Looking for Ideas......

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Premium Member
As it says in my profile, I am attending Sac State majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Durring my last year, coming up in the fall, a Senior Project is requried. I think it would be interesting in comming up with something for our hobby that would be interesting to build.

Are ther any suggestions, you might have......

what I had been thinking about was a lighing system that followed a parabolic arc, say a 400 watter and moved on a track that gave even dispersed light that mimiced the sun. (I have found that there are always shadows, esp with sps and when they grow they get bigger) It would be on a variable speed motor that would start faster in the morning and slow in the apex to simulate day sun and progress untill the evening. There would be suplementals, say 150's that would provide the ambient light but the main light would pack the PAR "punch" evenly to get things to grow at evenly, hence no shadows.

There was a thread today I say with a guy asking about 14k lighting and someone had a track/motor or just a rail that went back and forth every 30 seconds.....got me thinking about it.

Basicly I would love peoples input on products that they havn't seen that I could research.

I am very interested in doing something for this project that I am interested in.....so please tell me as hobbiest and consumers what you would like to see. Since my major is mechanical I would rather stay in that realm rather than electrical, which is easy to sumble in here. However, limited electrical control is an option.

Thanks, I would love what you guy can come up with, this should be fun.....Doug
 
You could build something for the halides that would slowly make them brighter in the morning and slowly dim in the evening by giving increasing or decreasing the power to the halides over a period of time creating a sunrise-sunset without antics.
 
Jordan - I don't think it's possible to "slowly" make a MH brighter or dimmer. I think MH are either on or off. But then again - I could be wrong. :D

Minh
 
I thought that they could only be as bright as the amount of power they recieved and thats why they needed a ballast rated for exactly how many watts they are. I'm not sure this could work either, I'm just throwin out the best I could think of.
 
I was curious if anyone has ever had the "I wish they made this" thought.

The lighting example was my thought of how to illuminate the coral on all sides, not just up and down.

I believe the project needs to be something a little more inventive or a new application. I could use the chiller idea, but would need to probably come up with a new way to chill the water compared to tradional methods.

I do believe halides are either at full power or not and when they aren't they are not,(start up),effecicent and could decrease the lifespan of the bulb.

Appreciate any and all suggestions......this is just collaborative brainstorming, there are no suggestions too wild or off the wall.


I thought it would be cool to research something that would be fun and that could possibly benifet the rest in the club.......even get me a job when I graduate. I think this is a very important project and am taking it seriously.....hence thinking about it a week after finals........

Thanks-Doug
 
I'm very good at wishing for things that don't exist and are unreasonable.

I wish there was a device that was affordable to test your water for all the things we buy individual test kits for. Just put a measured amount of water on a sensor or stick a probe in your water and presto...all your tank test numbers apear before your very eyes.

Hows that for wishing?

I heard somewhere that something like this is available, but at a VERY HIGH price. Make it affordable and you will sell lots of them. I will test the prototype for you free of charge.
 
Maybe with your mechanical skills you could finesse some of these mods for powerheads, like the maxijet mod and make it even better or more foolproof, or more efficient whatever. Those things are amazing and for no more than 10$ worth of parts it kicks out an obscene amount of flow, and thats just as important as lighting in my book ;)

If you make it.....I will buy it!

-Justin
 
I was going to try it with a penguin660 powerhead I have since there very similar but I couldnt create a list off theres cuz the the carbon rods called for were different sizes than mine and i got tired of having to keep going back to the hobby store (shoulda just brought the pump with me:( ) So its been on a shelf, but I have a sweet propeller Id love to see on it just got to stick it all together.

Short version, No.

But I really really want one :D

-Justin
 
I would like a small probe that could tell me the flow at a particular spot. What would be really nice is if the probe would tell me water flow, light level, and temp and attach to a central unit that would support multiple probes. It should also interface to my computer. If it could do spectral analysis at the same time that would be even better.

It would allow you to analyze your lighting setup, your flow setup and how they change over time due to ageing of lights, ageing of pumps and buildup of calcium and algae, growth in the tank affecting flow, and so on. Ok I have convinced myself, I'll buy one. :)

I have flow meters on the output of my Koi pond pumps, but for a Reef setup I would be much more interested in spot flows.
 
What about something that tells you when your MH bulbs have lost some intensity or has shift in spectrum. That way you know exactly when you need to replace it.
 
Since Jordan is a mechanical engineer, I assume his project has to do with something mechanical. Even though it's been done, a motorized lighting system sounds pretty good. I wonder with a motorized light, if it is possible to use a single 250 watt light over my 48" tank, and just keep the light on for a longer period of time.

Other possibility is something similiar to an ocean motions - but with larger input and outputs.

I would love to see an innovative canopy design that makes access to the tank easier - especially if you don't have to remove the canopy.

Minh
 
I'm not a mechanical engineer, just throwin out some ideas that I thought would be cool. I guess it isn't really that mechanical but it relates to a lot of the ideas other people were throwin out there. I guess the most mechanical idea would be a new powerhead or powerhead mod.
 
If you are looking at power head mods, how about a PH with a built in eductor. You could probably put the impeller in the eductor tube to get the size down.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7466865#post7466865 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefugee


I would love to see an innovative canopy design that makes access to the tank easier - especially if you don't have to remove the canopy.

Minh
Click to expand...


Thats why I have the Aqualife Pro over mine, I HATE canopies after having an eclipse. WAY to limiting.

But in my case, have changed my lighting wants and needs and am invested into a spendy setup already.....

Not a bad idea to have some hinged lights that get pulled and lifted out of your way, or if enough room a track were the canopy slides out like a kitchen drawer.

Great input....thats what I was looking for.....if anyone gets any other ideas out of the blue Id love to here about them.

O.K. what I secretly have wanted to do for about 10 years:

You know how in Mad Max, he pulls the little red button and the supercharger starts running, its BS, can't and doesn't work that way. But if you know about a supercharged motor, they run on super low compression, the the supercharger bumps it to higher compression and power.

I always wanted the best of both worlds, good milage and POWER, I think it would be cool to find a way to build a variable ratio pully that could be adjusted easily to get that to work by adjusting the over/under drive ratio, (much like a Halibrand quickchange rearend from the 60's), before it wasn't possible, but with fuel managment systems, fuel injection, ignition timers and a controller for the whole thing I think it could be possible today.
 
maybe do some stuff with flow. I know fluid dynamics is pretty hot. Powerheads right now are in dire need of new technology! The IceCap vortech's are pretty cool too.
 
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