Saint's 75g

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
My new job has brought many benefits to my household, such as being home to have dinner with my wife and my health increasing from a reduced level of stress. I have been salary for 10 of my last 13 years in the workforce and began to know 12 hour days as a standard. So much has changed and for that i am thankful.

One of the changes is i am surrounded by people who are not only like minded, but way smarter than me. Thanks to that, i am in progress of a completely new project. So more will follow as we move along, but for the sake of spilling the beans early....

I am building (with lots of help from others) a water mixing station that runs off of Rasberry Pi. This setup will run me about $120 in parts plus additional cosmetics i am doing just for fun. I am turning my process into an automated setup that will do everything with the push of a button, versus manual valves.

I am not hooking this up to my tank for several reasons, but this will clean up and consolidate my garage area a lot, which is what i am doing this for. That, and the pure entertainment value of it. I will share with the group once we have some progress, but i am excited to get this going and then share with y'all.
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Thank you! She is doing well and the system is starting to level off from the algae spike. Decided to avoid any chemicals and just let the wave ride, so to speak. I have been siphoning out algae every couple of days and am going to do another water change this weekend.
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
So yesterday was fun and for some reason i decided to do what i have always done and just relax a bit.

So the algae fight has been sustained, but not won yet. I tried some phosphate strippers ( :D ) and even some pills that rave about algae removal. Nothing has changed. I spent a week debating what to do.

Last night i went to a store i hate buying from, but Petco was running a sale on margarita snails. I bought 10 and 2 more emerald crabs. I also picked up some more sand to replace the stuff sucked out with the algae. I got home, looked at my tank and how well my corals are doing.

Thats when i decided to post up my reactors and rip out all the "add ons" i added and ran off and on. I said screw it, i am just going to siphon, scrub and enjoy as i have done for so many years. No more chasing anything or trying new things. I may still run a chaeto reactor in the future, but not anytime soon. All this started when i tried new things, so lets get back to not doing anything but random water changes and glass cleaning and see how it goes.

Pics to follow.
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
The new mushroom is already growing and looking amazing! I wish I could take photos worth a damn, but for now here is what it looks like.
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saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
A lot has been going on, as i am sure it does with everyone here. That said it has been an exciting weekend with the tank. I did a 35g water change and scrubbed my rocks again. Added new sand (slowly over 2 wks) due to loss while cleaning and ran power for my new location of the salt water mix station. Pics will be coming soon. Busy with work, weather and all the home projects.. :D
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Yesterday was fun. Moved around some stuff and started repositioning the support setup. Original is in the random cutout and the WIP is against the wall. All new plumbing has arrived and I just need to pick how I want it setup.
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saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
So i just scrolled through my thread from day one till now, wow! I asked a lot of questions and have had some fun with this tank for sure!

This forum is full of great people who offer tons of help, but i want to send a special shout out to @DaveK @StirCrayzy @cracker @nanoreefing4fun @Pat24601 for all of the help and time with this system. I wouldnt be here today without you all!

This hobby has been pure joy, with some challenges, but always rewarding.

Thank you all, and happy reefing!
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
New game plan. I am not going to do anything to this tank for the next 2 weeks. Why? Full breakdown scheduled.

My buddy just sold his house and i am tearing down his 130g and watching a couple key pieces for him. In return, i keep his tank. So i just sold mine to a friend and will be using mine while i modify his. So its almost time to start my third tank build thread while this one just transitions.

Sad to see my first big tank go, but excited about watching all of the changes in the coming future.

More to follow.
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Great news!! you will have a lot of fun, are you getting fishes/corals with the new tank?


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I am going to let him sell all of his fish, but i am "keeping" two of them for his next tank in about a year. The corals will be gone through to determine what he wants to keep, what i want and what he can trade in for store credit. Pretty much i will take everything he doesnt want and then decide if i should put them in the new tank or trade in for store credit.

He has a beautiful setup that has pretty much anything you could ask for, but he is keeping his skimmer, controller and doser. A friend who is buying mine will take the majority of the duplicates so we both get a great savings in this process. Win win!!!

Now if i can find a way to make it rimless and shorter... hahaha
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
2 more days!!! Saturday i am automating my mix station with reef pi to test it out and make some plans for the future. This will also include all new valves and plumbing for it.

I also go to my friends house to help him move more of his stuff and start the inventory on his system for planning its move :D
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Fun night last night. Got a lot done and, of course, I need to get some more supplies tomorrow. So we hit a stopping point and called it a night.

The goal: As fully automated as possible reef Pi mixing station.

Why: because I want to try something new with people who are smarter than me teaching me stuff, I want test things for others who are interested, a test bed for the new aquarium and finally, because it will look awesome.
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SPR

Well-Known Member
Fun night last night. Got a lot done and, of course, I need to get some more supplies tomorrow. So we hit a stopping point and called it a night.

The goal: As fully automated as possible reef Pi mixing station.

Why: because I want to try something new with people who are smarter than me teaching me stuff, I want test things for others who are interested, a test bed for the new aquarium and finally, because it will look awesome.
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Great pictures Saint, especially the brand of whiskey! Lol
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Are you sure you are going to assemble everything right while drinking whiskey? lol
Congrats, I does look good.


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I have learned my lesson several pages back in this thread. It was after most of the measuring was done and then taken slow to ensure no f ups. At least that I could blame on the whiskey lol

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StirCrayzy

Well-Known Member
Are you guys writing your own pi code or starting with a template?

I recently started with arduino, and bought a relay board to start building a controller.
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
Are you guys writing your own pi code or starting with a template?

I recently started with arduino, and bought a relay board to start building a controller.
Writing it as we go. Using examples when we can to try to take some pain out of it, but typing away...
 
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