Reef Angel Forum

Any way to have a scale to measure my CO2 tank? Especially for us with calcium reactors? Worst case is run out of CO2 and crash tank for low ALK.

I know $$$ but could save $1000 in dead coral

How about pressure monitor? Could use to see when tank is near empty. Will start to see pressure drop on tank and give a few days warning when tank is almost empty

I can make you a custom water level expansion module that could measure the psi of your CO2 tank

How would that connect? You'd need a tee in the airline? That's an awesome idea. I don't run a reactor..but for those that do, this would be so good.

Yeah, use a T on the airline.

Just curious, what would you have to mod to do that? I figured you could change the gain in software like we've done for longer pipes.

What would be cool would be this, plus the ph expansion plus a co2 regulator and have an all in one carbon reactor kit. AlanM built a pwm solenoid I believe that could be used. Let me see if I could dig up the link.

Here, check this out.

http://wamas.org/forums/topic/65104-diy ... ntry579900

I do have a little Arduino-driven mouse solenoid device. It currently has 4 channels and can use a potentiometer or 0-10V input to pulse a little 10ms bubble out of the mouse solenoid, which is inline in the low-pressure side of the CO2 tubing. It can go from 2 minutes per bubble to 2 bubbles per second. I was basically trying to see if I could make a controllable version of one of those CarbonDoser things for a few dollars.

The goal is listening to a pH probe and dynamically adjusting the bubble rate. With the pressure sensor on the low pressure line it would close the loop with controlling the thing, I think.

Hey that would be awesome, my Aquarium Plants Bubble Controller was $299.00 If it comes near that price point I am in on one of those.

The first stage on the CO2 Regulator at max fill is 1000 psi. That would be the pressure I would want to measure. When this starts to go down then I know my CO2 is near empty. I do not need an absolute measure on the Pressure just an indication when there is a downward trend. Would a pressure transducer be a better fit? Could tee or replace the first stage gauge. I am not putting a 1/4" tube or any tubing on that side and hooking to the current water level sensor. Asking for some serious problems.

lnevo wrote:Just curious, what would you have to mod to do that? I figured you could change the gain in software like we've done for longer pipes.

What would be cool would be this, plus the ph expansion plus a co2 regulator and have an all in one carbon reactor kit. AlanM built a pwm solenoid I believe that could be used. Let me see if I could dig up the link.

I would buy this! This is a major failure point in my system that keeps me up at night. I lost my entire tank in an ALK spike, due to no CO2. Lost few $1000 in coral.

This is the regulator I am using:

http://www.aquariumplants.com/CarbonDos ... _p/co2.htm

Would it be possible to get a peristalic pump as well to feed the reactor? Would have to be continuous duty.

1000psi?
That seems a bit excessive.
Are you sure it is not 100psi?

Just changing the gain of the current sensor wouldn't do it.
It can't take not even 1psi.
Water pressure in the pipe is very minimal and that's why we use such small range sensor.
It requires a mod to use a sensor that can measure the range of the CO2 tank.

Sorry 850 to 900

Are you sure it is not 100?

double post

Yes positive. Gauge is 0 - 2000 psi.

Look on link I posted to the exact regulator I am using. First gauge, pressure on tank, is 850-900 PSIG

Paul_Velasco wrote:

lnevo wrote:Just curious, what would you have to mod to do that? I figured you could change the gain in software like we've done for longer pipes.

What would be cool would be this, plus the ph expansion plus a co2 regulator and have an all in one carbon reactor kit. AlanM built a pwm solenoid I believe that could be used. Let me see if I could dig up the link.

I would buy this! This is a major failure point in my system that keeps me up at night. I lost my entire tank in an ALK spike, due to no CO2. Lost few $1000 in coral.

This is the regulator I am using:

http://www.aquariumplants.com/CarbonDos ... _p/co2.htm

Would it be possible to get a peristalic pump as well to feed the reactor? Would have to be continuous duty.

Why would you have an alk spike with no gas? Are you talking about a drop? If it's caught within a day or so, I don't think you'd have too much ill effect. Drops are MUCH less harmful than spikes ime.

I use the same carbondoser regulator and a masterflex peristaltic pump for my setup and it is fantastic. I would still love to see some more advanced integration with the RA as I believe all the elements are here both minds and hardware.

Paul_Velasco wrote:Yes positive. Gauge is 0 - 2000 psi.

Look on link I posted to the exact regulator I am using. First gauge, pressure on tank, is 850-900 PSIG

For that kind of pressure, the sensor can't be pcb mount like the one user on the water level expansion.
It would have to be connected with a lead and it cost quite a bit more. Rough estimate would be around $150

rimai wrote:

Paul_Velasco wrote:Yes positive. Gauge is 0 - 2000 psi.

Look on link I posted to the exact regulator I am using. First gauge, pressure on tank, is 850-900 PSIG

For that kind of pressure, the sensor can't be pcb mount like the one user on the water level expansion.
It would have to be connected with a lead and it cost quite a bit more. Rough estimate would be around $150

I am still in, my corals cost me way more!

If you have an integrated system pH, controlled output Solenoid, Pressure Sensor, continuous duty Peristaltic pump, etc I would buy. My basic CARx sytems is $1000+.

Imagine to be able to have full control of the CalRx. Especially if I can control output via a continuous duty peristaltic pump. This would be the ulitmate Calcium Reactor. If someone could just automate the Alk testing reefing would be much easier

Why would you have an alk spike with no gas? Are you talking about a drop? If it's caught within a day or so, I don't think you'd have too much ill effect. Drops are MUCH less harmful than spikes ime.

I am a time limited Reefer. I could literally go a few days with no time to mess with the tank. If I could get a reminder my tank is near empty, I can time a trip to Air-Gas Fill plant or Homebrew Store to get a CO2 fill.

Not spike, but swings in my ALK have caused my tank to go haywire. Killed a tankful back when I first started the tank.

Wow I hadn't considered what Alan had said about using the ph to control the solenoid and then with the pressure guage monitoring the tank you'd maintain a pretty rock solid reactor setup...so we have 150 for the sensor, 110 for a ph expansion. Figure around 350 for a full solenoid/ph/digital gauge. We already have the functions pretty much to have a completely integrated calcium reactor setup.

lnevo wrote:Wow I hadn't considered what Alan had said about using the ph to control the solenoid and then with the pressure guage monitoring the tank you'd maintain a pretty rock solid reactor setup...so we have 150 for the sensor, 110 for a ph expansion. Figure around 350 for a full solenoid/ph/digital gauge. We already have the functions pretty much to have a completely integrated calcium reactor setup.

Sounds reasonable!! The regulator I got was $300 no pH control

Paul_Velasco wrote:

lnevo wrote:Wow I hadn't considered what Alan had said about using the ph to control the solenoid and then with the pressure guage monitoring the tank you'd maintain a pretty rock solid reactor setup...so we have 150 for the sensor, 110 for a ph expansion. Figure around 350 for a full solenoid/ph/digital gauge. We already have the functions pretty much to have a completely integrated calcium reactor setup.

Sounds reasonable!! The regulator I got was $300 no pH control

And no digital gauge.

How about a continuous duty peristaltic pump? Controlled by RA, not that would be the ultimate controllable CALRx Rig.

You could add the RA dosing pump or the ATO one to the mix...

lnevo wrote:You could add the RA dosing pump or the ATO one to the mix...

Are these continuous duty?

Anyone working on this? Would be great just to have a controllable solenoid. Big market for those and CALRx

Paul_Velasco wrote:

lnevo wrote:You could add the RA dosing pump or the ATO one to the mix...

Are these continuous duty?

Anyone working on this? Would be great just to have a controllable solenoid. Big market for those and CALRx

I doubt it. That's why there's such a huge demand in the reefing community for things like Cole parmer masterflex pumps.

Do you need continuous duty for a cal reactor?

Its mostly AWC that I've seen for continuous duty.

All suggestions on the Reef Forums is for a continuous flow of water through the Reactor, around 30 ml/hr.
I run a line with my return pump. Would love to be able to control the flow. Right now I am limited to counting drip rate and estimating the flow with eyeball flow meter.

Controllable continuous duty peristaltic pump!!! This would be my ideal.

The pump should be sub $300 price point. I paid about $250 for a used Cole Palmer and it crapped out in about 6 months. Would be willing to pay about 300-400 for a controllable one.

What is continuous duty and why are they different?
If it is continuous, I would imagine it is not controllable or it would be called variable duty, no?