MrZ2u

I read somewhere at some point in the past about a fella suggesting putting an ATO on a timer to help mitigate against runaway fills on a stuck switch. It seemed interesting but I never put it into the rotation...till now. I hope you find this useful 🙂 These are super inexpensive and so useful in so many ways. The one I will LINK here is just one physical format option of many and the one I will be talking about today. Almost all of them are on a standard protocol these days but you basically just need to see it say Google, Alexa and/or SmartThings and you will be on the common protocol and you will have SEVERAL app options for setting up the automation. I use SmartLife but there are a bunch out there and I have used at least 3-4 others at one point in the past. I have them on a UPS in the closet that shares a wall with the aquarium so all my AC is out of the splash zone which is also a nice space-saving play for under the aquarium. The power supply that powers all the pumps and wave makers in the tank is ON in this pic, just below it is the ATO which is OFF. The pumps arent on a schedule, its just nice to be able to just click a button in the app for feeding. From here you can see all the different devices I have on the app right now...yes, I have my lava lamp on a timer cause why not 🙂..its $5 to have it automated in my home office while I am in there. My Inkbird temp controller integrates with this app as does my doser (which is not in use yet)...so that was a nice surprise. The light on my little 5gal tank has no internal timer so this is an easy option to automate that where I couldn't otherwise. Down at the bottom the icon for "porch lights" looks different because those are actually wall switches...that run on the protocol. Like I said, lots of formats. Tons of uses at Christmas! If we go into the schedule function for the Lagoon ATO you can see how the timer function can be set. I had my schedule set to turn on for 2 minutes every 6 hours...today I switched it to 1 minute every 4 hours because I felt like a little too much was evaporating each cycle. You set the on and off time as well as what days. When I was looking for the link to the smart plugs I linked above I came across this one and this is pretty cool and fits an application I have right now...dirt cheap as of this post at $10 for two! https://www.amazon.com/KMC-Monitoring-Protector-Compatible-IFTTT，ETL/dp/B087FTZGGY I ordered the pair of those. I really like these on their own but for the price its at right now...dang! It shows up in the app as a single device...I named it 5gal aquarium in this case. Then inside its got the three individually controlled outlets. In this case I only have four things to plug in so this fits well. The light and ATO are on a timer schedule, the filer is just on a controlled outlet cause it needed to be somewhere, and the heater is on the "always on" outlet which does not show in the app. It has a screw to secure it to the wall outlet so it makes for a tidy install for this application and the wall warts here really cooperate TONS of format options...like if you are a power strip fan. https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Compatible-Google-Protector-Charging/dp/B097NJ8Y4N ...sorry, I am getting out of hand with this now. Hope you find this useful 😉

White made the most sense...otherwise I would have had to use a finer grade of lumber and try to match the stain on the railing or floor which was probably going to be nothing better than "close" Its a painful realization really cause I absolutely hate painting...like I would almost rather have Mike Tyson punch me in the nads than paint.

Well I finally picked up this project again...a year ago actually so its not like the pace has been great But its pretty much done. This will be long but I hope you find it interesting and love me for it because I need adoration and affirmation...look at me, look at me. Kidding of course, I am a DIYer and I love seeing what others do because it inspires my projects a little here and a little there...sharing is caring. Dammit, I did it again. Okay, on with the show...in the order in which it was done. In a previous life I had a 200 gallon tank that sat on a 14ga / 1.5in square tube stand that had a three-sided plywood wrap. The pre-snowpocalypse tank was just wood, this one is back to the steel skeleton cause I wanted to optimize under tank space. Honestly, this could have been a plywood box but I like to make both metal and wood dust... This is 16ga 1in square tube except for the top ring which is 1x2 tube cause I thought that made sense...probably unnecessary. 3/4in ply for top and bottom Made a drilling template with some channels for water egress Overflow fit perfectly! Rarely do I find a commercially available solution to what I want to do. The refugium/sump was no exception so I built my own version. Tank flows into the 20gal, thru socks and into a chamber that will be the home to the Chaeto and from there to the 10gal that probably wasnt necessary in hindsight but its there and there is a chamber I could use for a variety of things but I think I will just put a bunch of "pod hotels" in there in hopes that the underside of the tank can grow enough of the little buggers to be able to keep a Mandarin up top eventually. In front of that is a 5gal ATO reservoir that I made before deciding to relocate it to a closet behind the tank. The space between the 10g and stand is for a "Stir Station" for a dosing pump which is still not done As always, I like to make it so that stir station will have 4 of these and a stir pill in the bottles that will sit on the station. I bought some little hobby motors for $1.66 each and 12v motor controllers for $2 each, plus a couple of magnets each and what I am calling "the flywheel" I printed to hold the magnets...about $4 to $5 per stir spot not considering the housing. I was back and forth on drawers and decided to just do one and keep it simple...light holder mounted here as well. Got it all measured and plumbed up here. I put large check valves on the pump and again at the tank...overkill but water flows well and better safe than sorry? These were really cheap at Grainger...and thats not usually the cheap place Amazon had them at 2x the price and NOT clear...and clear is definitely better! Since my light sat in the box and ticked away its warranty I thought I would gut it to paint it to match This is the "control panel" for all the stuff...back side and front. Rather than have a gaggle of wall-warts to deal with I went with a 12v and 24v single power supply and pigtails for each device...minimizing the amount of wire under the tank. Plus, since there is a closet sharing the back wall with the aquarium I was able to move those power supplies and the UPS in there...getting all the voltage out of the splash zone! I also ended up putting the ATO reservoir in there as well. And that gets us to here...which is still a work in progress. I have removed the black power cord and replaced it with white so it blends in. The stair railing and balusters are in the way...and the wife said I cant take it out...so I put a panel there (missing in this pic) that is held in place by magnets. ...there are still things to be finished so I will update those as they are done.

Since that wonderful week in Feb 2021 destroyed my tank I have been doing some research into how to prevent that from happening again. I thought I would share my thoughts and plans in the event any of you are thinking about this topic as well. We lost power at 05:00 on Monday and didnt get it back at all till 05:00 on Friday...there was no rolling happening here! Our furnaces are gas but their blower motors obviously aren't. I had a genny that was a little over 20yrs old and for the last 6.5 yrs its been stored outside under a canoe on sawhorses...in other words, not the best way. It was only 3000w anyway so it wouldnt have done what I am going to do with the new one I have now I wanted a duel fuel that would make at least 5500w running power while using natural gas. My calculations put running my house as if the power wasnt out during that week at about 4300-4800 watts provided we didnt run the dryer, oven or microwave. I didnt put a clamp on the mains to confirm this and will but I feel pretty solid about those estimates. I landed on this fella https://www.homedepot.com/p/WEN-11-000-8-300-Watt-120V-240V-Dual-Fuel-Gasoline-and-Propane-Powered-Electric-Start-Portable-Generator-with-Wheel-Kit-DF1100T/307728024 In addition to making the required wattage I wanted it to have a 50amp outlet and dollar per watt this is the best value that met my specs. Now there is a way to make the price even better. If you buy direct from Wen and in a quantity of 8 then they are only $700 with no tax and free shipping. I put out a call on nextdoor for people to join up to buy in bulk and we ordered 12 in total. It is dual fuel and I said natural gas above...dual in this case means gasoline and liquid propane. I have not yet tinkered with running it on NG yet but any internal combustion engine that will run on LP will also run on NG if you can feed it enough. I'll come back with the particulars on that once I have it worked out. It could be just a new orifice like it is on a LP grill. It could also be that a typical 1/2in line that most houses are plumbed with wont make the volume needed. Lots to consider...work in progress. Stay tuned. In any event it will provide me more than enough to run the whole house. But we need to define "whole house". For me that means whole house minus the AC's because I suspect those are power budget breakers for this particular genny. For anyone with electric heating, furnace and/or water, this dings you there as well though not as bad as the AC because they dont have the same starting spike as the compressors do. Now about that 50 amp outlet on the generator. You dont run a bunch of extension cords in the house...that not whole house and you cant plug in the furnace anyway. You are going to need a way to attach to the breaker and back feed your house thru its own breaker panel. This is pretty easy as it turns out. Even if you need to do it per "code" and lets be honest, code is just a minimum set of standards. I bought this "RV outlet" from Lowes and will wire it to my main panel with 6ft of 6ga wire...which exceeds what code calls for. https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-50-Amp-Temporary-RV-Power-Outlet/5001461125 I am not putting a interlock on mine, or at least I havent decided that I am...probably not. What that is for is preventing you from having this outlets breaker on while the main panel breaker is on. There are two reasons you dont want to do that. One is that if both are on you will also back feed into your service line and that is a safety issue for any linemen working down stream from you by making what they would expect to be a dead wire live. The other is you waste power and in some situations may possibly overload the genny. What you want to have is a "RV outlet" Not a transfer switch. That nomenclature can mean a big price delta...and possibly a code hiccup as well. This video explains the process pretty well. Hope you all find this helpful...

The snowpocalypse nuked my little Fusion Lagoon. I had been thinking of drilling it and removing all the AIO partitions to do a sump so this gave me that opportunity. I had several projects in front of rebuilding this so I thought I would put the whole thing on Craigslist to see if someone might take it all off my hands before I got to the project. Didnt really expect that to happen but it did so I get to start from scratch.Already bought the new display tank, 24x24 12in deep...slightly larger than the Fusion Lagoon which suits my space a little better. https://sevenports.com/product/symbolic-45-degree-30-gal-aquarium-24-x-24-x-12-with-mat/I also bought a Fiji Cube overflow box. More flow than it needed to be but as small as I could get with a bean animal option. I did want the wider skimmer box as well so I ended up with this one.https://www.fijicube.com/collections/overflow-box/products/low-profile-external-overflow-box-1200pgh The first of probably several opinions requested...I plan to center the overflow. Pros and cons for two vs one return...and how close to the overflow

Tank = Innovative Marine Fusion Lagoon 25 I am needing a new wave maker because mine now prefers to just stay on and be a full time power head. My return pump is the stock AC 295gph pump...Ive wanted to upgrade it for a while but why I dont really know for sure Option 1 - upgrade the return pump to a DC 528gph sine wave pump and skip the wave maker. Option 2 - just replace wave maker I am leaning towards option 1 because with the wave function I dont really need the pulsing from a separate device which has always bugged me visually. Pros and Cons?

Its an Innovative Marine Lagoon 25...this is a shot down into the back side. There would be socks or sponges on both sides...here it has the socks but they have never been used before.

Well thats kinda why I am thinking of switching. I have a very open cell sponge on top of a much finer one right now and cleaning them isnt a big deal...its more that I think stuff is getting past them cause I have to clean out the back about every three months or so. I think the socks would trap more and maybe even be a little simpler to clean???

I have one of the AIO type aquariums and it came with filter socks for the overflows. Being an obsessive DIY type I of course had to have those removed and the media shelf types put in their place. I have since decided that I dont need and I dont use those shelves but for the top one where I have a pair of sponges to catch gunk. I am thinking of pulling those since they are not doing a hell of a lot and using the socks to get a little finer trapping of said gunk. Any pros or cons in your opinions?

They say its good to have goals...

Unfortunately, I do not. He was going along doing his thing and kept pooping so I figured he was still finding things to eat. Woke up one morning and he was no more. I dont think he starved at all...even dead he had a turd hanging.

On a totally different note...anyone ever read One Second After? Give it a go...it should scare the crap out of you https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4922079-one-second-after

Oh sure...all that is part of my thought project. Thats why the heater is on the UPS right now...to my thinking its really, kind of, the most important thing right NOW. I have the UPS cause, well, it was free so why not use it. I have them all over the house as well. One on the internet gateway, one on the DVR (priorities ya know) and one on the PC...then of course the aquarium. I cant remember the last time we had a power outage up her in RR. I know we do every now and again cause the clock on the microwave tells me so... but they never seem to last long. If they were frequent and prolonged that would be part of my thinking...or more part of it anyway. The hotter months are more concerning to me as well. I feel like keeping the temp from climbing is easier than keeping it from falling. Unless the whole area is down I can drive to get some ice. I have a gas furnace but the blower...well, yeah, there is that. I mean there is only so much you can do if the electricity goes down for too long and this was more an exercise to see if the one I am using right now, which is kinda in my way, is more perceived security or actual. the more I think about it the more it seems perceived. ...but I am thinking about hanging the dang thing in the attic like I discussed above cause that will only be the cost of a 2-way box and an outlet...I have left over romex from the first drop

Well, yeah, that the crazy end of it all. I have almost covered my roof with panels twice now. Was about to pull the trigger each time and then I got laid off...each time. Kinda has me a little gun shy about looking at solar ya know But that would certainly solve all this to at least some degree. Even on days like today the panels would be putting out something...having the power walls like your friend would, in theory, put the whole house on a UPS so to speak. Then one just has to be careful how you use the power and as advertised you could potentially make it through any outage.

Those must be some really old basic UPS's and even then somewhat defective. Even a homemade UPS (actually pretty simple) should drain based on the load...part of which is the inverter itself but that is built into the manufacturers suggested numbers. Newer ones do a battery conditioning and you can reasonably expect much longer life out of the batteries themselves. Its hard to know for sure whats inside but a lot have 12v batteries...there are two big suckers sitting in my driveway right now. That requires forethought to cable out of the UPS to facilitate that but its very doable.

Although…the physical proximity of the tank lends itself to another solution to keep the UPS as well as fortifying it for longer run times and it wouldn’t be much trouble really. There was no AC power behind this tank till I put it there. Almost directly above that back wall in the attic is an AC outlet and the doorbell transformer. I really just lopped off the C13 end of an old monitor power cable, butt jointed it to some romex and dropped it down the wall...it still has the 5-15p on the other end even…its quite literally just plugged in! I could change the 1way box to a two way, drop another stretch of romex, put this plug on the non-battery side and the new one to the battery and then the wall would be conditioned on one outlet and battery-backed on the other. That so totally touches my geek nerve cause that would be slick even if it only impresses people like you At this point I could terminal out of the UPS itself and use a much larger battery...deep cycle car battery for example...talk about run time. I could even get crazy with it and put a solar panel on the roof above it...it could get out of hand!

The goodwill over on 183 and metric has a computer section and they often have these "dead" UPS's Thats where I scored the 2800va ones I had under my 200 years ago for like$10 This is where understanding what cares about pure sein wave and what doesnt pays off cause the older ones are the cheapest and cheapest to put batteries in usually as well. Only two AC pumps in my set up and they can take the dirty power just fine...and even if they didnt I would just replace them with DC versions that I cannot justify at this time

First, APC makes several UPS models that produce modified sine wave power when on battery…for an ordinary PC that’s no problem…for most things that’s no problem. Pure sine wave is only available as you move up to the more expensive units in their lineup…same with Tripplite, Cyberpower, etc. To the degree you should even care its only for certain AC powered devices. The Apex systems themselves little more than a tiny “PC” of sorts and they are DC powered internally which is not apparent since there is no wall wart on that power cable, rather buried inside. You would want to protect them from surges but the line conditioning is not of use to them. DC devices are much more tolerant of voltage fluctuations (brown power) which is mostly what power conditioners seek to eliminate. This is a different topic all together really…lets step way back and take the electrical engineering and the Apex out of the conversation. I didn’t specify my setup extremely well so this diversion to more complex systems was my faultJ My tank is not a closed loop…anywhere, it’s a Fusion Lagoon 25 “AIO”. I have the main “return pump”, a skimmer, wave maker, heater, ATO and the light. Presently all I have on the battery side is the main pump, ATO and the heater. The question was more about how much do we really need to care about the circulation with a tank like this? o2 exchange occurs on the water surface and there is almost 4sq ft of that here. It seems unlikely that the system would go anaerobic for a very long time. Way more time than would be experienced in an ordinary power outage and for an extended one I have a generator. The heater would probably not drain much most of the time because most of the time the air outside is hotter than my water anyway…though on days like today it seems like it might be the most critical component for extended outages. In any event my UPS is only sufficient for outages when I am in town and can make other arrangements for things if they drag on. If I went on vacation tomorrow for a week and the power was out for extended periods while I was gone, if it mattered much that something gets power then it wouldn’t matter cause it likely would only prolong the inevitable. This was as true with the previous canister setups as well but that situation was on a much tighter clock with much more dire eventualities so it was a critical factor. Like I said…not arguing, just attacking the logic across the board in MY tank for THE unit I have because its kind of physically in the way for some future plans and if it doesn’t truly serve a critical purpose then it can go away. No, not against the grain at all...more in line with where I am at with my question. I imagine I would be able to run small air pumps for days on this UPS...so thats something of what I am on about. Do we need to do ______ and if so why?

Ive got a sea hare in my tank at the moment...hired him to help with the GHA and the little fella did a bang up job. There really isnt anything left that I can tell but he is still pooping so hes eating something. I dont want to leave him in there too long but I dont want to pull him out prematurely either. How do you know when they are done with the cleanup?

Does the Apex not reboot itself to the last state if it loses power? I dont know much about them...nothing about them actually other than what they are to some degree

Not arguing at all...just trying examine the question thoroughly. How though...as I said, I totally 100% see the need for closed loops like canisters. I just do not see the same problem with a fully open system like live rock. I get it, its always nice to keep circulation for the reasons we have it in the first place but is that necessary or just nice? If its not necessary really wouldnt we be better suited to just run the heater on the battery since all things considered the temp at some times of the year is the most important thing. Even thinking summer months...wouldnt we perhaps be better served not introducing heat into the system when the power is out? I kinda hate my UPS to be honest and I am looking for real good reasons to keep it. Its not easy to manage physically in the space I have it but I do have a way in mind to make it more so...it would be a fair amount of effort to make it happen but the end result would be pretty slick...and what I really, REALLY, need more things on my already mile long list of things I want to do cause I have soooo much spare time these days! It is entirely possible I am putting too much thought into this

Before I switched to marine I had a 200 gal Cichlid tank which was filtered by two Eheim 2217 and two Marineland Mag 350 canisters and I had 2800va of UPS under it to keep those canisters flowing for about 36 hours without wall power. With a canister the need is very obvious to keep it flowing and I learned that the hard way once in my first 75gal and lost about $400 worth of fish as a result. So, a UPS has always felt mandatory to me but the one I have under my tank right now is kind of in my way, in a way, so I have questioned how much I really even need it in this tank. Its smallish...550va but just to run the pump and powerhead it would probably go 10-12 hrs easy. Throw the heater in there and who knows but not long at all most likely and it seems upon thinking about it the heater is really the most important part. Unlike the canisters which will go anaerobic and die without flow and if left long enough will become ammonia bombs when the power comes back...this tank is open top with nothing in a closed loop to go anaerobic really. Does the UPS really even matter at all but for maybe the heater which will drain the battery pretty quick anyway? What to you guys think...do we really benefit from a UPS that much?

Thats sorta how I was doing it honestly. I had an amount thawed and rinsed in the fridge and I was feeding from that. I kinda question how long it will "keep" thawed out like that. I realize I was applying human metrics with that thinking but at some point it is a real question even for fish...plus, decomposing organic material and what it becomes and all of a sudden we are back at adding things we were trying to avoid. There is another element to this and that is when its not ME doing the feeding. Having the tiny cubes in the freezer means the instructions are simple for the kids/wife. Right now apart from a plethora of GSP this is a FOWLR tank for several reasons. It is not my intention for it to stay that way and I do want to put corals back in there in the near future. Having cubes with something for the fish and something for the corals is kind of a two-for proposition in some ways. Add to that, just about any hobby I have is partly because of the DIY element. This in a way adds a little element of that with the process of taking something "off the shelf" and modding it to my needs...though, sometimes that loses its appeal so the last line above is considered for sure.

Dammit! I dont guess I really believed this was JUST my idea or that I was the Neil Armstrong of tiny cubes but I do like to live with the fantasy a few days before I find someone elses flag on the moon! Same **** trays even!!! But I paid half what they did so I win! https://reefhacks.com/rods-food-frozen-cubes/

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