I actually enjoy testing my tank water as well as doing a lot of experimentation to better understand and improve my measurement results as well as provide new insights to share with the Reefing community. However the one thing I do not enjoy is the rinsing and cleaning of the vials I use in the process. Early on I did some experimentation to determine the minimum numbers of times I needed to rinse the vials to reduce the potential of contamination from measurement to measurement…The result was 3 times (See my article on testing…Here )…That is a lot of rinsing when you have 10-20 vials in use. Also I am always looking to improve on the effectiveness of my testing by reducing the amount of time required and getting equal or better results.
This led me to this project. I got the idea from watching a video on an automated bottle washer and thought…That would be perfect, but alas there were no commercial units, at least I could find, that would work for my task! So I decided to “Rube Goldberg” one…I am not including all of the details of the construction in this post, but have attached a PDF (Below) with most of the details you would need to construct a similar one. If you have any questions you can PM me. Below is my specification list and for the most part all were accomplished…Cut my vial cleaning time about in half with no loss in efficiency (clean). You can see the GADGET in action in the video below…enjoy!!
My specifications: (Must have List)
Below
This led me to this project. I got the idea from watching a video on an automated bottle washer and thought…That would be perfect, but alas there were no commercial units, at least I could find, that would work for my task! So I decided to “Rube Goldberg” one…I am not including all of the details of the construction in this post, but have attached a PDF (Below) with most of the details you would need to construct a similar one. If you have any questions you can PM me. Below is my specification list and for the most part all were accomplished…Cut my vial cleaning time about in half with no loss in efficiency (clean). You can see the GADGET in action in the video below…enjoy!!
My specifications: (Must have List)
- Must be small
- Must rinse multiple vials at a time (I picked 4)…Will most likely go to 6
- Must rinse the vials as well as or better that I do by hand (Validate via Test)
- Must be able to rinse vials faster than 30 seconds/vial
- Must be able to be constructed from readily available parts.
- Must be simple to operate and require little set up and maintenance.
Below