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Unread 02/15/2010, 08:16 AM   #176
RokleM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by der_wille_zur_macht View Post
Oh, and an official Protip: epoxy + hair = time for a (SHORT) haircut!
Pix or it didn't happen


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Unread 02/15/2010, 08:24 AM   #177
der_wille_zur_macht
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I tried, but the camera broke.

I was sitting inside the tank, touching up a few spots on the eurobrace with epoxy. I leaned over to look at one of the holes for the closed loop and leaned my head right against the eurobrace. Didn't realize it until a couple minutes later when I did one of those "scratch your head and think" moves and felt something wet in my hair.


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"It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)
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Unread 02/15/2010, 10:02 AM   #178
radwrasse11
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wow, what a build. Ive been nervous on building with wood because I heard they lack strenght compared to glass, like in the seams etc. After reading your progress it sounds like as we advance in wooden builds, its almost the oposite. what are your thoughts? Oh and BTW, im subscribed lol.


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120 Gallon w/ 40B sump
7 T-5HO on 2 IC660-09 Ballast, around 130lbs of rock, 80lbs of Live sand, tank is all mix in corals, around 7 months old. all stock from 65 gallon.

Current Tank Info: 120 gallon, 40B sump, 20ish corals and around 15 fish
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Unread 02/15/2010, 10:09 AM   #179
der_wille_zur_macht
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Originally Posted by radwrasse11 View Post
wow, what a build. Ive been nervous on building with wood because I heard they lack strenght compared to glass, like in the seams etc. After reading your progress it sounds like as we advance in wooden builds, its almost the oposite. what are your thoughts? Oh and BTW, im subscribed lol.
With any material, the approach and technique is important. There are plenty of failure stories for wood tanks out there. However, there are also lots of failed glass and acrylic builds. All three methods are totally viable if done correctly. Some of the folks I consulted with before choosing wood have had tanks much larger than this running for years without issues. If anything, my tank is a bit on the "wimpy" side for a "modern" wood approach, but I'm still very confident that it'll be fine.

Wood definitely takes more time/effort than glass or acrylic. But to me, it's enjoyable work, so that's a benefit, not a drawback.

Wood is definitely cheaper than a commercially built tank in this size range. Comparing DIY to DIY it's probably somewhat of a wash depending on material choices, etc.


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"It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)
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Unread 02/17/2010, 01:39 PM   #180
der_wille_zur_macht
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Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the large white box:



Epoxied, sanded, filled, smoothed, epoxied some more, sanded, filled, and finally - painted on the outside. All that really remains is some touchup work and glass.


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"It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)
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Unread 02/17/2010, 02:13 PM   #181
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Very nice. You did a great job on putting this together, it should last a fairly long time in your home. One thing though, you put the opening on the bottom instead of the top, all the water is going to fall out.


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Current Tank Info: multiple nano's sprinkled around the house
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Unread 02/17/2010, 02:15 PM   #182
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Spellking is an art form to which I have no brush.

I'm not sure FOWLRs actually exist, I think they're like unicorns or platonic girlfriends. A FOWLR is just a reef tank that doesn't yet hold any coral.

Current Tank Info: 180g display, 150gallon sump in-wall 4-side viewable sps dominated tank, ATI Powermodule, MRC MR-4 skimmer, GHL controller, Baling Method, Ultralith Reactor, Carbon & Phosphate Reactors, and general time consuming money pit that I live for.
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Unread 02/17/2010, 02:31 PM   #183
Sugar Magnolia
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Fantastic build thread so far DWIZM!!! The finished tank looks fantastic. As I was reading through your thread I kept thinking to myself how HEAVY that thing is going to be and wondering how you were going to fortify the floor. Sounds like you got that covered.


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Unread 02/17/2010, 02:35 PM   #184
der_wille_zur_macht
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Yes Adrienne, I've tried to be thorough in my reinforcements, though it's probably overkill.

Oh, and since you asked back near the beginning of the project, the nano project I started back in Jersey is now a planted FW aquarium in my son's bedroom.


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"It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)
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Unread 02/17/2010, 02:36 PM   #185
der_wille_zur_macht
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One thing though, you put the opening on the bottom instead of the top, all the water is going to fall out.
NO WONDER why my leak tests have gone so poorly.


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"It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)
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Unread 02/17/2010, 06:22 PM   #186
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sweet!


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who cares it's EXPENSIVE, it makes me HAPPY...
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Unread 02/17/2010, 07:29 PM   #187
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looks awesome!


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Current Tank Info: 75 gallon reef, two 175-watt MH, two vho actinic
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Unread 02/17/2010, 09:37 PM   #188
noobtothereef
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NO WONDER why my leak tests have gone so poorly.
hahahaahaha


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120g custom acrylic, dart return, dart closed loop, 2-evo-1400's, RKE, xtreme 200, 80g sump/fuge, 240lbs rock, ssb, 2-250w mh, 2x54 t5, ato

Current Tank Info: 120gallon 2-darts, 2-evo 1400's...piles of flow.. RKE with an easy button
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Unread 02/24/2010, 09:18 AM   #189
der_wille_zur_macht
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More progress lately but nothing really show-able in photos. I ran two 15A circuits from the main panel in the basement to the tank's area. They aren't connected to anything yet, but the copper is there. I'm trying to do prep work like this so that when the tank is done, I can just bang out the stand and put it in place, and all the supporting systems will be ready to go. In other words, I don't want to make a big ugly hole where the stand will go, and then "pause" progress to do wiring and plumbing. I'm trying to minimize the disturbance since this thing is pretty much right in the middle of our living space.

One of the new circuits will have outlet(s) in the basement for the ATO and water change station, and both will have outlets upstairs. I'm splitting things up on the two circuits, probably as follows:

Circuit A:
-return pump
-heaters
-Sump lighting (turf scrubber)
-ATO/waterchange station

Circuit B:
-Tank lighting
-Closed loop pump
-Arduino controller

Trying to split things to keep the load balanced, but also so if either circuit goes down, the tank won't "die" rapidly. My thinking is that anything in the sump should be on the same circuit as the return pump (because if the return pump's circuit goes down, there's no point in running things in the sump).

Still I've got to draw out a "logic map" or something to make sure it's all configured correctly. For instance, if the circuit powering the Arduino goes down, I want to plan any relays it controls such that they default to a "known good" state - i.e. I don't want the entire tank to just stop if the controller goes offline! But, I also don't want EVERYTHING to default to an "on" state (things like the ATO, waterchange pumps, etc. at least).


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"It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)
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Unread 02/24/2010, 09:50 AM   #190
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It is harder and more expensive. Double everything

To return pump in series one on each circuit.

Half the lights on each circuit.

You get the idea, I think most of the item could be split pretty easily.


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Unread 02/24/2010, 10:13 AM   #191
der_wille_zur_macht
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That would certainly be the most robust approach but I'm not sure if I want quite that level of cost and complexity, and I've already made some design choices that would prevent that approach (i.e. number of holes in the tank and sump).

Plus, I work from home, so I'm pretty much here 24/7 in case something does fail. And, I'm planning on putting the Arduino on my network, so it can notify me if it discovers a problem. I'll probably set it up to twitter tank stats once an hour or something, and twitter a different account (which I'll have email triggers on) if an alarm condition exists.


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Inconveniencing marine life since 1992

"It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)
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Unread 02/24/2010, 11:42 AM   #192
TheFishMan65
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Sounds good one of your checks (if you haven't thought of it) should be power on the other circuit. Don't wait for something to go too far off like temperature.


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Unread 02/24/2010, 11:45 AM   #193
der_wille_zur_macht
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I've thought about that in theory, but not practice. Ideally I'd like the Arduino to "know" when certain things were on or off, regardless of whether or not that thing was controlled by the Arduino.

In other words, I'd like it to be able to know when the heater was on, or when the return pump was on, etc.

I'm sure there's an easy circuit for this, but I just haven't put the effort into finding it out yet.


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Inconveniencing marine life since 1992

"It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)
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Unread 02/24/2010, 04:40 PM   #194
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how about a simple led for each


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PLEASE DONT USE GREAT STUFF (THE YELLOW STUFF) IN YOUR TANK........USE POND FOAM (THE BLACK STUFF).. I BEG YOU!

Great stuff====$5 a can
24-48 hour cure
Epoxy to cover it====little as $5 for small projects or up to $100+ for larger projects
and another 24-48 hour cure
I hope you covered it well cuz if you didnt it will start to break down in a few months
sand is another added cost to cover up the yellow.

Pond foams====$9-$15 a can
24-48 hour cure
DONE! You can cover it with sand if you want to (YOU DONT HAVE TO) though but thats added cost again

Current Tank Info: 75 gal under way
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Unread 02/24/2010, 07:52 PM   #195
der_wille_zur_macht
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Well, that would tell ME if they were working, but I want the controller to know.


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"It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)
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Unread 02/24/2010, 08:10 PM   #196
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Well just have the controller watch the LED. Get a USB camera andsome software. A little pattern recognition. Simple.

Actually there are circuits that can monitor the current draw of an advice. Don't know it off the top of my head. Some of those on the ac plug and you could tell what is running and what is not.


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Unread 02/25/2010, 08:40 AM   #197
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I don't know squat about arduino's, but can you use CT's to measure amperage on the devices?


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Unread 02/25/2010, 01:57 PM   #198
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You could use small hall effect sensors on the AC lines going to the devices to see if there is current flowing. If you get it right, you could even figure out how much current is flowing.


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Unread 02/25/2010, 02:07 PM   #199
der_wille_zur_macht
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I suppose, but I'd probably need to mess with the signal to get it readable, and at that point I might as well go all-out and tear apart some kill-a-watt meters (as ladyada does for her tweet-a-watt devices.) I'm really hoping for something simple and elegant: 1 chip or device, couple bucks max, that gives a logic level on/off output I can connect to a GPIO pin. If I don't find something, I'll probably just relegate this to "phase II" and do it at some point in the future when I have more time to fool. I've already got like 5 or 6 critical things I need to fool with right now.


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"It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)
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Unread 02/25/2010, 02:09 PM   #200
Taqpol
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Hey DWZM, I skimmed back through your build quickly but I don't think I saw the information I was looking for. I'm looking at a potential upgrade to a 180g (72"x24"x24") in the near future and was also contemplating using LEDs. I've been going around the site trying to get all the LED experts opinions, and it looks like it might take a lot more LEDs then I was planning on to get good coverage yet also good penetration to the bottom of my 24" deep tank.

What is your plan for lighting this behemoth of a tank with LEDs? Like, how many LEDs will you use total, how many fixtures will they be spread across, will you mount them high or low and what type of optics will you use, if any. Lastly, do you plan on being able to keep any type of coral throughout the entire range of the tank, or keep high light corals isolated to certain areas?

Sorry for all the questions, but after going through a bunch of the various LED builds you seem to be the guy to talk to!


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