How much would it cost to fully automate a reef tank?

[leo12345]

Im Just curious what’s the cheapest it would cost to fully automate your system? Im talking like automated dosing, water changes, water testing, feeding and things like that.

 

[Formulator]

Do you guys feel frozen or just dry food? Is there an auto feeder for frozen?

I feed frozen by hand and dry automatically, but if I go on vacation the fish do fine on a dry-only diet. They do make automatic frozen feeders. I’m staring at a banner ad on this site for the plank auto feeder from avast right now in fact…

 

[vetteguy53081]

Im Just curious what’s the cheapest it would cost to fully automate your system? Im talking like automated dosing, water changes, water testing, feeding and things like that.

This will vary depending upon equipment such as if Hydros or Neptune but about $1500

 

[Stevorino]

Im Just curious what’s the cheapest it would cost to fully automate your system? Im talking like automated dosing, water changes, water testing, feeding and things like that.

My last build was designed to go 60 days without being present in the home. 150g Auto Water change over the course of 60 days, Automated feeding, monitoring, filtration, etc.

I could never get the automated food to balance right, but everything else was solid. I just moved homes and am continuing to automate everything, except I will travel less in this new situation and I won't have to rely on automated feeding (to the same extent).

My tank is 280g, and I bet I've spent $10k on all my tech/automation/plumbing, etc.

But I think if you were willing to do without the refrigerated food automation and intense monitoring, you could do it for well under $3k, maybe under $2k.

 

[flashsmith]

I've got a gravity feed ATO that only needs cleaning once a year maybe so the float doesn't get stuck. I found myself doing more work when I was almost fully automated. Sold everything off and went back to basics. I rarely test anything and do maybe a 20 gallon water change every 3-4 months just to keep the sump as clean as I can. I dose AFR on cleaning days a couple times a week. I use reef diaper filter socks for convenience. A UV unit and a protein skimmer that's it on a 170 gallon system and it's never looked better or grown coral better. I've tried it all and the basics work best for me. Chasing numbers never goes away even if everything is automated. Seemed like when I was automated I was just throwing money away every month. Almost like manufacturers planned it that way....

 

[BZOFIQ]

I was at Reefapaloosa NY and spoke with Conor from Coral Vue and he said they are shooting for black friday. I did watch a video of them reviewing the Maven and it has some very nice features. It may just be my perception but Apex seems like a less industrial product. I don't want my perception to lead me down the wrong path. From a monetary standpoint I think Hydros will be more expensive. In order to get the various ports that I will need it adds up very fast.

Be well
Dan

If you have a lot of analog inputs: switches, float switches, NO/NC type contact, etc Hydros will cost much more.

Hydros and float switches

So it seems we only have 2 options - use expensive Hydros switches that require a single sense port (of which there are only a few on any given controller and are expensive) or use off the shelf float switches with a 0-10v input port which can support 4 channels each (of which there are only 1...

www.reef2reef.com

see this thread starting at post #17

 

[danreef55]

I am once bitten twice shy.. I started keeping SPS back in the early 80s and grew out some awesome corals. In the early 90s I went on vacation and a friend of mine was going to look after the tank. Well let's just say he isnt a friend anymore. A total loss and a heartbreaker for me. I agree you can keep a tank with little to no automation IF you are always around. Even then stuff happens. To me personally it is worth the money to gain the report alone.

 

[leo12345]

What do you consider automated? I think everyone's definition of this is different. I've automated the hell out of mine....

Auto testers (3) - mastertronic, trident, reefbot lab
Auto skimmer neck cleaner + skimmer drain
Auto skimmate empty + overflow protection
Auto alarms -- parameters + leaks
Auto fleece roller
Auto water changes
Auto manual water change setup
Auto light roller
Auto rodi
Auto top off
Auto dosing of- kalk, carx, vodka, trace elements (about 8 of them)
Auto power backup (backup batteries + whole home generator)
Auto feeders (2) - AFS + af4

(and huge sigh, this used to be tidy and organized, but then, #fishtank)

Ask me anything

how much did that cost?

 

[BeanAnimal]

I am once bitten twice shy.. I started keeping SPS back in the early 80s and grew out some awesome corals. In the early 90s I went on vacation and a friend of mine was going to look after the tank. Well let's just say he isnt a friend anymore. A total loss and a heartbreaker for me. I agree you can keep a tank with little to no automation IF you are always around. Even then stuff happens. To me personally it is worth the money to gain the report alone.

There are times that I don't look at my system for a month or more.

ATO with self filling reservoir - this is managed by the GHL but prior was a simple latching relay and solenoid valve on the RO/DI

Plank Feeder - this is timed on GHL but could be any cheap interval timer.

Chiller and Heater - this is on GHL but used to be a RANCO.

KH Director - just tests alk - It does not drive automation.

Dosing this is in GHL set on a schedule. ANy dosing system would work.

Skimmer has a float switch (Reef Octpus regal) it is not tied to GHL.

Lastly - I push 300ml of saltwater a day to makeup for skimmer and KH Director. This could be any dosing pump.

The GHL Profilux is mostly just a way for me to get monitoring, not automation. All devices are plugged into controllable power strips but that is just for emergency remote control.

I have cameras (6 of them) pointe at various things, but honestly never look at them even when traveling.

Folks like
@Lasse .and @Dave-T have the same basic components as I do but very extensively use automation. The system is more than capable, but I just choose to use it mostly for monitoring.

 

[danreef55]

BA just the cameras alone would have avoided my disaster. I just I am becoming a helicopter reefer in my old age.

 

[MnFish1]

Im Just curious what’s the cheapest it would cost to fully automate your system? Im talking like automated dosing, water changes, water testing, feeding and things like that.

you cannot fully automate a reef tank

 

[BeanAnimal]

you cannot fully automate a reef tank

I think uou can come pretty close;. I don't have adaptive automation for dosing or anything. but

1 - I put my arms in the tank maybe once every 3 months to fiddle with something.
2 - once a year I mix Triton and full the dosing containers.
3 - once or twice a year I mix 50 gallons of saltwater
4 -- when I get around to it (once a month or less often) I run the tunze over the glass.
5 - Once every few months I fill the Plank with jerky and some pellets
6 - Once every 6 moths or so I compare conductivity to floating hydrometer and do a manaul alk/cal/mag test
7 - Once a month or maybe 5-6 weeks I clean the skimmer cup.

Most of those items above are done on the same day... and take less than an hour or two.

So maybe 1 hour per month max doing ANYTHING with the tank.

Ohh... when I remember, i toss a frozen cube or two in the plank mixer.

No water changes, no socks, roller mat, etc.

Skimmer could have a neck cleaner and waste to drain.
Water changes could be fully automated (even thoigh I don't do them)
etc.

I woild have no problem walking away from the system for over a month at a time, because I pretty much do that already and have done it for years. I went (easily) 3 years maye 4 without ever putting my hands in the tank or for that matter looking at it. Not kidding, not a single finger laid on it other than maybe one or two times removing excess algera from the overflow. There was no skimmer, water changes, dosing... NOTHING but electricity and an ATO. PERIOD, for years! I am not exegerating, almost zero human intervention. The fish even fed themselves from the tank. No dosing, not even makup for salt creep. The salinity dropped to maybe 32 or less. I can't remember. Fish and soft coral and an LPS or three lived the entire time.

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

Not that I’m aware of for frozen. I use Avast Marines Plank and their reef jerky. It’s a freeze dried food that gets rehydrated in their mixing station before being sent out. It’s probably as close to frozen automation as you can get or at least that I’m aware of. I love it but it’s pricey and large

InD has a frozen one shortly due out.

 

[MnFish1]

I think uou can come pretty close;. I don't have adaptive automation for dosing or anything. but

1 - I put my arms in the tank maybe once every 3 months to fiddle with something.
2 - once a year I mix Triton and full the dosing containers.
3 - once or twice a year I mix 50 gallons of saltwater
4 -- when I get around to it (once a month or less often) I run the tunze over the glass.
5 - Once every few months I fill the Plank with jerky and some pellets
6 - Once every 6 moths or so I compare conductivity to floating hydrometer and do a manaul alk/cal/mag test
7 - Once a month or maybe 5-6 weeks I clean the skimmer cup.

Most of those items above are done on the same day... and take less than an hour or two.

So maybe 1 hour per month max doing ANYTHING with the tank.

Ohh... when I remember, i toss a frozen cube or two in the plank mixer.

No water changes, no socks, roller mat, etc.

Skimmer could have a neck cleaner and waste to drain.
Water changes could be fully automated (even thoigh I don't do them)
etc.

I woild have no problem walking away from the system for over a month at a time, because I pretty much do that already and have done it for years. I went (easily) 3 years maye 4 without ever putting my hands in the tank or for that matter looking at it. Not kidding, not a single finger laid on it other than maybe one or two times removing excess algera from the overflow. There was no skimmer, water changes, dosing... NOTHING but electricity and an ATO. PERIOD, for years! I am not exegerating, almost zero human intervention. The fish even fed themselves from the tank. No dosing, not even makup for salt creep. The salinity dropped to maybe 32 or less. I can't remember. Fish and soft coral and an LPS or three lived the entire time.

Totally believe you - but wait until you have a failure of one of your automated helpers.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Totally believe you - but wait until you have a failure of one of your automated helpers.

Sure - anything can happen. That is partly why I don’t use much automation.

Understanding the probability of various failures and their consequences needs to be considered in any system or process design, be it automated or not.

 

[Captain-Barnacle]

It can cost as little as two marriages, if one does everything just right. On the other hand, one may slowly master electronics and programming and do it cheap, but never marry.

 

[n2585722]

You would need an apex with a trident and 2 dos at a minimum. 1 dos for the auto water changes, and another dos for your 2 part. You might need a 3rd dos if you’re looking to include mag/3 or 4 part or some other dosing like aminos or whatnot. Or whatever equivalent is from a different brand. About 1800-2000 depending on how you spec it.

You also need a water mixing station with a minimum of 2 brute cans and a return pump and plumbing plus an ato that can draw water from your RO bin assuming you don’t want to fill up ato bin every week under your tank. You probably want a solenoid and some sensors to notify you when the bins are low and to automatically refill your RO bin. I would estimate about 400-500 to do this right.

Autofeeder of your choice. Some are 40 bucks. I love my plank but it’s 200 bucks

I don't have any of the things you mentioned other than 3 Brute cans and my tank has quite a bit of automation. I have my ATO and mixing station automated. I do AWC and ATO from the brute cans in my garage and the tank is 35ft away. When the DI reservoir goes low it is automatically refilled from the RODI unit. When my fresh saltwater reservoir goes low it is automatically refilled from my mix tank if the contents is ready for use. when mix tank goes low it is refilled from the RODI. All I have to do is add the salt mix and press a button when it is ready for use. I also have auto alkalinity testing and dynamically dose All For Reef and a KH buffer with test results.If there is a leak I will get alerted and depending on where things will be shut off. The heating and cooling is also controlled the cooling comes on at 78.1 and goes off at 77.9. The heating comes on at 77.4 and goes off at 77.6. The skimmer will be cut off if there is a leak at the tank, return is turned off, the sump is overfull or skimmer cup is full. There is a delay on it when the return pump turn back on to give the water level time to normalize in the sump. I even have battery backup for the flow pumps that should be good for about 36 hours.

 

[n2585722]

The problem with Hydros is that the auto parameter testing is still limited. The Maven will solve this problem, but it isn't released yet. Until it is the only testing (I think) that can integrate into the Hydros platform is the KH Carer. Hydros Maven

Hydros has it's own alkalinity testing using dosing pumps and a pH probe. They have an iV and you can get the X10 with 4 dosing pump. Three are needed for alkalinity testing. The iV requires a drive port for the stirrer and the X10 has 2 of those. You can use the results and dynamic dosing to dose a KH buffer also. Also you can add a salinity probe in the iV which the X10 has a salinity port and the pH port. It will also test both of those at the beginning of the alkalinity test. You can use the KH Carer if you want.I have used both and like the iV and X10 combination better than the KH Carer. Below is my testing page. Some of the test are manual test. The iVpH and iV salinity on the second row are realtime readings from the probes in the iV but are not correct except just before the start of the alkalinity test since after completion of the test there is still reagent in the test beaker with the test sample. The ones labeled iV if the first row are the sampled test and have the sample date and time. I also have a pH and salinity probe in the sump and those are on the first row also.

 

[n2585722]

If you have a lot of analog inputs: switches, float switches, NO/NC type contact, etc Hydros will cost much more.

Hydros and float switches

So it seems we only have 2 options - use expensive Hydros switches that require a single sense port (of which there are only a few on any given controller and are expensive) or use off the shelf float switches with a 0-10v input port which can support 4 channels each (of which there are only 1...

www.reef2reef.com

see this thread starting at post #17

You can use off the shelf float switches on sense ports. All you need is some 4 pin GX12 connectors to connect them to. I have 10 of them in my system that were there when I got my first Hydros right after they first came out with it. They are all connected to sense ports. A lot of the controllers have sense ports several have 4. I have 30 sense ports in my collective but only 22 in use. For button switches I have 5 of those connected to one 0-10v analog input. The other three inputs are connected to pressure sensors used to determine the water level in my three reservoirs at my mixing station. I have 4 more 0-10v inputs that are not in use at this time.

 

[jonelder68]

lol! Fully automated lol! These controllers are over priced under reliable junk if you’re expecting full automation! Sure it’s a good tool to have but never would I trust one to be fully automated! The quality of them is trash! For the same price I can buy a aftermarket car ecu/computer and control it to do wayyyyy more than what these fish controllers do for same price or less. It’s mind blowing how far behind in technology they are and still can’t get it sub par.

 

[Borat]

I have spent decades building and designing things. I don't see any path to automation (as outlined by the OP) for $400, even DIY unless you have a parts bin absolutely full of components, wire, etc. and another bin full of plumbing supplies, solenoids and probes and the like and test bench and fabrication equipment and tools, etc.


And even then you would have to ignore the original acquisition cost of all of that crap.

In fact, almost every "DIY" project I have ever done ends up costing more than the retail when all things are considered and everything involved is added up

Ok, forgot about solenoid - new automation cost is $403 US&A bucks.