rEd86's 700g office tank.

So I am finally ready to publish the live camera address. You can watch the tank build progress LIVE if you want to. I have limited the number of concurrent people to five for now, until I get a handle on what kind of bandwidth it's going to take up. Let me know how the queuing works for controlling the camera.

One word of caution - the tank is work in progress. (keep in mind, I lost a lot of stuff during the transition) I hesitated to post this link until I got a few more things done but a buddy thought everyone would enjoy seeing the progress.

Later!

--Ed
 
Yea, I know. I hope that it doesn't become too much of a free-for-all with controlling the camera. I figured if everyone gets one minute before having to give up control to the next person, it would work. We'll see.

Hopefully people won't camp on the page if they aren't actively watching it so other people can get in. I will have to see if there's any reporting or monitoring I can do so that doesn't happen. I am also going to look into other options that give more people access. (I should be able to figure that one out...)

--Ed
 
Somebody keeps moving the camera. :lol:

Yes, those are yellow polyps.

Ooh... chromis!

Office chairs...

Ah, finally the Full Tank Shot.

















:lol:
 
There is a way to limit the pan/tilt range. I might have to do that just to keep people focused on the tank and not "wondering" around the office. (plus that means I don't have to remember to shut the bathroom door when I think I'm alone) :)

Or maybe I will start a treasure hunt where people have to find a secret code that's on a post-it note somewhere within the office each day. You have to search to find it and enter the code when you do each time - the points add up over time and the winner gets something for their reef...

Once I get more loaded in the tank I can update the drop-down sources above the video to include areas of interest. (more than the three that are there now)

Who knows...

--Ed
 
UPDATE:

I was able to install the gate valve this morning - it took all of 10 minutes to do. Just a snip of the existing flex PVC (with a shop-vac handy to get any water that was in the pipe) and removal of about 1" of PVC. Then I glued the valve in, adjusted it slightly and the Oceans Motions is working.

GateValveInstalled.jpg


I took some video of the revolutions working, but they take over 30 seconds to do anything and about 5 minutes to complete a revolution so I am loading it into iMove and editing it to something that can be viewed. Hopefully that will be done before I leave today and I'll post the video.

--Ed
 
LOL, I think melev was looking at the page when I was controlling the camera!

The joystick movement is easier to use but when I was using it, it messed up and the camera did a full 180 degree turn. That's when I found this: :p

167706InteractiveReef.jpg
 
Just took a look at the webcam, very nice setup you have there.

If you dont mind me asking, what type of camera are you using? Thanks and lots of luck on the tank
 
Thanks.

I discussed it in a previous thread but I probably need to give everyone an update here since I am no longer supporting that thread.

I have an Axis 213 PTZ camera mounted in the office:
DSC_0034.jpg


I made a mounting bar and bolted it to the ceiling. The camera actually does most of the magic but we're writing some code to enhance it as well. I have been using Axis cameras for quite some time and am VERY impressed with this model. It has 20x optical zoom and the quality is incredible. You can get real close to the corals and see some amazing details.

The camera also allows almost full pan/tilt capabilities so you're also able to look around most of our large conference room.

--Ed
 
Ive got to hand it to you...that is a pretty nifty feature for us to play with. I like the camera a lot (and wish I had one to monitor the tank when Im away).

Nice touch!
 
Thanks. I am building a better interface that will make exploring the tank a lot less complicated. The camera is so powerful it's easy to point it to other areas of the room and loose the reason it's there - to look at the tank!

--Ed
 
OK, so the light mover came in last week. It's going to do a great job of giving me the coverage I need on a TEN foot tank with only three LumenBright lights. The only problem was the speed of the mover. I wanted something that I wasn't really going to notice moving, which wasn't the case here.

After doing a little research, I found that the motor is made by Hurst Manufacturing, a division of Emerson Motor Technologies. By looking around on their web site, I was able to find the series of the motor that was used with my light mover. And they have a similar unit that moves at 1/10th of the speed! I ordered a replacement motor which came in today and I was ready to swap out the slower motor with the one that came on the light rail 3.5 system.

It turns out that the motor can't be removed from the light mover as easily as I thought. It is riveted into the mover and removing it wasn't going to be simple. After looking at my options, I figured the most obvious one would be just to switch out the gears in the gear box. Then I wouldn't have to deal with any wire changes (I would use the existing motor) and I wouldn't need to drill out the rivets and have to figure out a way to reattach the housing to the gear box. So I asked a guy at work to help me, since he's much more knowledgeable with electronics & motors than I am and I wanted validation that this was going to work.

So we carefully removed the housing of the new motor's gear box to reveal the gears:
Gears.jpg


As you would assume, there are a LOT more gears in this housing than in the original motor's gear box. We wanted to keep them in order so we carefully placed them on a paper plate in the same general location, along with a number to represent what order they were taken out:
GearOrder.jpg

which in turn would tell us which order they needed to be put back in.

I am happy to say the transplant was a success. I mounted the motor back on the rail and it creeps along at a snails pace. I don’t think you’ll really notice that the MH lights are moving once everything is installed. Thanks to Brian for helping me during this process. (he did most of the tedious stuff) Now I have to wait for the trolley to come in that I ordered and I’ll get the lights working as expected. (more pictures to come when that happens)

Later!

--Ed
 
Very neat. I need a tiny light mover myself for over my propagation section, something I wanted to do a long time ago but never pursued.
 
Thanks. The potential is there but I am still a LONG way off. Working on a tank of this size takes a LOT more time than I expected so I have to be patient. I am still a good six weeks from getting everything completed and at a point where I am out of the setup stage - especially since I'll be out of town a couple of times on short business trips.

I expect the trolley for the light track to be in tomorrow. With any luck I will have time to work on the hood by the end of the week. Once the MH lights are set up properly on the mover, I can start restocking the corals - hopefull by the end of the month. The LEDs for the supplemental lighting are on order but not expected to come in for a couple of weeks.

I'll post some pictures when everything comes in and I start to put it all together.

Later!

--Ed
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14988994#post14988994 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Ever considered putting an enormous Toadstool Leather at one end? :lol:
Click to expand...
Actually I am going to put a frag in the tank once the lights are set up. I think even your "enormous Toadstool Leather" would look average in this beast! :rollface:

Now I have to start planning where I would put things in preparation for the growth I'll see over the next two years. Not only do I need to consider flow and lighting now, but how it will be when things have grown to good sizes. That's why I'd rather start with things a little sparse now so that it looks great in 1-2 years instead of crowded.

--Ed
 
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