Chipmunk's 20g Long

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Hello all, I recently joined Reef2Reef and thought I'd share a bit about me and my setup. I've been keeping reef tanks for almost 10 years now. I work at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD part time in the Living Seashore exhibit. We keep rays, skates, sea stars, horsheshoe crabs, and jellyfish among other things.

My current tank, a 20g long, has been up and running for over a year and a half now. It's sort of a work in progress, as I'm still battling a nutrient problem, but I think with the help of a skimmer and organic carbon dosing, I'm starting to get that under control. Here's a quick equipment rundown:

- standard 20g long
- 200gph overflow box
- 10g sump
- Jeacod return (3000DTS maybe?)
- SCA-301 skimmer
- Generic filter sock
- Vortech MP10
- No name 4 bulb T5 grow light from Amazon (2x Aquablue Special, 2x Blue Plus)
- DIY timer-based ATO
- DIY dosing pump for vinegar dosing
- Currently switching from Instant Ocean to a lower carbonate salt (Red Sea blue bucket currently)
- Unknown quantity of dry rock
- Barebottom
- DIY battery backup system
- Reef Keeper Lite controller to control T5s and to regulate temperature

Livestock:

- 2x ORA true percula clownfish
- 1x emerald grab
- 1x cleaner shrimp
- 3x-4x snails
- 1x unnamed neon green acro frag
- 1x unnamed blue acro frag
- 1x tiny green stylophora frag
- 1x pink/purple stylophora frag
- 1x pocillapora frag
- 2x ricordea fl
- Several green birdsnest frags (not doing so hot, probably due to organic carbon dosing)

Dosing schedule:
- 14.5mL vinegar daily

Here are some pics:




The colors are a bit muted in this picture, the green is much more bright and the blue is much more deep in person.


Here's the emerald crab. If you look closely, you can see her abdomen is open and few eggs have spilled out. I'm not sure if they are fertile, as I got her a few months ago. Still, interesting behavior.


My DIY battery backup system. I'd estimate it will run my return pump, my skimmer and MP10 for about 20 hours in the event of a power outage. I built a custom transfer switch that cuts over to inverter power when the utility power goes out, and then cuts back to utility power when the power comes back. A battery maintainer is always connected to the system, so when the power comes back the battery is charged up again.


My equipment panel. A mess, but still, much better than it was.


Any questions, let me know. I'm notoriously bad with updating tank threads, so I'll likely only come back when I make some big changes.

 

[jsker]

Very cool, I like the DIY

 

[SM_Reef]

Welcome to Reef2reef! I'm pretty dang new here too, been a lurker for some time, and so far everyone I have come in contact with has been either an amazing help, or just an amazing conversation imo! It looks like you are well on your way to having a successful reef aquarium! Great work, love your backup power supply. I need to get on that myself being in an area known for power outages!

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Very cool, I like the DIY

Thanks, jsker. I definitely enjoy DIYing and tinkering, it's one of the things I love most about the hobby.. it's an excuse to tinker. I'm currently working on my most ambitious project yet, a Raspberry Pi-based DIY alkalinity tester/monitor.

Welcome to Reef2reef! I'm pretty dang new here too, been a lurker for some time, and so far everyone I have come in contact with has been either an amazing help, or just an amazing conversation imo! It looks like you are well on your way to having a successful reef aquarium! Great work, love your backup power supply. I need to get on that myself being in an area known for power outages!

Thanks, SM. You're right, everyone appears to be very friendly and helpful. And thanks, the automated battery backup gives me a lot of peace of mind. Shoot me a PM some time if you want some help with it. The system is pretty straight forward. Basically get an inverter and hook it up to a sealed deep cycle battery. Then, get a battery charger/maintainer, plug it in, and also hook it up to the battery. Then, you just need a switch that will change power source if your power goes out. I made one myself for around $20, but if you're not comfortable with that there's a good commercial option for $60. When your power goes out, the transfer switch will automatically start pulling power from the inverter/battery. When the power comes back on, the transfer switch will then go back to power from the utility. The battery maintainer you connected will start recharging the battery when the power comes back on. Completely automated, and you can scale it up to provide as much backup run-time as you want.

 

[vlangel]

Welcome to R2R! I like that DIY battery back up system too. I have a 1000W power inverter but I do not have a way for it to kick on automatically in the event of a power failure. I do have an auto aerator pump in the event of a power failure.

 

[jsker]

Thanks, jsker. I definitely enjoy DIYing and tinkering, it's one of the things I love most about the hobby.. it's an excuse to tinker. I'm currently working on my most ambitious project yet, a Raspberry Pi-based DIY alkalinity tester/monitor.



Thanks, SM. You're right, everyone appears to be very friendly and helpful. And thanks, the automated battery backup gives me a lot of peace of mind. Shoot me a PM some time if you want some help with it. The system is pretty straight forward. Basically get an inverter and hook it up to a sealed deep cycle battery. Then, get a battery charger/maintainer, plug it in, and also hook it up to the battery. Then, you just need a switch that will change power source if your power goes out. I made one myself for around $20, but if you're not comfortable with that there's a good commercial option for $60. When your power goes out, the transfer switch will automatically start pulling power from the inverter/battery. When the power comes back on, the transfer switch will then go back to power from the utility. The battery maintainer you connected will start recharging the battery when the power comes back on. Completely automated, and you can scale it up to provide as much backup run-time as you want.

I am going to want to see that when it finished.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Welcome to R2R! I like that DIY battery back up system too. I have a 1000W power inverter but I do not have a way for it to kick on automatically in the event of a power failure. I do have an auto aerator pump in the event of a power failure.

Hey vlangel good to see you here! Yeah the system is pretty straightforward. The "secret sauce" is the transfer switch. You can buy them, or you can build them (I used a simple DPDT relay). Basically, one end gets plugged into your inverter, the other gets plugged into the wall, and there's an output where you plug in the equipment. When the power from the utility is on, the power is drawn from the wall. When the power fails, the switch starts pulling from the inverter. When the power comes back, the relay switches and starts pulling from the wall again.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I am going to want to see that when it finished.

Yeah I'd like to share, but I think I have to be careful with any information regarding that. My prototype uses a different mechanism than Jim Welsh's device uses, but another company manufacturers a device that uses a similar mechanism. In truth, basically every carbonate alkalinity test kit in the hobby uses the exact same mechanism: titrate a sample to a pH of 4.5, then calculate the alkalinity based on how much acid it took to reach that point. But, people have been sued for patent infringement for things like scanning documents with a scanner or having a shopping cart on their website...

 

[vlangel]

Hey vlangel good to see you here! Yeah the system is pretty straightforward. The "secret sauce" is the transfer switch. You can buy them, or you can build them (I used a simple DPDT relay). Basically, one end gets plugged into your inverter, the other gets plugged into the wall, and there's an output where you plug in the equipment. When the power from the utility is on, the power is drawn from the wall. When the power fails, the switch starts pulling from the inverter. When the power comes back, the relay switches and starts pulling from the wall again.

Very cool, thanks for the tip! I think I will do that too.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I'm in the process of making a DIY alkalinity monitoring device, and a part of that is setting up an automated way to monitor pH. I recently ordered a pH chip and USB adapter from Atlas Scientific and hooked it up to my Raspberry Pi. I added a probe from BRS, did some calibration, and I'm up and running:



I'm fairly impressed with the Atlas devices. The chip allows three different calibration points (low, medium, high, or 4.0/7.0/10.0) and allows you to adjust the temperature compensation value for increased accuracy. My only beef is that the included Python sample code only operates in an interactive mode (e.g, you had to be sitting at the terminal issuing commands for the device to do anything). I rewrote the code to allow me to pass the device ID and command as parameters, set up a cron job to dump the output to a file, and now I'm logging pH every 10 minutes:

The price of the USB and pH chips from Atlas were a bit expensive, but they're much cheaper than the kit. They sell a pH kit for $150 that supplies a BNC connector, a pH chip, and a probe of unknown quality, but you need to solder these together on a protoboard or put them on a breadboard. For $84 plus the cost of a probe, you have a plug-and-play USB solution that's accessible from Windows or Linux PCs.

If you're looking to add monitoring functionality to your Raspberry Pi, or create an automated reef controller, I'm very happy with these chips.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

It's been a while, so I think it's time to share an update. I wrote some python code to put my pH results into a Charts.js object, so now I can view my pH from any web browser. Having a constant read on my pH has been good. I was able to figure out that my tank's pH was low (7.7-7.9). I brought in some outside air via my skimmer and an air pump, and I've been able to keep it around 8.2. Very happy with the results.



I also ordered an SPS frag pack from Reef Addicted. The pack was a 9 pack of montis and acros for $99 shipped:



Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the corals. There are a few that don't have great color, but I expect they'll color up shortly. More imprtantly, there are a few with great color that I'm very satisfied with. Hard to beat the price. I did find some monti eating nudis on the orange monti cap, so I'm currently dipping these corals every few days. I'm also getting a six line wrasse this week to help control the population. Other than that, no complaints.

I'm also continuing development on my Raspberry Pi-based carbonate alkalinity monitor. I've decided to call the device the PiCarbonate (PiCarbonate.. get it? As in Raspberry Pi? And like bicarbonate? *crickets* I'll show myself out). I purchased a smaller and more precise dosing pump, which I'm hoping to calibrate and test some time this week. I'm just waiting for some 2mm silicone tubing to arrive. I also bought a simple 20x4 I2C LCD to display device status:



I'm getting very close to a working prototype of this device. Next month I hope to have something up and running. We'll see if time and budget allows.

 

[Janci]

I'm also continuing development on my Raspberry Pi-based carbonate alkalinity monitor. I've decided to call the device the PiCarbonate (PiCarbonate.. get it? As in Raspberry Pi? And like bicarbonate? *crickets* I'll show myself out). I purchased a smaller and more precise dosing pump, which I'm hoping to calibrate and test some time this week. I'm just waiting for some 2mm silicone tubing to arrive. I also bought a simple 20x4 I2C LCD to display device status:

I'm getting very close to a working prototype of this device. Next month I hope to have something up and running. We'll see if time and budget allows.

Impressive engineering.
I hope you managed to make that *crickets* work. Lol

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Impressive engineering.
I hope you managed to make that *crickets* work. Lol

Thanks! Unfortunately, the project is on hold for the time being. It was actually a pretty straight-forward plan. The device would follow Randy's DIY alkalinity test. Basically, it would take a sample of tank water, add an acid of a known strength, stop when the pH reaches 4.5, then calculate the carbonate alkalinity based on how much acid it took to get to 4.5 pH. I was able to write the code for the device without an issue, and piecing together the parts was easy as well. I was actually able to get a surprising amount of accuracy from just commodity peristaltic pumps. The biggest challenge, however, was measuring the pH with the Raspberry Pi.

I purchased a circuit to measure pH from Atlas Scientific, hooked it up to my Raspberry Pi, and started reading pH values from my tank to break in the device and make sure it works well. For a while, it worked just fine. Then, the circuit started to become unreliable. For long periods of time, the software would refuse to connect to the pH controller. I could usually get the software back up and running by rebooting the Raspberry Pi nightly with a cron job. Now, however, the Raspberry Pi refuses to connect to the pH controller at all. It might be that reinstalling the Raspberry Pi OS would solve this problem, but I don't know. Either way, since the PiCarbonate device would be so dependent upon pH for accurate carbonate alkalinity readings, I don't feel comfortable moving forward with the device until I can sort out the pH measurement. As of right know, I have some nutrient issues that are preventing my SPS from growing very well, so rock-solid carbonate alkalinity isn't high on my priority list. Once my nutrient issues get sorted out, I'll probably revisit this project