# Sonoran Desert Fish Nook - a build thread



## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Last week I put my new mini fish room / fish rack on-line called the Fish Nook. I'm located in the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona just 30 minutes from the Mexican Border. Sometimes I'm in the state of Sonora, Mexico as well. Hence the name pays tribute.

This build has been in the planning stages for a few years with allot of prep work (tank stripping/drilling , controller hardware/software, etc...) happening over time. I'll document random things from home construction, running utilities, glass drilling, etc.. Done some clever things, done some dumb things, some things I'll change, some things I'll live with. However, the Fish Nook is in operation, so this isn't a build thread showcasing something that doesn't get built. (that has happend to all of us, time and unforeseen occurence can nix allot of plans....been there). 

This was my inspiration:










This was how I planned it:










Reality and Humility played a part and it was scaled back (but filtration stayed large for future expansion):










This is where it is right now, version 1.0. Missed the mark on the Aquarium Zen (lfs in Seattle) inspired look, but content with the comprimises and happy with the results:










It's a work in progress, and it will change. However, I'll start taking this thread back in time to share how the build progressed. 

Disclaimer: I did a series of threads on Simply Discus detailing facets of the build. However, my setup is geared towards plants, tetras, dwarf cichlids, therefore, allot of what I've done doesn't quite jive with the bare bottom, massive water changes, and large multi-tank syndrome that is so common over there. I like and respect many of the members, enjoyed sharing the trials and tribulations of the build with them, and of course received good advice. But now it's up and running.... and I feel like I will benefit from you folks tremendously as I tackle water change regimens, fertilizing regimens, aquascaping, modifications, etc... things more in line with plant keeping, in lieu of discus keeping.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

It started when I bought 3 20L tanks from Petsmart for $1 a gallon, followed by 4 more a year or so later for $1 a gallon, followed by the last at $1 a gallon.










Did some reading on the InnerWebs.. and I was sure I could de-rim and de-base them all.










Was laborious, but started making progress... and broke my first one with just 6 to 10 inches to go. It was over confidence and I started rushing things down the home stretch. Fortunately, never repeated that mistake again while de-rimming tanks (oh yes, but there would be other mistakes...).










Afterwards, I found success. Sanding of the rim and sharp edges would come next, followed by lots of razor blade scraping and cleaning with vinager to remove excess silicone would follow.










Eventually I found a rhythm... So 7 tanks done.... and undecided what to do with the slightly broken tank....










Would I do that again? Only with brand new tanks. Remember how 3 were purchased long ago? They were bears!! I wouldn't do it for one tank... but I was going after 8... I don't know... It would depend on my financial reality at the time if ever presented with that decision again...


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Reviewed my plans and adopted the 4 display tank and 2 chamber sump layout. I needed 6 tanks. I had 7 unbroken ones in my possession. I was in good shape.

Having gained confidence with glass, I would move on to drilling for bulkheads. Each display tank would have 4 holes.. 1/2" supply, 1/2" drain to sewer, twin 3/4" out to sump.

Got the materials together, even made jigs to take pressure of the glass. plumbers putty and running water to keep things cool and lubricated. An example of the prep work for first 1/2" hole at the top.










Here's an example of success with the twin large holes (1 1/2" I believe) for the 3/4 outflow bulkheads. Look how close to the edge they are!










Got all done with 7... and started to put things away.. when I realized I missed one 7/8" hole at the top for the 1/2 supply bulkhead. Feeling confident I grabbed the hose and drill....










Over confidence got me again... attempted without a jig and broke the end panel...

Down to 6 de-rimmed, de-based, drilled aquariums now.

Here's a finished product:










The sumps were different and rather custom. Remember the sump has 2 chambers, osea it is made up of 2 x 20L aquariums. 1" bulkheads are used to join the tanks, so those holes are big (1-3/4" I believe). They went nice, and I just re-used an already existing jig, just repositioned.










Again... still lots of scraping and cleaning of the tanks required. You see lots of spotting because every tank was filled with water after being de-rimmed and before being drilled for 2 weeks... I wanted to make sure the aquariums had structural integrity with all of the plastic removed. Here is that process.










I set them out on my patio and barracaded them with chairs so my dogs wouldn't disrupt anything. All 7 tanks were done this way (remember, I this was before drilling, so I hadn't broken the 2nd aquarium yet).










Again. I just wanted to be really sure these tanks weren't going to spring leaks once setup inside my homeoffice.

Now, needed to build something to put them on. I would go through allot of ideas before settling on the last....


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Originally, I wanted to make the entire rack out of Mesquite Wood. However, large continuous pieces were expensive for the uprights. Then I decided I would use Mesquite only for the shelves, and use Black Iron Pipe for the uprights. 

This was my inspiration. I built this for my wife and I thought it would be a nice look to continue into my Fish Nook as we have several rustic mesquite furniture pieces throuhout the home:










Of course to support the weight of aquariums it would need to be beefier.. Something like this:










I began to go to plumbing shops to inquire about Black Pipe, Fittings, Floor Flanges, Renting a Threader, etc.... Then I went to several specialty mesquite lumber yards from Tucson to Nogales AZ to obtain 8 pieces with live edges to construct the two stands that I would need. There was no way around it... This stand was starting to add up. As in $1k territory for a fish stand.

My wife and I discussed it. She posed a question. Couldn't you just do a very inexpensive baker's type or utility rack? And then take all of that saved money and spend it on building the fish room (utilities, sheetrock, doors, tile, etc..) and buying stock (flora/fauna) and equipment? I thought... why not? My wife suggested these:










I didn't dismiss the idea right away. Could they work? I'd be looking at building both racks for under $200. Just like I proved out the viability of the derimmed-debased tanks... I'd put these racks to the test...


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

I felt just setting cork or styrofoam directly on the wire racks wasnt' sufficient. So I'll augment each shelf with custom fit plywood pieces. The idea was maximize load distribution to minimize the possibility of failure.

Got the tools out and started:










I would cut, shape, router and sand each piece. They'd fit on the shelves like this. Each shelf has passages that will allow plumbing and electrical cables to pass through. Cork mats would be use to absorb imperfections, to make a smooth interface for the glass bottoms:










Before going any further, I wanted to test out the debased/derimmed/drilled tanks on the rack. I didn't have all the cork in my possession yet, so I used 1/2" styrofoam as well as cork for the break-in test. 










Now, it was time to install all of the bulkheads and begin filling with water. I started out with 25% and 50% of the capacity... The idea I would test that out for a day.










Then I thought, if they are going to fail, they are going to fail.. .So I went straight to 100%.










I left it like that for a week, purposely working around them, bumping them... draining, refilling, cleaning, etc...

I did the same with the other rack and the 3 other tanks for a week as well. No leaks.

Satisfied these would hold the weight, I decided to finish up the wooden shelves. Used a Black stain.. and then applied 3 coats of an oil modified finish to each of the 8 panels that would augment each shelf:










So now I have the stand built, the display tanks ready, and the sump almost fitted out. 










But where would I set up all of this? Where did I build the Fish Nook and what was involved in doing it? Will follow up with that information next week... For now... I'm flying up to Seattle Washington for the Weekend... and Yes... while I am there I will go to Aquarium Zen to purchase more flora/fauna... that too will be a thread for next week.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

We have a modest 1400sq ft town home. No attic, no basement, a carport instead of a garage. We get some hard winter nights because of the altitude, so I couldn't set my tanks up outside on the covered back patio. The Fish Nook would be located somewhere in the home, would have to be nice to blend, and would have to be serviceable without causing excess humidity, smell, water damage.

The ideal location was my small (8' x 11'6") Den / Office / Lab that was converted from the old Arizona Room, located at the very back of my home leading to our covered patio. It also has a 3' x 8' underutilized closet (just a file cabinet and laser jet printer), that actually used to be a seperate outside bodega (which paid dividens.. I'll show that in the construction). That closet would become a Fish Nook.










The question was how to open up that 3' x 8' space. Accessing it and viewing the aquariums through a 30" door was out of the question. Is their adequate electric? (electrical servuce is outside on the front of the home). How do I get water to it? (bathrooms/kitchen are on the other side of the house). There's not enough space for the two racks and my RO Water storage, where would the Water storage go? How much carpentry is involved? Is the wall with the door load bareing? What to do about the ceramic tile floor when I widen the entry? Tackled it all in under 6 weeks... Thread updates will highight the good, bad, and ugly.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

So, we started the demo.
The 30" closet door was removed:










Fortunate in that previous owners replaced all of the doors in the home with nice paneled doors.... Except for the Bodega off of the carport.... So, decided to re-deploy that closet door there... perfect fit... just really minor adjustments for the striker.. No going back now that the door has found a new home. Just need to paint it from interior white to spanish white to match the home's exterior. (Note: this bodega off of the carport will house the R.O. Equipment... but that's coming later in the thread..)










Now the clock is ticking because I've torn up the home. You can see in the photo that I took down all of the shelves from that 3' x 8' closet as well. They were a bear... as they were screwed, glued, calked, etc... 










Inside, let's remove sheetrock in preparation to widen things and route the wiring. Interior lightswitch is in the section that will be removed. So, decided to tackle that right away.










Fastforwarding and the widening from a 30" door to accomodate a 60" folding door is done.










I'm going to spend a bit of time talking about this. The previous owners were artistic architects, and therefore my entire home's interior (sans the closets) has a Venetian Style plaster. It is very nice. I didn't want to disturb it in my Den/Office as I widened things. This is where I was fortunate on two fronts.

1. this closet used to be an outside closet before the Arizona Room (whcih is my den/office space) was fully enclosed and made four seasons. therefore, this 'outside' closet has 1/2" plywood and the 1/4" sheetrock with the ventian style plaster. This meant that I could hammer and cut and not mess up the venetian plaster at all. Just a tiny mess up on some edges that the new door trim would cover up. It also meant cutting spaces for electrical boxes, network jacks, etc... could be done without fear of messing up the plaster as well. I also meant it would be possible to remove the old door header.. and put in a new door header that was wider.. again without messing up the plaster on the office/den side.

2. this is crazy... as I removed the closet sheetrock to expose the 2x4s to begin removing those that framed the old door, I found that the next 2x4's over in the closet were nearly centered on the wall with 62 1/2" between them. Saved money... and installed doublers and started cutting... It's incredible that I could cut nails and 2x4's inplace without messing up that plaster on the other side....

New header went it very nicely...










Of course I cut out beams from the floor and used a grider to grind down the lag bolts. 










Built Up and Leveled the space.










Tiled and Grouted. I didn't want to bust up any other part of the floor. I was content to piece it in with a few old pieces that were in the back bodega (been in there for 40 years perhaps). It looks intentional.... as part of the entry and I don't mind it one bit. 










So we are good structurely. 

And of course you can see some new romex as well for outlets... Well, prior to getting to thise point, there were some revelations about the electric in my home.... courtesy of the converted Arizona Room (den/office). There was the potential to overload things, as the reality did not reflect what the labels in my electrical panel indicated. We would take a HUGE detour to run electric... which spawned other side jobs... Will detail that in the next submission to the thread.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

So, remember I was going to move a light switch from inside the closet to the outside of the closet? Went to my panel and killed the circuit labeled 'Arizona Room'... Remember my Den/Office is a converted Arizona Room... and the Fish Nook, just off of it is a Bodega adjacent to the Arizona Room. To my surprise, I lost power to the Master bedroom, Guest bedroom and hallway. Meanwhile, one circuit in my Den/Office was still powered.

This is what I discovered... that still powered outlet was from the GFCI circuit that supplied the outlets for Master Bath and Common Bath (potentially wet locations), an outlet in the carport (outside, potentially wet location) and Den/Office (Arizona Room... formerly outside, potentially wet location). Well, we will leave that be.

The lighting and additional outlets for the Arizona Room (office/den) were made possible by extending the bedroom circuits. I already had my computers in my den/office... I regularly used a soldering iron, heat gun, etc... Now I would be adding everything to support the fishnook. I decided that I would leave the Den/Office and FishNook ceiling fixtures on the bedroom circuits (very little load.. and I don't want to carve up the venetian plaster ceiling in the den/office). However, the remaining outles in my Den/Office, any new outlets in my Den/Office and the FishNook... would go on a brand new circuit.... the real 'Arizona FishNook' circuit.

My home has no attic, nor basement. The electrical panel was on the polar opposite end of the home..... let's get digging.










you can see this was done before. I decided to buy conduit and run 2 new circuits.. One for my FishNook/Den/Office/Lab and another for the Back Patio and Garden (told you it was a detour).

Pulling wire for nearly 60' and 100' home runs.










Success, and I have new dedicated 20A circuits (Patio Fans & Receptacles and Arizona Den FishNook)










Started adding new quad outlets to my Office Portion. Note the Cat6 network cabling? While running the buried conduit... I installed another to wire the Network Router at the front of my home, to a network switch that I would keep in the FishNook. I have always had bad WiFi on my back patio and office/den.... so this was an opportunity to address that too (told you it was a big detour). Yes, the power and data outlets don't line up.. That's fine, I was utilizing already existing cut-outs to avoid reparing that venetian plaster. 










Now I could install sheetrock in the closet since I had all of the wiring redirects accomplished (you can see it in the box midway up the wall.. it's just an access panel for the light as the wiring needed to be extended) and of course the new circuit homerun done... Yeah, my sheetrock cutting skills are going to put my sheetrock taping skills to the tests... Oh well...










I temporarily tied in the Cat5e cables that were installed in the wall to a network switch that was connected to the new uplink that traveled almost 100' to the Router at the front of the house. (that big hole was always there... so I just took advantage of it to get stuff up and out of the way). It will go in the closet (er.. FishNook) soon once I finish it up. 










Man, it is so nice to have ample electrical outlets and good network connections in my Office. This was a fantastic detour.

I gave the FishNook two quad outlets at 12" above the Floor (one on each side of the doorway).. and two dual outlets near the ceiling (one on each side of the doorway).. The ceiling outlets will provide power for things I put on two small shelves that I will build on each side of the mini-rack in the Fish Nook. The very back wall of the FishNook is Brick. I elected not to install surface mounted outlets connected by conduit on that back wall. The reality is... Everything in the FishNook will be controlled by my home-made Aquarium Controller (RaspberryPi, Node-Red, Atlas-Scientific sensors, NCD expansion boards.... started a thread on the Node-Red forums). So all cabling has to go back to a central equipment panel anyway.. For now, 12 total plugs in the Fish Nook is absolutely plenty! I can always mount two 4' utility strips across that backwall if ever needed (I already own them).

I'll show more of the electric, but for now, we have to move on to finishing the Fish Nook cosmetically.... and addressing another essential element.... water supply and drainage... topics for the next posts of this thread.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

It was a closet. Though I wanted it to look very nice and function well... In the end ,it's a closet... So, just like I didn't sweat piecing in the tile floor, I certainly didn't worry about perfectly sanded corners and sheetrock seams (though it all looks good enough) or millimeter gaps in any trim work. But i did apply binz primer and I did apply several coats of paint (a desert sand type color).

Was fortunate. Had Binz and Paint left over from the previous owners in the Carport Bodega. It was still good. The Paint matched the paint that is on the only wall in the house that isn't venetian plaster ( a back wall in the guest bedroom). So using that tied in the Fish Nook with an existing element of the house. (errr... it matched). Repaired all of the damage to the sheetrock and brick when I tore out the old shelves (never took a picture of those... sorry). Looks good now.. 










I did like the presence of shelves, so I built new ones that were fewer, smaller and higher on each side of the bodega. I hate sharp corners, so all of the wood recieved routered edges and were sanded before primer/paint.










Other side.. (see.. I did move the network switch into the Fish Nook)










Started hanging the door... when it fell due to a moment of inattention. Nothing like damaging a door before you even install it... I'll mount it and figure out something later for the minor damage.










I've done allot of constuction on my own home, but it had been over 20 years since I last hung a set of folding doors. It came back.. They look good... and trim work will hide the multitude of sins that are the uneven gaps.










Now, when finished. I finally noticed what the door struck on the way to the floor when it fell.. I thought it glanced my desk. Nope, it glanced the 2nd Chamber of my Sump and broke a pane... I had that 20L on a cart.. and hadn't noticed that the door struck it on it's way down... almost 7' away. bummer.










I continued on with work... and mulled over the idea of just reducing my Sump design down to 1 20 gallon long tank instead of 2. 

I'll kill the suspense... I decided to fix it. So, this is a detour from the painting and finishing...

Remember, how I broke a tank removing the Rim/Base? Remember how I broke a tank drilling without a jig? I decided I'd salvage a pane from one of those and just install it in this 3rd broken tank. 










I gained confidence working with glass.. Felt good about it.










It took about 1 1/2 hours to remove a pane from one cleanly and install it in another cleanly. Long Time, but it was a learning process. Success!!










In fact, I looked at the remaining 2 broken tanks and thought... I can cannabalize one to fix the other. I did. That one took maybe 15 minutes total. 










So, i have a 5th tank. Of course i need to drill the holes again in this new pane. But this means.... Out of the 8 original tanks I bought for the project... 7 are fully functional. The scrapped one? I still saved two 12" x 30" panes of glass from it for lids!

Back to the Fish Nook. Trimmed out the door and completed the network terminations and the electric outlets.










Oh yeah, about that damaged spot on the door... A little Desert Aquarist Society Vinyl Sticker love!










So now we have a completed room. However, the drainage and water supply need to be accounted for. Several of the photos I've shown were taken out of order.. so there are hints of what I did... That will all be for the next post.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

The Fish Nook has no space for an R.O. Unit and Associated Water Storage for aquarium top-offs and water changes. Furthermore, the kitchen and bathrooms are on the oposite side of the home, so there is no water available here (well not easily).

Up to now, my R.O Unit had been a somewhat portable affair that I moved around on my back patio (which means really ineffective water preparation in the colder months).










I decided I had room in a storage bodega off of the carport (featured it earlier as the recipient of the FishNook's panel old door). I'll need to straighten it up a little.










It's a tight fit, but it's in there, with the R.O. Unit and Controls mounted on the wall.










Pump to relay water to the FishNook is a little buried. It's controlled by the Auto-Top Off and Water Change functions in the Fish Nook.










Note: I do need to add a few level detectors inside of the Water Storage Container so that my Aquarium Controller will know the status ... is there enough water?

Up above is the Raceway that will convey plumbing for the R.O Water supply to the Fish Nook, Waste Water to the Drains in the Fishnook (goes to the garden.. it's not wasted), Cables for Level Sensors (not in existence yet) and Pump Commands (Pump power does go in this line, although I didn't install it before the photo).










So, I have no attic, so where does that RaceWay/ChaseWay go? I was fortunate that between the R.O. Bodega and the Fish Nook, I have two closets and a Guest Room. The Guest Room is the only place where this will be exposed. So it has to look nice. Spray painting the 3" lines a hammer coated copper finish.. Looks like real copper pipe.










Very carefully had to make 6 holes (3 1/2") in several walls to run the Pipe.










End result is not bad. My wife approved and thinks it's looks a bit artsy..










So that is how the R.O. Water Bodega and the Fish Nook are joined...

Drainage was simple. 

I installed 1 1/2" pipe about 4" off of the floor behind the stands in the Fish Nook. I put about 5 risers in the 8' section to just let me bring in lines from anywhere.










Exiting the Bodega










After the FishNook, I just have my Back Covered Patio... It has a very large Tool Bodega to hide about 12' of the pipe.. It will only show briefly in a little corner.










After this is goes into the Tool Bodega for 11', then it exists the covered patio to water some citrus trees (mine and a neighbor) on the back batio. I'll watch that the Lemon and Grape Fruit Trees aren't drowning because it will be quite a bit of water during R.O. water prep as my unti isn't super efficient at about 3 to 1, waste to pure water ratio. 










So That is the water/waste infrastructrue.

I still need to install a Thermostatic Mixing Valve to supply the R.O Unit... You can see the Hot Water Heater in the Bodega, so the hot/cold sources are there. For the time being it just gets cold water from a hose. Just need to get after that plumbing as I'm introducing pretty cold water to everything!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

so, we are just getting started with the actual 'fishy stuff'.

I plan on automating where it makes sense using my homemade aquarium controller. Functions will be added as I am ready to turn them over without my manual intervention. Something like fertilizer dosing will be one of the last as I need to really tweak that as I observe and learn and as the plants and fish settled in.

Here's a quick staging before anything was hooked up or water added:

You can see that all water enters and exist on the ends. The idea was I built this so that if I ever moved it and placed it somewhere else it would be viewable from two sides, front and back. This arrangement would also give me easy access to valves to isolate tanks or modify the influent and effluent of each tank. very little in the tanks... 25W substreate heating cable and a wave pump (not shown... that will be another topic) and LED lighting above.










You can see that the 2 Sump sections are already joined (this is a static fill test just to test the join and levels). This was a risk... if it didn't work it really had the potential to break both chambers of the sump. There was a little tiny play in the fit between the drilled holes and the bulkhead fittings.. So I allowed them to kind of find their natural seat before tightening everything down. I was very pleased.

I'll describe the Sump. Chamber 1 is fed via 8 3/4" lines through the two 4" 400 micron filter socks.. This is for catching really big stuff so that the filter media doesn't plug. The flter media is Poret Foam. 4 grades, 10ppm, 20pm, 30ppm, 45ppm. Each Grade has two 2" sheets, so that I can rotate clean and dirty for each size for quick culture recovery. I also have Hydor ceramic media....just because I had two bags of it... (new old stock...).

Chamber 2 has the temp controlled auxillary heater (200W), the Mag5 pump, 5 level switches for auto top off and alarming (later will expand the function for water changes), an Eheim 350 surface skimmer (chamber 2 gets a film without it), and Temp, pH, ORP, Conductivity and Dissolved Oxygen sensors. 










Sizes differ between manufactures. I had to apply a heat gun to get 1/2" tubing around the 1/2" bulkhead barbs. all of the other components were a better match. 3/4" was much easier as the sizes were closer.










Here are the individual valves shown. Barbs for the Bulkheads were slip fit. I saw minor leaking from 1 or 2 of the 20 during my test on the patio months before... so each is getting a little silicone as a pre-caution.

The Drains are 1/2", set at about 60% of the water height. Obviously, once I'm doing auto water changes, I'll leave those open and it will be the solenoid that empties all tanks together. I'm just doing water changes manually as I work in feeding, fertilizing, etc.... the break in period.

The Feeds are 1/2", set at the top with a fluted end to make a nice shimmer across the top. I need to do some work here. Observations are that I should do common 3/4" from the pump and through the UV and CO2 (which will be parallel to reduce flow through each of those pieces of equipment) and reduce to 1/2" only just before the tank feed valve of each tank. Also installng a more powerful pump.

The Returns to the Sump are dual 3/4"... basically just a precaution against leaves plugging up the gates. Tubing is spec'd for much more outflow than inflow to safeguard against overflows. I sacrificed water height also to give me margin... That's okay... 95% R.O. water certainly doesn't leave any unsightly hard water lines. 










It's allot, but the use of black just kind-of hides everything.. It's visible, but almost becomes invisible when you just look at the glass, light, water, plants and fish. Well, that's what I tell myself anyway...

Here is a detail of the Sump Chamber 1 IN - side. 3/4" lines enter (4), 2 4"x10" filter socks, poret foam. Purchased a neat little filter sock holder off Ebay that I modified with an old tank rim to fit neatly on the rimless sump. Works good. Lines extend into the water and that keeps things quiet.










I'll continue later with more details of setting up the actual aquriums and some of the in-line equipment in a follow-up post later in the week.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Some of the techniques used in the display tanks are a bit old school. 

We start with arranging the Hydor hydrokable substrate heating cable. 110v 25W. I'll admit, this was not the resulting layout... they ended up being laid lengthwise in the end. This was done for each of the four display tanks. This is new old stock (I located 5 of them about two years ago), so although brand new, it sat on someone's shelf for a few years... there were a few of the suction cups that just refused to stay... stuck down....

I like this photo because it's really the only time you appreciate the beauty of the cork that is below the glass. LOL.










We start with mixing 250grams of laterite w/ 5lbs of 2-3mm quartz gravel. Turns your fingernails a bit orange.










Without making too much of a mess. The laterite mix is placed in the aquarium at a depth to cover and secure the substrate heating cable in place.










Once the laterite Mix was in... We add another 20lbs of 2-3mm quartz gravel to each of the 20L display aquariums. Finished that for all aquariums and put a large white ceramic dinner plate in each aquarium. This was done to prevent the water from disturbing the gravel and gravel/laterite base while filling.










All tanks were then filled with 95% R.O. Water and 5% Tap. This photo was tanken almost immediately, you can see how clear the water is, which is amazing for a new tank with a laterite containing substrate. Big dinner plates work for the filling step!!!!










Going to let this run in for about a week or so before purchasing plants and introducing a few amano shrimp and otocinclus affinis to each display tank. I seeded the Sump with aquavitro seed bacteria. I also will take a few doner plants (bacopa caroliniana) from my little 5 gallon shrimp, otto, plant nursery and even leave a little bit of the algae on it (hey i have a big UV filter... ain't scared...).

For now, trying to see what is needed for heating. We have 25W in each tank.. and 50W in the sump. Probably not enough. But we will see.

Installed the temp, pH, ORP, Conductivity and Dissolved Oxygen probes in the 2nd chamber of the Sump to monitor things with my homemade aquarium controller. I'm using a RaspberryPi 4B w/ Raspbian Buster and Node-RED. Need to permanently mount the controller and i/o boards (not all are shown). I have a thread on the Node-Red forums for the controller build.. I already linked that on the first page of this thread I believe.










Lots more equipment to install (better CO2 reactor, dosers, level sensors, etc..). Cables and hoses to neaten. I'm sure I will be crawling over everything for about 2 months making changes and adjustments. Right away... With the CO2 Reactor, UVFilter, FlowMeter and all 4 tanks on Line... I can see that the Mag5 just can't push enough through the 1/2" tubing. That's going to change, but I had to order more stuff...some back ordered.. so we will live with less flow than I desire for just a bit. Pulled the Flow Meter and picked up some increased flow... how much? who knows... flow meter is gone. LOL.

Will update this thread later with the initial planting and initial introduction of fish. It won't be aquascaped per se initially... just looking to get root growth on the 60 some stem plants that will be introduced to the tanks. (When i want to do a more permanent aquascape in Jan 2021, I will quickly isolate a tank, drain it to 50%, do my worst with the plants, rock and wood.. and then put it back on line. repeat 3 more times.)


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Ok. learned almost immediately that I need to address the CO2 Reactor, UV Filter, Flow Meter placement... and of course a place to neatly land the electrical connections would be nice.

Decided I would like to mount this external equipment on the wall on the right side of the Fish Nook... where the water leaves the sump to return to the aquariums (the pump is submerged in the 2nd chamber of the sump.. so I don't have that to contend with). It's a tight space and I wish I addressed this before putting the racks in and adding water, plants, and fish yeah.. I'm briefly jumping forward in this post just a bit to show what should be the last construction related stuff.

Because of stud location, I needed to prep with 3 1/4"x4' strips to the wall. One of those stips does not meet a stud, so drywall anchor bolts were used.










I still had a spare piece of 2' x 4' 3/4" high quality plywood. I routered the edges, sanded it, and stained it black. There you have it, the FishNook Equipment Panel.










Yeah. Should have mounted it about 6" lower. We'll fix that. Built a lowered shelf to support the somewhat large 25W UV Filter.










*This was tough to do. A serious oversight on my part. I didn't give ample thought to managing the panoply of equipment, devices, tubing, and cables that would live outside of the pretty 20 gallon long boxes of water. It's much harder to fit and squeeze things now that the system is fully online. That panel should have been the first thing I installed and populated after the FishNook was trimmed out and painted. Oh well.*

Anway, a few more pieces of equipment will go on this panel. Also need to accomodate the compact nutrient dosers. Will be fertilizing manually for a month or two anyway to observe and adjust...so there is time to figure that out. This will do. No doubt there will be updated photos of the equipment panel over time.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

BNC Extension Cables arrived yesterday (3meter - 10feet) for the sensors installed in the SUMP, so I can finally get the aquarium controller off the floor and mounted to the equipment panel.










Created a little mini panel next to the Equipment Panel for the Aquarium Controller. Only got my probes hooked up. 










Don't have any control happening from the controller at the moment as I need to finish mounting the supporting hardware (you can see nothing is wired to relay board... I had the CO2 Solenoid and the 200W heater hooked to it before). Won't hurt not to have CO2 for a few days... and I am relying on the Heaters own analog control... seems to be doing okay... with no swings.

waiting on just a few more pieces to get everything put on the equipment panel.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Looks good, Peter! It's John from DAS. Having seen some of your recent pics of the newly planted tanks it is great to see the build process. Seems like a fairly well thought out/planned project. There are always a few things forgotten until you realize it'll be a pain in the ass. You mentioned dwarf cichlids, do you already have some specific species in mind or general ideas? We've got a couple folks in the club who keep or breed Apistos, myself included. I look forward to seeing how this project develops.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Hey John! First person to comment on the build thread! Thanks for the words of encouragement.

I had limited success breeding Rams, Angels, Discus, Kribensis 16-28 years ago. Having ways been a mediocre fishkeeper and poor aquatic gardner, it was important to give the flora and fauna a fighting chance this time around. Would like to expand it to a 5th display tank next week as everything needed is here. That said, the FishNook was porposely built in a small space to contain 'MTS'. 

It would be fun to experiment with keeping some Apistograma species, especially if they come from other club hobbyist! At the moment, I'm trying to obtain a few other MikroGeopahus Ramirezi varieties (Dark Knights, Blue Knights, and Powder Blues) from a fellow named Marco du Toit in Praetoria South Africa, but the cost of shipping is high at the moment. My current Gold Rams and Blue Rams spawn every couple of days, but they are very young and just eat the eggs. The FishNook is still in the break-in period (4 weeks), so no effort is being made to encourage any breeding/grow-out. All of the display tanks are community tanks, so breeding is not the focus. However, if something survived, that would be welcome.

I have no dwarf plecos and could use a few more corydoras species for the Fishnook. Hoping to find hobbyist in the Tucson AZ area that breeds those as well. At one of the meetings in October, Yoga mentioned putting together a list of local breeders. That would be excellent! Would be interested too if you and others will fill the void left by ANA closing as we no longer have that excellent source of flora/fauna.

I looked at some of your threads; good two hours of quality reading. My goodness, your aquariums are just teaming with life!!


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## GrampsGrunge (Jun 18, 2012)

Have you given a thought to raising Goldeneye Dwarf Ciclids?


They're not often available but are a bit hardier and way easier to breed than Apistos. I found the females to be less psychopathic than my Borellii females. Had a pair that regularly spawned in a heavily planted 29 gallon with a lot of tetras and a Clown Pleco.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

GrampsGrunge said:


> Have you given a thought to raising Goldeneye Dwarf Ciclids?


I have not. Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi and Apistogramma sp were on my short list. However, I might try a couple of groups of Mikrogeophagus Altispinosus (Bolivian Ram). They are a bit under appreciated as they aren't as colorful, nor with as many varieties, as their tip of the continent cousins.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Last night I worked on mounting a few outlets to the equipment panel to be controlled by my homemade aquarium controller (via i2c relay expansion board). Was happy to find the hardware in black, very cheap, at the same cost as white/ivory. Again, just helps all of it to stay hidden.










Did 4 outlets initially... Sump Pump, Sump Heater, CO2 Solenoid Valve, UV Filter. Pump and Solenoid Valves required .56uF capacitors to be added for induction supression, so that was easy to accomodate in the Metal Outlet Boxes. I'll do the same with the other 4 outlets, as I will have a 2nd Pump (R.O. Water bodega supply) and a Drain valve. Not worried about induction from the UV Filter, Wave Pumps, LED lights as they aren't changing states allot, so not every outlet is wired that way. The way I'm laying it out is that each Box has 1 controlled outlet that has induction suppression (top), and 1 controlled outlet that does not (bottom). Need to start labeling things.

Nice to have the Controller managing temp again. I have programmed a hysterisis of .25 degC, and it just maintains temp perfectly between 26.75 and 27.25 degC. Hysterisis saves on Relay duty. It is winter and my home is cooler, so I have all of the substrate heating cables on full-time. They are just 25W a piece. The Sump heater is 200W and that is controlled by the aquarium controller. In the summer, I will unhook the 200W heater completely.. and plug the power strip with all of the heater cables (100-150W) into the relay controller outlet... which will make the substrate heating cables responsible for temp control. I just decided, as I add tanks to the system (will be 6), that I don't want 350W of heating going through the relays. Splitting it between controlled and controlled heat in the winter is a sound strategy.

Presently have UVFilter and CO2 offline. The Mag5 pump is dying... (lots of rattle)... New pump is due today.... so I unhooked devices and took out a few 90deg turns and it improved the flow enough to be sufficient. We will hook everything back up over the long holiday weekend.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Good progress today. New pump arrived ActiveAqua AAPW1000. Sized all lines from pump for 3/4"... right up to the 1/2" ball valve for each display tank. Flow is incredible. Installed parallel paths for UVFilter, CO2 Reactor and Flow Meter. That means the flow meter isn't measuring total flow, but at least I can see realitve changes and if water is in fact moving. Gives a little more dwell time for CO2 and UV treatment by splitting the flow. Fish seem to be have perked up with the additional flow (probably increased oxygen too). 

Removed the 2 sheets of 2" 45ppi poret foam from 1st Sump Chamber. Swiss Tropicals warned me that it probably wouldn't permit the flow I was after in the Sump.. they were right... I found Chamber2 was pulling hard...while Chamber1 was backing up. Unfortunately, I have my emergency spillway installed on Chamber2 (should put 1 on Chamber1 as well), so I can't handle too much out of balance with those two chambers. It's good now... I still have 6 sheets of 2" poret arranged as 2 x 10ppi, 2 x 20ppi, and 2 x 30ppi.

Of course, to hookup the final four outlets to control more stuff required a trip to True Value becuase I was out of cable clamps. My dog Coqueta accompanied me, and you can see her thinking, "You are buying more electrical and plumbing supplies?!":










Epuipment panel is starting to get more populated. Added simple on/off control for the LED lighting... follows sunrise/sunset for my area. Found a nice scheduler for NodeRED that allowed me to put in my coordinates and it outputs based on that.... and I capture that output and pass it to the relay board. More to do, but it's starting to look like stuff is going on... Plenty of room to terminate the level switches and to add the dosing pumps and solution receptacles.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

A little update today. The plants have been in since December 5, so we are looking at just under four weeks. Took a photo today toshow the growth.

I'll post both.. Dec 6th..










This was this morning, Jan 1st.










I think it's a good amount of growth. Will be interesting to see the increases with the CO2 online consistently (controlled by pH... 7.0 w/ hysterisis of 6.9 to 7.1).


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## Lingwendil (Nov 16, 2012)

Wow! Way cool! Nice renovation on the space, very clean rack system, and interesting use of Raspberry Pi controller setup. We just moved into our first home purchase and I was very interested to see how you tackled this, as I just picked up a 180 gallon with stand that is plumbed for overflows. I'm going to be setting up a sump and my own LED lighting for it and was looking into controllers to handle some eventual features I wanted to implement.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Lingwendil said:


> Wow! Way cool! Nice renovation on the space, very clean rack system, and interesting use of Raspberry Pi controller setup. We just moved into our first home purchase and I was very interested to see how you tackled this, as I just picked up a 180 gallon with stand that is plumbed for overflows. I'm going to be setting up a sump and my own LED lighting for it and was looking into controllers to handle some eventual features I wanted to implement.


Thank you. I have a build thread on NodeRED.org in their forums.

https://discourse.nodered.org/t/aqu...ific-i2c-devices-ncd-i2c-relay-board/25839/15

The flow (or source code) for the Sonoran Desert Fish Nook Project is there. You will also note that I reference another project by a contributor (MaddyP) on reef2reef.com (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/w...ode-red-raspberry-pi-controller-build.716452/). His work is worth looking at as well for the sheer quality of it; an engineer, craftsmen, and skilled programmer all in one... (shamelessly and totally borrowed the calibration menu code from him for the EZO sensors).

I should probably use a GitHub repository instead of uploading code to their forum... I'll figure that out.

BTW, I can no longer add photos to my existing Photo Album, nor a new Photo Album here on PlantedTank.net . I'll have to work with the moderatros to find out why... I wasn't able to provide updated photos for the work I did over the weekend.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

I don't think I've shown the lights I use. They are Ecoxotic Stunners Strips, 12.5", 6W, 8000K white, Models #8012.

I use 2 per 20gallon aquarium, so they cover about 25" of the 30" width which is perfect. As they are mounted about 8" above the water the spread is perfect. Because the water is only about 10" deep once you account for gravel and the offset from the top edge of the glass, the light penetraton and shimmer is vey nice.










I'd like to find 2 more of these (at least) for the 6th tank I will be adding. I already have the 2 needed for the 5th tank I'm adding very soon.

Unfortunately, I am not able to add any more photos to this Gallery, nor any other Galleries that I create. I'm a paying Gold member, which is supposed to give me more storage, but I've not succeeded in getting an Administrator's attention. (The moderators have responded and forwaded the requests, but becuase it's a paid feature, it is out of their hands and must be escalated to the Administrator). 

Therefore, I will not be able to continue contributing to this thread. I've already paid here... I'm not going to also pay at a 3rd party picture hosting website just so that I can provide additional content here. I have a similar thread about this FishNook on SimplyD (simplydiscusDOTcom) and I'll continue to publish there.

Peter


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> I don't think I've shown the lights I use. They are Ecoxotic Stunners Strips, 12.5", 6W, 8000K white, Models #8012.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I've read through this thread from the beginning and it's a very well thought out and nice build! 

Quite disappointed that you are a paying Gold member and cannot seem to get any love. Hopefully, they are able to get it all straightened out soon. 

FYI - those 12.5" Ecoxotic 8000K lights are available through currentusa on fleabay.


Sent from my mobile device using Tapatalk Pro


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> FYI - those 12.5" Ecoxotic 8000K lights are available through currentusa on fleabay.


no, not anymore. they sold out a long time ago.. they have the other termperature variants.. buy noth the 24led 8000k white in the 12.5" 6W size.. I check with them about every 3 months to see if they've dug any up.. It's a shame... I know hobbyist all over have them stored away.... just got to find two more (okay truthfully, I'd like to find 6 more... but will be very satisfied with 2).

yeah, I don't know what it is with this site. been a member since 2003. it's just a holding of the PetGuide group now. I don't imagine the Forum format holds much interest to them anymore and probably contributes little in ad click through revenue. follow the money and you won't expect much in the way of service. 

it's a shame as I really value the contributions here. i appreciate the fine work of the moderators, but they are limited in the things they are permitted to do in behalf of the user community.

Peter ODwyer


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> no, not anymore. they sold out a long time ago.. they have the other termperature variants.. buy noth the 24led 8000k white in the 12.5" 6W size.. I check with them about every 3 months to see if they've dug any up.. It's a shame... I know hobbyist all over have them stored away.... just got to find two more (okay truthfully, I'd like to find 6 more... but will be very satisfied with 2).
> 
> 
> 
> ...


There is 1 light currently available on Fleabag. I just looked it up again and it shows 1 available. - see attached pic 

That is really a shame about the site as it really is a huge resource!









Sent from my mobile device using Tapatalk Pro


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

yeah, I called on this auction... that one is the #8011.. it's a bit bluer than I want.... I'll think on it...


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## deeda (Jun 28, 2005)

Beautiful build from scratch and I thoroughly enjoyed the work you have done. I always say the devil is in the details and you've provided that through your pics and descriptions. 

Thanks!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

deeda said:


> Beautiful build from scratch and I thoroughly enjoyed the work you have done. I always say the devil is in the details and you've provided that through your pics and descriptions.
> Thanks!


Thank you. Once I can post photos to the Galleries again, a really good update will follow. 

There is new control hardware to receive the sump and R.O. Storage level switch inputs (NCD i2c Dig Exp board). The Flow meter is working again (lots of mistakes on my part). A check valve (3/4 inch) is present to prevent back flushing to the sump when the pump is shut-off.

Deadband for the pH / CO2 in the DIY aquarium controller has been tightened. Setpoint is now 6.95 with a hysterisis of .075. Want to see what that does over 24 hours. (A 24hour FIFO Trend of temp/pH is maintained on the DIY aqua ctrlr now).


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Administrator fixed the Gallery Issue.. So I can post more photos.

I prepared the 5th Display Aquarium for the Fish Nook. It will go on the top shelf, left side. I have everything for it, so it will be deployed soon.... Turned out nice.










I will hold off on the 6th Display Tank that is to go on the top shelf, right side.. as I'm still trying to obtain another two of the Stunner Strips that I described above (plus, I need to procure another 20L... and de-rim / de-base it).

I did a big water change which almost emptied the R.O. Water Storage in the front bodega... So, I took advanatage of that to prepare it for the level sensors. 

First, needed to get that last 5 gallons out of it. I'll use that last 5 gallons for the 10 gallon quarantine tank I'm putting on line.










With the Tank empty.. I started drilling. I put the first level switch at 5 gallons, which fell just above the discharge bulkhead. I had to remove the bulkhead to fit the sensor and wire through that first hole. 5 gallons is the point where I want the pump and heater to shut off so no damage occurs.

I then did another at the 35 gallons.. That is the height I need for the 33% water change on 4 tanks and some top off space. A 3rd at 45 gallons as that is the height I need for 33% water change on 6 tanks and some top off space. The final is at 55 gallons, and that's just about full as the RO water float is installed at about 58 gallons. The tank is rated for 65 gallons, but that is filling right up to the very top, which is not practical... somewhere between 58-60 gallons is the useable capacity.










On the inside, you can see all four level sensors. Note that I installed them upside down... That is becuase the tank will most often be FULL.... so all of those level sensors will be 'met'... I decided I would like them to send NO VOLTS when they are met (swing up)... it saves a bit of energy... The contacts only close when the water level is below each of the switches...










Prior to wiring everything up permanently.. I conducted a tests in the FishNook. A few days ago I received a new piece of hardware.. an NCD 8 Channel Digital I/O Expansion Board that communicates over i2c... So the Sump level switches will occupy four channels.. and the RO Storage level switches will occupy four channels.

Nice small board:










Here's it mounted up... I wanted to test with 3 extra switches that I had first...










You can see the dimunitive size of the digital i/o board next to the relay board... and the 3 level switches terminated to 3 channels. I also relocated the Flow Transmitter (EZO-FLO circuit) for the Flow Meter... it's below and left of the LCD touch screen. So yeah, I got that working too (more on that later).

Here is a closeup of the graphic showing the Flow and the level switches working properly. Ready to wire it all up now... and automate the water changes and redevelop the auto-top off function.










What was wrong with the FLO? 3 things:
1. I followed the flow meter specs wrong.. which meant I configured the flow transmitter incorrectly.. as well as programmed Node-RED code incorrectly.
2. I had a loose ground pin on the transmitter... So I had to re-solder it... my bad..
3. I had some excess flux from soldering the other pins.. So I had to clean that up with acetone.

Note. This is not Total Flow.. This FlowMeter is only 1/2".. so it chokes off the flow too much when I install it directly after the pump in series with everything... So, as a temporary measure... It is installed in a parallel branch to the UVFilter and the CO2 Reactor. So, flow is split 3 ways at that point... and then rejoins before going to all of the display tanks... So, at best.. 15.8 l/min probably represents just 1/3 to 1/4 of the actual flow. I have a 1" Flow Meter on order... when I receive that.. I will install it in series with the pump and before the UVFilter/CO2Reactor parallel brances. Then I will have Total Flow. For the time being... I know that water is moving.. and I can set alarm trip points so that I'm notified if the system stops circulating water... (I'll use a Node-RED email function to handle the event / alarm notifications).

I also decided to build a simple History Graph for Temp and pH.... it's a 24hr FIFO Trend. You can see that I need to tighten up the hysterisis a bit to diminish the amplitude (swings) on the pH. You can also see where I turned off the pump momentarily the day before... see the blip....










Anyway, lots of tidying up to do with the installation and the programming.

Meanwhile, here is an updated photo of the plant growth from yesterday. it's coming along... Definitely is in need of a real aquascaping. On Thursday I am getting some guppy grass and java fern... so that will give me more fill in the lower areas... I might be motivated to trim and neaten up the scape a little.










Oh, yeah.. In my Den/Office/Lab on the opposite side of the FishNook is my tiny stand that houses a 10 gallon Quarantine tank (new introductions), a 5 gallon hosptial/nursery tank, and an empty 2 gallon egg/fry tank. I store the food, meds, fertilizers here too.










Okay.. next posts will be more of the Level Switch installation (sump area)...


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Here's a little video of the Atlas-Scientific EZO-FLO Flow Transmitter's dancing LEDs as it receives pulses from the Flow Meter.


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

Great update and I'm happy they sorted out the issue with uploading pics! The system is coming along nicely. 

Perhaps you have already mentioned it but my memory isn't what it used to be. So, what kind of CO2 reactor are you running?

Sent from my mobile device using Tapatalk Pro


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> Perhaps you have already mentioned it but my memory isn't what it used to be. So, what kind of CO2 reactor are you running?


The CO2 Reactor is a bit wimpy, but it certainly seems capable. In a 24 hour period I see the CO2 activating for about 6 hours total throughout the day, bubbling at 2 bubbles a second. The CO2 addition is controlled by maintaining a pH of 6.95 with my DIY aquarium controller. I have good plant growth in all display tanks. It's a small unit I purchased about 3 years ago. I may upgrade it when I put the 6th Display tank online.

Remember, that the flow is split from the Sump into parallel paths, so that the CO2 Reactor is not receiving all of the water, so it's not overwhelmed. (The same with the UV Filter.. it's not receiving all of the water, so the water it is receiving has decent dwell time). 

You can see it attached to the outside of the Sump. All of the slipfit connectors leaked (CO2 and war input/ouput), so I had to heat the tubing to stretch over the threads (CO2 and water input/output) and apply clamps. 










It's fed by a 10lb CO2 tank with a Milwuakee MA957 Regulator/Solenoid/NeedleValve combo.










I still consider the whole FishNook in startup mode. I haven't added any difficult to keep plants yet, so my CO2 and fertilization needs are quite basic. I also don't have a tremenduous amount of light for each aquarium, so that will always be a limiting factor as well.

Man, these two photos are reminders to me that I need to neaten up my wiring.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

new goal for the Fish Nook:










Top Left tank is staged.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

I posted another thread (with a video) about a test I am conducting with a Hydor Koralia 240 120v wave pump to improve circulation in the lower levels of my 20 long. This post explains the thought process and the questions I have:









20 gal long, possible water flow stratification issue...


Ok, That's a long title. Let me explain my concern. I have a mini-fish room called the Fish Nook (build thread is on this site). All of the display tanks on the mini-rack are 20 gallon longs that have a common arrangement. The water enters one end near the top via fluted inlet... and exists...




www.plantedtank.net


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Finally got around to building the stand/mount for the float switches for the sump.

I've never worked with cutting and bending acrylic, so this was new to me. I marked everything out... keeping in mind I'd have a little 'gain' in the material... 

I applied heat and slowly bent it over the edge of the steel table to get a nice 90 deg bend with a somewhat sharp radius.

Then I decided to bend the other side.... got over confident... moved to fast.. and broke it. No big deal... it broke at a point where my height was still good if I found an alternative way to mount it and added a foot.










I stopped taking pictures for a bit through the construction.. and just worked... so you won't see me doing those mods... I also forgot to take photos of the drilling process.. Well here is the Flow Switch Stand before I started doing the soldering.... mechanically it's finished. I'll post the photo and explain:










I took an acrylic clip that was used to hold a lid for a tank.... I drilled holes and used teflon screws to hold fasten it to the bent section of the acrylic... So the Stand would fasten to the rim of the aquarium.
I was still about 1/4" from reaching the bottom.. so I simply superglued a foot (this was the piece that broke off... I just squared it up with a hack saw). Perfect.

Then I drilled staggered holes (5/8") holes every 1" in two columns. That gave me 1/2" of fine adjustment for the float switches from 3" all the way to 10"... 
I ended up place the Pump Kill Float at 3"... the Pump Enable Float at 3 1/2" ... the Add Water Float at 7 1/2" and the Water Level Good Float at 8". I might add a high alarm at 10"... undecided as I don't have enough digital inputs on my expansion board...

As I soldered everything up... I was careful to use heat shrink tubing on all cables.... Just so there is never anything loose or tangled.










Finished it up..... the 5 conductors are Common, and 4 switch inputs.... obviously, I'll have to jumper the common on my termination panel for all inputs...










Placed it in the Sump... and it's good. Found that the switches have to swing quite a bit to break the connection.... That caused me to do an about face on my swing up installation.... and instead went with the typical swing down. The 2nd chamber of my sump is starting to feel a bit crowded... Need to organize it a bit.










Nice to see the graphic indicating the correct status of the float switches in the sump. I think I need to give some different descriptors for the 2 that govern the sump pump activity...










Next, I need to finish up the soldering up the connections for the level float switches that I installed on the RO Storage Vessel a few weeks back... (And yes... install that Thermostatic Mixing Valve so that the RO Unit receives tempered water)... Lots of work...

Once the level status is being received from the RO Storage... I'll start doing automated water changes with the DIY Aquarium Controller. Always something to improve...


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

Nice work!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> Nice work!


Thanks Russo... If I were to do it again, I would have used the level switches that screw from the front, as those would make it easier to change the positions. The way I've done it is quite permanent and would require some resoldering unfortunately, despite having the flexibility of so many mounting holes. Oh well. Good news is I'm bound by the physical limitations of the sump anyway, so those levels really can't change anyway.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Worked tonight on wiring up the RO Storage Vessel Levels. I ran out of adhesive wire keeps... so I'll get those tomorrow and take a photo when it's a little neater... 
Better Labels on the Sump Levels too.










Still need to install that thermostatic mixing valve.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

I neatened up the connections for the Float Level Switches on the RO Storage... Everything has shrink wrap tubing to prevent snags and is fastened to the vessel. Of course, the wiring runs 25' through the RO Bodega raceway to the Aquarium Controller in the Fish Nook... (graphic is shown in previous posts..)










Ok, onto another topic:

I was concerned about some dead spots in each of the 20 gallon long aquariums in the Fish Nook. They all have the same layout with the water entering at one end near the top... and exiting at the far end near the top.

So, I added a Hydor Koralia 240 Wave pump to each of the display tanks. They come on for 15 minute cycles 4 times a day... I've observed them coming on and they do a decent job of stiring up any uneaten leftover food present, as well as detritus. I've seen the fish go eat the leftover food.... and the hope is with the detritus suspended in the water column again, it's more likely to find it's way to the sump.










I also run the pumps for 5 minutes just prior to starting the drain step of a water change cycle.

Obviously, this does not replace manual water changes. I still need to trim plants, wipe down the glass and vaccuum the substrate a bit.


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## prjct92eh2 (Apr 8, 2008)

This quite the build! I thought I was getting nerdy adding a smart power strip and Alexa control, but you've taken it to a whole new level! 😂


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

I've never been comfortable with the join between the two sections of my Sump (Media Section and Equipment Section). They are two 20gal long aquariums joined by a 1" line. Not enough bandwidth, and I've noted that Section 1 can back up a little with the water streaming over top of the poret media. Decided to add a 2nd 1" line, by drilling another 1 3/4" hole in each tank and installing bulkhead fittings with barb adapters. While drilling, it was decided a lower drain in Section 1 would be nice for quickly lowering or emptying the water when changing media in the sump.

All display tanks were isolated with the input/output valves closed. pH Control, Temp Control, Sump Pump, Auto Top-Off, Surface Skimmer and UV Filter turned off. First the Poret film was removed from Section 1 and placed in 5 gallon buckets with RO Water and an airstone. Removed devices and sensors from Section 2. Began draining water. Some of that 'seasoned' water was used to top-off those 5 gallon buckets that had the poret foam. Idea was to keep the healthy bacterial colonies in-tact during the process (was a good idea... you'll see as you read further!). Sections 1 and 2 removed (no hard plumbing, except the join between the two sections). It all breaks down rather quickly.

Now the modifications to those 20 gallon long aquariums that are Sections 1 and 2 of the Sump.

Started with the new drain hole. It was necessary to work without jigs as the clamps wouldn't work with a hole in this position.










Moved over to the 2nd set of holes for the new section join:










Successful. Fast forward and you can see it hooked up.










Not happy with the newer bulkheads and fittings... Not as tight a fit as preferred, so quite a bit of silicon was used for added protection and cured for 24 hours. Two hours into running, the new drain bulkhead/barbfitting combo failed, requiring a full drain of the sumps again. Ran the Display tanks with airstones and their individual 25W substrate heating cables full on. Got back to watching the Superbowl as nothing could be done until hardware stores opened up early Monday morning. Of course, the Poret foam was again introduced to those 5 gallon buckets with an airstone. Maintained 27degC just fine and no ammonia detected at 6am.

Quick repair was done to the drain with whatever I could construct from the local hardware stores. All is good, everything reassembled, RO water pumped in, and system is back on line. 

Levels between Section 1 and Section 2 are much much closer now, alleviating a fear that Section 1 would overflow, while Section 2 is indicating everything is okay. (emergency overflow and all instrumentation was installed in Section 2). The two sections together are really acting like one unified sump now.










Also enlarged the holes that support the lines that are coming from the Display tanks into the Filter Socks of the 1st Section of the Sump. Used my 3 1/2" hole saw to increase the size. Less wrestling with the tubes when cleaning out the filter socks.

I've ordered the older style bulkheads with the barb fittings pre-assembled that were used previously on the lower join. When those arrive, they will be installed, replacing these less than impressive bulkhead/fitting combos for the new drain and the new upper section joins.

Lots more work to do.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

With the drama of the two sump sections removed on Sunday/Monday, it was a great opportunity to relocate the discharge valve for the display tanks. It's a smallish 120v 1/2" Normally Closed Brass Solenoid Valve. It was inexpensive at $32 usd. It's controlled by a Relay on the NCD expansion board attached to the RaspberryPi DIY Aquarium Controller.

I went back and forth on doing a 1/2" valve or 3/4" valve.. and just decided to keep it smaller and not worry that it would take just a bit longer to drain the water as part of the total water change cycle.

The new location is better as it simplied the plumbing a bit, especially as the 5th and 6th display tanks are prepared to be added to the Fish Nook. 










Still working on refining the software for the automatic water change cycle. Looking to do some visually in Node-RED to represent Off-Auto-On modes of the device. Very common command/states for devices in automation scenarios. Won't show any screen shots or video of the operation of it until I get it working as desired.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

So today... decided to tackle the installation of the thermostatic mixing valve off of the Hot Water Heater in the RO Storage Bodega, so that I would have permanent plumbing and stop dragging a hose inside there...

Of course, you have to shut off the house water so that you can disconnect the lines to the Hot Water heater.... And this is what I found where my water meter / shut off valve are located:










So, I called a beekeeper friend to remove it.. If he doesn't want it, we will wait a few days for them to move out on their own. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Thermostatic Mixing Valve install is put on hold for now... 

Update! Bee Hive successfully moved to a Beekeepers Hive Farm.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Thermostatic Mixing Valve is installed and operational. Could have been made more pleasing to the eye, but some materials on hand were put to good use. if it starts making me twitch too much everytime I look at it, I'll address it and make it nicer. For now, it's very functional and doesn't leak... so it's staying as it is...










Temperature is set to about 28degC. I did notice increased production from the RO Unit with the tempered water... That is to say the RO Vessel was full a bit sooner. All lines hooked up... No garden hoses running from the front patio, into the carport, into the front bodega to deliver raw water and carry away waste water. Everything is plumbed proper with raw water for RO Unit coming from the Mixing Valve.. and Waste Water from the RO Unit being carried to the Fish Nook's Waste Line so that the Fruit Trees in the back patio benefit from the RO waste too.

Everything is moved back into the Front Bodega again so it functions as a proper storage room too.










Made some updates to the software of my RaspberryPi4B / NodeRED based DIY Aquarium Controller. Added an Off-Auto-On toggle function for the devices... this allows things like the Sump Pump to be controlled manually (on/off) or programatically (auto) based on float switch inputs and other events (Feeding Mode).










yeah... conductivity probe is shot.... orp is questionable too. should recieve new, fully submersible probes very soon as all of mine are at least 6, even 8, years old.

Lot of information and capability on just one graphic of my diy controller.... This is on a 7" 800x480 LCD touchscreen.

(Yeah there is something with the little LED symbols.... the creator of that symbol provided an update... and it's actually worse than before... he's working on fixing it... one pitfall of open source software)


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Primarily, I connect to my homemade DIY Aquarium Controller from a browser on my desktop or my cell phone.

However, of course I have a local Official Raspberry Pi TouchLCD Display on the RaspberryPi4B. The RaspberryPi4B is configured to startup in kiosk mode and run only the User Interface for the NodeRED project and no other part of the RaspberryPi Interface. It works very well. I also run a session of my browser on my PC in 800x480 mode so that as I am designing the interface I have a good feel for how it will render on the the smaller 7" display.

Very happy with it. This is the home page running in Kiosk mode...


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

Some nice updates. Digging the Node Red more and more. 

Have you always run your tanks at higher temps?


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> Some nice updates. Digging the Node Red more and more.
> 
> Have you always run your tanks at higher temps?


27degC is a bit high (81.5degF). I did that initially for the juvenile microgeophagus ramirezi. Going to drop it down to 26degC permanently after the next 25% water change. The corydoras and the plants will appreciate it a bit more.

The sump is at 27degC.. There is a very slight temperature drop in each of the aquariums. (I proved it to myself a few weeks back). Even still, I'm going 26degC in the sump which will push the display tanks to about 25.5degC.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Display Tank #5 devices and substrate are prepped. It contains a 25W substrate heating cable, a 240gph wave pump and a small 1" airstone. I haven't figured out a strategy for the airstone use yet. But I wanted to install it and conceal it before I placed all of the plants. Substrate is about 1/2" laterite mix, capped with about 1 1/4" inches of gravel. It is just slightly deeper than the substrate of the other 4 display tanks.










It is now online. Trimmings from other display tanks were used to fit-out the planting. Inhabitants are peppered cories (6), amano shrimp (1), ottos (2). a 6' head from the sump pump did provide some challenges. It pumps very slowly when the sump is at a low level (which it is following 25% water changes). Will probably revisit some plumbing again.... This time going 1" from the sump (pump is capable of that) and through the equipment, then to two main 3/4" lines on the vertical sections of each stand (existing). I will do this prior to adding Display Tank #6.

Presently, water in entire system is estiamted at 110 gallons.










Today I will mount the 2 6W 8000k Ecoxotic Stunner Strips above this 5th display tank. Perhaps move a few guppies from Tank#3 (a midle tank).


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Cut a new glass lid and mounted the lighting for Tank#5. Moved 3 of my wife's female guppies up there too.

Frankly, I'm just amazed at how algae free these tanks remain after 3+ months. I did a very heavy trimming on Friday and Saturday, so with more light penetrating the tanks, it will be interesting to see what develops.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

A neighbor was throwing this nice towel rack away. It's a sort of brushed nickel finish, so it's quite stylish for the Fish Nook. (I checked with my wife first, there wasn't a place for it in the bathrooms). Now I have a place to hang my cotton wiping towels... even permitting them to dry as the racks swing out. The space below this and the ladder.... well I have a special use for it as well, but that will be another posting a few weeks from now...


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

A side project... I'm increasing the size of some of my plumbing (again). But this time is substantial enough to require building an entirely new CO2 Reactor and Modifiying my UV Filter. A pre-requisite to this work was preparing the materials... So, I've tried my hand at dying black PVC with synthetic dye... I blogged that on someone else's thread about dying PVC... You can find my results here:









Black PVC, from local stores


Hi, Just wanted share that I was able to take white PVC from home depot and dye it black using Rit DyeMore synthetic dye from walmart (~$4). You can get the dye from many craft stores also. I followed the instructions on the bottle, I let the parts boiling in the water for about 30 minutes...




www.plantedtank.net





Spoiler.... the results were so-so.... but I think it will achieve the desired results... that is to make my equipment blend into the background... I just don't like any of it standing out....

When I do the CO2 Reactor build and the plumbing mods, I will document that in this thread.... Should do it Monday or Tuesday night...


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> A side project... I'm increasing the size of some of my plumbing (again). But this time is substantial enough to require building an entirely new CO2 Reactor and Modifiying my UV Filter. A pre-requisite to this work was preparing the materials... So, I've tried my hand at dying black PVC with synthetic dye... I blogged that on someone else's thread about dying PVC... You can find my results here:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Not to be a wise guy but why not simply buy black PVC?


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> Not to be a wise guy but why not simply buy black PVC?


I couldn't find all of the pieces parts necessary in black... it was easier (well kind of) to just go to true value and get everything in white...

I had thought about using black abs... I came very close to doing that... as I think it can be sealed enough to deal with the pressures that my pump and the co2 would subject it to.... honestly...


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Completed a DIY CO2 reactor based on Tom Barr's design. The reactor chamber is 2" x 25". 

Let's point out the elephant in the room... yes it's a bit crooked.. I didn't measure twice cut once on the two 1" horizonal sections... Didn't realize it until I was setting them and gluing. Becuase the pieces were heated and dyed (won't do that again)... everything was a bit of a difficult fit, so once it was secure, there was no way I was taking it apart to fix the small error. Ok, that's out of the way. 

CO2 is fed through a 24" 3/6" rigid airline that injects CO2 at the very bottom of the CO2 Reactor, giving the water plenty of time dissolve the CO2 as it attempts to work itself up while the water flows down.

It has a venturi at the top which will clear a CO2 bubble once it's filled the top inch well above the reactor chamber. That venturi will go back to the sump and feed directly into the sump pump, giving undissolved CO2 a 2nd pass through the CO2 reactor. Obviously the Venturi line has a metering valve and a check valve.

There are BioBalls present in the actual reactor chamber to promote a bit more mixing of CO2 and H2O. There are not that many and they can be increased or removed if not necessary. There is a cleanout just below the bio balls section. 

The entire reactor is fed by a 1" line directly from the sump pump, so there is quite a bit of flow. Therefore, a bypass branch has been built in with a ball valve to slow down flow through the reactor just a little to allow for more dwell time if necessary. For now, I'm going to try it with the bypass fully closed so that 100% of the water goes through the reactor. After the reactor the water flows through the 25W UV filter (1" line that leads to the 3" cavity of the UV Filter) and then onto the 5 (soon 6) display tanks.










I'll offer additional commentary and take more photos after it's installed and running.


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

Looks like a winner regardless of the crookedness! 

Looking forward to seeing how it performs for you.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> Looks like a winner regardless of the crookedness!


It won't be noticeable tucked away between the sump and the equipment panel. Also, the valve doesn't look that purple in real life either... it appears as black as everything it is hooked to. must have been a strange cel phone flash effect.



ReeferRusso said:


> Looking forward to seeing how it performs for you.


I did a pressure test of it yesterday... hooked up to garden hose at full pressure with the the outlet 8' high (lots of head pressure).... no leaks anywhere... I have good expectations for it..

My 1" flow meter has strange threads and I can't get it threaded to any pvc adapters very easily... Need to figure that out...I'd like to have a flow meter installed in series with everything..


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> My 1" flow meter has strange threads and I can't get it threaded to any pvc adapters very easily... Need to figure that out...I'd like to have a flow meter installed in series with everything..


Sounds like you may need an adapter. What brand of flow meter is it?

Here's a website that carries metric to standard adapters, amongst a mountain of other PVC pipe and items. 





__





Product Listing PVC-Fittings-Metric-Adapters at FlexPVC.com


PVC-Fittings-Metric-Adapters %%name%%




flexpvc.com


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

It's a Digiten 'G1' (Model CF-B10). 1", 2-50 l/min
male thread size is odd at 32.6mm ... JIS/DIN sizes are 32mm and ASTM is 33.40. It might be an issue of threads per inch... 11 vs 11.5 ... I'll have to figure it out...

thanks for the links...


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

This evening I worked on neatening up the FishNook after the huge simplification of plumbing following the install of the DIY CO2 Reactor and UV Filter. I targeted the Equipment Panel which had been a jumble of waterworks and wires. I used Dinosaur Flexible Wire Duct (https://www.automationdirect.com/ad...essories/dinosaur_flexible_wire_duct/dn35ag-1) to do all of the power and signal wiring. 











The large space in the center is where I will locate my EZO Dosing Pumps (EZO-PMP™ Embedded Dosing Pump | Atlas Scientific) to automate that portion of plant and fishkeeping.

It's all coming together nicely... Just a little bit to go... (will install the new submersible probes, dosing pumps and improved lighting soon).

Caught a 50% sale so display tank #6 is getting prepped on the patio... (derimming and debasing is first, followed by the drilling)... worked on it for about 5 minutes... this one is going to come apart fast!










Tomorrow i'm strengthening the venturi on the CO2... should not have used rigid airline for the penetrations for CO2, Venturi and Bleed... as it's leaking just a wee bit... so I've converted it to brass fittings. Just giving the adhesive 12 more hours to dry/cure before installing the improvements..


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> Sounds like you may need an adapter. What brand of flow meter is it?
> Here's a website that carries metric to standard adapters, amongst a mountain of other PVC pipe and items.
> 
> 
> ...


I contacted the manufacturer of the Flow Meter, It's a BSP thread (British standard).... The site that you provided had the adapter as 1" BSP Female to 1" Slip.... Plus they had Slip to 1" Barb adapters... So I bought 2 of each... $14 including shipping... Not bad at all. Hopefully I will have this meter received and installed in within the week. The manufacturer also gave me some important calibration information.... becuase it's Axial it is nearly linear in terms of Flow Vs Rotations (pulses)... So, just a single constant...


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> I contacted the manufacturer of the Flow Meter, It's a BSP thread (British standard).... The site that you provided had the adapter as 1" BSP Female to 1" Slip.... Plus they had Slip to 1" Barb adapters... So I bought 2 of each... $14 including shipping... Not bad at all. Hopefully I will have this meter received and installed in within the week. The manufacturer also gave me some important calibration information.... becuase it's Axial it is nearly linear in terms of Flow Vs Rotations (pulses)... So, just a single constant...


It's great the manufacturer communicated with you and let you know about the threading. I don't know why but it seems many of the less expensive flow meter come out of Europe. Out of curiosity, who is the manufacturer?


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> It's great the manufacturer communicated with you and let you know about the threading. I don't know why but it seems many of the less expensive flow meter come out of Europe. Out of curiosity, who is the manufacturer?


Digiten... but I suspect they are more of a reseller than a manufacturer.... I oculd be wrong.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Display Tank #6 (the last one) is almost ready for the Fish Nook.
Rim removed, Base removed, All excess silicon removed (razor blade), Bulkheads drilled, Tubing sweated onto Bulkhead elbows (heatgun), Glass cleaned (vinegar). About 2 hours of work total.










I'm nervous about a frost tonight, so I will fill it up tomorrow for the leak test.... I ALWAYS leak test all of my equipment before putting it in the Fish Nook... Especially when I've pried, scraped, drilled, modified, etc...

Waiting on the gravel as well (everyone was out of the type I use in Tucson, AZ)... so no rush as I imagine I won't get around to putting this Display Tank on line until the weekend.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

While waiting on material, I took care of one issue. My ActiveAqua Piston Powered Air Pump is noisier than advertised. Therefore, it was located outside near the rafters of my covered back patio just on the other side of the wall from the FishNook.










Here, you can see how high it is.










I located the 6-port inside the Fishnook above the Racks. 6' of reinforced 3/8" Airline Tubing is what I used between the pump and manifold. It's quieter in the FishNook when the pump is running now...










6th Display Tank will be hooked up in a few days.. I intend to run the Airpump for 5 minutes every hour along with the Wave Pumps.... I'll also run the them during water changes as the Sump Pump won't be running to circulate water / bring oxygen.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Coming along. Will probably fill Display Tank #6 this evening (yes, I broke the lid, will take care of that later). Will be very interested in the flow reduction that results from the addition of this tank that will be installed at a 6'6" head in relation to the sump pump. I felt that I saw a decent reduction when adding Tank #5 at that height. Then a rework of the UV Filter, CO2 Reactor and Pump plumbing fixed that... Then adding the flow meter and check valve back into the equation a week later, knocked flow down again... It's adequate for 5, but Tank #6 might cause me to apply additional measures (will describe them only if they must be implemented). Once this is online, I'll focus back on completely automated dosing and water changes. Then I have to revisit the aquascaping, plant selection and plant care regimens (its way too random and kind of lame in all of the tanks).










About that externally mounted Piston powered airpump, Active Aqua Commercial Model AAPA45L, the one that I just located on the outside of the house: It's loud. My goodness it is so loud when you are trying to enjoy peace and quiet on the back patio. Even just coming on for 5 minutes every so many hours is no good. It's the harmonic, you feel like it's vibrating anything it's contacting. I wish it had a muffler. When I didn't have quite the water flow I wanted several revisions back in my Fish Nook, I was concerned about low oxygen at night (theoretically, plants consume oxygen at night at release CO2, no), so I added the airpump. Yeah, it can drive off CO2, but I was concerned as much for the fauna as the flora. However, I have ideas that might make it possible to eliminate it from daily use. For now, I'll keep it available on a UPS for when power is lost so that the tanks will continue to be oxygenated as I already have everything plumbed up anyway..

I've just been generally disappointed. Performance is great, it's just loud. That's on me for selecting a commercial grade unit for durability. I should have returned it the second I powered it up. Maybe if I do a little pond outside to receive the drain water that presently goes to my citrus trees..... hmmmm...
Hydrofarm > Hydroponics > Pumps & Irrigation > Active Aqua Commercial Air Pump, 6 Outlets, 20W, 45 L/min











That said. I still need an airpump because I intend to start hatching baby brine shrimp to encourage some spawning. I have the hatchers done and a neat little place to put them in the Fish Nook. Considering this pump as it will give me flexibility. If need be, for whatever reason, it would have the capacity to power the 6 display tanks too.





Active Aqua Air Pump, 8 Outlets, 12W, 25 L/min


Air Pump 8 Outlets 12W 25L/min (8/cs)




www.hydrofarm.com














All of this said... if I need to address increasing the flow when Display Tank #6 is put online... I have an option that will address water movement and oxygenation... and I already own all of the stuff. and it may eliminate employing a airpump altogether. More on that later...


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## typically (Dec 29, 2006)

This is probably overkill but the Jehmco LPH45 is supposed to be almost silent. 

Great build thread. You have so much fun tech stuff!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

Expensive, but this one is top-of-the-line


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

I've been working hard... finally have a 6-pack... with the wiring, tubing etc.. managed much better throughout. Yeah.. it will photo better when the new driftwood sinks...










You can see the illumination is much brighter with the upgraded lighting compliments of the Ecoxotic E-Series P60... They are 24", 32w, fully programmable. I'm seeing great color from the flora and fauna.

$30 a piece... I used $5 worth of bolts and ubolts to build hanging mounts..










Presently I have the controllers exposed on the face of my rack at the corner of each aquariums as I work out setting up and programming each one. This has the benefit of freeing up a relay on my DIY aquarium controller for other purposes.

I have the flow really tweaked now as well... I simply added a 2nd Active Aqua AAPW 1000 Pump. Plumbed it in parallel with the other and joined the flows together via a 1"x1"x1" PVC WYE connector.










There have been 4 major benefits to this setup.

I have great flow. I can point the difussers lower creating water movement that is reflected in the nice gentle swaying of the plants.

I no longer see the need to provide supplemental air to the aquariums. The water is clearer and there is enough mild surface agitation to promote oxygenation and even provide a little shimmer for the lighting.. I'll keep the airstones there and the pump hooked up... just off for now until I figure out how I want to employ them..(on a UPS... or in use during water changes to help stir things up more)...

The presence of two pumps has cancelled vibrations that I was experiencing in the sump... It's almost as if they are cancelling noise and vibration from one another. I certainly did not expect that (I thought everything would be louder... it's not).

Finally the turnover is such that I'm not hearing the gurgling in the pipes, nor the rainfall sound of water tumbling down the tubes.. It's just much quieter.

Anyway on to other things.... Calibrating the last of the new fully submersible probes, Ready to finish up the Dosing setup..... and the Shrimp Hatcheries...


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

Really coming together nicely!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> Really coming together nicely!


It's getting there. It's a shame all of the pieces parts that I have leftover after having to revisit allot of the systems (plumbing upsize, new pumps, new lighting, new CO2 reactor, etc...). When the Tucson Desert Aquarist Society resumes it's in-person monthly meetings (presently on ZOOM) and we start holding the swapmeets and auctions again...... Well, let's just say that I will have lots to contribute.

Obviously there are things I would do differently, but all-in-all this has been an afordable way to have 6 somewhat hi-tech planted tanks with a decent variety of fish. I'm really looking forward to the build-out portion being done and then just focusing on plant and fish care....


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Small little update today.... I purchased an ambient Air Temp and Humidity sensor from Atlas Scientific. It operates over i2c interface and have it working with my Node-RED. It's a big deal becuase this sensor returns Humidity, Temperature and DewPoint with each reading... So, I had to re-examine my Node-RED code and do a little custom java-script programming to parse out the individual readings. DewPoint is not applicable to my setup, so I just configured it for the Humid and Temp... So now I know if my FishNook is getting a little toasty or a little moist... I have the sensor mounted on a shelf, so it's close to the ceiling where it will be hotter and moister... If I see it creeping up too much over the summer... I might add another multi-channel Relay board (could use a few more relays anyway for other stuff) to turn on an exhaust fan.... We'll see.. .For now the information will be useful..

I've been wanting to do this for another sensore I have (Conductivity, that also gives Total Dissolved Solids and Salinity).... And of course my Flow Meter returns not just Instantaneous Flow, but can also totalize... So two measures each reading as well. So, now I've mastered parsing multiple parameters when reading these 3 devices over i2c.... good stuff... a new skill.


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> Small little update today.... I purchased an ambient Air Temp and Humidity sensor from Atlas Scientific. It operates over i2c interface and have it working with my Node-RED. It's a big deal becuase this sensor returns Humidity, Temperature and DewPoint with each reading... So, I had to re-examine my Node-RED code and do a little custom java-script programming to parse out the individual readings. DewPoint is not applicable to my setup, so I just configured it for the Humid and Temp... So now I know if my FishNook is getting a little toasty or a little moist... I have the sensor mounted on a shelf, so it's close to the ceiling where it will be hotter and moister... If I see it creeping up too much over the summer... I might add another multi-channel Relay board (could use a few more relays anyway for other stuff) to turn on an exhaust fan.... We'll see.. .For now the information will be useful..
> 
> I've been wanting to do this for another sensore I have (Conductivity, that also gives Total Dissolved Solids and Salinity).... And of course my Flow Meter returns not just Instantaneous Flow, but can also totalize... So two measures each reading as well. So, now I've mastered parsing multiple parameters when reading these 3 devices over i2c.... good stuff... a new skill.
> 
> View attachment 1027947


Nice!


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## Dreya (Nov 18, 2020)

If I were to get shot into space, I think I'd want you designing the environmental systems. Installing a humidity sensor to turn on an exhaust fan if it gets moist? Gee!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

The FishNook is 3 tiers (well 4 if you count the sumps). Creates challenges on water changes so that the upper tanks don't backfeed into the lower tanks. So, The lower two levels had anti-siphon valves installed so that they wouldn't receive water from tanks above when all were draining. These valves really slowed down flow and the 'drain' cycle of a water change is just taking too long. So, each level of tanks will get it's own path to drain with a solenoid. So, now the drain cycle activates 3 solenoids instead of 1.

Preparing the 1/2" 120V solenoid valves... addind thread to barb connectors and 8' cords so that they reach the equipment panel relay controlled outlets without requiring an extension... Top and Mid level solenoid valves have 8' cords, whereas the Bottom level solenoid valve has a 9' cord.










Anyway, I'm always learning. This should take 30 minutes off of the water change time as all 3 levels (2 tanks each level) will drain in parallel with their own independant paths to drain... the check valves are going...

One of the largest challenges with this system is learning the effects that everything has on flow.... whether it me devices, or simply head height...


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Dreya said:


> If I were to get shot into space, I think I'd want you designing the environmental systems. Installing a humidity sensor to turn on an exhaust fan if it gets moist? Gee!


Well, I shouldn't have to worry about tackling that until monsoon season at the end of June.... At the moment, I'm still in the 20% RH range... nothing to be concerned about at all.


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> The FishNook is 3 tiers (well 4 if you count the sumps). Creates challenges on water changes so that the upper tanks don't backfeed into the lower tanks. So, The lower two levels had anti-siphon valves installed so that they wouldn't receive water from tanks above when all were draining. These valves really slowed down flow and the 'drain' cycle of a water change is just taking too long. So, each level of tanks will get it's own path to drain with a solenoid. So, now the drain cycle activates 3 solenoids instead of 1.
> 
> Preparing the 1/2" 120V solenoid valves... addind thread to barb connectors and 8' cords so that they reach the equipment panel relay controlled outlets without requiring an extension... Top and Mid level solenoid valves have 8' cords, whereas the Bottom level solenoid valve has a 9' cord.
> 
> ...


Interested to see this all in place and working!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> Interested to see this all in place and working!


Hopefully by this evening... I ran out of teflon tape and washers, so I couldn't complete everything yesterday (plus I was tired as I fixed my drip irrigation for my hummingbird/butterfly garden and did allot of yard work in the desert heat)..


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Decided to remove and modify the sump. Left full volume in all of the tanks... and just emptied both sump sections.










Both sections removed... All display tanks are isolated (in/out valves are closed on each display tank) and just on airlines for the next two hours or so to keep the fish happy... Wave pumps are on in each display tank to keep water moving as well..










I want more flow between the two sump sections. Best way is to drill another 1 7/8" whole in each section, install 1" bulkheads and a 1" adjoining tube.










Sumps are joined by 3 1" lines now... The water levels are very similar between the two. I redid one of the connections as well by removing the bulkheads that had the barb sections held in with silicon.... I used pvc glue instead this time. Good fit. It's quite easy to connect them this way as the 1 7/8" holes give you a bit of play and adjustment as you are aligning the two sections of the sump.










I also installed those second and third solenoid valves so that each level has it's own valve, allowing me to remove those anti-siphon valves (check valves) that were really slowing things down. It really is much better now... Picture is blurry, but you can see the brass solenoid valves just below each level of display tanks. I mounted them on brackets that are drilled into the block wall. All 3 solenoid valves work off of the same relay from the DIY aquarium controller... so it didn't require any extra i/o to do it this way. Happy to have it faster now to drain.










Finally installed the new waterproof submersible probes (was waiting on sma to bnc adapters)... I'll take photos of those tomorrow with detailed photos of the sumps.

While I was working on the Sump Sections, I had all of the poret foam and ceramic media in two large coolers with water that I had removed from the sump... Air lines were placed in each cooler to keep the healthy bacterial alive in all of the media.... Of course the whole system benefited by the 35 gallons of water that was changed out after I through the water away from the coolers and added 35 gallons from my RO water (remineralized of course) to the sumps when I brought it all back on line this afternoon.

Fun stuff.


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> Decided to remove and modify the sump. Left full volume in all of the tanks... and just emptied both sump sections.
> 
> View attachment 1028665
> 
> ...


Nice update and interesting that you have all 3 solenoids on one relay and not set up individually. Why would you not want to set them up individually? 

Would be great to see pics of the hummingbird/butterfly garden too!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> Nice update and interesting that you have all 3 solenoids on one relay and not set up individually. Why would you not want to set them up individually?
> 
> Would be great to see pics of the hummingbird/butterfly garden too!


Simply becuase there is just 1 i2c relay expansion board with 8 channels attached to my controller. Someday soon a 2nd relay board will be added and the solenoids can be separated. The relay boards used are high quality and run about $80usd (not including shipping). Presently, just one relay open now (it used to control the ecoxotic stunner strips, but then the system was upgraded to the ecoxotic e-series that is fully automated). 

That relay realy will be used to shut off tempered water supply to my RO Unit when the water gets to 55 gallons. The mechanical/pressure system that shuts off at 58 gallons makes allot of racket for the final hour or so before fully closing off the supply. The mechanical system will be kept in place as a fail stop... But it's going to be the level switches inside of the RO storage that turns on/off the tempered water supply... much quieter...

A second i2c 8 channel descreet input board will be purchased to wire in a few more devices (spill alarm on the floor, dosing container low level switches, master system flow switch, hihi alarms on both sump sections). The master flow switch is needed becuase the 1" flow meter had to be eliminated becuase it choked the flow too much... it really felt like a full 20-25% was lost. A non-envasive flow switch will be employed that won't go in the actual water stream. It is nice to know that water is actually moving, not just that system is telling the relays to latch to run the pumps.

Finding space on the FishNook equipment panel for the 8 channel relay board and the acommpanying outlets, as well as the 8 channel discreet board will be a challenge.

At the moment, no flow meters are being used and I just hate to be wasting that pair of $40 EZO-Flow circuits from Atlas-Scientific; especially after begging them to add connectors for a 3wire flow meter to a new version of their Tentacle-T3 carrier board. They did and I am beta testing it now. it's a nice piece of kit. The Mark II version is definitely nicer than the Mark I version. Therefore, a 1/2" flow meter may be installed in the transfer line from the RO Storage to the FishNook. No real concern about the transfers bieng slowed down just a bit with the introduction of a flow meter. Again, useful information that says water is moving and it's not just the controller commanding the relay to latch to run the transfer pump.

It might be nice to automate the remineralization of the RO water when it is transfered over to the fishnook. There is a 3rd dosing pump in the FishNook... perhaps a solution can be mixed up that can be added to the sump during water changes?

Okay, enough musings.... It's monday morning... back to work. (and I'll do a photo of the hummingbird/bee/butterfly border garden)


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> Simply becuase there is just 1 i2c relay expansion board with 8 channels attached to my controller. Someday soon a 2nd relay board will be added and the solenoids can be separated. The relay boards used are high quality and run about $80usd (not including shipping). Presently, just one relay open now (it used to control the ecoxotic stunner strips, but then the system was upgraded to the ecoxotic e-series that is fully automated).
> 
> That relay realy will be used to shut off tempered water supply to my RO Unit when the water gets to 55 gallons. The mechanical/pressure system that shuts off at 58 gallons makes allot of racket for the final hour or so before fully closing off the supply. The mechanical system will be kept in place as a fail stop... But it's going to be the level switches inside of the RO storage that turns on/off the tempered water supply... much quieter...
> 
> ...


Thanks for the update. 

$80 for an eight channel relay is quite costly. What brand is it? 

Are those ecoxotic e-series lights something you had from new or did you score them on ebay or something?


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> Thanks for the update.
> 
> $80 for an eight channel relay is quite costly. What brand is it?
> 
> Are those ecoxotic e-series lights something you had from new or did you score them on ebay or something?


The Relay Board is from NCD (National Control Devices.. also known as ControlAnything), as is the discreet input board.. I selected their board because it was 1. well constructed. 2. had supported i2c libraries under NodeRED 3. was reasonably compact. They took time via videos to explain how to defeat unwanted induction and so forth from motors, solenoids that can impede communications... no other inexpensive hardware that was considered offered that. I've installed .56uF capacitors for the outlets that supply inductive loads (my solenoid valves and large pumps). Obviously they are not employed for the resistive loads (heat). Just had more confidence in buying their stuff. After almost a decade in IoT and Arduinos and RaspberryPIs and BeagleBones, I've played around enough with cheap addon hardware and components to have had my fill. So, no sweat spending a bit more money on Atlas-Scientific, WhiteBoxLabs and NCD stuff to provide functionality for the DIY aquarium controller.

Those Ecoxotic E-Series lights were purchased on a closeout directly from Current USA about 2 months ago... $29 each (they were almost $200 a piece new). I bought 7... 6 for the FishNook and 1 as a spare. They are sufficient. They are run on 'cloudy day mode' for 5 hours.. with just a full daylight mode about 3 hours a day. Each morning begins with 1 hour of moon and end the day with 1 hour of moon... very gradual... no fish scares... As tempting as it was to experiment with pulse width modulation and amplifiers to custom control the previous ecoxotic stunners... well for $29 there was no way to pass that up... saved allot of work and I gained color control... not just intensity alone. They run a little warmer, but they are suspended in open air 6" above the display tanks... plenty of ambient cooling occuring with little heat transfer to the water at all..


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> The Relay Board is from NCD (National Control Devices.. also known as ControlAnything), as is the discreet input board.. I selected their board because it was 1. well constructed. 2. had supported i2c libraries under NodeRED 3. was reasonably compact. They took time via videos to explain how to defeat unwanted induction and so forth from motors, solenoids that can impede communications... no other inexpensive hardware that was considered offered that. I've installed .56uF capacitors for the outlets that supply inductive loads (my solenoid valves and large pumps). Obviously they are not employed for the resistive loads (heat). Just had more confidence in buying their stuff. After almost a decade in IoT and Arduinos and RaspberryPIs and BeagleBones, I've played around enough with cheap addon hardware and components to have had my fill. So, no sweat spending a bit more money on Atlas-Scientific, WhiteBoxLabs and NCD stuff to provide functionality for the DIY aquarium controller.
> 
> Those Ecoxotic E-Series lights were purchased on a closeout directly from Current USA about 2 months ago... $29 each (they were almost $200 a piece new). I bought 7... 6 for the FishNook and 1 as a spare. They are sufficient. They are run on 'cloudy day mode' for 5 hours.. with just a full daylight mode about 3 hours a day. Each morning begins with 1 hour of moon and end the day with 1 hour of moon... very gradual... no fish scares... As tempting as it was to experiment with pulse width modulation and amplifiers to custom control the previous ecoxotic stunners... well for $29 there was no way to pass that up... saved allot of work and I gained color control... not just intensity alone. They run a little warmer, but they are suspended in open air 6" above the display tanks... plenty of ambient cooling occuring with little heat transfer to the water at all..


Great to know about your extensive experience with DIY controllers and IoT. I may be hitting you up when the time comes to build my own. I was a close follower and occasional contributor on the reef pi thread on Reef2Reef. However, I've not been on there for quite a while and I'm sure much has changed. 

$29? Did you say, "$29?" Holy moly that's a great deal! Did you buy all of the available lights they had or did/do they have more? I would have loved to have received a little heads up on that sale!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> Great to know about your extensive experience with DIY controllers and IoT. I may be hitting you up when the time comes to build my own. I was a close follower and occasional contributor on the reef pi thread on Reef2Reef. However, I've not been on there for quite a while and I'm sure much has changed.
> 
> $29? Did you say, "$29?" Holy moly that's a great deal! Did you buy all of the available lights they had or did/do they have more? I would have loved to have received a little heads up on that sale!


Yes. $29-$30... I posted something on some of the threads that were specific to the Ecoxotic E-Series and mentioned it on this build thread on March 31st... They all literally went in four days. I bought the first to evaluate... received it in 2 days.... they still had over 30 of them.... When I went to get the other 6, they were down to the last 7 or 9.. .So just 1 to 3 left after I fully stocked up. Yeah, it was definitely one of those deal of the centuries.... I had a similar thing happen a few months ago when I picked up the Hydor 240gph wavepumps.... I grabbed them at $27 a piece... They would list 2... I would buy them.... 5 minutes later they would list 2 more... etc... I had to do 3 auctions to get all 6.

I post information on this DIY controller on the NodeRED website under it's own thread (user name there reflects my company name: SonoraTechnical). I guess the important thing is the code. Focus on the code I post has been to build a library of flows/nodes in NodeRED to support the Atlas-Scientific sensors and circuits that communicate over i2c (similar to modbus, serial-RS485). I need to make some new contributions. I'm going to submit some basic flows to Atlas-Scientific so that they can make them available for download to customers who buy their products.

Regarding my DIY controller efforts... my BoM (bill of materials) is high... I think it would have been far cheaper to just buy a Neptune Controller, but I guess I kept throwing good money after bad. LOL. It started out with an Arduino DUE and c/c++ code... migrated over to a TI Cortex-4M based board and c/c++ code... then RaspberryPi3B with Win10IoT and C++/C# code... finally to RaspberryPi4B and Node-RED. Orginally my sensors/circuits communicated over multiplexed UART, then Atlas-Sci started to enable i2c in their stuff.... so I upgraded. LOL. This final version I've had in use for sometime and has sooo much more potential... I received some help from MattyP over at Reef2Reef (calibration routines) and we've shared code... he's twice the controls engineer that I am and three times the programmer ... man his stuff looks so professional it's incredible. (by contrast, the guys over at Atlas-Scientific refer to my Fish Nook Equipment Panel as a nice Charcuterie board..)


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## ReeferRusso (Dec 29, 2018)

Hhmmmm... are you sure their user name is MattyP on R2R? Unless they're a recent contributor, I know most of the major contributors on the reef pi thread. I'd be surprised if I didn't know them. 

Whenever I do get going on my controller, I'm going to be like a deer in the headlights!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

ReeferRusso said:


> Hhmmmm... are you sure their user name is MattyP on R2R? Unless they're a recent contributor, I know most of the major contributors on the reef pi thread. I'd be surprised if I didn't know them.
> 
> Whenever I do get going on my controller, I'm going to be like a deer in the headlights!


MaddyP, sorry!
Here is his controller build. A bit stalled at the moment as he just moved and is setting up the tidal wave tank again.








Widgetlords Controller - Node-Red, Raspberry Pi Controller Build


Hello All! Thought it would be best to separate my aquarium controller build from my tank build thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/maddyps-12g-long-node-red-nano-build.549459/ So, a little background before we get into specifics. I had this crazy idea during my last move to try...




www.reef2reef.com





I finally got around to installing, configuring and calibrating the dosing pumps... they fill up that space that I set aside on the Equipment panel perfectly...










I have the containers full of water while I work out the schedules, interlocks, etc... in Node-RED for the real automated dosing. I can't imagine ever needing more than 3 dosing pumps, so that's what I built. The installation gave me an opportunity to work with Lexan and it turned out okay (well I think I did). I bought the square 3-chamber dosing resevoir because it fit perfectly on that shelf, is very stable and well thought out in its design. It was a bit of a splurge item at $40.










Getting hard to stay focused on the Node-RED programming now as I just want to be outdoors toiling in the gardens all of the time. Here's my expanded patio perimeter garden for attracting birds, hummingbirds and bees. It's already working, but my photo skills are bad, so I can never catch them feeding on the plants... Snapped this photo yesterday as it was a rare rainy April day in our drought strickien desert....










Got those metal landscape lights for free (along with the transformer)... so I need to get them properly installed. Rocks and little fencing is necessary to keep my dogs from digging up the plants looking for lizards....


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

Most of your thread is much too technical for me-- but, I can really relate to your garden! Beautiful dog as well...


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Discusluv said:


> Most of your thread is much too technical for me-- but, I can really relate to your garden! Beautiful dog as well...


Zuri, she's a cutie... a mexian stray... border collie mix... 

We took a walk around Amado Territories just south of my home to see the bull frogs in the pond. Here she is with Coqueta, my other mexican stray.. 










Unfortunately for the girls, this bench disappeared as part of my perimeter garden expansion. But they have other places to sit and stand gaurd. Zuri, Grita and Coqueta...


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## Plinkploop (Jan 24, 2021)

Awe. Cute furry ones!!!


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> Zuri, she's a cutie... a mexian stray... border collie mix...
> 
> We took a walk around Amado Territories just south of my home to see the bull frogs in the pond. Here she is with Coqueta, my other mexican stray..
> 
> ...


OH my goodness-- what little doll-babies! Love how the cat posed for the picture as well. Who can get their cat to do that--- LOL!

Your pond is beautiful-- any koi in there?


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Discusluv said:


> OH my goodness-- what little doll-babies! Love how the cat posed for the picture as well. Who can get their cat to do that--- LOL!
> 
> Your pond is beautiful-- any koi in there?


Amy,
No, that is not my pond.... it's over at a place where I rented office space for a while... now I'm back to working from home... next to my FishNook.
But yes, that pond has Koi, painted turtles and bullfrogs. Occasionally it's visited by a great horned owl... it's a cool place becuase it definitely has a distinct microclimate, though nestled in the Sonoran Desert.

Grita is an awesome cat. a mexican rescue as well. she takes walks with the dogs and us every morning.

Let me do a little fishroom content on this thread:

I'm evaluating a new piece of hardware for interfacing sensors/circuits to RaspberryPi Controllers... So, I had to setup a temporary flowmeter.... why not just stick a pump in my sump and pump water in a circle...










Here's the piece of hardware I'm evaluating for a vendor... You can see there's a little sidecar on the board for screwing in the 3 leads from the temporary flow meter that I rigged up... I also have an RTD and pH probe attached.










I installed the new fully submersible probes in the sump.... A refief not worrying about them drying out or trapping air during water changes...
I am very pleased with pH, ORP and Conductivity (also giving me TDS and Salinity)... But the Dissolved Oxygen??

I put the Dissolved Oxygen probe on line after performing a 'dry' calibrate... That's where it reads available atmospheric oxygen... nominally 9.0mg/L. I don't need a ZERO calibrate because I'm not interested in measuring dissolved oxygen below 1mgL as all of the fish would be dead anyway. But, I'm not happy with the results.... The data is a bit random, so I need to see what I've done wrong... I have the dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity and ORP probes all electrically isolated, so I shouldn't be getting interference between them. However, I do have two big pumps in my sump.... maybe the noise is just too much, despite the DO probe being electrically isolated. I also have a somewhat long 15' bnc cable, so maybe that's acting like an antenna of sorts? who knows. For now, I've moved the dissolved oxygen probe to the other section of the sump, just to see if it improves... I have it in direct flow so that water passes over the sensor like it is supposed to do. Or maybe this piece of hardware I'm testing isn't providing the isolation that i need. Or maybe the new probe is just bad... Anyway, I'll report back what I find...










Anyway, fun stuff.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Doing a bit more software work on the DIY Aquarium Controller for the FishNook. Dosing pumps work good now. (And no, I haven't found a water soluable remineralizer for my RO water.... So I will use that 3rd doser for something else). I need to build a user interface for the schedule.... as the scheduler that triggers the 'Start' event is hidden in the code... there are others available for NodeRED, I just have to do a little exploring... Anyway, it's a start...










That's it for updates today.... still squeezing under the fence for the Tax deadline on Monday... so gots to get busy on that again...


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Here's an announcement that's not so much about my FishNook, as it is about the Software behind my DIY Controller that runs the FishNook. If you've followed the build, it's obvious that I use allot of Atlas-Scientific EZO Sensors, Circuits and Devices. (I'm a poster child for their products... they should offer me stock in the company  )

Those devices communicate with the outside world via a simple UART (serial) connection or i2c (serial, but multi-drop) connections. Obviously, once you have more than 1 device connecting to your controller, i2c is the way to go. Many of us struggled to get the Atlas-Scientific devices to communicate with NodeRED (the development software behind my DIY Controller) over i2c. Eventually, I cracked it... but it was another hobbyist that just ran away with it (he is 10X the programmer that I am). 

Yesterday, MaddyTP (GitHub ID for programmer types), released a piece of software (a node) for NodeRED that greatly simplifies communicating with the Atlas-Sci EZO stuff... I've tested it for simple reads on Temperature (the RTD), pH and EC. It functions well and cuts out allot of programming work. Obviously, he will continue to improve on it... I'm modifying all of my programs and sample code to use. 

Here is the announcement:
Announce: node-red-contrib-EZO 1.02 node release


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## rzn7z7 (Aug 17, 2013)

Congrats, and I must say what you're doing here for your hobby is pretty amazing! It's one thing to buy hardware for our tanks, but to write the software and program it?....good stuff!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

rzn7z7 said:


> Congrats, and I must say what you're doing here for your hobby is pretty amazing! It's one thing to buy hardware for our tanks, but to write the software and program it?....good stuff!


Thank you. It's been fun. I've stopped improving the DIY Controller the last few weeks as I've concentrated on changing up the aquascaping. I think it's starting to look better. Here's an example of the left bottom tank after a scape reduex. (Ha! It's obvious from the photo that I have to tidy up the cords and waterlines behind it). There are about 10 species of plants, with the stems planted in very dense individual groupings. I tired to stay 2" from the front glass and 1 1/2" inches from the side glass for easy wipedowns. I'm a remedial aquatic plant keeper and am learning as I go...but little by little the scapes are improving. This tank has 6 Bleeding Heart Tetras, 6 Pristella Tetas, 4 Corydoras Juliis, 4 Otocinclus Affinis, 2 Amano Shrimps, and 2 Cobalt Blue Gobies. (the two female black phantom tetras in the photo are a mistake... in a moment of iunattention I introduced them to the wrong the tank... their other 4 tankmates are in the adjacent tank).










Fish population is big in my tanks, but remember I have the very large dual sumps which add an additional 30% water capacity to the whole system. My water change regimen is right at about 40% once a week... but I'll do minor ones in between as I'll sometimes drain the water down a few inches in a tank to aquascape. Once I fully automate water changes again (not fully automated now as I've taken up remineralizing my RO Water in the Sump as it's added... and haven't found a way to automate that... RO Water has to stay pure in the storage container because I have automatic top off... estimate about 3 or more gallons a day for that)...


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Here is DisplayTank#2 in my FishNook. Lemon Tetras, Black Phantom Tetras, Ember Tetras, Otocinclus Affinis, Corydoras Sterbai, Cherry Shrimp.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Display Tank#3 (this one sits at about 4' height in the fishnook.

This tank has 5 Red Eye Tetras (was 6, but 1 jumped), 2 Emperor Tetras (I had a bad batch and lost several of these the first few months to illness), 5 skunk corydoras, 5 adolfoi corydoras, 3 Otocinclus Affinis, 6 fancy tail guppies (my wife's contribution), 1 bristlenose pleco, 2 amano shrimp (had more, but I think several were eaten).


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Display Tank #4.

This one has 6 Serpae Tetras (who don't seem to like bright light at all), 8 Silver Tip Tetras (although dull in appearance, are still a welcome additon), 6 Panda Cories (who doesn't love these guys), 4 Otocinclus vitatus, 4 bloody mary shrimp, 2 amano shrimp.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Display Tank #5

This tank has 4 Columbian Tetras (was 6, but these guys are jumpers... managing to escape through the small opening where I run the few cables that enter the tank), 4 Penguin Tetras, 2 Beckford Pencilfish (they werre supposed to be Penguins, but the shopkeep made a mistake), 4 Corydoras Elegans, 4 Corydoras Paleatus, 3 otocinclus affinis (was 4, who knows what happend to one... never found a body... like jimmy hoffa), 1 bristlenose pleco.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Display Tank #6.

It's simple.. 8 Rummy Nose Tetras, 8 Cardinal Tetras, 8 Pygmy Corydoras, 4 otocinclus affinis, 6 Blue Dream shrimp, 2 amano shrimp. Too many snails... (there are two assasin snails present, but they do nothing to control the pond snail population).


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

It's funny as I look through these photos that I took this week following a substantial pruning. You just don't see the fish that I mention. I think the bright lights and movement as I cleaned things up spooked them. Oh well. I guess you can appreciate the purpose of my FishNook. 1 system for easy maintenance, but 6 separate tanks to house a great variety of inhabitants. So, I guess they are wannabe 'dutch-like' planted community aquariums. Hey, I get to enjoy them everyday here in my home office as I do secular work that I no longer enjoy to make a living... LOL!!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

This is a build thread, so let's get back to some improvements. I've stepped up my water change regimen on the FishNook... and of course I have 6 full display tanks on line. I can do a 40% water change on the entire system (6 display tanks, 2 sump tanks) with the 53 gallons I have available (it's 65 gallons of storage, but it's not filled to the top and you can't pump out the last 5 gallons). I'm doing that about every 5 days now... So, I'm doing 6 x 40% water changes a month. 

To produce 53 gallons (well more, because I top off between water changes and grab 5 gallons for the quarantine tank too in between as well) every 5 days means that nearly 100 gallons is going to my garden... That's allot. Of course when I do that water change... 53 gallons leaves my FishNook and also goes to the garden.... So yeah... 150gallons every 5 days. I'd like to knock that down a bit. It's so much water that a family of Gambel's Quail have taken up roosting under my neighbors Orange tree that benefits from the water too as it's soooo lush and cool (especially in this 110-115degF heatwave we've been having).

I've been researching how to improve the ratio of RO water to waste on lots of forums.... when suddenly the manufacturer of my system emailed me information on an Upgrade kit they offer to reduce the wasted water. I liked the idea. It went on Sale, then I bought it.

So, in the bodega, time to move things over a bit to fit more cartridges..











Everything was moved over and the new holder installed... Basically the waste from the 1st 3 cartridges goes though a 2nd round of RO Membrane and DI Resin... The outputs of both combine to go into the water storage vessel.... It's the waste from the 2nd round that ends up as the final waste. I followed the recommendations to do install the flush adapter for 30 minutes before adding the DI cartridge... 










I don't think DI is necessary, but it came with the kit.. so I'll use it.... What is interesting is the 1st round of purified water the exits the first set of filters won't have passed through the DI cartridge... Whereas the 2nd round of purified water that exist the second set of filters will have passed through the DI cartridge... So not 100% of the water that I am producing will have a near 0 TDS... That's okay with me... I'm remineralizing anyway... 










Yes, I did go back and enter the dates on the cartridges.... I put 12/1/2020 for the 1st set.. and 6/1/2021 for the 2nd set. Yeah the first set was installed before that, but very lightly used.
It will be easier to remember the replacement cycle if I stage them 6 months apart.

So, it will be interesting to see: 1. how much faster the water gets produced. 2. if I can detect less water in the garden.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

I thought I'd take a photo of what happens to a well watered section of your garden supporting a small grapefruit and a large sour orange tree when you live in the desert. You attract things. This morning I heard my dogs barking, which always means a coyote, javelina or rattlesnake.... This morning, it was a discarded skin from a Black Racer (though it was probably red as that is a common variety/color here.)... This one measured about 5'... Difficult to appreciate as so much of the skin gets bunched around the head as the shed it...










Here it is laid on the 6' table of the covered part of my back patio.










Here is a good 6' one that I found (perished unfortunately, but not run over by a car) a few weeks ago... Beautiful creature. what you can't appreciate from the photo is that it's belly is coral/peach/pink colored.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Anyway, with that last post, I've strayed from FishNook updates. With the 115 degF temps we've had in the Desert SouthWest for more than 10 days now, it's been impossible to maintain less than 28.5-29degC in the FishNook. The RO Storage is in a bodega at the back of my carport... so it's warm..... We keep the house at 80degF (27.5 degC). With the pump and lights running... and the warmer water coming in during water change and evaporation top-offs, it's just impossible to keep it below 28.5degC without active cooling. I'm not going to do active cooling. Anyway, happy to report that the corydoras, ottos, angels and shrimp are enduring it just fine and of course the new Pitch Black Rams love it. No losses during the heatwave.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

So, I thought I'd follow-up. I've been on a Working Trip for about 9 days... That means someone is staying at our home and feeding the dogs, the cats, making sure the irrigation is working in the gardens and of course looking after the FishNook. I did a good trimming, good wipe down, and gravel vac 2 days before leaving... and did 3x 40% water changes just prior to leaving... So that math works out to about 70% of the water completely changed in 2 days... The idea was to leave everything super clean and not to burden the person with much maintenance while i was gone... 

I paused the automation with the exception of light timers, evaporation top-offs, pH/CO2 injection... No auto water changers, no auto dosing. They are just feeding the fish with minimal quantities once a day in the morning... a small algae tab dropped in each tank each night... and fertilizing the water column with minimal quantities once a week. Water circulation is good, UV Filter is running.... wave pumps still come on 5 minutes every hour (during the day time)... and of course temp control is enabled (though the heaters haven't come on in weeks)...

They've reported no algae issues, no fish deaths, water is clear, plants are tall and leafy. So about 8 days more to go before I get home.... Longest stretch leaving the FishNook alone. Will be interesting to see how it does... and how it looks when I get back home.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Update.... Got home early Thursday morning. Everything looked great. CO2 ran out very recently.... pH sitting at about 6.85, so it's not bad. I'll head up to Tucson today and get the CO2 tank filled.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Well, I always promise to cite the good with the bad in this FishNook adventure. Today was the bad. This morning I saw a bit of water on the floor and traced it to Display Tank #3... I saw that the cork underlayment was saturated, but all glass was dry... This meant that I had a leak in the bottom pane or the bottom pane seams... What I found upon inspection surprised me... a cracked corner.

This is where it's my fault. A year ago as I was de-rimming, de-basing, drilling the glass, I noted a small chip near one of the corners. I added a bit of extra silicon... let it cure for 48 hours... then tested that tank like I did all of the others for two weeks... completely filled... on the stands on my patio.... I describe that process early in this thread.

Now, some 8 months later, this tank is leaking at that location. So, I'm going to then take this tank down. That requires moving all of the fish and plants to the other 5 aquariums. Then, I will get another 20 gallon long, de-rim, de-base and drill it.... Another thing that I am doing is adding/doubling additional cork. Display Tanks #3 and #4 have the thinnest cork... The others have slightly thicker cork.... THe sumps even have two layers of cork... So that is what I will do with this new tank...

Bummer... It's a bummer becuase my wife broke her leg in NY two weeks ago... We are back home in Arizona and still awaiting the 1st of 3 surgeries that she requires. So, it's a bad time to have to do something major to the Sonoran Desert Fish Nook.


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## Dreya (Nov 18, 2020)

Oh no! What a chore to fix! Still, I guess its lucky you didnt find the problem via a full break and flood. 
Best wishes to the wife, being laid up is no fun..maybe time for her to take up a quiet indoor hobby like oh.... fishkeeping


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

My wife has had her surgery and is recovering, so I'm moving on fixing up the replacement aquarium.

This one was a bear... might have been the toughest rim and base that I've ever removed... and it's a brand new aquarium. Glad that it's done. I will drill for the bulkheads later and then get this thing set in place. Should be on line by Friday evening.

For the Desert Aquarist Society (Tucson Area Fish Club) August 14th meeting, I'm going to do a workshop on cutting and drilling aquarium glass. We have to hold it in an outside location and electricity is questionable... but I have all cordless tools with lots of batteries so it will be a good opportunity to pass something on to others.










*Random musing....*

The more I work in the FishNook there is a re-occuring thought. I wish I'd built custom 32"x16"x16" or 33" x 15" x 15" Display Tanks. There's something about wanting to get an entire aquarium out of one 48" sheet and fit in the existing stand footprint, hence the very specific dimensions. (of course I guess at that point you are just about at the dimensions of a 40 breeder, but again I don't want to go changing stands and the extra length would take too much space away from all of the wall mounted equipment.)

The extra height would be nice to allow the stem plants a bit more growth and depth would have been nice to allow more an easier time of cleaning the glass without plants crowding against it. It would have been fun to take it to the limits of the stand width and have an overhang front and back for effect.

Maybe version two of the FishNook in a few years.


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## Thenoob (Jan 15, 2014)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> My wife has had her surgery and is recovering, so I'm moving on fixing up the replacement aquarium.
> 
> This one was a bear... might have been the toughest rim and base that I've ever removed... and it's a brand new aquarium. Glad that it's done. I will drill for the bulkheads later and then get this thing set in place. Should be on line by Friday evening.
> 
> ...


Curious if you have had any problem with the de-rimmed and drilled tanks, aside from the one your replacing of course?

I would have loved to de-rim my drilled 20, but after seeing how thin the glass was and accidentally cracking one tank I just wasn't brave enough 😅


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Thenoob said:


> Curious if you have had any problem with the de-rimmed and drilled tanks, aside from the one your replacing of course?


Just the one tank... Never a single problem with any others. As a precaution, I have ordered slightly thicker cork and will double it up under the tank


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> Just the one tank... Never a single problem with any others. As a precaution, I have ordered slightly thicker cork and will double it up under the tank


I thought I would follow up. It turns out the Display tank was not leaking at all. What had happend is the tank had an overflow even (discharges momentarily plugged, who knows?) and soaked the cork underneat the tank.... Because the cork stayed wet for so long, I thought the tank was continually leaking. It's not. It's fine. It turns out that minor chip in the corner is really nothing to worry about.

Anyway, now I have an extra de-rimmed and drilled tank. LOL!

But that is one downside to cork underneath the tank is that it holds moisture for a while if there is any kind of spill... So worth noting if you ever intend to use it.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

So, I had decided to let plants grow long so that I could haul allot to our club meeting this past weekend. However, it had the unintended consequence of starving to many other plants in the aquariums of light, cuasing them to grown skinny and tall. Oh well. So, I took some before and after... 

Before:










After: 










fish health is awesome... I mean nothing ever dies except many the occasional otto each 2 months...

plant health... well it's a work in progress. red colors aren't holding, which means I need to revisit the fertilisaton regimen. that aside. algae is under control and it looks good for having rather basic 'beginner' level plants.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

I've been feeding the entire FishNook (8 20gallon long aquariums) with 1 10lb CO2 tank. Today, I ran out after just 9 weeks. When I went to fill up my tank, they had a very nice 20lb tank already filled. Time for an upgrade... The 20lb will be my main CO2 tank and the 10lb will be the tank that supplies the system when I take my 20lb tank to be refilled.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

Beauty of a Sump.... Climate controlled Brine Shrimp Hatchery...


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

This past Sunday, August 14, 2022, I gave a presentation about the Fish Nook during the Desert Aquarist Society's monthly club meeting. I presented a 20 minute video, followed by a 20+ minute Q&A. Overall, the interest appeared a bit low. LOL. Oh well. 

One popular question was would I do anything differently? Yes... 2 rows of 2 40 Gal Breeders as display tanks in lieu of 3 rows of 2 20 Gal Longs.

I added a small school of 8 Black Skirt Tetras to one of the tanks with 10 Ember Tetras, 8 Velenzuelan Black Corydoras, and 20 or so bloody mary shrimp. It's a nice tank.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

After two years of operation... I am taking down the Fish Nook. I have not enjoyed climbing a ladder to service the top row of tanks with my hernia... and then later the surgery.
I am downsizing to a 2 40 gallon breeders. 1 in my home in the USA and 1 in my home in Mexico. Looking forward to the additional height to do a little more creative aquascaping..

And no, the other tanks are not normally this crowded... They are just housing the plants from two other 20 gallon longs and a 10 gallon that I've already taken down. I have allot of selective culling of plants to perform. 

Top left tank is down.... tanking the top right tank down today also .. (update top right tank is down too)....


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

I'm going to sell the tanks and stands and ancillaries as a set.... while it's a poor foundation for planted aquariums... it's an excellent platform for a dwarf anything breeding program....

Here is a link to the sale of the System. All 8 tanks are going to go with it.



https://www.plantedtank.net/threads/fish-nook-for-sale-6-20-gallon-long-display-tanks-with-a-2-chamber-sump.1327319/


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## typically (Dec 29, 2006)

Was fun watching the nook evolve. Feel better!!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

One of the things I struggled with was how to take the plants from 6 20 gallon long aquariums and down size them to comfortably fit in 1 40 gallon breeder... Especially since the 40 gallon breeder is already in my Mexican home 8 hours away.

Cool solution. A 40 gallon breeder has a footprint of 36"x18" nominally. I found this small, under the bed, tote that is close to that size (34"w x 18"d, but only 7"h). So the idea is to add 1 1/2" of substrate and set the stone, driftwood and plants in this tote; basically to scape it. It will hold about 12 gallons of water, so I will fertilize the water column a bit generously and add a small HOB filter to circulate water. This will define which plants go with me to Mexico and which ones get sold (either NextDoor, FaceBook, or the Desert Aquarist Society monthly auction on Nov 13).










Obviously most of the plants will stick above the water line... Which is fine... I'll trim the stems generously... Buce, Anubis, Bolbitos, Crypts etc.. will just have to stick a little above the water line. For transport of 10 hours, I'll carefully lower the lid in place, not breaking any plants sticking above the water line.

I'll have additional substrate in another bucket to add to the 40 gallon when I get there. The 3/4" plywood underneath will allow me to carry it (with help) to the back of my pickup truck when we load up in 2 1/2 weeks for Mexico. (Fish will get moved in a bucket that will also have a small filter going... glad I've got a little inverter in the truck for powering 120v devices)..

I may start another thread of this process becuase I think it will be interesting to folks who've face a similar dilemna. The plant choices will be hard, but lets see what I come up with.


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

As promised.. this is the thread I will maintain for the downsizing/move effort:









Downsizing 6 x 20 Gallons of Plants into 1 x 40 Gallon...


I've mentioned the downsizing of the rack that is the centerpiece of my Fish Nook (Sonoran Desert Fish Nook - a build thread). I've struggled with how to take the plants from 6 x 20 gallon long (30" x 12") aquariums and down size them to comfortably fit in 1 x 40 gallon breeder (36" x 18")...




www.plantedtank.net


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