Automated Reefing: How "automated" are you?

[Koh23]

I'm only automation that my tank have....

I do everything....well..automatically

Ok, refugium light is on timer, so as half of my dt lights, other half is manual since my timer broke and needs to be replaced....

 

[RichReef]

Funny you should mention NASA. They have had their fair share of disasters over the years and they are rocket scientists.

Far and in between. Not sure what fair share is compared to everything else. I am pretty sure their standards far surpass anything in this industry. Just tank failures alone probably outnumber all NASA fails.

Customers always ask me why can't someone build a car that doesn't break? I tell them they can come real close. Call NASA and ask how much.

Can we at least agree that their standards are likely the highest in the world?

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

Only my lights are automated. The rest I have to set reminders for myself.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

Far and in between. Not sure what fair share is compared to everything else. I am pretty sure their standards far surpass anything in this industry. Just tank failures alone probably outnumber all NASA fails.

Customers always ask me why can't someone build a car that doesn't break? I tell them they can come real close. Call NASA and ask how much.

Can we at least agree that their standards are likely the highest in the world?

Agreed! My cousin is the smartest person I know, and he works for NASA. His business card literally says "Rocket Scientist", lol!

 

[Mical]

Enough said...

 

[*Ruffian*]

I had a multi-day power outage wipe out a tank and vowed I'd never have another tank without a whole-house generator. Generator installed, I purchased a Biocube to see how far the hobby had progressed in 15 years.

I was amazed and before investing money in the new tech, I wanted to see if I was really committed. The bug bit and I slowly added automation to my Biocube.

I read and researched everything about Apex and GHL. I am a coder and was really intrigued how GHL setup their controller thru logic gates. I guess that is why I chose GHL.

Started out with a stand alone doser to learn. Next I was lucky enough to pickup a Maxi-doser. I built a saltwater mixing station and began AWC and ATO. The time saved mixing 6 gallons of water and dragging hoses around weekly was the game changer.

I began researching my dream tank and added a Profilux 4 to the Biocube. Decided to learn automation on the small tank so I wasn't trying to figure everything out at once.

Fast forward a year and my IM 170 Ext has the main tasks mostly automated (AWC, ATO, Feed, Alk Control, Temp, pumps and lights). Waiting on the ION Director to complete the GHL setup.

My todo list is add leak detection and a 3 way valve for my co2 scrubber.

If I could figure out how to change the filter floss in my cups, that would be the holy grail!

Glad to be back in the hobby and enjoying the views.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Very little automation.
Tunze ATO and a Bayite temp controller.

Lights run on a schedule and that's it.

Same, except I do still use the Reefkeeper for the standby mode for when I do water changes/maintenance.

 

[ClownWrangler]

and there's the difference...engineers spend their lives designing things that shouldn't fail , and mechanics spend their lives fixing the failures of engineers...

I know what you are talking about. I have 12 years of experience as a military aircraft technician (fancy word for a mechanic). Needless to say, I bumped heads with people in school with all that experience under my belt. But consider the fact that mechanics would have nothing to work on if not for engineers. There should be more crossover between the two fields.

 

[ClownWrangler]

Far and in between. Not sure what fair share is compared to everything else. I am pretty sure their standards far surpass anything in this industry. Just tank failures alone probably outnumber all NASA fails.

Customers always ask me why can't someone build a car that doesn't break? I tell them they can come real close. Call NASA and ask how much.

Can we at least agree that their standards are likely the highest in the world?

Which is why they cant figure out how to get to the moon again. Higher required safety factors have made it too expensive. People want to have their cake and eat it too. There is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to additional investment in R&D vs additional safety/efficiency benefits. Infinitely safe cars would be infinitely expensive.

However I think the redundancies in a nuclear power plant would be a better analogue to automating a reef tank. Spacecraft need to save weight, so you need to design components to be bullet proof, which is extremely expensive whereas with a nuclear power plant, systems are designed so numerous components can fail without catastrophe. Most nuclear power plant disasters are due to either operator error or natural disaster. But considering the number of plants operating around the world and only a handful of disasters, they are extremely safe. Redundancy for critical systems is key.

 

[PanchoG]

I have Apex + DDR + DOS, the Apex controls the fuge lights, chiller and heater. My lights are AI Hydras so they go by their own lamp.
I am in the process to do automatic water changes with another DOS unit, install Neptune ATO and adding leak detectors.
Having the Apex gives you a peace of mind you must likely know if something goes wrong.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Dosing alk/mg/ca/nopox. Soon to add dosing of RS trace colors.
ATO/ATK Apex. Stopped working so trying to figure out why
Have DOS hooked up to do AWC when I get to it
Most equip and lights controlled by apps
Control boards ready to mount and put up
Many apex bits to learn to use

 

[Kiwi reefer]

all that ive managed to automate is mt ATO and lights haha

 

[Mark Novack]

I have an automatic refill for RODI from Blue Marine. Apart from that, its manual labor. I do have to manually refill my auto refill jug. However, after years of doing this I have the logistics worked out pretty well and its not much more work than keeping all of the automation in working order.

Now what I have is a few boxes filled with technology that nobody wants to buy because its last generation's tech. Instead of giving it all away I'll toss it into the recycle park for the benefit of the local stores that remain open. Last time I held a giveaway for the less fortunate reefer, I found almost everything repackaged for sale in stores around the area. Belgium! These folks can chew a penny into two pieces. The dude who took my living items for his tank actually drove across the country reselling it to stores. I'm sorry about that because this tank was taken down because of disease and parasites and now its been distributed across the country.

 

[Struttmaster]

I'm a big fan of my Apex and use it both for convenience of automation as well as safety of my reef and home. Here are some of the things my Apex does for me:

• Detect power outages to shut down non-critical devices to prolong power on my battery backup
• Control dual heaters in my sump, and a heater in my saltwater mixing station
• Control lighting schedules including lunar schedules
• Adjust my Gyre for different flow rates throughout the day and night
• Test Alk, Cal, and Mag and produce graphs over time
• Control 2-part dosing and automatically adjust based on test results
• Monitor water flow rate through my carbon reactor, as well as return pipe
• Turn off my UV sterilizer when water flow goes below 250 gallons/hour
• Shut off the skimmer when the Avast skimmate locker is full and send me an alert
• Clean the skimmer neck every 6 hours with the Avast Swabbie
• Control auto feeder when I'm away from home
• Shut down pumps and send an alert if a leak is detected in my sump cabinet or the carpet below my tank
• Daily automatic water changes
• Remote ATO pump in my garage mixing station feeds water to my tank in the living room
• Alert me when RO/DI tank is low, or too full
• Alert me when saltwater storage tank is too low, and shut down auto water change until full
• Turn on a cooling fan when temps are too high in summer
• All alerts are sent to both email and text message

I explain much of this automation in my series of Apex tutorials:

Articles by SuncrestReef

www.reef2reef.com

Great set up! Not needed on you system but my Apex notifies me and turns my skimmer off when its cup is full. Very handy!

 

[Jedi1199]

All I have is ATO and lights, everything else I do manually.

Same here

 

[Hoodstream]

I got a timer for lights but other than that I do everything myself.

 

[Treefer32]

I wouldn't consider my stuff fully automated mainly because it requires human maintenance.

Automations on my 340 gallon system include:

1. Apex Classic:

1. Temp monitoring
   1. Low temp / High temp alerts
2. PH monitoring
   1. Low PH / High PH alerts
3. Automation of power outlets:
   1. Feed cycle to shut pumps off
   2. Control return pump, skimmer, etc for manual water changes.
   3. Control BRS dosing pump for vodka dosing
   4. Control outlets for T5s and outlets for LEDs (shut all power off nightly).

2. Other automation outside Apex:

• Genesys reef systems ATO / Top off bin monitoring system
• Hydros Wave Engine to automate cycles on my 4 gyres
• Mobius app (which I hate) for my 2 MP40s.
• Bubble Magus Doser to dose alk, calcium, and now all for reef.
• Aqua Illumination App to control lights schedules.
• Plumbing to drain sump to floor drain
• Plumbing on water change system (2 75 gallon drums)
  • Can do a 10% water change within 5-10 minutes.

Additional automations I would like to see in the hobby:

1. Most important to me would be an compact frozen food feeder that could feed my fish once per day automatically in the morning.

• I was following one company that had made it to the prototype testing stage of the manufacturing process and it seems it has fizzled out. They were so close only to fall flat about a yard from the finish line.
  • They were using compact refridgeration to keep the food frozen and an electric slicer that would auto rotate a disk and slice cubes of food into the tank.

2. Additional testing for salinity would be nice, but the reviews on those have been so mixed I'm not sure it's worth the investment in a pm1 module and a probe for inaccurate salinity.

3. I recently discovered a need for monitoring multiple tanks with one Apex. Specifically temperature and PH. It sounds like there's a module for the Apex to do a second temp probe and possibly another box for PH probe. Ugg..

4. An automated algae turf scrubber that somehow cleans itself would be awesome!

5. Automated front panel glass cleaning without a massive robotic snail taking up 6-8 inches of viewing area would also be great!


I use Hanna checkers to test alk every 2-3 days and phosphate / nitrate once every 1 -2 weeks just to ensure everything is staying where I need it.

 

[Joyful Corals]

Dang near everything is automated including emptying the skimmer cup.
In my 240 gallon system, the only thing I have to do is add salt to my salt mixing bin once every two weeks and mix/fill my all 4 reef every 7-10 days, clean the glass, vacuum the sand, and feed the tank. Auto water changes, auto waste bucket emptying, auto RODI reservoir fill, and I have a display ATO reservoir that has its own ATO system to always have the full look in my living room.
Setting up the automation was about 2 months worth of hard work when starting the tank, but Well worth it!

 

[costaricareef]

I'm a big fan of my Apex and use it both for convenience of automation as well as safety of my reef and home. Here are some of the things my Apex does for me:

• Detect power outages to shut down non-critical devices to prolong power on my battery backup
• Control dual heaters in my sump, and a heater in my saltwater mixing station
• Control lighting schedules including lunar schedules
• Adjust my Gyre for different flow rates throughout the day and night
• Test Alk, Cal, and Mag and produce graphs over time
• Control 2-part dosing and automatically adjust based on test results
• Monitor water flow rate through my carbon reactor, as well as return pipe
• Turn off my UV sterilizer when water flow goes below 250 gallons/hour
• Shut off the skimmer when the Avast skimmate locker is full and send me an alert
• Clean the skimmer neck every 6 hours with the Avast Swabbie
• Control auto feeder when I'm away from home
• Shut down pumps and send an alert if a leak is detected in my sump cabinet or the carpet below my tank
• Daily automatic water changes
• Remote ATO pump in my garage mixing station feeds water to my tank in the living room
• Alert me when RO/DI tank is low, or too full
• Alert me when saltwater storage tank is too low, and shut down auto water change until full
• Turn on a cooling fan when temps are too high in summer
• All alerts are sent to both email and text message

I explain much of this automation in my series of Apex tutorials:

Articles by SuncrestReef

www.reef2reef.com

Hi SuncrestReef, how does the Apex know when there's a power outage going on? I have mine plugged into a big UPS which basically runs everything but the lights for about 30-40 minutes. This stops the nuisance outages (5 seconds- 30 minutes) from frying my equipment. Anyway, curious to know how the Apex would know if its on battery back-up. Thanks.

 

[tang_man_montreal]

Hi SuncrestReef, how does the Apex know when there's a power outage going on? I have mine plugged into a big UPS which basically runs everything but the lights for about 30-40 minutes. This stops the nuisance outages (5 seconds- 30 minutes) from frying my equipment. Anyway, curious to know how the Apex would know if its on battery back-up. Thanks.

You need to purchase the optional AC Adaptor for the Apex Controller, than add this line to your alarm configuration:
If Power Apex Off 000 Then ON

The AC adaptor needs to be plugged into a receptacle that is not on a battery back up.