Apex Solenoid Valve: Review and use in automatic water changes

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Apex Solenoid Valve: Review and use in automatic water changes

Рет қаралды 9,775

5 жыл бұрын

A little review and setup guide for the Apex Solenoid valve. A big disclaimer about the product (YOU CAN'T USE IT WITH SALTWATER!!!). And my plans for implementing it as a safety bypass for automatic water changes using the apex DOS.

Пікірлер: 73

@fellowreefer 4 жыл бұрын

This is awesome as I plan to setup a AWC for my new build and Weill certainly use this info as a guideline.

@TheBioReef 4 жыл бұрын

Salim Parmar glad you found it helpful

@braveheartreefer525 5 жыл бұрын

Ingenious idea to solve your problem thanks for sharing

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

thanks!

@tomithy6047 5 жыл бұрын

Nice review. Heard your familiar voice on the CBC radio the other day. Interesting stuff!

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

hahaha.... now you know why i like science so much... :)

@WhatTheFrag 5 жыл бұрын

Keep an eye on the solenoid over time, I've had 2 of those spring leaks over the past 2 years. I use them on my ATO and they work great, I just wish the build quality was better.

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

What The Frag yeah - my plan would be to test it monthly. Hopefully it’s more reliable in this simple application with no water running through it.

@sambow7005 5 жыл бұрын

AmroAzul TV I think it may heat up and fail because no water is running through it.

@sambow7005 5 жыл бұрын

AmroAzul TV I think it may heat up and fail because no water is running through it.

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

@@sambow7005 they are meant to used for both freshwater and air, so in theory should hold. but i'll defiantly run regular tests

@Seattlekoi 5 жыл бұрын

Great ideal. You should program the solenoids valve to open if the Dos is off.

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

yep, that is the plan. that way if DOS fails and start letting water leak, solenoid break the siphon and saves the day

@thepassionreef 5 жыл бұрын

Good idea Amro believe it or not i am doing the exact same thing with a check valve. In addition my main method to provide extra redundancy is by using FMM with 2 magnetic Optical Sensors from Neptune..They work seamlessly...Come by my place when you have some time i will show you.

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

yeah, i'll have to come and check out your system... how is the check valve going to work though ?

@chrishet 5 жыл бұрын

Exactly....a check valve will restrict flow to only one direction but what is needed here is a siphon break. I have a few places where I could use this idea. The other day my ATO created a siphon and I had a near disaster - the ATK float prevented a big problem. The included siphon break had gone underwater and no air could get into the line. I need a better solution as well as one for my auto water change and kalk stirrer. Thanks for a great idea!

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

Chris Hetlage thanks Chris.

@r3ndszergazda 5 жыл бұрын

Brilliant idea!

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

András F thanks Andras

@Theaquaplex 3 жыл бұрын

Hi, when a Solenoid is added, does or should it appear on the Tile Dashboard as a NEW title? I have a new solenoid, plugged it in the EB832 and a One link and nothing shows up.

@TheBioReef 3 жыл бұрын

it should - if not, go to the hidden tiles and see if it is there... it will be called something weird... but if you look at the settings, it should say 24VDC Accessory Output A (or B - depending on which port you added it to) on the Energy Bar 832...

@Theaquaplex 3 жыл бұрын

@@TheBioReef Thank you. it really confuses me. Still trying to see where it is.

@johnsreef2622 5 жыл бұрын

Awesome idea!!

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

John’s Reef thanks John

@saltwaterpiff548 5 жыл бұрын

How does the dos pull a prime after you close the valve when there is now air in the line? I understand that it cannot pull any more air because the valve is closed but none the less there is air in the line. Can it still pull the prime?

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

Saltwater piff yes - once the valve is closed, the dos would just be displacing the air with water in the line, the same way it would pull a prime the first time it is installed

@piotrkilebas2180 5 жыл бұрын

Can u make video about what are you dosing etc . Thx

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

Piotr Kilebas most of this info can be found here kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jOCKrc2n2pirlKc.html

@rrrreefer9721 4 жыл бұрын

Wouldn't this effect the calibration and accuracy of the amount of water added and taken out?

@TheBioReef 4 жыл бұрын

i don't think so; it is downstream of the pump.

@davidwaters7345 5 жыл бұрын

Such a simple fix to solve the problem it i would have never thought of using it that way did you set up the auto water change in this way and if so hows it working ?

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

David Waters yes been working for several month now with an issue

@davidwaters7345 5 жыл бұрын

AmroAzul TV awesome 👍👍👍

@dazinkeys 5 жыл бұрын

Have you considered that the valve may not be rated for constant operation

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

i hadn't consider that - thanks for the tip

@bluerider0988 3 жыл бұрын

Agreed, you would want a normally open valve for this application. That way the valve is only active when doing water changes.

@adamfarzad2319 5 жыл бұрын

What i mean ....is natural siphon is a lot faster than a dos....

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

Adam Farzad i did test it under a natural siphon - see here for it working in action kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qL1liMiZxra-nWw.html

@dazinkeys 5 жыл бұрын

You should be able to program the system to activate the valve for a set period and the deactivate. This way you can’t heat the coil up and damage the valve.

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

that is a good idea

@pelphrey 5 жыл бұрын

Genius idea!!!!! How much salt water will you be keeping on hand? Pumping old water into a drain?

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

pelphrey I typically make a batch of 35 gallons at a time, roughly for 7 weeks of water changes - man this is going to be sweet! I actually wanted to collect the dirty dt water in a bucket so I can reuse it in my frag tank (my evo 13.5)... but there is a drain Line for the laundry right underneath the tank that I can always use if i feel lazy

@pelphrey 5 жыл бұрын

@@TheBioReef When you get a chance after you've got your AWC setup can you do a video on your setup as far as salt water holding, the salt used, how it is circulated and heated?

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

pelphrey for sure! I don’t bother heating my salt water / I have a tunze on a timer for circulate / aerate... but will show the setup next video for sure!

@sambow7005 5 жыл бұрын

What if you get a power failure ... the soloinoid will close and Sifon will be alive. Best solution is to place the DOS and out take tube higher than it’s origin in a empty container. Then run another line from that container to your basement. When ever you are ready to empty your container just start the siphon from the basement and you will be collecting your waste water for discard or your extra tank.

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the comments Sam. Yeah the power failure would be a concern, but if the programming is right, then this issue would only be problematic if the power failure occured in the 30 min the pump is running AND Dos pump head failed to seal. a rare event. its a balance between every day convince and avoiding unnecessary risks.

@jeffsreeftank 5 жыл бұрын

Genius 👍🏾👍🏾

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

Jeff’s Reef Tank thanks Jeff

@potomacreef1679 5 жыл бұрын

Why not just have the old salt water line fairly high in your sump. So if the dos fails, then it will only drain a little bit of your sump. Also I’d make sure you figure out how much pumping it takes to prime and move the old salt water so you can match it with the new salt water. Having to re prime it might make them not match.

@TheBioReef 5 жыл бұрын

PotomacReef i will try to keep the line as high up as possible but I will still wanted a fail safe. Yeah I wondered about how the valve will affect volume out vs in from the dos. Assuming dos doesn’t fail, then I don’t think the volumes will change; the solenoid will only let air into the line if valve is OPEN and Dos is pulling water out of the tank. If the dos is functioning properly, and holding the line shut when not operating, then it should meter out the correct volume of liquid. I’ll validate that though once everything is setup

@potomacreef1679 5 жыл бұрын

Good luck. I have some more apex stuff for the mixing station but now mr saltwater is doing a series. Maybe will wait before pimping my mixing station.

@zzClaytonRoyzz 3 жыл бұрын

your problem is very simple. no need to worry about syphon IF you have the drain line set at the minimum height of your sump. your proposal is sound if you want to have the drain valve at the bottom of your sump. DON'T DO THAT. please just go for a simple method and setup your drain line to the minimum height of your sump. this will also act as redundancy for you auto top off your resorvoir runs empty. i run both. i have my drain line set to the height of my optical sensor of my ato. so now if my skimmer goes crazy my ato covers that but also i get my water changes of 1.5 gallons a day. yes my drain line does not always take water out due water level being just below but it roughly does 95% of the time. the key is and i say again. "set your drain line to your minimum water height and not to the bottom of the sump.

@flreefshark76 3 жыл бұрын

I would like to know how is gravity going to take the old saltwater out of your sump since the water you're removing is running vertical even when primed if the #DOS fails? I have owned a #DOS for over 5 years and it's never happened to me ever!

@TheBioReef 3 жыл бұрын

Because I have a tube submerged in my sump full of water going down to the basement to the dos pump, if the dos pump seal develops a leak, it will lead to a gravity siphon. It doesn’t have to necessarily be a failure from the dos pump - possible that say my cat or my kids may accidentally nick the tube above the DOS or knock the dos of the shelve leading to a severed connection ... I wanted to engineer this system to deal with this unexpected cases

@flreefshark76 3 жыл бұрын

@@TheBioReef that makes sense!! Thanks.

@johnnyliu6271 4 жыл бұрын

Does teh Sv-1 have to be above the DOS? I just tried this but when I open up the SV-1 it doesn't break the siphon

@TheBioReef 4 жыл бұрын

Johnny Liu yes ; the valve has to be at the highest point. So tube From Tank goes UP to valve, then down to dos. That way, when the valve opens, air gets Sucked into the down tube and breaks the siphon

@johnnyliu6271 4 жыл бұрын

@@TheBioReef strange, the siphon doesn't stop still. i can see the sv-1 is trying something and there's a change. during the water flow i can see a slight pause and then water resumes. almost like the sv-1 isn't powerful enough to stop the siphon completely.

@TheBioReef 4 жыл бұрын

Johnny Liu odd, you did run a t-splitter ok the doing line, with the t going up to the valve ? If you are able to send me pics on Facebook I can see what could be causing the issue

@quransunnah96 2 жыл бұрын

How to use this with EB6 bar?

@TheBioReef 2 жыл бұрын

I only have the EB8 bar... does the eb6 bar have a 24VDC accessory port ?

@quransunnah96 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheBioReef no it doesn't have that port. That is the reason i have this question.

@TheBioReef 2 жыл бұрын

@@quransunnah96 sorry - i may not be compatible with the EB6 bar then. You can still use the solenoid valve if you connect it to an FMM module and have the module powered by a separate power adapter.

@quransunnah96 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheBioReef Got it thanks.

@ryansmithers4661 4 жыл бұрын

Why not just use a one-way check valve?

@TheBioReef 4 жыл бұрын

don't think that would stop the flow if the system generated a siphon by accident

@ryansmithers4661 4 жыл бұрын

@@TheBioReef Why do you say that? I assumed that the one-way check valve allowed water to pass through it in only one direction to specifically stop a back siphon.

@TheBioReef 4 жыл бұрын

@@ryansmithers4661 yes, its not a back siphon that i am worried about... i want the same tube to drain water from the tank upstairs to the basement when the DOS is on, but to also then shut off the water when the DOS is off. a check valve will permentaly shut off water going downstairs so i will not be able to use it to do water changes

@ryansmithers4661 4 жыл бұрын

@@TheBioReef Gotcha! Thanks for taking the time to explain it!

@TheBioReef 4 жыл бұрын

my pleasure

@adamfarzad2319 5 жыл бұрын

Sorry bit it will not work......it is gonna be working fine when dos is not working........but....when dos will be doing the schedule water change....then a different water flow will be initiated.....during this one minute and on and on...... Fatal problem will occur as 100 ml of new water will come in....but 300 ml will be getting lut of the sump........ Slow death.....