Osmolator and the foam/carbon

[slakker]

I found an interesting scenario...

I put my osmolator behind the skimmer without the foam in place. It was running really well, top up was working great. I then tried putting in the foam and a bag of carbon on top. I noticed that the foam/carbon slowly restricts flow and decreases the water height behind the skimmer where the osmolator is. This then causes the osmolator to pump in more water which increases tank water volume. I watched for a day or so and it just kept slowly climbing. So before a flood occurs, I took out the foam and carbon and everything is back to normal.

Thought to share this in case... just to save a potential spill...

[Reefmack]

I run the Osmolator too, but my setup is different - raised hood & HOB Remora, so I had no problem with sensor bracket room. I guess the sensors won't fit on the left side of the skimmer? It's been so long I can't remember how much space & depth is available on the left side.

One thing to be careful of with the optical sensor - if it's kept in a stagnant area, and microbubbles can collect under it, the optical sensor may not "see" the water level. I almost had my RSM overflow once or twice till I was told that by Tunze what the problem might be - the microbubbles were on the surface of a stagnant area under the sensor & were so tiny that I could only see them with a flashlight. Thank goodness for that safety float & alarm! But, on one of those instances I still almost had an overflow when the optical sensor was "fooled" by the layer of microbubbles, plus my thermometer sensor had drifted over and onto the safety float & kept the safety float from rising - that time my wife saw the water up to the top rim of the tank and unplugged the controller just in time!

The only other thing that has caused a problem is my linkia star, that can cover up the back gate, and drop the water level in back, causing the pump to come on and pump water in when it's not needed. That's caused an alarm for me a few times too, but at least I had the safety float low enough to avoid an overflow.

[slakker]

Good to know... Looking at the tank from the front, I have the sensor on the left of the skimmer with the high level sensor right beside it. The water there flows pretty good as it comes right out of the skimmer and then over the baffle area where the heater is where it flows back down to the pump chamber.

[Reefmack]

slakker - I misunderstood where you had the sensors located - sounds good. I've been running mine on manual as long as my Linkia is in the tank. If I can ever get the time and get myself motivated to install my sump/fuge, I'll put the sensors in there and leave it on auto.