I am in urgent need of a sensor that will detect the presence of water and cut power to a power strip.
I have a small fish tank that has a rather elaborate filtration system. Twice recently small animals have made their way into the drain, plugging it. The tank quickly overflowed all over the floor. Fortunately I was home both times and noticed the problem immediately so I could manually cut power to the pumps. I am afraid that next time I won't be so lucky.
I have physically blocked the access to the drain opening but in the most recent incident it was an anemone that passed the block and plugged it. The body of an anemone is almost like jelly and thus it can pass through very small openings, especially when current is sucking at it. Therefore I can't make the block any stronger, there will always be a possibility that it can be plugged. So I have to come up with another way.
So long story short I need a sensor that I can mount to the lip/rim of the tank that will detect a higher than allowed water level and cut power to the power strip that all the tanks equipment is plugged into. Ideally it would be inline, in other words I could plug the sensor system into the wall and then plug the power strip into it. I am estimating the power draw of the system to be around 500 watts, so that is the amount that the sensor would have to be able to switch. Once the power is switched off it can remain off until I tell it to come back on manually. I will have to clear the block in the drain or fix whatever the problem is before restoring power to the system. If possible there could be multiple sensors that could be placed in various spots to detect a variety of leaks but this is not mandatory.
Hopefully I have described the situation clearly. If you know of a flexible commercial solution that would be great, but I think I am going to have to build something. Any suggestions on where to start would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance.
I have a small fish tank that has a rather elaborate filtration system. Twice recently small animals have made their way into the drain, plugging it. The tank quickly overflowed all over the floor. Fortunately I was home both times and noticed the problem immediately so I could manually cut power to the pumps. I am afraid that next time I won't be so lucky.
I have physically blocked the access to the drain opening but in the most recent incident it was an anemone that passed the block and plugged it. The body of an anemone is almost like jelly and thus it can pass through very small openings, especially when current is sucking at it. Therefore I can't make the block any stronger, there will always be a possibility that it can be plugged. So I have to come up with another way.
So long story short I need a sensor that I can mount to the lip/rim of the tank that will detect a higher than allowed water level and cut power to the power strip that all the tanks equipment is plugged into. Ideally it would be inline, in other words I could plug the sensor system into the wall and then plug the power strip into it. I am estimating the power draw of the system to be around 500 watts, so that is the amount that the sensor would have to be able to switch. Once the power is switched off it can remain off until I tell it to come back on manually. I will have to clear the block in the drain or fix whatever the problem is before restoring power to the system. If possible there could be multiple sensors that could be placed in various spots to detect a variety of leaks but this is not mandatory.
Hopefully I have described the situation clearly. If you know of a flexible commercial solution that would be great, but I think I am going to have to build something. Any suggestions on where to start would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance.