Ordered X3 as kalk monitor

sd_tom · Sep 17, 2024

Ordered a dosing pump (reef factory) to start dosing Kalk after experimenting with it in my ATO. Which in turn has encouraged me to buy a hydros x3 starter pack (WiFi outlets) and also a level sensor. Hopefully it can do these 3 kinds of rules.

1) Cut power to doser if PH exceeds a value/send alert.. making sure while I am dialing it in there is a guard against too much

2) cut power to heater if temp too hot/send alert (I've been living dangerously so far / no inkbird)

3) if level sensor is wet for over 20 min cut power to Doser and ATO, something has overflowed/mismatch evaporation to Kalk dose etc. I have 20min as a criteria because it's an AIO , when I cut power to pumps when feeding, the compartments water levels get higher.. so, basically ignore that situation. Digging around while waiting for package to arrive seems to indicate it is possible but a bit janky based on some older posts.. is that still true today? ..something to do with input/max on time(20min in this case) combo.. sure it may make more sense when I have it in front of me.

Anyways, was happy that in theory I should be able to squeeze a lot out of this less sophisticated/cheaper module as I dip my toes in automation.

CayoHueso · Sep 18, 2024

sd_tom said:
Ordered a dosing pump (reef factory) to start dosing Kalk after experimenting with it in my ATO. Which in turn has encouraged me to buy a hydros x3 starter pack (WiFi outlets) and also a level sensor. Hopefully it can do these 3 kinds of rules.

1) Cut power to doser if PH exceeds a value/send alert.. making sure while I am dialing it in there is a guard against too much

2) cut power to heater if temp too hot/send alert (I've been living dangerously so far / no inkbird)

3) if level sensor is wet for over 20 min cut power to Doser and ATO, something has overflowed/mismatch evaporation to Kalk dose etc. I have 20min as a criteria because it's an AIO , when I cut power to pumps when feeding, the compartments water levels get higher.. so, basically ignore that situation. Digging around while waiting for package to arrive seems to indicate it is possible but a bit janky based on some older posts.. is that still true today? ..something to do with input/max on time(20min in this case) combo.. sure it may make more sense when I have it in front of me.

Anyways, was happy that in theory I should be able to squeeze a lot out of this less sophisticated/cheaper module as I dip my toes in automation.

You should be able to do both 1 & 2 with the X3 and a temp probe and a pH probe.

For 3, I'm not sure if you can set it to wait 20 mins after the sensor becomes wet. If you or someone else knows, let me know, because I am setting up my own X3 and XP8 now and posted my own similar questions. But I do know that you can set a feeding mode, and you can set it to ignore certain actions during feed mode.

I was starting to get frustrated with the lack of customization I was looking for, thinking maybe I should have gone Apex. But I think with some more digging and learning I/we can get it to do what we're looking for.

sd_tom · Sep 18, 2024

Hmm, the two threads that made me think it is possible but awkward:

Notification delay

I would like to be able to delay notifications on specific sensors. For instance I have a level sensor in my sump to notify if the level is too high. Trouble is it goes off in feed mode when the pump is off. I would like to disable it for a set time during feed mode.

forum.coralvuehydros.com

Hydros low water level alarm delay?

Just got the Hydros x4 pro pack and ato hooked up. I set up the alarm to trigger when the sump water sensor is dry. So now I get an alarm right before the ato kicks on. EVERY TIME. Is there a way to delay the alarm a couple minutes? @CoralVue_Marketing

www.reef2reef.com

They don't mean a lot to me yet haha. Hopefully I'm not going to find it annoying.. I saw a hydros video where they said "no programming required".. but I'm an embedded software engineer haha.. I got it anyway cause it was cheaper than alternatives and the maven in the future might be sweet

CayoHueso · Sep 18, 2024

sd_tom said:
Hmm, the two threads that made me think it is possible but awkward:

Notification delay

I would like to be able to delay notifications on specific sensors. For instance I have a level sensor in my sump to notify if the level is too high. Trouble is it goes off in feed mode when the pump is off. I would like to disable it for a set time during feed mode.

forum.coralvuehydros.com

Hydros low water level alarm delay?

Just got the Hydros x4 pro pack and ato hooked up. I set up the alarm to trigger when the sump water sensor is dry. So now I get an alarm right before the ato kicks on. EVERY TIME. Is there a way to delay the alarm a couple minutes? @CoralVue_Marketing

www.reef2reef.com

They don't mean a lot to me yet haha. Hopefully I'm not going to find it annoying.. I saw a hydros video where they said "no programming required".. but I'm an embedded software engineer haha.. I got it anyway cause it was cheaper than alternatives and the maven in the future might be sweet

The UI seems to be pretty basic IFTTT, but we're limited to the options they have built in. I went with Hydros also for the price and the maven as well, but also to avoid programming. But as soon as I started tinkering I wished I had more customization, but I've got more learning and exploring to do. CoralVue seems to encourage people to submit support tickets with proposed scenarios/setups and it seems like most things would be simple to code, so maybe they'll be speedy with firmware updates as we request more features.

One thing I found frustrating, I have the triple level water sensor and I'd like it to alert me when it's dry but I'd also like it to do the same as your scenario (turn off ATO and doser if it's goes over the highest level) but quick glance it seems it can only do one or the other. I may be able to figure out how to get it to do both with some more digging.

sd_tom · Sep 18, 2024

i got the triple sensor on order as well; I guess i assumed it would provide 3 independent inputs to do whatever you want with, but sounds like they are assuming the 3 sort of work together? Wish they had a simulator mode on website so you can just play around... stuck waiting till Friday before it gets here so weekend project.

CayoHueso · Sep 18, 2024

sd_tom said:
i got the triple sensor on order as well; I guess i assumed it would provide 3 independent inputs to do whatever you want with, but sounds like they are assuming the 3 sort of work together? Wish they had a simulator mode on website so you can just play around... stuck waiting till Friday before it gets here so weekend project.

I haven't found anywhere in the UI where you can select the "safety sensor" level of the triple level sensor, just "wet" or "dry". I had a thread out on the Hydros forum to see if there is a work around, but it seems like a moderator removed it

n2585722 · Sep 18, 2024

sd_tom said:
Ordered a dosing pump (reef factory) to start dosing Kalk after experimenting with it in my ATO. Which in turn has encouraged me to buy a hydros x3 starter pack (WiFi outlets) and also a level sensor. Hopefully it can do these 3 kinds of rules.

1) Cut power to doser if PH exceeds a value/send alert.. making sure while I am dialing it in there is a guard against too much

2) cut power to heater if temp too hot/send alert (I've been living dangerously so far / no inkbird)

3) if level sensor is wet for over 20 min cut power to Doser and ATO, something has overflowed/mismatch evaporation to Kalk dose etc. I have 20min as a criteria because it's an AIO , when I cut power to pumps when feeding, the compartments water levels get higher.. so, basically ignore that situation. Digging around while waiting for package to arrive seems to indicate it is possible but a bit janky based on some older posts.. is that still true today? ..something to do with input/max on time(20min in this case) combo.. sure it may make more sense when I have it in front of me.

Anyways, was happy that in theory I should be able to squeeze a lot out of this less sophisticated/cheaper module as I dip my toes in automation.

It will depend on how you setup the alerts. If you set them on the input then it will send an alert without a delay. You can setup an output to turn on when the sensor is wet and then set a maximum on time for the amount of time you want. If the output stays on over that time you can have it send you an alert. You can do a lot with generic outputs and combiner outputs. The output do not have to have an actual output port assigned to them to work as logic as an input to a combiner output which has other outputs as inputs. I have a lot of information on Hydros in my build thread starting on page 6 post # 119. I started out with a X4 starter kit at that time. I now have 15 Hydros controllers in my collective. Just click on the My Tank Thread banner in my post to get to it. I don't exactly what you are wanting to do but I have quite a bit of things setup that are close. So the posts may give you an idea how to do what you want.

sd_tom · Sep 18, 2024

Asked on FB group same time as posted here and someone gave me a nice succinct summary; @CayoHueso maybe try over there?

n2585722 · Sep 18, 2024

CayoHueso said:
I haven't found anywhere in the UI where you can select the "safety sensor" level of the triple level sensor, just "wet" or "dry". I had a thread out on the Hydros forum to see if there is a work around, but it seems like a moderator removed it

The high level in the triple level sensor can only be used for an alert. It cannot be used as an input in a output setting. The same applies to the TDS meter. It had 2 inputs but only one can be used for control and only one graphs. Inputs with multiple inputs have a primary input and the others are secondary. The secondary inputs cannot be used for control and do not graph. You can always add a second water level sensor of some kind if you have a input available for it. I have 4 level sensors in my sump. Three of them are float switches. One is optical. I also have 6 float switches in my three reservoirs in the garage and one in the skimmer locker. All are connected to sense ports on my Hydros controllers. In my ATO output it uses 5 inputs. They are the sump ATO level sensor, tank leak detector, RODI leak detector, DI reservoir low sensor and sump high sensor. All of these inputs have to be in their active state for this output to turn on. I am using a Sole doser for my ATO pump so since it is a smart doser I have to use a smart doser output for it and use it's depends on to control it from this output. The ATO output are the first three screenshots and the actual pump output is the last screenshot.