Finished my Reef-Pi (Mostly)

[ChrisNH]

I finally finished my Reef-Pi. I got my 40B tank running a few weeks ago and dumping water by hand into it twice a day was enough to push me the last mile.

It is the classic build on top of a Pi-3B Pi-2B I had lying around, I had a lot of fun with it. Now you can get pre-made boards on Tindie which is great but I loved the hands-on of the DIY from scratch version. That being said, now that I have had this experience, if I do another, it will be from a pre-made board.

It has
2x Temp sensors . One for tank to oversee temp controllers, one for ambient to enable second heater when my basement gets cold and general info.

3x Water level sensors: main, backup, and one to alert on empty ato container (still in mail..)

1x Ph probe - still working on configuring that-- will be my canary in the coal mine for the Alk.

Serial port for the ADJ power strip (works great! Love it!)

Serial strip will control
Temp x2
1-3 Dosers (eventually)
1x ATO pump
2x lights (on/off for T-5, not dimmable)

Pumps and power heads on a different circuit.

If was doing it over I would use glands and connectors for the temp probes like I did with the ATO. I had never made connectors before, that was all new to me and kind of fun and kind of frustrating at the same time. The wires for the ATO came from temp probes I burned out when I wired the jacks wrong. Lemons -> Lemonade.

I would also move the ATO glands over a little so the Ph board can seat flush.

I am looking forward to incorporating other IOT wireless stuff in the future but this is pretty much it for what goes into the box for now. I have to seal up that BNC connector too.

A huge thanks to the Reef-pi crew, they are doing some fantastic work with this.

Now to the fun part of actually using it with my tank. Fortunately the only thing that can be hurt right now is some nitrifying bacteria and my basement floor.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looks great to me!!

 

[Michael Lane]

That looks great!

I have one presentable reef-pi build, but my others are mostly just a pi, a hat, and a bunch of wires hanging from places where I hope they'll stay dry. It's almost a problem from how easy they are to set up.

I believe @Tom Bishop is looking at setting up a wiki, but in the meantime, I posted some notes on setting up the pH board here in the main reef-pi thread.

 

[ChrisNH]

Thanks for the link! I plan to tackle the ph probe tonight after I do some more testing on setting up the backup ato sensor.

I had hooked it up in that fluid they ship it with but it didn’t seem right. Tonight I will calibrate with 7.01 solution and put it in the tank.

 

[ChrisNH]

I posted some notes on setting up the pH board

I was able to get the ph probe (BRS Lab Grade) to calibrate and read ph 7 with the milwaukee solution. I had to set the timer to be longer to get it to stop bouncing. However, upon placing in the tank, it jumps to 300s. It almost seems like it is requiring a second calibration for 10? I ran through the process twice with the same result.

Kind of annoying but I will let it run tonight and see if it settles down. I ordered some 10 solution a few days ago but it won't be here until next week. I am not sure what the expected range would be.. my ph should be around 7.8ish.

 

[Michael Lane]

I was able to get the ph probe (BRS Lab Grade) to calibrate and read ph 7 with the milwaukee solution. I had to set the timer to be longer to get it to stop bouncing. However, upon placing in the tank, it jumps to 300s. It almost seems like it is requiring a second calibration for 10? I ran through the process twice with the same result.

Kind of annoying but I will let it run tonight and see if it settles down. I ordered some 10 solution a few days ago but it won't be here until next week. I am not sure what the expected range would be.. my ph should be around 7.8ish.

I don't think a single point calibration will work for pH readings based on
the calibration code. It looks like the single point calibration only applies an offset to the reading. You'll need 2 point calibration for pH.

 

[Bigtrout]

If you are looking to read 7.8...get a 9 or 10ph buffer solution to do your calibrations. Yes you need 2 point calibration to be accurate.

In all my experinemting with the reef pi ph probes, it needs 2 point calibration. I calibrated in a 4, 6.86 and a 9 solution and got the same results within .05 ph calibrating from 4 to 9 as i did calibrating from 4 to 6.86 and 6.86 to 9. This means the code and also the milwaukee probe were both pretty good and accurate.

 

[ChrisNH]

Ok thanks, I used my tank (7.8ish per API) as the high and it is reading 7.8. At least, I will see if it drifts up or down.

It will be interesting to see how much it changes when I use the 10.0 stuff as the high. The pH in my tank should not change much as I am just dosing ammonia every few days while I cycle.

 

[Bigtrout]

A ph probe was an eye opener for me. I cuuld graph how much plants affect ph. You will be happy once its calibrated. I check calibration every 3 months and so far the probe calibration hasnt changed much in a year and a half. I do wonder how long the probes last as I know they have a definite lifespan

 

[ChrisNH]

I do wonder how long the probes last as I know they have a definite lifespan

Atlas Scientific says this about their lab grade probe:

Time before recalibration	~1 Year
Life expectancy	~2.5 Years +

For the BRS probe? Hopefully its in the same ballpark.

 

[ChrisNH]

So after getting the "real" calibration done I found that I was pretty close already, within 0.1 pH. I expected it to be a little honest, the salt is mixing with slightly lower pH (7.8) then expected but it is consistent with my tests as well as the probe. Its working like a champ. Thanks @Michael Lane