Water Changes - Pump/Valve/Sensor Integration

[aalhait]

I'm planning an upgrade to my current water changing system. I currently have an ATO system integrated with my AC3P and a QuiteOne 3000 Pump which pushes water from my Mixing Tank to my sump at a high rate...

I've decided to change it a bit and add a Huge reservoir for Salt Water mixing outside my house in a 100G Container perhaps. And switch my current mixing tank to only a fresh water top-off water system.

Also want to change the pumps to a LITERMETER III, REMOTE PUMP MODULE

Instead of buying he whole LiterMeterIII system with 2 extra pumps... Has anybody integrated the LiterMeterIII pumps with the AC3P?

If so, how did you do it... Where did you connect things?

Also has anybody integrated a top-off float sensor and a WB200 water leak sensor and other sensors at the same time?

I have the breakout box for AC3P, and the WB200 with sensors. But have not hooked anything up yet... Cannot figure out which wire hooks where?!


So my current plan is to have a pump going from my Salt Water Tank to my sump, another pump from the main tank to the frag tank, and another from the frag tank to the drain. All running at the same time...

Another pump would be for top-off only from the RODI reservoir.

Thanks.

[kenargo]

I use an LM3 with a remote pump for continuous water change and find that setup to be the best. If you plan to use a single LM3 (I suspect to remove water) then I expect that in very short time you will find your salinity changing.

Not sure why you think you might need 3 LM3 pumps???

My setup:

1 LM3 removing 10 LPD from sump (down the drain it goes) and a second adding 10 LPD from salt water make-up. This has worked perfectly for many months. I still have the LM3 connected to the controller but this is more for safety than control; in case the sump runs high I turn off ALL water pumps.

[aalhait]

ken, do you have the LM3 connected to AC3P or do you use the LM3 Controller as well for all that?

I'm trying to invent a way so I can actually monitor what's going on and to be able to do things remotely if needed using my iPhone app ;)

Any thoughts on that?

Basically... I have 2 tanks now... a 150G display and a 24G AquaPod for frags. I want to replace water from Display Tank and move it to the Frag Tank. Then I want to move the water from the frag tank to the Drain.

Of course I also need the water from my Mixing reservoir to the sump when the level goes down.

What would be the best setup... Ideally, I want to do this remotely if needed.

Thanks

-AJ

[kenargo]

I have an LM3 base + 1 external pump (for water change) and I connect the LM3 power to EB8 so I can turn it off if I need to.

I now see why you want 3 pumps and I have to agree that in your case that would be best; 1 to remove from tank to AquaPod, 1 to replace new salt to tank and 1 to remove from AquaPod.

You can use any kind of water pump for top-off (I use LM3 but it isn't out of any requirement; I jsut happen to have 2 LM3 bases and 4 external pumps so I use them.

Nice thing about using LM3 for water change is that they remove so little each cycle it won't trigger fresh water topoff and they are sufficiently accurate enough to be used without problems.

[aalhait]

So, Ken you recommend getting the LM3 base unit.. No way around having all connected to AC for controlling everything :) I was contemplating hacking the Additional Pumps to work with the AC3P unit. Just turn on/off from the AC3P or even somehow using it with AquaSurf ;) !!

[kenargo]

The really nice part about the base unit is that is supports the calibration; not all pumps pump the same amount and in the case of water exchange accuracy can make the different to how much salinity moves around.

Now, that said if you 'really' want to do this without the base then I suspect it would be possible but you would need to take into account the output of each pump at 12 v and make adjustments to the program accordingly. The Apex would be better suited because it can control to the second (you are limited to minute) but then with the Pro you could monitor conductivity and turn pumps off if the salinity changes.

A couple options...

Note: The AquaSurf won't drive these pumps directly; it would burn out the AquaSurf but if your into electronics you could design something that converted AquaSurf control output into something the pumps could consume and work with.