gluing in a bubble trap. That should fix it permanently.

I also picked a Smart ATO used off RC that I will be using on the 10g

And FYI, there is a Tunze Nano Osmolator on CL that's been posted for a while and is going for OBO right now. Was going to buy it to replace the Aquamedic when I couldn't figure out what was wrong but I'm going to pass on it now that I've 'fixed' it.

 

[MolaMola]

So I have the optical and float sensors both mounted in the sump at slightly different heights and am LOVING the Osmolator!
I did try something I read to have the topoff water flow right onto the float sensor to keep it clean of salt buildup, but it made the pump switch on and off repeatedly b/c a tiny bit of topoff water would raise the float and shut it off, then the float would go down and turn on the pump again. So now the topoff adds water to the side and it is fine.
Now I wonder if it would be better to have the float sensor up in the display to monitor that level directly. Besides looking at it, I wonder if snails would climb on it or salt would build up. Anybody have it in the display?

 

[jonmos75]

I don't use float switches in the display tanks, but if you do yes snails could effect the operation of the float so I would get one of these http://www.autotopoff.com/products/ST1/index.htm or build something similar

 

[Vhuang168]

The water level in the display stays constant. Any evap will show up in an area of the sump down stream of the last overflowing baffle. Usually that is the return area. You can put the inflow from ATO in the same chamber or use 1 upstream of it.

 

[MolaMola]

My thinking was that if something was wrong and the water was rising too high in the display due to overflow blockage or something that the ATO would turn off and sound the alarm. I guess I will leave both sensors in the sump like they are. Thanks.

 

[Vhuang168]

For that scenario, you can hook up a float sensor in the overflow to the Apex and have it turn off the return pump if water reaches that level

Sent from my KFJWI using Tapatalk

 

[aqua-nut]

What Vincent said!

Having the ATO know that the tank was over filling wouldn't really help since the return pump is the item needing to be shut down.