Mountains of sawdust (360g plywood, LED, Arduino build)

[kcress]

Oh and Kcress/DWZM... Im not sure if i posted in either of your builds before, but ive been totally stalking them. Great work both of you!

Thanks for the complement krikor! :thumbsup:


With regard to enclosing a TS. Some of you may know about my TS build.

I could start another thread and put up my build if enough people wanted me to - lotta work..

Anyway in an effort to limit evap I made an enclosed TS. It was hard to maintain because of the zillions of micro splashes that end up coating the illumination window and growing algae.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Anyway in an effort to limit evap I made an enclosed TS. It was hard to maintain because of the zillions of micro splashes that end up coating the illumination window and growing algae.

Guessing at the difficulty of having plastic that close to the TS, I was planning on a larger enclosure - more like an "umbrella" over the whole thing rather than a tight box. Do you think that would help with evap without being difficult to maintain?

 

[krikor]

Guessing at the difficulty of having plastic that close to the TS, I was planning on a larger enclosure - more like an "umbrella" over the whole thing rather than a tight box. Do you think that would help with evap without being difficult to maintain?

Yeah definitely, i think thats closer to what i would run...

I have an acrylic 65 gal tank running around that i could definitely modify to create an enclosure.

 

[XSiVE]

Guessing at the difficulty of having plastic that close to the TS, I was planning on a larger enclosure - more like an "umbrella" over the whole thing rather than a tight box. Do you think that would help with evap without being difficult to maintain?

I think so, an umbrella or dome over the top should catch a lot of the moist air and let it drip back into the sump... that is, if you can get something dome shaped or curved somehow.

 

[Rhodes19]

WOW, thats an amazing build. Very nice. I like how you put it all together.

 

[kcress]

Guessing at the difficulty of having plastic that close to the TS, I was planning on a larger enclosure - more like an "umbrella" over the whole thing rather than a tight box. Do you think that would help with evap without being difficult to maintain?

If the air can easily turnover in the enclosure you will be exporting water vapor to your home/health detriment. Just an umbrella doesn't describe a quasi-air-tight design to me. The lid will be above the lighting which means it will be the hottest place in the TS. This also means there will be no condensation occurring there.

If you somehow kept the lid chilled that would be the ticket. What a pain :lmao:

Trying for 'air tight' is probably better. Of course the problem with air tight is the lights will rot before your eyes in mere months. A favorite is CFL bulbs in clip-on sockets. Mine are all dissolving to the point I worry about metal flakes failing into the water. I'm only using them 6" above a completely open tank...

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

You aren't encouraging me very much you know. :lol:

I used water-tight outdoor fixtures that have gaskets and/or sealer on all threads/openings/etc. - even the lamp sockets came with gaskets. So I'm hoping the lighting itself is protected from evaporation, at least until I get an LED rig built.

 

[Taqpol]

If build up of algae on the inside pane of an airtight ATS is the problem, could you rig up some sort of squeegee device that would clean it daily like an automatic skimmer cleaner? I have no idea how to build one, and it would add a lot of complexity/cost to the project, but if an ATS is your primary means of nutrient export it might be worth it.

 

[Nathan.Titulaer]

If I were to build a bucket style one I would just get rid of the reflectors and put a lid on the bucket with the lights going through the lid. I built a ghetto fabulous one off of Santamonicas design that uses CFL lights and I have very little evaporation. i think this is due to the top being enclosed. Also it is quiet for me because I ran the pipe with a notch in it then cut another pipe to fit tightly to the bottom of the original pipe and put the screen in the pipe for ease of removal for cleaning and the bottom of the screen sits in the water for the sump. I have an open stand and hear the pump over the ATS.

 

[kcress]

You aren't encouraging me very much you know. :lol:

I used water-tight outdoor fixtures that have gaskets and/or sealer on all threads/openings/etc. - even the lamp sockets came with gaskets. So I'm hoping the lighting itself is protected from evaporation, at least until I get an LED rig built.

Sorry...

What you have will probably work... For a while .


Taqpol; Wiper.. Naw. Never work. Some of that front window algae is H A R D to get off.

Nathan; Sounds pretty good. How long have you been running it?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

And now I get to create a little suspense. I've purchased fish. Details on. . . Tuesday.

 

[dwd5813]

i'll gladly pay you tuesday for fish purchase details today....:lol:

 

[kcress]

TUESDAY!! This is an outrage!! We're being worked folks...

 

[XSiVE]

TUESDAY!! This is an outrage!! We're being worked folks...

It cant be too exciting, we've still got a long cycle ahead of us!

 

[kcress]

Please XSive tell me they won't be Chromii?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

No Chromis, I've already promised that, remember?

 

[kcress]

Ah. Excellent! Kind sir. I do now remember that promise.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I'm actually really happy with what I've ended up with to start this tank off. Doesn't exactly meet my original criteria but I'm excited anyways.

we've still got a long cycle ahead of us!

Bah! I don't believe in "cycles" - in the traditional sense, anyways. Some day I'll explain why. Maybe I'll title that post "In Which DWIZUM Alienates the Other Half of His Audience." :lol:

 

[Nathan.Titulaer]

I have had my TS running four months now. I had issues in the begging by not running enough light. I went 14 hours instead of 18, now I am at 18 the algae on the screen grows really well.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I'm thinking I might want to seed my screen somehow. I know it's not "in vogue" to seed according to SantaMonica's approach, but my tank is extremely sterile from an algae point of view - it's mostly MMLR with maybe 10 - 20 lbs of extremely clean natural live rock, so I'm not sure if my system has the "right" spores in it to seed a TS.