Reef Pi Build

[crusso1993]

A brief overview of where I'm at.

I have everything buttoned up in the new enclosure and have been testing it for the last week with everything working as expected except for 1 temp probe, reef-pi stopped recognizing it. I still have 4 more probes so I will be trying to find another one that works.:mad:
I have lighting control set to run my OR T247. I have control over 2 channels (blues and whites) with the ability to ramp both channels up and down.
I have 2 dosing pumps that have been calibrated and work as expected. They are both $12 ebay peristaltic pumps but they both calibrated out to be identical in the amount of fluid they dose.
They dose 10ml of fluid at 60% speed and 10 seconds duration. This should make figuring out dosing very easy as every second = 1ml.
I have 16 outlets, 4 of which are wired to the NC side of the relays and 12 outlets are wired to NO.
2 temp probes.
2 optical ATO sensors.
I'm using 3 power supplies to run the whole thing.
One is a 12v dc 5 amp supply which runs one pi the dosing pumps and the 2 channel light relays.
An RS 15-5 Meanwell supply that is 5v 3amp that runs 2 8 channel relay boards and a 5v 2.5 amp supply that runs the main pi.

I should be able to easily run 2 tanks with this setup.
Everything will be up and running on the tanks in the next day or two after I figure out how I want to hang my lights and get my 14g cube moved.

I got the front cover finished. I used a piece of acrylic sanded on one side for a nice frosted glass effect and I can still see inside to make sure everything is powered up and working at a glance.
I'm planning do add a waterslide decal Reef-pi logo to the front of the acrylic.

I love how your project morphed from a cigar box into the final result. It looks really nice! It would be cool to see it hanging on the cleat on the side of your stand!

 

[Fishyj]

Really nice build. Are you mounting this on the stand or wall?

 

[Diamond1]

Really nice build. Are you mounting this on the stand or wall?

It's going on the side of the stand.

 

[Diamond1]

Well here it is up and running on my 29. I will be moving my 14g cube tonight and getting that tied into the system. The light rack is only temporary till I can get to the store and buy something to hang them from the ceiling and I also still need to get a couple containers for 2 part but as of right now my demand is so low I can get away with just dosing saturated Kalkwasser.

 

[crusso1993]

Well here it is up and running on my 29. I will be moving my 14g cube tonight and getting that tied into the system. The light rack is only temporary till I can get to the store and buy something to hang them from the ceiling and I also still need to get a couple containers for 2 part but as of right now my demand is so low I can get away with just dosing saturated Kalkwasser.

Looking good!
I also like seeing the semi-older Life Reef Sump! I've always liked Life Reef, since about '88 or '89 when I found them. He's not cheap but neither are any of his products! That's one reason Life Reef has been around so long as well as phenomenal customer support!

 

[Diamond1]

Looking good!
I also like seeing the semi-older Life Reef Sump! I've always liked Life Reef, since about '88 or '89 when I found them. He's not cheap but neither are any of his products! That's one reason Life Reef has been around so long as well as phenomenal customer support!

Jeff at Lifereef is the best. I have had this sump and skimmer for the better part of 15 years and it never ceases to amaze me at how good it runs. It is actually still running off of the original RIO 1700 pump that came with it. I'm thinking about upgrading the pump to a DC pump but I'm reluctant to mess with a good thing.

 

[crusso1993]

Jeff at Lifereef is the best. I have had this sump and skimmer for the better part of 15 years and it never ceases to amaze me at how good it runs. It is actually still running off of the original RIO 1700 pump that came with it. I'm thinking about upgrading the pump to a DC pump but I'm reluctant to mess with a good thing.

Curious as to why you would want to switch to DC? I'm imagining for control ability and energy savings. (And possibly the cool factor.)

 

[Bigtrout]

In any aquarium, a good thing is not to be messed with, thats why im reluctant to switch to the sump.
We can computerise controls etc but in the end there is still a mother nature factor involved.

 

[crusso1993]

Oh, and I have been wanting to share about my recent find with someone, other than my wife, that would think it pretty cool. I very recently picked up a 65g RR (36 x 18 x 24) and the price was right... FREE! I got it from a guy on another forum. It had been posted for quite a while and a number of people had said they wanted it, committed to picking it up and then never showed. So, it's sitting in my garage waiting to get set up. As you know, money is pretty tight with the car debacle but it was freekin' FREE!
Similar look to your 29 so I may follow your reef pi box-on-the-side layout whenever I do set it up.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

Oh, and I have been wanting to share about my recent find with someone, other than my wife, that would think it pretty cool. I very recently picked up a 65g RR (36 x 18 x 24) and the price was right... FREE! I got it from a guy on another forum. It had been posted for quite a while and a number of people had said they wanted it, committed to picking it up and then never showed. So, it's sitting in my garage waiting to get set up. As you know, money is pretty tight with the car debacle but it was freekin' FREE!
Similar look to your 29 so I may follow your reef pi box-on-the-side layout whenever I do set it up.

#winning

 

[crusso1993]

In any aquarium, a good thing is not to be messed with, thats why im reluctant to switch to the sump.
We can computerise controls etc but in the end there is still a mother nature factor involved.

I hear ya! Hey, you familiar, at all, with the Bio Home media I mentioned?

 

[Diamond1]

Curious as to why you would want to switch to DC? I'm imagining for control ability and energy savings. (And possibly the cool factor.)

With a 15 year old pump I'm kinda thinking I'm on borrowed time before it goes bad.

 

[Diamond1]

Oh, and I have been wanting to share about my recent find with someone, other than my wife, that would think it pretty cool. I very recently picked up a 65g RR (36 x 18 x 24) and the price was right... FREE! I got it from a guy on another forum. It had been posted for quite a while and a number of people had said they wanted it, committed to picking it up and then never showed. So, it's sitting in my garage waiting to get set up. As you know, money is pretty tight with the car debacle but it was freekin' FREE!
Similar look to your 29 so I may follow your reef pi box-on-the-side layout whenever I do set it up.

WOW SORE!!!
That looks great!

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

No touch screen but I do have a 9" android tablet with VNC on it that I thought about incorporating into my stand.
As of now I'm considering it done with the exception of a ph probe. I'm waiting for @Jonathan Troutt to let me know when the boards he's populating are ready to go.

They are on the ‍ ‍! Kind of wish I would of paid the extra for DHL ! Lol

Well now.....those male and female symbols are supposed to be boat emojis. lol

 

[Bigtrout]

I hear ya! Hey, you familiar, at all, with the Bio Home media I mentioned?

Yes but poret works! In a 75 gallon tank i have:
8 angels
10 glo fish tetras
4 bristlenose plecos
5 serpae tetras
5 penguins tetra
3 phantom tetras
5 some pretty tetras body blue fins yellow and top fin red, i cant remeber the name(single malt scotch right now)
3 gold/blue gouramis
5 bronze corys

I think im ok with bio and growing plants!

Dont mess with it! Lol

 

[Diamond1]

They are on the ‍ ‍! Kind of wish I would of paid the extra for DHL ! Lol

Well now.....those male and female symbols are supposed to be boat emojis. lol

Cool. Let me know. I'm in no hurry.

 

[Matt Carden]

With a 15 year old pump I'm kinda thinking I'm on borrowed time before it goes bad.

At least have a backup sitting on a shelf IMHO.

 

[Diamond1]

At least have a backup sitting on a shelf IMHO.

I have another 700 gph pump I can use if I need to. Just thinking a nice DC pump would be cool.

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

I have another 700 gph pump I can use if I need to. Just thinking a nice DC pump would be cool.

I am going to be getting a jebao dcq here soon.

 

[Diamond1]

I am going to be getting a jebao dcq here soon.

I'm looking at the jebao DCT 3000. It's rated at 845 gph and should run my skimmer just fine.
https://www.amazon.com/Jebao-DCP-30...qid=1546223005&sr=8-1&keywords=jebao+dct+3000