electrical idiot builds a controller - a reef pi build

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Mikeneedsahobby

Mikeneedsahobby

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My wife felt bad and let me get a new tank. I’ll slowly keep building. But now I will have no scratches and the silicone will be new!

I think I will use the broken 120 to make a cube tank for the fresh water.Maybe 24x24x20. Learning to build a tank will be fun. Maybe.
 
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Kitchen is done!!!!!
526CDBBF-9C65-49DE-80F3-0EA68B41FE7A.jpeg


goblins new stand is done and the tank is in its permanent spot!!! Tank health has been great! Reef-pi controlling heaters, co2, lights and monitoring ph. manual daily fertilizing and weekly 50% water changes.
56511DB7-1F97-40E8-9562-E00A05DF87BC.jpeg


Trolls... :rolleyes:
needs a tank
E16CCB57-DC36-404F-B3C5-F90B3E53A4F7.jpeg

I’m starting to work on my ato and awc and reef-pi controlled dosing now while I wait for the fish store to find me a tank. I’m planning to use a Jebao 4 head slave doser. Well 3 of them actually.
 

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Kitchen is done!!!!!
526CDBBF-9C65-49DE-80F3-0EA68B41FE7A.jpeg


goblins new stand is done and the tank is in its permanent spot!!! Tank health has been great! Reef-pi controlling heaters, co2, lights and monitoring ph. manual daily fertilizing and weekly 50% water changes.
56511DB7-1F97-40E8-9562-E00A05DF87BC.jpeg


Trolls... :rolleyes:
needs a tank
E16CCB57-DC36-404F-B3C5-F90B3E53A4F7.jpeg

I’m starting to work on my ato and awc and reef-pi controlled dosing now while I wait for the fish store to find me a tank. I’m planning to use a Jebao 4 head slave doser. Well 3 of them actually.
The goblin tank is almost making me jealous! Looks great. Just wait til i hook up my co2!!
 
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The goblin tank is almost making me jealous! Looks great. Just wait til i hook up my co2!!
Co2 makes a huge difference in how the plants grow. I have a regulator and atomizer from co2art. But it is a package thing. With co2 you also need fertilizer or the plants will try to grow without enough nutrients. And then when you add ferts you have to do more and larger water changes to prevent excess build up of anything the plants don’t fully use. I’m using the EI method. It hasn’t been too bad but I am wanting for awc now.
 

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Co2 makes a huge difference in how the plants grow. I have a regulator and atomizer from co2art. But it is a package thing. With co2 you also need fertilizer or the plants will try to grow without enough nutrients. And then when you add ferts you have to do more and larger water changes to prevent excess build up of anything the plants don’t fully use. I’m using the EI method. It hasn’t been too bad but I am wanting for awc now.
I did diy co2 long before it was a "thing" so i know it grows plants. As for the ferts with a high fish load they end up doing fine, what i end up watching is the trace minerals. So i will dose those. I already change alot of water since I got the python.
 

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Im going on a plant collection jaunt in the allegheny. Locally can find quite a few neat plants. SAGITTARIA, LUDWIGIA, MYRIOPHYLUM and quite a few others. Ill clean them out in buckets and change water every day for a week...nevet had a problem with bringing things into the tank after doing that.
 
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I like to post my mistakes. It’s typically the really dumb things that get me.

yesterday I received a couple of float switches. I plan to use these for ato. I consulted the diagram on mike lanes Tindie site for his reef pi hat. I connected the float to ato1 gpio and ground. Then went into reef pi and setup an input and ato to control the main pump. After 30 minutes of the switch doing nothing and me not understanding why, I tried connecting to 5v and gpio instead.
Another 30 minutes go by of nothing working.
i’m frustrated and out of ideas. I sent a message to big trout for help.

While waiting for his response I looked at the diagram of the pi hat one more time and realized I was looking at it upside down and I had both float wires connected to ground the entire time.

i thanked big trout for the inspiration to find my problem and the float switch started working perfectly. (5v and gpio)

lesson... make sure to know north from south when looking at a map.
 
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I just discovered that goblins love playing games. I hooked up @Michael Lane ‘s dosing pump adapter to the power supply backwards and POOF! Firecracker complete with confetti! Those goblins love to party!

luckily I had two other adapters I was using for trolls so I just moved one over to goblins. I’ll buy a capacitor and fix the one the goblins played with later.

Goblins is done!
Reef-pi
8 channel 110v plug
2 channel led light running diurnal ramps
Ph monitoring
Room temp monitoring
Tank temp controlling heater with 0.6 F hysteresis
Co2 regulator on reef pi timer
4 head jebao dosing pump controlled by reef pi
1 - RODI from basement with a float valve for on off signal. Alarm and auto shut off if pump runs too long
2- tank to drain on timer for awc
3 - macro fertilizer on timer
4 - micro fertilizer on timer

this is all on a 20 gallon fresh water tank!
Thanks again everyone who helped!
4C015F13-71F4-492D-A500-B5A313ADB417.jpeg

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trolls is still waiting for a tank.
 

Michael Lane

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Yes!
Looks great...now that my co2 is up running and stable im almost to that point on my 75 gallon. Im still debating auto top off vs awc.
Do you use RODI for water changes? If so, I'd go with AWC since it would handle both problems - plus you have the skills.
 

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No, my problem is dechlorination.
Out of the tap my water has only chlorine, ph is 6.7 hardness generally 4degrees gh and 2-3 degrees kh, so perfect for south american fish.
Id have to make up Safe into a solution to drip in for an AWC and perhaps a little sodium bicarb to get my kh up to 4(better ph stability)
 

Bigtrout

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No, my problem is dechlorination.
Out of the tap my water has only chlorine, ph is 6.7 hardness generally 4degrees gh and 2-3 degrees kh, so perfect for south american fish.
Id have to make up Safe into a solution to drip in for an AWC and perhaps a little sodium bicarb to get my kh up to 4(better ph stability.

In all reality I should be keeping discus...i certainly have the water for them
 
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No, my problem is dechlorination.
Out of the tap my water has only chlorine, ph is 6.7 hardness generally 4degrees gh and 2-3 degrees kh, so perfect for south american fish.
Id have to make up Safe into a solution to drip in for an AWC and perhaps a little sodium bicarb to get my kh up to 4(better ph stability.

In all reality I should be keeping discus...i certainly have the water for them

If you add water slowly and in small amounts then chlorine shouldn’t be a problem. It off gases pretty quickly and shouldn’t build to a worrisome concentration. I do small water changes nightly now. The dosing pump I’m using runs at about 50ml/minute. I am using rodi though pulled up from a basement water drum. I add sodium bicarbonate manually.
 
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If you add water slowly and in small amounts then chlorine shouldn’t be a problem. It off gases pretty quickly and shouldn’t build to a worrisome concentration. I do small water changes nightly now. The dosing pump I’m using runs at about 50ml/minute. I am using rodi though pulled up from a basement water drum. I add sodium bicarbonate manually.
You could dose prime with the awc.
 

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You could dose prime with the awc.
Oh boy...ideas floating through my head now...awc by drilling my sump return chamber for a drain at its max water level. Then come off my water line...through an appropriate sized flowmeter(more accurate than sprinkler drippers) to drip at 133cc per min(2 gallons an hour) into the system ....but only at night so I dont waste co2. That gives me an 81 percent water change a week. At that slow of a flow I could use a whole house water filter with carbon to remove clorine...or drip a safe/prime solution to remove chlorine.

Does this sound feasible?

My only drawback is id have to run a drain a good way in an uninsulated crawlspace(heat tape maybe) or run a drain through the wall into the flowerbeds(not sure how bad winter may affect where i dump 24 gallons a day.
 
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I don’t like the drain solution. I’m not sure how cold it gets there but outside plumbing here would not be okay. I have no idea your layout but keep in mind the drain can be pump fed. You can go up to get to a drain and your drain line can be small.
 

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I don’t like the drain solution. I’m not sure how cold it gets there but outside plumbing here would not be okay. I have no idea your layout but keep in mind the drain can be pump fed. You can go up to get to a drain and your drain line can be small.
Yeah still thinkin on how to do this invisibily...my tank is in the family room and the closest water and drains are in a bathroom on the same floor...but no shared wall....uggh...otherwise it would be easily done. The tank sits over an uninsulated crawlspace...only 10 feet from insulated crawlspace. Perhaps run both supply and drains and wrap/insulate and use self regulating heat tape on them...
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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