Its more of a stand alone system. I go slightly the direction on not all my eggs in one basket, not because i don't appreciate automation but i know if my apex fails, and everything relies on it.. I'm screwed.
First This system does not have back up power via an APC battery back up unit so that if power fails water is not being moved around from non normal running level marks!
My system uses Spectra Pure's liter miter type dosing pumps with integrated control timers to divine all values up into small amount every 20 minutes ish all day long for a final total of the value i set per day.
The auto water change tasks and ato jobs on all systems total for six dosers. Two main units four slaves some of which are float switch enabled from the factory for redundancy over my measured amounts. for example. my main display sends 1.9 liters a day of ATO which has KALK in it to the display only if the float on the doser is under the normal water level. Its slightly more than my normal evaporation rate. which can vary a bit day to day on this 550 gallon system.
My salt water pump runs .15 liters per day of new SW to the system, no floats. And the remove old SW pump removes .20 liters of water from the high water level mark level no floats. All of which are controlled by the main liter miter unit. all will not gravity siphon. A battery backed up modem and apex alarm is txt to me if ph is to high or low and if the conductivity is too far off 1.025.
much of this can be done with a normal controller as well. and likely very safely. its up to you.
I would also consider the BRS one liter per minute doser heads on timers or controller. I don't have any float controled only type systems anymore i have heard to many horror stories for many different types of failures.. usually the user not the equipment, but still.
common complications most folks incur include:
if apex warning alone system fails, all keeps running as programed.
if i turn on the ATO pump manually it will NOT keep running KALK into my system, the air pressure switch driven float will stop it as it gets too high from normal running level.
if i loose power int he house, it will not run with out safety alarms
If i run a bin dry no damage is done an eventually i get air bubbles in my display form low water level. Or a incorrect salinity warning occurs.
If a pump head or line fails or breaks/ disconnects, the water is lost to the bin side or floor, not siphoned into the tank, which is twice as bad as a wet floor in my case. I have tile.
If skimmer goes fruity the system doesn't care and still sends normal amounts of water all around.
If main pump fails, the system stops sending KALK "via air pressure switch device", but keeps running Auto water changes from sump volume only at a bit more to than in ratio and only down to the high water lvl mark. ** no real value here just a fact to note. There is just enough water in my sump to run the system if, when its drained down to running water level before pump restarts, a restart happens. only after many days of no power to main pump because only a small amount each hour more than whats incoming SW goes out to drain. always take out bin more than you put in to normalize the running level and account for a wearing , or clogged pump or something.
