Automatic salt dispenser for a pond

[foothead]

This is currently just an idea, but I thought I should post it to get feedback.

I want to turn a large outdoor pond into a saltwater ray pool, and what I have determined as the main problem is maintaining salinity. I live in Louisiana, so it rains quite a bit.

The idea is to find a digital salinity meter with an alarm (if you know of one, please post it) and build a circuit to control a sprinkler valve attached to a siphon. The siphon would run concentrated saltwater from a 55g barrel into the pond's sump. When the alarm quits, it would discontinue current to the valve, causing it to close. The main issue, as I said before, is finding a meter that would work for this. It needs to have an alarm that stays on consistently when the salinity is low, and it needs to be able to stop the alarm when salinity is right. Does such a thing exist?

Btw, if you know of a commercial solution, please post it. I would feel safer with something designed for this.

 

[born2lovefish]

Sounds like an interesting concept. I think your main concern will be adding too much salt. Depending on where the alarm probe is located and where the salt is coming into the pond, there will be a time delay between when the salt is added to when the probe picks it up. You also would have to have good circulation in the pond to make sure the added salt is mixed in well with the existing water.

Another concept would be to figure on average how much a typical rain changes the salinity in your pond. Then design your salt adding valve/setup to dose in increments. Example would be like this.

-It rains and the alarm goes off due to low salinity
-Valve opens(could be set for a time depending on flow rate) to allow some high salinity water into the pond. When valve opens it resets the alarm for a set amount of time(average time for the new salt added to mix in with the old water).
-Then if the salinity is not high enough after set time, the alarm would go off again looping back through the above steps until the proper salinity range is reached.

 

[hmt321]

how much of a salinity swing can the rays handle?

with a very heavy rain, i would think that a a dosing sprinkler head would have a hard time keeping up.

you may consider putting a roof over the pond then you would only have to worry about evaporation, then you would have to add fresh water back to the system, a roof would also help with temperature and algae blooms

 

[BadOleRoss]

Every SW tank I have ever had the SW was premixed. I never added salt directy to the tank.

 

[foothead]

Every SW tank I have ever had the SW was premixed. I never added salt directy to the tank.

It will be premixed into a concentrated solution. Then that would be mixed into the sump, so it can mix in quickly.

I am just throwing out ideas for now. I have also thought of one of those large outdoor canopy tent things, but I cannot find one large enough to cover the small section that pokes off.

 

[gazelle]

how much of a salinity swing can the rays handle?

with a very heavy rain, i would think that a a dosing sprinkler head would have a hard time keeping up.

you may consider putting a roof over the pond then you would only have to worry about evaporation, then you would have to add fresh water back to the system, a roof would also help with temperature and algae blooms

agreed