journal FishBeast's first rack plans. Advice needed.

[Squiggle]

Hahaha, I thought that Homer no function beer well without?

Looking very cool dude & now I realise the outlet thing, ball valves threw me, lol.

[Ronskitz]

Looks really nice mate well done. Where are the $ at the moment as it stands?

[FishBeast]

Looks really nice mate well done. Where are the $ at the moment as it stands?

 

I have lost a receipt or 2 but by memory and adding the rest of the receipts it comes to about $1500. Had I have had to pay for many of the things I already have the cost would be over $2000. The water pump is worth $250, the controller is worth $160, and there is also a timer and countdown timer which I didn't have to buy also. Some other things like wiring and conduit and some PVC fittings.

[Ronskitz]

I have lost a receipt or 2 but by memory and adding the rest of the receipts it comes to about $1500. Had I have had to pay for many of the things I already have the cost would be over $2000. The water pump is worth $250, the controller is worth $160, and there is also a timer and countdown timer which I didn't have to buy also. Some other things like wiring and conduit and some PVC fittings.

Excellent thanks mate the reason i asked was because iv just been given the go ahead to start saving for a rack woooooohoooooo its probably gonna take me a year or 2 but i actually got the go ahead haha

[newbreed]

Woohoo! Always a win to get the affirmative from the minister of finance! Better than tattslotto! Congrats Ron!

[FishBeast]

I have been pretty busy working on the rack over the last week. I have had more drama's which have all stemmed from one leaking elbow on the top row of tanks. My first attempt to fix it led to me putting some nasty cracks in one of the tanks. I cut the offending elbow out but had to take the whole assembly for the inlet off that tank as well.

 

I replaced it tonight but found another 3 leaks in the bit I just replaced... Grrr.... I have patched them up and will see how it goes tomorrow. The cracks in the tank are leaking pretty bad too so I siliconed those up and will see how it goes.

 

I also found a flaw in my design which I will need to address down the track. I have a drainage hole in each of the 3 sections of my sump. The idea was so that I could do very large water changes if need be. So having the 3 holes allows water to gravity feed water between all of the divisions of the sump, bypassing the weirs. I will need to add another solenoid to stop the flow between divisions which is a bit of a pain and will end up costing me another $27. 

 

Apart from that it seems to be running well which has allowed me time to start on the electrical side of things. I have started putting the timers etc in place and have been planning how to wire it up. I have the basic concept right in my head and will add more to it once water changes are completely automatic.

 

Sorry I don't have any pictures at the moment but I will aim to post some within the next few days once I have reached the point where I want to be first.

Edited June 17, 2014 by FishBeast

[KillieOrCory]

Pics pics pics

[jayc]

Nice hole in the wall Fishbeast.

Thankfully no one will be looking at the wall once the tank is up and running.

 

Question - Does the diameter of the piping need to be so large?

Why wouldn't you use 16mm for example? Something that would fit standard canister/pumps.

Or even 13mm. It would be more flexible, lighter, less visually dominant and possibly cheaper.

I dunno, just asking in case I ever build myself a rack setup.

[FishBeast]

 

Question - Does the diameter of the piping need to be so large?

Why wouldn't you use 16mm for example? Something that would fit standard canister/pumps.

Or even 13mm. It would be more flexible, lighter, less visually dominant and possibly cheaper.

I dunno, just asking in case I ever build myself a rack setup.

 

I am using 25mm in the pressurized pipe and 40mm where the 25mm drainage pipes join. It is pretty well what I thought was a straight copy of Squiggle's journal. I am glad I did use large pipe because I need a lot of water flow to supply 9 tanks. I need the 40mm pipe to allow enough water to flow back into the sump so I don't have to restrict the in flow so much that it becomes too slow.

Edited June 18, 2014 by FishBeast

[FishBeast]

Finally I have the long awaited update that I promised you guys. I did it! The prototype for the auto water change is up and running. It needs some tidying up (and so does the room!) and other parts completed but the basic concept works so I can safely say that I actually did it! 

If need be the auto water change system can be used as an auto top off system at the same time. At the end of the video when I show how the float switch shuts off the refill solenoid. Once I release it again the refill cycle starts again. This means that I can set the timer up so that it automatically tops the rack off and then once I stop/start the cycle from scratch again it will do another water change, then start topping off again as needed.

 

I am still working on some leaks but I expect that I will have them all sorted tomorrow. After that I can get my breeding room back into a tidy state. Once I have the temperature/lighting and water change controller fully completed and wired into the rack I will do a more detailed video and take some more photos for you. But for the moment I hope this gives you something to digest. It seems that after 2 months since I began planning this rack I finally am getting somewhere.

 

Probably in a week or so time I will have the wiring completed. Then I will be collecting a crap load more pumice from the beach (the stuff you can see floating in the sump) as that and k1 media will make up the majority of my filtration. The only issue I am seeing with the pumice is that has been raising the TDS in my water like crazy. My intention is to let the rack take care of itself, I will set up all the pumice and let the rack auto water change itself regularly until the TDS stops raising. At the same time I will be cycling the rack too so I would say in 4-8 weeks I will be stocking. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDmYmeNPCu8&feature=youtu.be

[newbreed]

Brilliant work mate! The setup is starting to look sweet as. Once you get those last little leaks out of the way, you wont know yourself.

This auto top up system is amazing and to think you've set the whole thing up from scratch. Congrats and thanks heaps for the vid, makes it easy for those of us not familiar with the tech side.

This is going to be amazing!!

[Squiggle]

very cool dude, great work & great vid!

[FishBeast]

Brilliant work mate! The setup is starting to look sweet as. Once you get those last little leaks out of the way, you wont know yourself.

This auto top up system is amazing and to think you've set the whole thing up from scratch. Congrats and thanks heaps for the vid, makes it easy for those of us not familiar with the tech side.

This is going to be amazing!!

 

Thanks mate. Sometimes I get a little over ambitious with my projects but I am surprised at just how quickly this one has come together. I literally figured out how to wire it in 2 nights. Crazy.

 

very cool dude, great work & great vid!

 

Thanks Squiggle. I can't wait to show everyone the final product when it is more that just words on a forum. So people can see the video of it working.

 

A small update on the progress. I have to make some minor changes to the plan. The DC transformers (the things that show to red lights in the video) are not powerful enough to open the solenoids, and even if they were the solenoids are fail. They seem to be designed for use under pressure where I am trying to use them under gravity feed.

 

They leak and don't gravity feed anymore than just a slow drip. So I have to plumb the drain sump solenoid so that it has the pressure of the racks water pump behind it. Which means that when the water change starts, the water pump for the rack will pump the water out.

 

When the refill stage starts I will need another pump   to pump the fresh water back into the sump. I can use an old one from work which I need to replace anyway because they are not up the the job we need it for so I suppose that's ok...

 

Anyways, thanks for the replies guys and I will get you posted.

[FishBeast]

I have set up the heating,cooling/alarm controller.

 

What it is intended for is a backup to control the rack in the event that a thermostat in the heating or cooling fails. At the moment for testing purposes it is set up allow the heater to run below 23, if the heater (also set to 23) gets stuck on then the controller will shut it off. Same goes with the cooling which is set to run at 26.

 

I have also wired the lights into the timer as well. I need to make something to hang the last two lights on for the very top three tanks.

 

So all I have to do now is the finishing touches and then I can add substrate and filter media, then start cycling. 

 

I am very impressed with the volcanic pumice that I collected from the beach. I have added it to my sump and bombed it with chlorine. I am going to collect a crap ton more next weekend and use mostly it for my filtration media. The first section of the sump will be K1, then the 2nd will be filter pad and then pumice.

 

They only thing is I will have to keep tabs on the TDS because the beach pumice makes it go up over 1000. If I can't get it to come down then I will have to reconsider. I suppose that I should get a salinity test kit to see when the salts are gone. What do you guys think?

[newbreed]

Would definitely check salinity! All sounding great mate!

[FishBeast]

A small teaser and update. Finally I will have something substantial to show you guys (and gals) and will show ASAP. This has been a long time in the making and has been a work of patience and frustration. I don't think you will be disappointed  ;)

[Eshrimp]

Nice job! I used the same racks from bunnos. I also added black melamine as cladding. (Had bunnos cut the sheets and just bolted them to the racks, it adds that finishing touch to the project and the melamine is not that expensive and comes in diff finishes)

[newbreed]

Looking forward to the next update on this!! Will be amazing!

[FishBeast]

The rack is in its final testing phase. The temperature controller works well and the automatic water change system is running. I changed the design of it completely. The lighting is hard wired in to the controller.

 

I have been cycling it for the last few weeks and have been putting a dash of ammonia in every few days. Now that I am gearing up for my test shrimp I have been doing several frequent water changes. The water parameters are:

 

Ammonia: .25

Nitrite: .5

Nitrate: 10

 

My test shrimp will be some of my WA.4 Chameleons. Once I have saved up for enough shrimp soil I will change them out with something from the SKF Marketplace.

 

 

Here is the video. Hope you like.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f-d-5eY_LM

Edited August 23, 2014 by FishBeast

[CNgo2006]

Nicely done! Thanks for sharing

[inverted]

Freakin awesome setup FishBeast.Well done! Good to see your vision come together.

Certainly inspiring!

Have you left enough cable to bring your controller to eye level?

Thanks for posting . And looking forward to seeing it full of shrimp.

[FishBeast]

Nicely done! Thanks for sharing

thanks mate. I am glad you like

 

Freakin awesome setup FishBeast.Well done! Good to see your vision come together.

Certainly inspiring!

Have you left enough cable to bring your controller to eye level?

Thanks for posting . And looking forward to seeing it full of shrimp.

 

Thank you. I am notoriously lazy once I have taken on another project and the old ones tend to get left by the way side. So an automated setup seemed like the best and safest option for me.

 

I am going to leave the controller at ground level so that it does not get in the way of seeing/working on any of the tanks.

 

I can't wait too see it full of shrimp too... But I must be patient   Especially with all that ocean pumice and perlite in there.

Edited August 25, 2014 by FishBeast