new member from Australia "Hello"

[Automate]

Hi,
Stumbled across the forum on this site and thought I'd like to join in.

I have kept fish for 12 years and have a planted discus tank for the last 3 years. As my nic suggests I am keen to automate everything and anything. Currently installed online ph and conductivity monitors, ph is controlled via co2 injection and next is to take the challenge of maintaining the conductivity (tds) via mixing RO with aged tap water with automatic water changes.

I have biult an aquarium controller which provides for automatic water changes, it uses drain and fill through one tube leading outside the house. As I only change 10% daily I do not bother in heating the water before addition. The temp only drops .5 degree over 30 minutes and quickly comes back.

Hope to learn lots in this international forum.

cheers from down-under

[keno]

Hi Automate and welcome to Simply!

Would love to hear how your water changer works and maybe even a pic ???? :)

[AmberC]

Hi! Welcome to simply!
Amber

[Jarrod]

Hi Automate...A big welcome to Simply! An interesting concept of automating alot of the daily tasks one has to do in this hobby.
Jarrod

[lbquoc]

Automate, Can you share some pics and info on how it works? I'm sure it will be very helpful to newbies like me.
Thanks

[nacra99]

Hi! Welcome!!!

Marc

[Automate]

My tank is not close to an outside wall so I had to make the fill/return line a single 3/8" tube running from the tank to outside. My tank does not have a drilled overflow and I do not trust a syphon overflow arrangement thus I have to drain before I fill. My outside aging barrel has a "plastic" corner filter submerged with carbon and filter wool to provide some filtering and more importantly airation.

This is a pic of the controller and water change system

functions supported thus far:
monitor temperatures Aquarium and water barrel
alarm temperature high / low

Fert dosing
Auto by amount
MAN hold to dose litres
Only allows max of 30ml to be dosed each day

Wtr Cycle
Auto -select how many litres and it will drain & fill
MAN -select either manual fill or drain to a litre amount
Alarm if water level dosn't change after 1 minute when draining and stop
Alarm for Fill if float switch not detected, Fill to an amount or max time

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/Auto%20Water%20Change/IMG_0034.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/Auto%20Water%20Change/IMG_0033.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0022.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0025.jpg

water comes into the bottom left corner at the pump, it then gets pumped into the filter and then into the fill solenoid. The fill solenoid and drain solenoid (has red LED on) have a tee piece installed. Drain solenoid lower tube goes to drain and you can see a valve in the top left corner this is the tube from the fish tank. turn the drain solenoid "on" to drain, turn the fill solenoid & pump "on" to fill

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0003.jpg

Above is the manual control panel which is outside.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/tank.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/Auto%20Water%20Change/IMG_0037.jpg
This is the water level floats. There is two for redundancy with the temperature probe The top of my jebo tank has a centre brace and a plastic surround running around the top of the tank and this just sits at the back of the tank. I already had a small gap between the cover glass and the back of the tank where my filter tubes, air lines etc went into the tank. .It is only 15mm high so the light canopy just sits on top.

[Automate]

..

[Cosmo]

Hello Mate :) Welcome to Simply :)

Nice setup you've got there!

I use a similar float type cutoff switch to stop the fill pump when the tank fills... a double is a great idea. I looked into setting up an auto drain system too, but the price of the drain solenoid was several hundred USD :( Does your drain solenoid open/close the drain automatically, and if so... was it less expensive? Would still like to go that route if I could find an affordable solenoid valve.

Glad to have you onboard :)

Jim

[CAGE-RATTLER]

Ello Mate ............. welcome Aboard!

Thats quite the elaborate setup you've got there.

[Automate]

The solenoids I used where 24VDC which is the same voltage as the pump. Very safe...

The pump is from an RO unit and pumps at 1.2 litres/min which is great for what I am using it for. The pump was US100 and the vales I paid US75.00 each. You cannot use garden solenoids as these solenoids have to operate at very low pressures.

If you had a drilled overflow it would be sooo easy just to pump water into the tank and it just to drain our over the overflow. However would need more pipes running to the outside plus I paid $1000 for the tank (curved corners) so I did not want to risk drilling holes.

cheers