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Finally - Monitor Your Calcium Reactor Flow With APEX


TheClark

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After a year and a half, I can definitely say this is a very good thing. 

You need to run a high flow rate as the lower limit of this sensor is still quite high, but it works well at around 100 mls/min.

My needle valve occasionally gets clogged, and I get alerted right away.  

If alk stability is key, and the CR flow needs to be constant, its a no brainer to monitor it.

Highly recommend.

 

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, TheClark said:

After a year and a half, I can definitely say this is a very good thing. 

You need to run a high flow rate as the lower limit of this sensor is still quite high, but it works well at around 100 mls/min.

My needle valve occasionally gets clogged, and I get alerted right away.  

If alk stability is key, and the CR flow needs to be constant, its a no brainer to monitor it.

Highly recommend.

 

 

 

 

So this sounds like it would be a good fit for those running high effluent flow/high pH - which I think is easier to control than super slow flow/lower pH (thanks @Bicyclebill)  Now, if I had an apex...

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40 minutes ago, albertareef said:

So this sounds like it would be a good fit for those running high effluent flow/high pH - which I think is easier to control than super slow flow/lower pH (thanks @Bicyclebill)  Now, if I had an apex...

Well, good news.  It is pretty easy to up your flow, just raise your PH to compensate!

 

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11 minutes ago, TheClark said:

Well, good news.  It is pretty easy to up your flow, just raise your PH to compensate!

 

Yep - been running that way for quite a while thanks to Bill but my controller doesn't have a flow meter option so will just have to live without the alarm notifications for now.

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38 minutes ago, albertareef said:

Yep - been running that way for quite a while thanks to Bill but my controller doesn't have a flow meter option so will just have to live without the alarm notifications for now.

It sure cuts down on the clogs, no doubt.  Seeing good results?  I missed your tank crash info, was not on the site much.

 

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8 minutes ago, shaywood said:

Doesn't an increased flow and pH mean slower/longer breakdown of media? 

Right, its a balance.  With the same PH and a higher flow, allot more media (and co2) will be consumed.  So you raise the PH to slow down the media dissolving and keep everything in balance.

There are calculators but trial and error usually gets a person there.

 

 

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16 hours ago, TheClark said:

It sure cuts down on the clogs, no doubt.  Seeing good results?  I missed your tank crash info, was not on the site much.

 

Yeah - meant to post a thread on that but just been too busy.  Had a mineral contaminant in my CA reactor media that led to high levels of some dissolved heavy metals - lost pretty much everything before I figured it out.

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41 minutes ago, albertareef said:

Yeah - meant to post a thread on that but just been too busy.  Had a mineral contaminant in my CA reactor media that led to high levels of some dissolved heavy metals - lost pretty much everything before I figured it out.

Dang, sorry to hear.  Kinda worries me.  Bad media or...?

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31 minutes ago, TheClark said:

Dang, sorry to hear.  Kinda worries me.  Bad media or...?

Random contaminant as far as I can tell.  Found an small chunk of a magnetic mineral by panning the media from the reactor with a magnet.  Only got to that point by noticing a nasty looking trail of deposits from the reactor effluent line after happening to move it and leave it against a visible part of the sump by accident.  Don't know what brand of media as I had several left over portions of different brands I was using up.

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3 minutes ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

i want to figure out how to wire the $5 ebay flow meters to my apex without the FMK.

maybe through the BOB?

The BOB is a simple circuit that acts as "On" or "Off" So I suppose you could set it to tell you if flow is on or off 😕 but to get a reading of how fast the little wheel is spinning would require another solution. 

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19 minutes ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

i want to figure out how to wire the $5 ebay flow meters to my apex without the FMK.

maybe through the BOB?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 

Hall effect sensors 1/4"?  Yeah, you can hook them up to an arduino for sure.  Maybe something networked like an ESP8266.  It would be a fun project for sure.  I bought some for the peristaltic project to detect when the pump is pumping, but no fluid is moving (broken tubing).

Ah if we were all retired the stuff we would make LOL.

 

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22 minutes ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

i want to figure out how to wire the $5 ebay flow meters to my apex without the FMK.

maybe through the BOB?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 

I used mysensors to build flow meters for my house and the garden a long time ago, before APEX came out with the FMK.

Goal was to see how much water we use.  It uses the exact same style meters as the APEX, but the 1" version.  Mysensors is a cool project.  A great way to start playing with this stuff:

 

https://www.mysensors.org/

 

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21 minutes ago, Exodus said:

The BOB is a simple circuit that acts as "On" or "Off" So I suppose you could set it to tell you if flow is on or off 😕 but to get a reading of how fast the little wheel is spinning would require another solution. 

yeah, maybe like if flow dropped near zero or below a threshold.  That's a good idea, quite doable...

 

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1 hour ago, albertareef said:

Random contaminant as far as I can tell.  Found an small chunk of a magnetic mineral by panning the media from the reactor with a magnet.  Only got to that point by noticing a nasty looking trail of deposits from the reactor effluent line after happening to move it and leave it against a visible part of the sump by accident.  Don't know what brand of media as I had several left over portions of different brands I was using up.

Wow, I will be inspecting every piece of media next time I fill up the reactor.  It really makes sense, anything wrong in there would wreak havoc.  Thanks for sharing.

 

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