DIY wave maker oscillating device for reef tanks

[ravi197699]

Hello Reefers, I was looking for device for my wave makers to turn left and right, pretty much 180 deg turns so that wave maker can provide flow to all my corals and I don't have to use the wave maker at high speed for flow to reach on the other side of the tank, currently I am using 4 thrusters in my 800 gallon tank but they push water in 1 fixed direction but issue is some corals are getting blasted and some are happy and some don't get enough flow, I watched video for large reef tank where 4 wave makers are suspended in water with similar device and they are mounted 1 in each corner of the tank and device is turning all 4 wave makers left to right providing flow to all corals, there are no magnets on the glass which is plus wires run through pvc and I wanted to implement the same design but when I started searching for devices that are available and quality of the devices, I started searching for alternatives, so after doing some research I found video of micro controller that changes the polarity of the 12v motor and timing of the turn can be adjusted by seconds as well, it was simple design, so I bought 12v center shaft geared motor, micro controller and 12v adjustable power supply and I was happy with the outcome, below is the video of the motor on and turning, I did not make any changes to the setting of the micro controller, this is out of the box setting, please see the video of the youtube video,

 

[geologeek]

Nice bit of DIY, thanks for sharing.

My only concern would be with the controller failing and the motor just going in one direction without any failsafe will lead to a potential disaster.......pump ground into the glass, or if fully spinning, spooling up the power cable??

Have you considered control failure and put in a failsafe?? Maybe some micro switches wired in as end stops at your chosen maximum rotation?

 

[ravi197699]

I

Nice bit of DIY, thanks for sharing.

My only concern would be with the controller failing and the motor just going in one direction without any failsafe will lead to a potential disaster.......pump ground into the glass, or if fully spinning, spooling up the power cable??

Have you considered control failure and put in a failsafe?? Maybe some micro switches wired in as end stops at your chosen maximum rotation?

Thank you for your input sir, I was thinking about using the micro switches but then I will have to build the box for the micro switches, I am going to try this in the tank with powerhead connected and see how it goes, I don't mind trying different ideas

 

[Jamie814]

Have you looked at Sea sweeps? I run 4 of them with Tunzes on my 500 gallon, they work great!

I had the same issue with MP60's too much direct blast to corals close and not enough flow further away. Sea sweeps with Tunze are quieter and offered much better random oscillating flow.

 

[slogan315]

I

Thank you for your input sir, I was thinking about using the micro switches but then I will have to build the box for the micro switches, I am going to try this in the tank with powerhead connected and see how it goes, I don't mind trying different ideas

Have you though of using a servo instead of a motor? Fixed range of motion and deliberate direction. Also might make the motor last longer not being continuously moving and changing direction. No idea how this translates to thrusters on an 800 gallon! But I’m going to try this on a nano to create great flow out of cheap single speed powerheads. Best of luck and excited to see whatever you end up with in action!

 

[SnowyFox]

Have you though of using a servo instead of a motor? Fixed range of motion and deliberate direction. Also might make the motor last longer not being continuously moving and changing direction. No idea how this translates to thrusters on an 800 gallon! But I’m going to try this on a nano to create great flow out of cheap single speed powerheads. Best of luck and excited to see whatever you end up with in action!

Servos also typically have a lot more torque available as well. I think you can even get servos that are already weather resistant as well pretty easily too

 

[ravi197699]

powerheads. Best of luck a

Servos also typically have a lot more torque available as well. I think you can even get servos that are already weather resistant as well pretty easily too

I have tried servos and it is very loud, however I found this board what you guys think of this board? it does the same but all in 1 design

Amazon product ASIN B083XXTCWW

 

[slogan315]

I have tried servos and it is very loud, however I found this board what you guys think of this board? it does the same but all in 1 design

Amazon product ASIN B083XXTCWW

I am too far out of my depth in electronics to provide any advice on the board. Only high level ideas about things like servo vs continuous dc motor.

As far as the noise, are you set on having the motor continuously operate? What about having the motor or servo pick some random direction within a range (say 180 degrees) and only move every so often. So if say your time interval was 1 minute, then every 1 minute, pick a new direction, move there, and stay until the next move.

In my limited experience, I think what you’re going for is strong AND random flow. With constant oscillation, you’ll definitely get extremely random flow, but it may lack strength. Seems like you’d need the thrusters to sit still for a bit to get the whole tank moving in a strong flow pattern. Then all the thrusters change some direction. This causes turbulence and randomness for a bit as the new flow is fighting the old flow, and eventually becomes another strong, completely different, flow pattern than the first one.

Again, just thoughts in my head as I have not ever done this and especially not at your scale!

 

[ravi197699]

I am too far out of my depth in electronics to provide any advice on the board. Only high level ideas about things like servo vs continuous dc motor.

As far as the noise, are you set on having the motor continuously operate? What about having the motor or servo pick some random direction within a range (say 180 degrees) and only move every so often. So if say your time interval was 1 minute, then every 1 minute, pick a new direction, move there, and stay until the next move.

In my limited experience, I think what you’re going for is strong AND random flow. With constant oscillation, you’ll definitely get extremely random flow, but it may lack strength. Seems like you’d need the thrusters to sit still for a bit to get the whole tank moving in a strong flow pattern. Then all the thrusters change some direction. This causes turbulence and randomness for a bit as the new flow is fighting the old flow, and eventually becomes another strong, completely different, flow pattern than the first one.

Again, just thoughts in my head as I have not ever done this and especially not at your scale!

thank you for your input and I was just thinking out loud for this project, I will be using Jebao MOW - 22 wave maker for this motor, my only concert is if the relay board goes back then it will continue to run on 1 direction, just want to make safe in case of failure, checking alternatives in market for this,

 

[SnowyFox]

I also wonder if you slow down how fast you're asking the servo to move, it might drop the noise quite a bit.

 

[geologeek]

Have you seen the use of CCTV camera motor mounts?

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-sea-sweep-easy-make.888903/

 

[SnowyFox]

Amazon product ASIN B083XXTCWW

Stepper motors can be pretty loud as well, especially when driven by cheap driver boards. For example, the newer QD version of the Neptune DOS is pretty much identical to the original with the stepper motors used to power the dosing pumps, the difference is that they likely updated the drivers to use the more expensive 32 bit drivers that support microstepping, which eliminates almost all of the noise.

That board also doesn't appear to be able to drive NEMA 17 motors based on the review comments. Not sure what size stepper motor you were thinking of using. NEMA 17s are the most common size found in common 3D printers.

If you really want to descend deep into the stepper motor rabbit hole (It's a fun journey btw, and is worth exploring if you have an interest in these kinds of things), they do make stepper motor servos. Those work by essentially bolting on an encoder to the output shaft of the stepper motor that can report back to the driver the current position of the motor. They are a lot more expensive, but can be quite useful in some situations.

Another idea you could consider would be something like a windshield wiper motor. They are designed specifically for oscillating back and forth. Might be a bit bulky though

 

[ravi197699]

Stepper motors can be pretty loud as well, especially when driven by cheap driver boards. For example, the newer QD version of the Neptune DOS is pretty much identical to the original with the stepper motors used to power the dosing pumps, the difference is that they likely updated the drivers to use the more expensive 32 bit drivers that support microstepping, which eliminates almost all of the noise.

That board also doesn't appear to be able to drive NEMA 17 motors based on the review comments. Not sure what size stepper motor you were thinking of using. NEMA 17s are the most common size found in common 3D printers.

If you really want to descend deep into the stepper motor rabbit hole (It's a fun journey btw, and is worth exploring if you have an interest in these kinds of things), they do make stepper motor servos. Those work by essentially bolting on an encoder to the output shaft of the stepper motor that can report back to the driver the current position of the motor. They are a lot more expensive, but can be quite useful in some situations.

Another idea you could consider would be something like a windshield wiper motor. They are designed specifically for oscillating back and forth. Might be a bit bulky though

I like little projects, I can design something with wiper motor or wiper motor transmission out of arms, I will give this design try and see what happens and take it from there,

 

[Coody]

So here we get into some weird thoughts and ideas.

So if you have a hood over the tank, you can do a rail with a 3d printed mount angled 45 degrees down, hook a 3d printing controller board up and actually program it to send the power head across the whole tank.

Having it go back and forth with one on both sides of the tank. That would be a bit of random flow through the whole tank.

And using a timing belt wouldn’t worry about rust from random splashes. And servos can be bought weather resistant.

Just a thought and probably not applicable but would be cool to see in practice.

 

[ravi197699]

I like little projects, I can design something with wiper motor or wiper motor transmission out of arms, I will give this design try and see what happens and take it from there,

there are light tracks that can be used for this purpose as well, I have the parts and give it run without pump and see how long it does last and take it from there,

 

[don_pips]

there are light tracks that can be used for this purpose as well, I have the parts and give it run without pump and see how long it does last and take it from there,

have u completed this project? I too am trying to create this same device

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I am also curious to see if you finished this!

 

[ravi197699]

Sorry for delay in reply, project above in the video did not work out so well and reason was the board, programming on the board was so confusing that I had to find simpler solution that could be plug and play and I found the solution which worked out perfect and it does not require any board, I bought this security camera PTZ motor that I have been using for 5 months and no complaints, I use this motor with Jebao MOW 22 pump which is very strong pump and this motor handles this with no issues, I am using 3 motors and bought 6 motors to mount on my canopy with 90 deg brackets, you can adjust the span of the rotation by adjusting the 2 screws circled in blue, you can adjust this from 10 deg to 180 deg rotation or even more, all you need is 12v power supply that gets connected to female part and other 2 wires are not used, I cut them off to keep it simple, metal bracket is used to attach pvc cap upside down and then attach pvc pipe that goes down in the tank and then attach wave maker to the pvc. I will attach pictures for how I use these on my tank, very simple. I hope it could save you few bucks, I paid 33.00 for motor plus shipping, Tunze sell product and other companies sell similar function products for hefty price, I control these to turn on and off with apex and my wave makers and motors turn on together so at night they are off, any question please feel free to ask and search for this name on alibaba

JIND Outdoor 2Kg Load Surveillance Motorized Head Heavy Duty Remote Control CCTV Pan Tilt RS485 Security Camera Mounting Bracket​

 

[don_pips]

Sorry for delay in reply, project above in the video did not work out so well and reason was the board, programming on the board was so confusing that I had to find simpler solution that could be plug and play and I found the solution which worked out perfect and it does not require any board, I bought this security camera PTZ motor that I have been using for 5 months and no complaints, I use this motor with Jebao MOW 22 pump which is very strong pump and this motor handles this with no issues, I am using 3 motors and bought 6 motors to mount on my canopy with 90 deg brackets, you can adjust the span of the rotation by adjusting the 2 screws circled in blue, you can adjust this from 10 deg to 180 deg rotation or even more, all you need is 12v power supply that gets connected to female part and other 2 wires are not used, I cut them off to keep it simple, metal bracket is used to attach pvc cap upside down and then attach pvc pipe that goes down in the tank and then attach wave maker to the pvc. I will attach pictures for how I use these on my tank, very simple. I hope it could save you few bucks, I paid 33.00 for motor plus shipping, Tunze sell product and other companies sell similar function products for hefty price, I control these to turn on and off with apex and my wave makers and motors turn on together so at night they are off, any question please feel free to ask and search for this name on alibaba

JIND Outdoor 2Kg Load Surveillance Motorized Head Heavy Duty Remote Control CCTV Pan Tilt RS485 Security Camera Mounting Bracket​

awesome thank you! id love to see a picture of this or video in action. Very cool.

 

[ravi197699]

Here is the video in action,