Aqua Digitals Tank build

[aqua_digital]

So i spent the day in and out of hardware stores, and came up with this, it is a work in progress as you can see the lamps need to come forward by about 1 1/4" but that is eaily resolved.

Chris at Ai said the lamps need to be 6-8" above the surface for a 24" tank so will adjust these up once I have water in the tank

here are the prototype pics





Maybe that will give some other users some ideas

[aqua_digital]

Busy weekend,

Water in - Check
sand in - Check
GHL fully set up - Check
creation of worlds largest wiring tangle - Check (hey gimme time i will clean it up )
Premium Fiji in Place - Check - Thanks Ottawa Inverts for the cleanest LR I have ever seen

I am awaiting a new prob bracket from Chris, then the sump will not look like a bowl of string





pH - 8.08
Salinity - 51.8mS and rising
Redox - 177mV (target = 300mV)
Temp - 28 degrees C

Rest not worth measuring yet, let the tank settle a bit

[Jim E.]

You're just as passionate about this as the rest of us! Very impressive build, Michael. Looks like you're having fun between answering innumerable emails from your avid fan base :-)

[aqua_digital]

The main build is pretty much finished

As you can see below the lights are in place and fully programmed to the GHL, in fact the Profilux has pretty much full control of every aspect of the tank. This weekend I will do a review of what is controlled, how it is controlled and screen shots of programmed software pages.

The hanging kit was custom made by Chris (Boboxx) I have to thank him for the amazing job he did of this and also of course the quality stand.

The pump debate actually produced a huge oversight on my part, I guess running a business and also trying to do a tank build made me lose my head. I forgot the most important element and that was to at least have a flow rate to match the skimmers requirements and I was WAY short of that, this has lead to not enough draw from the surface of the water to stop bio film, so i now have a suitable balanced tunze coming that will draw 500L and hour at 1.5 meters, perfect for the skimmer and tank, thanks to Phil at Xenia for shipping it so fast

The photos below show the lights aon about 60% at this time as they are slowly dimming for the evening. As you can see they are mega bright and need to be throttled right back. If you are looking for ultimate light control then seriously get these units The ProfiLux cloud simulation is amazing also, I have it set to 25% and 50% dimming at random.

Here are some pics

[aqua_digital]

Just planning the auto water change now and then in April the balling chambers The AWC programmed and controlled by the profilux will be as follows

1/4 Ro line gravity drained from sump to basement about 12' below direct to drain, this will be controlled by a solenoid. The ATO sensor will be switched to dual mode ATO/AWC and a second low sensor for the AWC lower limit draw off.

In the coat closet behind the tank will be a large (ish) vat, this will at present plans feed the tank with new water via a tiny power head. The tank will drain and replace 1L twice a day so approx 10% a week.

Due to only draining off 1L at a time the tank will not have to have any equipment down time making the water change process and programming very simple.

[aqua_digital]

Well now the "Aqua Digital Tank Build" is nearing set up completion its now time to move onto the profiLux and show everyone what really can be done.

I thought I would do this step by step guide including software screen shots.

So lets start with
Temperature.

As you can see here all probes including the Temp probe are situated in the sump at a level that the probes will never be completely submersed.



So here is a screen shot of the temperature software screen. Here you can see my nominal value is 28 degrees and the hys is set to .02 meaning the tank will only fluctuate by .02, my graphing clearly shows this as an even saw tooth over a 24 hours period. Any more switching than this in a small tank that does not hold heat well could cause thermostat bounce, something to be aware of more so with chillers.



So thats the input but what about turning the heater on and off at the set value?

Next step is to program the power bar to control the heater, but first set the thermostat of your heater to 1-2 degrees above your nominal value, this is so the GHL had control over the heater but still allowing for failure redundancy, no matter how good your controller is, it could be made by Nasa for all I care, make sure you have redundancy or 3rd party cut out for such devices.

Ok onto the power bar. here you can see the power bar input screen and I have chosen socket 1 to be the temperature "heating" control socket. The socket is edited to be Temperature 1 - Heater. If you want to also control a chiller just select another socket i.e socket 2 and program that to Temperature 1 - Chiller. The ProfiLux will then turn either device on or off depending on your nominal value and Hys' set.



More about the other sockets later.

So thats the temperature set up. - Next pH

[patrick vachon]

really a beautiful set up!! bravo!

a small question, how you made to put an screnshot of profilux on the forum??

[Jim E.]

Michael, I think your step-by-step tutorial including screenshots & explanations is a stroke of genius! Especially your caution never to allow the probes to become completely submerged. My inelegant, albeit interim solution, is to float the probes in a piece of styrofoam with probe holes. It is, after all, just a sump. Also, I received in the mail today a fancy pH probe from Ottawa! I have it soaking in pH 7 solution for 2 hours. My calibration ceremony will begin promptly at 1935. Thank you. ~Jim

[aqua_digital]

Time consuming but long time coming

OK so pH -

Well once you have set up the Temp everything starts to fall into place like a jigsaw really, setting pH up is no different you are just dealing with different values.

So here we have the pH screen



Just as the temperature control page, you have nominal value current value and hys'. As with the temp input there are plenty of other funky add ons to play with if you wished here, for example nocturnal mode etc, this is important only if you really do not like natures ability to lower pH at night, I personally let the tank follow a rythm.

So what can pH be used for? In my case its just monitoring, of course I can set an alarm to wake me at 2am if it drops too low, or goes to high if my Alk dosing got stuck on, or if running a kalk stirrer etc. But the main purpose in reef tanks for pH control other than just monitoring the tank is calcium reactor control.

So to set up a ca reactor Co2 solenoid (I do not have this on my tank as I cast that old pony out long ago )

First set up your nominal value in a ca reactor it should be around 6.2 to 6.5 depending on your media. The Hys' can be set to 0.1 in this case, we are controlling a solenoid so does not have so many issues with being switched on and off often.

Now go back to the socket function screen and decide what socket you wish the solenoid to be plugged into, lets say socket 2 for now.

Just as you did with the temp socket set up, select the socket to be edited and set as follows

pH - downward

thats it you are set, of course you can name the socket Co2 control or Freds Diner what ever you choose

If you want to control a Kalk stirrer you can do the same but opposite, if the pH drops you want the kalk to be turned on so set to pH up.

Next Salinity control - Oh thats a scary one

[aqua_digital]

So salinity - This will take a while

First thing I need to address here is YES when you plug in your highly expensive lab grade platinum plated conductivity probe and follow the instructions to calibrate it to the letter, you will then test your refractometer and drop the whisky glass in disbelief!! WOW can the GHL be that innacurate?? Whaooo stop there :reading:

Lets look at what the old trusted refractometer is really designed for? Reading NSW? Nope, reading wee? Yep, Reading NACL? YES, but NOT natural salt water! To do this you must calibrate the refractometer using an NSW solution, the most trusted until recently was Pinpoint 53mS but then along came Fauna Marin with its highly technical "multi reference test solution" I strongly recommend anyone getting a GHL salinity probe and wish to match its reading to a refractometer to get this stuff.

We are getting a bit deep here and away from reviewing the ProfiLux but what i am trying to say is do not panic if you see the GHL reading different then the old trusted dog the refract' calibrate the refract correctly and you will not see much of a difference.

My refract - digital pen and GHL probe is calibrated to fauna solution at 53mS. This does not mean the GHL stuff is innacurate at 50Ms it is just no good for calibrating a refractometer. So if you want to match both you need an NSW solution for the refract.

OK so we have follwed the calibration instructions to the letter (mega important) so now what can we do with salinity control?

I do not personally do this but I know many GHL users do and that is control their ATO based on the salinity level of the tank.

Here is the salinity screen



I am not going to touch on setting this up here to control ATO, if you wish to do this then let me know and once the review is finished I will discuss more detailed subjects.

And next is level control ATO and AWC and alarms.