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Thread: Salt feeder??

  1. #1
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    Salt feeder??

    I'm trying to find some kind of metered dispenser for salt that I can control via apex. I'd like to be able to dispense a half cup or 1/4 cup of salt every time an outlet turns on. If it had some kind of dry contact sensor that I can wire into the I/o switches to detect when the salt is low that would be cool too.

    Humidity proof is required as well...


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  2. #2
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    My best guess would be to purchase some sort of "dispenser" with a rotor at the bottom that has space to dispense 1/4 cup. Almost like a hopper. Here is one used for cereal: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...uL._SY355_.jpg

    Obviously you'd need one that could be customized for the correct 1/4 cup, and you'd need it to be setup so that it would be motorized and only rotate one cycle when power is applied. Very specific, but I would guess some sort of servo circuitry would do the job.

  3. #3
    Frequent Contributor jrlamountain's Avatar
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    Get a koi feeder they are designed to be humidity resistant for the koi food and you could modify it to work with the apex


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  4. #4
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    Hmm couldn't you mix a high potency salt mixture into some RO/di and use a dosing pump? Just an idea.

  5. #5
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    Just curious, why? I don't understand why you would ever want to dispense salt directly into the tank?

  6. #6
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    More than curious, I can't imagine any good reason to dispense salt directly into saltwater if it is a FO, or FOWLR or a Reef tank, or any other kind of tank, for that matter. I can, on the other hand, think of compelling reasons never to do that. Please hold off on this plan until you have had a chance to converse with experienced aquarists. I would hate to see you have a bad experience because you didn't talk it over with a number of knowlegable people. Plenty of us here are available for such conversations. Also, there are very knowlebgable folks on other aquarium forums such as Reef2Reef.com, ReefCentral.com and others.

    Good Luck with your aquarium hobby.
    fab

  7. #7
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    The example I can think of is in your SW makeup tank for automatic water changes. Not directly into a main display system.

  8. #8
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    Not for dispening right into the display. This is for sw makeup.


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  9. #9
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    Question

    Quote Originally Posted by willtheld View Post
    This is for sw makeup.
    Now that can make some good sense if you can get the salinity right, and do so reliably. I expect that specific aspect will turn into a larger problem in reducing concept to practice than meets the eye without a higher order of control than we can get out of Apex. Sounds like a fun project trying it, though.

    Do you have any background in controlling automated mixing processes? If so then you should be well prepared for this project. If not, then you are in for quite a learning experience. It should be quite rewarding. In either case, please take this post as an encouragement to proceed.

    You have already clearly identified a major practical problem with trying to dispense salt; it is highly hygroscopic so it tends to cake up when exposed to moisture. I hope you can find a good, useable solution (no pun here) for this that do not require chemical additives. I know of none.

    Have you decided whether you will use a batch mixing process or a continuous one that produces water that is ready to use as it comes out of your mixing process? Such a continuous mixing process will present far more control problems, mainly in maintaining a sufficiently low salinity error.

    As you begin your design, keep in mind that newly mixed saltwater needs to be mixed, dissolved and allowed to stabilize for some amount of time before using it. Also, the salt mix will dissolve better, to avoid precipitation, at lower temperatures than you want for your display tank. Therefore, you will need time to adjust it to match your display tank temperature after having stabilized adequately. These two factors will complicate controls for a continuous process in which you intend to mix new salt with water in the same saltwater reservoir you are pulling from for automated water changes. These two factors alone would limit my first attempts at automating saltwater mixing to batch processing versus continuous. You can use controllable valves to alternate between batch mixed reservoirs to achieve continuous availability of new salt water.

    I hope you set up an experimental mixing station and test it out thoroughly before trying to use it operationally. You should be able to do all the experimentation you need without wasting any salt by using the saltwater that you produce experimentally, manually mixing it to your desired salinity.

    Please keep us posted on how you plan to control mixing, particularly on how you will be controlling salinity error ... and, of course, keep us up to date on your progress. This is a challenging project. There are many of us here to help you with any Apex related issues. I would like to see you succeed. If you do then I may want to use your design as a point of departure for doing it myself.

    BTW, What quantity of saltwater mixing are you planning?

    Good luck on this project,
    fab

  10. #10
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    I have been brainstorming a bit on an idea I have. What I envision is a 55g drum of HIGH salinity water. Basically, I will dump in more salt than the water can absorb, or be at its limit. On the other side, I have my RO water that's fed direct from the house water supply. At that point:

    1) Open a sump drain for a short period of time (cutting off skimmer because of changed water level) to take water out of the system.
    2) Open solenoids for RO and salt water, alternating, for short periods, so that it replenishes tank water, but keeps salinity correct.

    Of course, this setup wouldn't be able to do a quick water change, and would require several hours to complete, or be spread out possibly just a little each day.

  11. #11
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    I was wondering if this project was ever completed, and how it turned out. I'm try to design my own system .However, instead of dosing salt to water. I'm thinking about dosing water to salt. Basically here is the idea. Get a large mixing container say 300 gallons, and put some water at the bottom. Say 100 gallons, then dump a bucket of salt in. Using a floating sanity probe, and the Apex hooked up to solenoid cut off the water when the salinity reaches the correct concentration.

  12. #12
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    Mixing concentrated salt water with RODI water automatically

    Hi!
    I recently had the same idea for producing salt water automatically and first thought about the same problems (salt drawing water, minerals dropping out, etc.).

    My current idea (not tested!) is to have

    - concentrated salt water (we have 8.33x concentrated salt water from ATI here in Germany)
    - RODI water

    and mix it together in a separate small bin with a DOS and to control salinity using the salinity probe and a solenoid valve. Now so far, I fail to see any obvious problems (apart from the need of an extra mixing bin). Would be great to hear some thoughts on this!

    BTW: is it possible to control the solenoid valve based on measurements from the salinity probe?

    Best,
    Gregor

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