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Unread 04/22/2010, 11:55 AM   #226
der_wille_zur_macht
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Time to bring this thread out of hibernation. I'm way behind schedule but I think I needed a breather to catch up on other efforts. Most of my little electronics experiments are wrapped up, I've got my spring cleaning done, built the kids a big playset outside, and am ready to get back to work.

Ordered glass today. It'll be ready next week, so looks like it'll go in next weekend. I was really shocked at the variances in prices from local glass shops, so if others are doing this: shop around! I'm talking like one place being more than twice the price of the shop down the street for the same order!

I already have the wood for the stand, so once glass is in and it's leak tested, it should "go up" quickly. Then there will probably be a few solid weeks of electrical and plumbing work to get the entire thing running, but that's the fun part.


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Unread 04/22/2010, 12:02 PM   #227
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bout time! Cant wait.


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Unread 04/22/2010, 12:36 PM   #228
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Nice, Im glad to see this still on track. Just out of curiosity, what were the sizes and thicknesses of the glass that you got?


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Unread 04/22/2010, 12:58 PM   #229
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Three pieces of half inch thick plain old float glass, seamed edges (i.e. they're knocked down so you won't cut yourself, but not ground or polished to look pretty.) These dimensions:

1) 69" x 19 3/4" (font viewing panel)
2) 43 3/4" x 10 1/2" (end viewing panel)
3) 27" x 10 1/2" (back viewing panel)


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Unread 04/22/2010, 08:14 PM   #230
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Not low iron?? DWZM!!??!



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Unread 04/23/2010, 06:10 AM   #231
der_wille_zur_macht
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I'm one of those people who can't tell the difference unless you put the two types of glass right next to eachother.


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Unread 04/23/2010, 06:13 AM   #232
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same here. Plus at 1/2" its not a real worry. 3/4 starts to be noticeable.


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Unread 04/23/2010, 06:26 AM   #233
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Put me down as one of the people who can't tell the difference.


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Unread 04/23/2010, 06:29 AM   #234
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FWIW I'm trying to be at least a little comical. I CAN tell a difference, I'm just not totally convinced it's in my budget as far as bang/buck ratio.


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Unread 04/23/2010, 11:03 AM   #235
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High time for some photos. I mentioned the basement water change/topoff station. Here it is:

(warning: my basement is a 200-year-old dungeon)



Tank on the left is for RO/DI storage. There's a line from the RO unit (located on an opposite wall, maybe 8 feet away) running to that tank with a mechanical float valve. Will also have an electric float switch above the valve to alert me to valve failure.

Tank on the right is saltwater mixing/storage. I'm planning on many small changes (maybe 3 gallons/day). The changes will be automated, so all I'll have to do is keep that container full of saltwater.

There's a pump mounted in the stand below the tanks:



The pump has it's output running into the pipe you see going up over the top of the salt tank. Inside the tank, it goes down about a foot then hits a T splitting it to either side of the tank.

The input of the pump is connected to a T with one leg running to the bottom of the RO/DI container, and one leg running to the bottom of the saltwater container. There are valves on both legs of the T, and on the output. This way, I can operate the valves to "switch" the pump from pulling RO/DI water to pulling saltwater - so it can function as a transfer pump AND a mixing pump.

Basically, to make a batch of saltwater, I'll do the following:

1) With the pump off, open the intake valve from theRO/DI tank and close the intake valve from the saltwater tank.
2) Turn the pump on. This will drain the RO/DI tank and fill the saltwater tank with RO/DI water.
3) When the saltwater tank has filled to a pre-marked line, close the intake valve from the RO/DI tank and open the intake valve from the salt tank. This will close off the RO/DI tank and cause the pump to act as a mix pump for the saltwater tank.
4) Dump in a pre-measured bag of salt mix.
5) Walk away for a few hours, then check salinity and adjust as required.

I'm hoping I can do this in just a few minutes on a weekend. Then, the auto-change system will take care of the actual changes, and the ATO will topoff for evaporation from the RO/DI system, meaning little or no water maintenance will be required during the week.

Also, the RO/DI unit itself was mounted on plywood:



I left a good bit of room above the unit so I can attach a shelf for other equipment. Also have a lot of room inside the stand that the two waterchange containers are sitting on.

Calcium and alkalinity will likely be automated two-part dosing, so the containers for two-part will likely be down here, too. Or, perhaps, under the tank - since there's going to be a fair amount of "floor space" inside the stand.

Oh, and I snapped a picture of one of my "excuses" for being delayed over the last few weeks. I've been designing and building this:



Tonight the last few bits go on. I think I'm more excited to try that slide than my kids are.


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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 04/23/2010, 11:23 AM   #236
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Quote:
Originally Posted by der_wille_zur_macht View Post
I think I'm more excited to try that slide than my kids are.
You gotta have dreams


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Unread 04/23/2010, 11:23 AM   #237
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DWZM, are you gonna ground that slide?


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Unread 04/23/2010, 11:26 AM   #238
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Half the fun is watching the kids jump when they touch it.


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Unread 04/23/2010, 07:43 PM   #239
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eznet2u View Post
DWZM, are you gonna ground that slide?
no kiddin. the static on those is vicious...


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Unread 04/25/2010, 01:00 AM   #240
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Quote:
Originally Posted by der_wille_zur_macht View Post
FWIW I'm trying to be at least a little comical. I CAN tell a difference, I'm just not totally convinced it's in my budget as far as bang/buck ratio.
I suspect you could turn down your lighting power by about 15% for the same view. To me that seems possibly worth the initial cost difference.

I can see a horrid difference with my 3/8". Just looking at it I really don't notice but as soon as I look DOWN into the tank at my fish I'm shocked - every time. They seem about 3x as brightly colored.

But yes, the stuff is a pain to find and much more costly for just a person doing a single project to find and buy.

It was expensive enough that I abandoned an almost complete plywood and steel tank build. The single front pane of glass was going to cost just about exactly $1K.

Opted out and paid $500 for a used tank the same size.


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Unread 04/25/2010, 06:37 AM   #241
der_wille_zur_macht
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For reference, I'm going to be in about $260 for all three pieces of glass.


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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 05/01/2010, 06:16 AM   #242
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First panel is in!



I forgot to put tape around on the glass panel itself so there's some cleanup there. But I did do something smart - I hung this section of the tank off the side of the table, so I could get to both sides to work the silicone to a nice fillet and clean up the extra while it's still wet, which is MUCH easier than once it's dry!

Also, I came up with a solution ensuring the silicone is the correct thickness on the two heavier panels. (not worried about it on this panel since it wasn't heavy enough to squeeze the silicone out on it's own.) I made a little notched scraper with a scrap of plastic:



Then I put a few dabs of silicone around each other edge of other two panels, and used the scraper to scrape it down to the exact desired thickness. This way I didn't have to embed spacers of another material (acrylic, or those little cabinet door pads some people use.)


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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 05/01/2010, 09:14 AM   #243
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Re: Mountains of sawdust (360g plywood, LED, Arduino build)

Come on come on, we has needs to see this tanks completion!


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Unread 05/01/2010, 02:02 PM   #244
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What are we looking at? Tank upside down with your head in it taking a picture outwards?


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Unread 05/01/2010, 02:50 PM   #245
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Quote:
Originally Posted by der_wille_zur_macht View Post
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.
Guess I should probably stop lurking and actually post something... If you haven't figured out the electrical stuff yet, give the APC PDUs a try, we use them in our datacenter and they:

1) Report amperage per socket (or total) with configurable threshold/alarms
2) Offer individual control of each socket
3) Can use SNMP/traps, telnet, ssh, and web/CGI for control

Make sure you read the documentation/specs for the specific one you want before you buy one, some of the models in the same family don't have all the features that other ones do. Here's the link for the metered switches: http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=136

They're not at all waterproof and humidity will damage them, they need to be mounted safely away from very humid areas and unused plugs need caps on them. I sealed my old MasterSwitch up with aquarium sealant but it never produced much heat; the newer ones do.

Before I switched to a Reefkeeper (which I generally dislike) I was using a APC MasterSwitch controlled via SNMP with a Mac Mini. Worked out pretty well, but I wanted PH monitoring/control.


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Unread 05/02/2010, 04:57 AM   #246
der_wille_zur_macht
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Interesting info, I'll check those out.

For now, the controller is going on a small dedicated UPS that'll be able to report power outages, and I found some inductive sensors that'll let it know if the other circuits lose power, too.


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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 05/02/2010, 04:59 AM   #247
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kcress View Post
What are we looking at? Tank upside down with your head in it taking a picture outwards?
Yeah, that photo is disorienting, huh. The tank is on a table, "back" side down, and I stuck the camera in through the top opening. The bare-looking wood you can see there is the edge of the eurobrace, which is coated in epoxy that had very little tint in it.


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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 05/02/2010, 06:41 AM   #248
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good design, nice work.!


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Unread 05/02/2010, 12:04 PM   #249
der_wille_zur_macht
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Glass #2 is in!


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Unread 05/02/2010, 01:05 PM   #250
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Looking good!


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