Terry's 120g money pit

[tbittner]

Yeah, I just need to expand the size of it a little bit and put a video window in there that keeps switching from the reef, to the predator, to the sump. Keep a CLOSE eye on those critters!!!

[ninjataco777]

i like how you set up the fuge in the rubbermaid! what is the big white gas tank for? i want to use one of those to hold ro/di water.

[tbittner]

The water falls from the 1st floor down to the basement so I wanted a closed container for the water to drop into to keep the salt spray to a minimum. I refer to it as "slowing the water down". Then it splits and flows into the skimmer and fuge tubs. Then it drops into the 100g sump. I installed bulkheads in that container and connected the return pumps to it.

My top off/water change pipes and sensors are also installed in the 100g sump container.

[tbittner]

We're thinking of adding one of these to our predator tank. Any thoughts about this fish?

Vivid Aquariums - Buy Online - Fish Store in Los Angeles - Buy Miniatus Grouper (Caphalopholis miniata) - Small: 2”- 3”

[lcstorc]

I don't know anything about it but I love the colors~

[tbittner]

Yeah, everyone here loves the colors too. We were reading articles on this bad boy and one of the articles said:

"I’m not going to lie; watching these fish eat is FUN! Before I discontinued the use of live feeders some years ago, I often watched in amusement as a small feeder goldfish hit the water in a 135-gallon tank that housed a 10” Coral hind. What followed an instant later was literally a blinding red blur, and a small cloud of fish scales settling to the bottom of the tank where the goldfish had been. Then there was the ever-entertaining game of, “how large of a squid can my fish eat?” "

I AM a bit worried about my other predators though. It might be time to head to Super Pets and take a nice long look at that 260g tank they have sitting on their floor for sale.

For anyone else interested in this fish, here is a really good article on them.

[hma]

Terry .... I LOVE HIM.... one of my favs for my FO too !

[Dentoid]

Great looking fish Terry! Big!

[BigAl07]

Originally Posted by tbittner

That is next in my mad experiments. How much could I make with a controller like that???

As much as you want! That's going to be one SICK controller! Hope you're taking NOTES buddy

[tbittner]

Heinz and Scott, we really like him BUT we are concerned about this tanks other inhabitants. The predator tank is only a 150g but I'm sure it will be big enough for a while. I'm seriously considering heading back to SuperPets and thinking about that 260g they have. It might even be a 280g. I don't remember... 10 feet long sure would give these guys plenty of room to grow.

We have fish in this tank that are already going to get into the 16"+ range. Clown triggers get HUGE! But he is one of our favorites and I don't want to have to give him up because he outgrew the tank.

Hey Al, you betcha on the NOTES! I've got it figured out now (hardware wise) and I'm busy working on the programs now. Since I'm a software engineer by trade AND it's another of my hobbies, I love having the ability to do this. This stuff is just flat out cool to me.

I'll try to get some pictures of this stuff tomorrow evening but there really isn't that much to see just yet.

[BigAl07]

Terry I am SO hearing you! How are you interfacing it with your AC & Heat? X-10? I'm ALL about having the tank automated and integrated WITH the house! I'm going to be building a new house soon and would LOVE to add this into my "Wired Home" plan.

[kathywithbirds]

I LOVE groupers. He's a pretty one!!

[tbittner]

Al, no X-10 here.

There are all sorts of relays that I can use to hook the thermostat wires in to. Instead of having a temp controller hooked to the wires, I have it hooked into my 7042 control module. On the monitor module (7018) I hook in air temp probes and possibly even humidity probes and the PC's can analyze these readings and turn the appropriate device on (heat pump or air conditioning compressor). NOW it looks really easy after everything I've learned over the last few months.

And since ALL of the probes come into a PC, I can check the status of EVERYTHING and make decisions based on all parameters. Such as:
Air temp upstairs is 83.
Air temp downstairs is 79.
Water temp is 80.
Chiller has been running for 30 minutes.
Water temp hasn't decreased.
Turn air conditioning on until air temp upstairs cools to 81 to help the chiller.

Those type of scenarios...


Yeah Kathy! I love groupers too but MAN! They get BIG! And from what I've been reading, you gotta be real careful about what other livestock you mix with them. Because they get REAL big, everything else had better get REAL big. But the others can't be TOO agressive because the Grouper will get stressed out. OR, the Grouper will claim a spot in the middle of the tank and the Others won't be able to get from one side to another without being attacked.

It gets complicated when you start to think about adding groupers... And you also don't know, just like any species, what kind of individual personality you're going to get.

[BigAl07]

Terry what language is this in? Is it simple If/then statements or what?

[tbittner]

Actually, I'm doing the programming in Visual Basic. Microsoft just released Visual Studio 2008 and they created an Express Edition which they are giving away. I am a subscriber to their MSDN line though so I get 10 copies of pretty much every software product they make. It's what I do for a living so I gotta keep up with technology.

These modules connect to an Ethernet module which I have connected to my network. I connect to it in my program using TCP. Now I just send simple commands to the module of immediate interest.

For instance:
#031001

03 = rs485 bus address that I assigned the control module too (7042)
10 = I want to either turn on or off the relay attached to the first connection
01 = I want to turn the device connected to the first relay on.

In this case, I've just turned on the topoff pump...

Another example:
#020
02 = rs485 bus address that I assigned to the monitor module (7018)
0 = I want to read the status of the item connected to port 0. In my case, it's the float switch in my sump.

It really is much easier then it sounds.