North Dakota Mini-Ocean

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eco-cooler types are sweet. I have a question, (not meant to be offensive) but about an issue I am having. Have you done anything to mitigate electrical surges, and if so, what? I am losing a lot of equipment lately and I am curious what other large tank owners are doing about this. Whole house surge supression?
 
Good question! No, I have not even thought about surge protection. Might be a good question I need to ask my electrician. I haven't had one power outage at my house the 2+ years I've been here, but I woild rather be safe than sorry.
 
even on top of that, with the livestock that I am guessing you you will have, you might want to look into a generator to have on hand (if you don't already have one) just in case there is a power outage
 
I would assume that most decent backup generators would be installed with some sort of protection and auto-switching. I have lost several power supplies, lamps, a couple of powerheads (1 Tunze Nano) and a couple of individual Neptune plugs, all due to surges when power is restored.

And it is just getting worse. We had a surge at our store that cost me about $2K in repairs to refrigeration equipment too. I am trying to poll others to see what would be the best choice for me, and the cost of the equipment I have lost so far is not cheap.
 
I will be looking at a generator that would fully power just my fishroom. I am also looking into solar power into the whole house as supplimental power. First, I need everything powered up so I know how much back-up power I need in case of emergency and how much solar power would cost vs savings (basically payoff period).
 
There's a nice system in Venice, CA you can look at for the solar power issue. I think he said payback was about 5 years, but they get a LOT of sun.
 
Exactly, I get good sun between mid may and late september and the other months are hit and miss. They way I look at it I will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 3500 watts/hr running during "daylight hours"...and that number dropping to around 700 watts/hr for the other 14 hours. Based on my calculations that would be roughly $150/mo for that room alone.
 
hmmmm....just 3500W? That seems a bit low. I can't wait to see everything humming and find out how much you are really using. Just using a Volcano will save quite a bit.
 
Maybe for power you could set up a small windmill, the payoff in Fargo should be within about 1-2 years I would imagine!!

I need to get up there to check this system out....I see the pics and it makes me want to upgrade!
 
Maybe I am off...help me out here. 3 ehiems at 88w, 2 ehiems at 10w, 2 ehiems at 30w, sequence on volcano ?? (Guessing 150w), 2 barracudas at 250w, 2 wavyseas at 25w, 2x250w MH, 9x39w T5, 2 DAS skimmers at 40w, 6 tunzes at 55w, 8 tunzes at 10w, air exchanger at 115w, 2 media filters at 25w, 2 power compact at 65w, fridgerator at 125w, 6x400w MH, 8x54w T5...that is for everything in the fishroom that I can account for. Anything else? Anyone got a calculator? Lol. My energy cost $.065/KWH.
 
YUP, AND THAT DOESN'T TAKE INTO ACCOUNT LOSSES DUE TO WEAR, HEAT, ETC. (oops) Anyway, the other issue is that you will probably add more equipment. That's where you can run into trouble in terms of capacity etc.
 
One update to note:

Hydor koralia powerheads - Complete junk. I have had my frag tanks running about 3 months and I have had 3 pump failures and one of them was running constant and the other two were on a Rea Sea Wavemaker. I also had 2 tunzes in the tank over the same time period with no problems...I guess you get what you pay for.
 
hmmmm...I have a couple of them with no problems except that they do not re-start always when the power is cut, nor always operate on battery backup. I just don't think they are "controllable" powerheads. I don't think they are really made to start and stop, which may be why you had trouble with them.

And I have a Tunze Nano that was garbage when I got it. It literally fell apart within a couple of days of running it. I was just going to round-file it, then the Great Dahn Nguyen modded it and it really puts out serious flow and runs very well. Well, of course until its cord melted during a power surge. :( Started a fire. In fact, it's happened twice and now I am afraid to even repair it and plug it in.
 
Only $.065/kWh???? No wonder you have a Vette! :LOL: J/K, thats great.

A solar system would pay itself off and continue to produce energy for many years. You'd need a battery bank and inverter for those pesky nighttime outages though.

The generator would always require fuel and maintenance, but is much simpler.

Decisions, decisions...
 
Have you modded the nanos? They kick butt when properly done and it's pretty easy to do. significantly more flow and reliability.
 
Quick question:

I am getting ready to buy my controller and i came across Elos Biotopus II kit...Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of this product? I did a little research and it seems to have a million different functionalities, but is it worth the price? I looked all over reef central and can't find anyone who has used/tested one.

The other controller that sparked some interest was the reefkeeper elite...same questions on this product as well.

I have been pretty much dead set on the ACIII Pro, but before i make the plunge I would like to know what other options I have.
 
Well, mine were done by Dahn, but here are pics for you to see. And I am serious when I say this makes a HUGE difference in this pump's performance and reliability.

tunze6025%20mod1.jpg


tunze%206025%20mod2.jpg


tunze%206025%20mod3.jpg


These pics are OK and I could put you in touch with him. You could also search RC for the thread where he went through this step-by-step.
 
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