Where do you put your controller probes?

[msteane]

My boyfriend gave me an amazing early Christmas present. He built me a raspberry pi based aquarium controller! My question is, where do you put your probes? In the display tank or in the sump and why? Right now I've put them in the display since my fear is my return pump will fail and the sumps water will be cut off from the main display tank water so the readings from the sump would match what's going on in the display. Thoughts?

 

[davesolo29]

I put mine in sump.  Keep as much clutter out of the display as possible.


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[TORX]

Put them in your sump. If the return pump will fail then you should have a warning or something set up to notify you. The heaters and pumps are all in the sump, so if an issue happens, you want to know what is going on in your sump more then in your display. If your return fails, then the tank temp will not matter as your heater is in the sump. But then again, if the return stopped, it would only be because your power was out and nothing else matters at that point anyways.

 

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

all 4 probes are in the sump  alomg with the heaters

 

[msteane]

Thanks for the input everyone.  My fear about the return pump is that I actually had one die (not because of a power outage) while I was away traveling before (of course the worst timing).  I came back home to a tank of death. 

For now I think I will leave them in the display but will add a float switch alert in the sump for high water level (return pump failure) and low water level (auto top off failure).  With those in place the other probes can make the sump their new home.  I have the probes in a plastic basket of sorts right now so the fish and snails and such can't get at them and cause trouble.

 

[TORX]

Good call on the high sump water level warning. That would be great addition/idea to a breakout box.

 

[Neopimp]

I have my probes in the return from tank section and the heaters in the pump to tank section. 

 

[Reef Hero]

I bought a probe cell holder that contains all 4 of my probes.... I have this container for the probes plumbed into my return pump and it is done in a manner that if my return fails then all water from that cell container will drain out and immediately put all probes into alarm state. You can also buy flow switches/meters now as well to put inline with your return plumbing so you would know if the pump failed. I had a mag18 quit on me once too....woke up to my alarm going off because the return pump quit. I always keep another on hand and with a union installed it makes it a quick 15 min job. I sent the mag18 away to danner and they fixed it under warranty!!


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[msteane]

A probe holder is definitely on the shopping list.  Hopefully one of the one's I'm eyeing will go on sale boxing day.  Can you link me to the flow switch/meter you're talking about?  I've never heard of those before.  My pump that I use to pump water changes into the tank is always available as a back up in case of pump failure.

 

[Boga]

My boyfriend gave me an amazing early Christmas present. He built me a raspberry pi based aquarium controller!

How can I convince my wife that the controller I'm building is going to be a late Christmas present for her and not for me?

What probes do you have?

If you plan controlling the temperature, I would suggest to place the temp probe in the flow, after the heater, 6-10 inches downstream. Maybe later your friend can add another temperature probe, so you can have one in display and one in sump. If you just monitor temperature, then IMO, DT would be the right place.

If you have a dosing system, I am thinking that pH, ORP and Dissolved Oxygen probes to be placed before the dosing point, EC probe before the ATO point in the flow.

I don't, but some folks around here would love to see pictures.

 

[Reef Hero]

I am running the ghl profilux on my system and so I believe ghl makes a flow meter....not actually sure where is its made but I'm sure there is others. My probe cell is also from ghl....works good so far and like I said it allows me to remote mount them anywhere in that cell and I have it plumbed so all water drains from cell if return pump fails.


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[msteane]

I have an ORP, pH, Conductivity/salinity and temperature probe.  Probe holders were ordered on boxing day and will be here soon.  I don't have a automated doser, I just put in buffer myself twice a week.