DIY Rimless Starphire and Stainless Kiddy Pool (PICS!)
- Thread starter liveforphysics
- Start date
VFD manual
Hookup especially to cycle up and down is not trivial to say the least. The circuit diagram used to make this thing cycle up/down would be nice to see.
matt & pam
Member
What types of light are you using on the refugiums? (what is HPS?) What Kelvin rating?
Nice system. I'm curious also about how you determine if you are balancing your food input appropriately. Care to elaborate?
Do you maintain any other types of herbivore besides lawnmower blenny?
Thanks.
Matt
Nice system. I'm curious also about how you determine if you are balancing your food input appropriately. Care to elaborate?
Do you maintain any other types of herbivore besides lawnmower blenny?
Thanks.
Matt
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
On the contrary, the setup is very simple. We already covered all this
The parameters for ramp up and ramp down times are programmed into the VFD. In addition a series (8 if I remember) of preset target speeds can be programmed into the drive itself.
From there it is a simple matter of opening or closing (3) contacts to tell lthe drive what target speed to ramp up to when it is activated by the start/stop contact.
This can be done with a timer, a microcontroller, etc. Nothing complicated about it.
If you WANTED to get complicated and feed the drive with a 0-10v signal, you could. Your own software would do the ramping and timing if you wanted. Still rather simple. A microcontroller feeding a simple DAC and an OpAmp. An 8 bit DAC would get you 256 speeds out of the motor. 12 bits would get you 4096 speeds.
As the OP also mentioned, the unit can also use it's own output logic to feed it's input. No external timer or source needed. This is not as flexible but would work as a simple oscillating wave device. The motor would ramp up and ramp down over and over again according to your preset ramp up and ramp down intervals.
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
pretty expensive money saver
As Luke mentioned, he was able to dial the motors torque curve back to where it is almost slipping phase. This certainly does save some energy (it is like custom winding a motor for a specific load).
Lets say you get that 140W pump running at 120W. So you save 20W. 20W @ 24 hours = .48kWh
.48kWh @ 365 days a year is 175.2kWh a year... or around $25 for those with expensive electricity
So $100 or so for the used drive and another $150 or so for a budget motor. Toss in $50 or so for other goodies. Lets just assume you already own the pump or a suitable wet end.
That is $300 to save $25 a year. 12 years to pay off the investment....
Bean
As Luke mentioned, he was able to dial the motors torque curve back to where it is almost slipping phase. This certainly does save some energy (it is like custom winding a motor for a specific load).
Lets say you get that 140W pump running at 120W. So you save 20W. 20W @ 24 hours = .48kWh
.48kWh @ 365 days a year is 175.2kWh a year... or around $25 for those with expensive electricity
So $100 or so for the used drive and another $150 or so for a budget motor. Toss in $50 or so for other goodies. Lets just assume you already own the pump or a suitable wet end.
That is $300 to save $25 a year. 12 years to pay off the investment....
Bean
jnarowe
New member
Got it...see I am running a Hammerhead for a return pump, and it seemed like he was getting a lot better electrical consumption by dialing the motor back. I can't remember what it's drawing though. I'll have to put my Kill-A-Watt on and check. But my power rates are on the low end of the spectrum so like you say, probably not worth it.
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
Yup, dialing the pump back will save some energy.
I am not trying to talk you out of it... as the "wow that's cool" factor is well worth the money.
You can even tell the wife that the techy guys at RC said it WILL save money. Just don't tell here when the projected payoff is. All truth, no lies...
I am not trying to talk you out of it... as the "wow that's cool" factor is well worth the money.
You can even tell the wife that the techy guys at RC said it WILL save money. Just don't tell here when the projected payoff is. All truth, no lies...
Milleme
New member
I really like the idea of having a tube under the sand bed for oxidation and would like to try it on my build. I might of missed it but do you just have an air pump on the other side of the bulkhead or is a pump recirculating water through it. Keep up the good work, very unique, you have a bunch of great new inovative methods I haven't ever thought of.
liveforphysics
New member
Jnrowe= For your single phase hammerhead, a VFD would not really be needed. We can however do some creative increases in field weakness to conserve power without comprimising performance. This is of course assumeing that you have lots of overhead prior to a load induced field slip. A little PWM (from a dimmer switch), an inductor and a cap can make for a controled amount of field weakening for cheap, we just have to make sure we dont start increaseing phase slip too much, or problems will occur.
For the folks out there running pumps capable of high heads at low heads, you all have the option of field weakening to save power. In some cases I would imagine power draw could be reduced by more than 30-40%, but I'm no expert.
Thank you to everyone for all the kind words!
-Luke
For the folks out there running pumps capable of high heads at low heads, you all have the option of field weakening to save power. In some cases I would imagine power draw could be reduced by more than 30-40%, but I'm no expert.
Thank you to everyone for all the kind words!
-Luke
liveforphysics
New member
Maybe we should have a PVC waste of the month picture!
For those of you asking what HPS is, it is an acronym for High Pressure Sodium. This is a style of HID lighting that happens to be second to the worlds most efficient. Sadly, it makes wavelegnths well suited towards plants, but poorly suited towards corals, so I only see uses for it as a fuge light.
You can see both of my HPS fixtures in this picture. One is black 70w, one is white 150w. The black 70w fixture you can see is on in the picture.
For those of you asking what HPS is, it is an acronym for High Pressure Sodium. This is a style of HID lighting that happens to be second to the worlds most efficient. Sadly, it makes wavelegnths well suited towards plants, but poorly suited towards corals, so I only see uses for it as a fuge light.
You can see both of my HPS fixtures in this picture. One is black 70w, one is white 150w. The black 70w fixture you can see is on in the picture.
liveforphysics
New member
This is to humor the folks wanting tank pics... So, gaze upon the horror of my empty, dead and/or dying new tank syndrome plauged swamp.
Notice that the front cluster of jets is all pretty much just aimed towards eachother. This is to try to minimize flow in the tank, and for trying to keep water in the tank rather than on the floor everytime a wave hits. I need to turn the VFD down even further so I can actually direct the jets and aquascape some rockwork to cover it all.
Here is a picture of the left front side.
Here is a picture of the left rear side.
You know a move goes badly when you see dead/dying Pocilipora being some of the only corals with patches of live tissue. As far as I knew, pocilipora was entirely un-killable.
Here is a shot of the front pannel
Here is a shot of the right side.
If anyone has some clever aquascapeing ideas, I'm going to be getting around to it one of these days, and I would enjoy hearing/using some neat ideas.
Best Wishes, and I hope nobody was too offended by the empty gaveyard type of appearence inside the tank
-Luke
Notice that the front cluster of jets is all pretty much just aimed towards eachother. This is to try to minimize flow in the tank, and for trying to keep water in the tank rather than on the floor everytime a wave hits. I need to turn the VFD down even further so I can actually direct the jets and aquascape some rockwork to cover it all.
Here is a picture of the left front side.
Here is a picture of the left rear side.
You know a move goes badly when you see dead/dying Pocilipora being some of the only corals with patches of live tissue. As far as I knew, pocilipora was entirely un-killable.
Here is a shot of the front pannel
Here is a shot of the right side.
If anyone has some clever aquascapeing ideas, I'm going to be getting around to it one of these days, and I would enjoy hearing/using some neat ideas.
Best Wishes, and I hope nobody was too offended by the empty gaveyard type of appearence inside the tank
-Luke
Bax
Premium Member
Sorry to see your sufering from the move, I've lived through it twice now and it can be frustrating. But you've built an amazing infrastructure for a very nice stable tank down the road . So, keep it up!
As for aquascape, you've got that nice broad foot print that screams for some Steve Weast-like mounds and valleys.
As for aquascape, you've got that nice broad foot print that screams for some Steve Weast-like mounds and valleys.
melev
Well-known member
Thank you for all the pictures. Seeing all those fish swimming around in the images has the opposite effect on me; it gives the tank life. I know you lost a lot of corals but it isn't a white boneyard.
All those penductors going everywhere made me laugh.
As far as aquascaping, I'd almost like to see a bommie type look where the corals are all on a rock that stands like an island on the substrate. If it was arranged to hide the penductors some, that would be nice.
Maybe from the bommie to the back of the tank could be an arch that comes down into a small wall of rock. It would hide the closed loop intake, give the bommie a background, and allow the fish to swim through the archway for some interesting activity when viewing from the sides.
All those penductors going everywhere made me laugh.
As far as aquascaping, I'd almost like to see a bommie type look where the corals are all on a rock that stands like an island on the substrate. If it was arranged to hide the penductors some, that would be nice.
Maybe from the bommie to the back of the tank could be an arch that comes down into a small wall of rock. It would hide the closed loop intake, give the bommie a background, and allow the fish to swim through the archway for some interesting activity when viewing from the sides.
jnarowe
New member
When I got my rock in from MI, I killed off all the pocis in the cycle too. They never came back, and I am now learning that probably is a good thing! :lol:
What do you mean by needed a lot of "overhead"?
ANd on the PVC, I am surprised you didn't use more flex, but I guess in a stand install, using hard PVC helps save space. The seeps should help alleviate head pressure though.
What kind of perialistic pump is that, or did you make it yourself? Have you tested the humidity inside the stand yet?
What do you mean by needed a lot of "overhead"?
ANd on the PVC, I am surprised you didn't use more flex, but I guess in a stand install, using hard PVC helps save space. The seeps should help alleviate head pressure though.
What kind of perialistic pump is that, or did you make it yourself? Have you tested the humidity inside the stand yet?
lakee911
New member
Back on the VFD return pump. If you could use this for your primary flow device (no PHs or closed loops) then it might be more cost effective. You wouldn't be able to vary the speed of the return so it would probably cause fluctuating sump levels though, no?
Love the pics Just wait 'til life is covering those pipes.
Love the pics
Just wait 'til life is covering those pipes. 
