Vision Journal

[Automate]

Well after 8 months of planning I finally have a new tank sitting in position with a thumbs up from all family members. As the tank had to go between two doorways in our family room which are 1600 mm apart I found that the Juwel Vision 450 "bowed" tank fitted great at 1500mm long and narrow at the ends so we have better access to both doorways .....

SATURDAY 21ST JULY
Moved the old tank into an adjacent room and topped it up again. It will probably have to run for 3-4 weeks until I transition the fish and plants across. The new tank is now in position with the Juwel background siliconed onto the rear wall. Hope I never have to get the background off again as I made sure there would be no water getting behind. The Juwel background are completely flat on the back so it fits really well. I was careful not the put silicon on the corners as if I have to remove it I do not want to disturb the tank silicon joints. The juwel backgrounds cut really well and is constructed of a high density closed cell black foam. I hope the surface can tolerate a scrub down if algae gets a hold. Will have to wait and see.The other benefit I see is that the background will be great insulation for the rear of the tank.

Here are some first pics
The tank is the new Juwel Vision 450 in beech and you guessed it holds 450 litres...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0027-1.jpg

You can see the depth of the background and also the black tape I put on the tank sides to hide the intake and heater when its installed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0034-1.jpg

Left hand side has the intake and spray bar....The silicon tube running through the background will be for CO2 injection just under the intake
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0012.jpg


Right hand side also has a filter return on a spray which is the outlet of the UV. This side also has a silicon airline going down through the background which will be used for an airstone
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0022-1.jpg

[Organic Farmer]

your new tank looks great please keep us posted

[Tropical Haven]

You definitely look like you covered your basis well with this one. Keep us posted with pictures as you add water and fish, this tank will look really nice. Just make sure your filter is fully cycled before adding your discus to it.

[pcsb23]

Nice tanks these, the 450 really works well imo. Looks like you are off to a good start. Glad to see tyou've gone with eheim filters, the best out there imho :D

[Darren's Discus]

That looks awesome can't wait for the updates and see some fish in there.

cheers

[Automate]

A couple of observations with this tank:

Lighting..My unit has 4 x 36 W T8 lights installed and the rear light is just about over the background. In Europe these tanks now come with 2 x 54W T5 lights centred across the tank. In Australia these new version will not be available until later in the year however very easily upgraded.

Equipment Location...The cupboards under the tank are soooo small a filter just fits in. I suspect Juwel assume you will use their internal filter that comes with the tank. I took this out as needed a canister to run my UV. As I have stacks of stuff to put under the tank I will have to use the open center section as well.

Next update on the weekend will be hooking up the UV & filter, and installing power...

[Automate]

SUNDAY 29th July

Substrate is in the tank, 6 bags of eco and filled with water. Was told not to wash the eco as it has beneficial bacteria but gee's its cloudy. Has gotten better over two days however can just see through the tank looking side on.

This weekend was the first fitout with Power sockets installed together with filter and fitting of the controllers.

Front view showing Conductivity, pH and ORP monitors. They have not been fully fitted as yet and look a little wobbly.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0002-1.jpg

With the monitors removed you can see the power points behind together with the 24VDC power supply in the RHS
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0005.jpg

Left Hand side contains the filter, some more power...I have ordered a new UV bulb which should come this week so I will also fit UV in this section
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0003-1.jpg

Right Hand side contains the CO2 bottle, I cut around the shelf unit so it fits neatly.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0004-1.jpg

[reelay0]

looking great!

[Automate]

Sunday 5th August

OK Water in starting to clear and heater on...This is the first pic of the initial setup..I have pH & ORP monitors running (CO2 injection started. Only need to get conductivity probe installed and another week of water cycle before I move my fish in their new home. I will then move my fish and all bio material from my old filter into the new Eheim 2028.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/setup-3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/setup-1.jpg



Rocks
I ended up going to a garden supplier and picking up some "mud" rock. The guy had used these in Aquarium before and suggested I soaked them in a weak solution of hydrochloric acid. Soaked for a day and they cleaned really well. Another soak in clean water and in they went. I was monitoring pH and putting the rocks in did not change the pH at all so the HCL was not absorbed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/rock-1.jpg

[Darren's Discus]

Looking awesome !

cheers

[Automate]

Thanks A1
Only thing left to do is move the fish in and get my web based monitor setup on this tank...

[Automate]

Saturday 11th August

I have transfered 6 discus into the tank and moved the filter material from my old setup (Fluval 404) into the Eheim 2028. I mixed the old efistrat with the new, so I hope it seeds fast. The Aquarium has been running for 2 weeks and I have also dosed with "CYCLE" a couple of times to try and at least start the new bio filter. I'll do a fish pic once they have settled in.

So its time for the web monitoring and controls setup....Just mounted the 1wire relay board and auto water change control. I will have to put in a false back in the center of the cabinet to hide the power and control board, it looks OK when the shelf is put in place. You can see the float switch just left of the terminals, which I need to get into the top of the tank. I have mounted two wire ducts one for 240VAC power and the lower duct is for the low voltage 24VDC which all Automation is powered from.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/visionrelay-1.jpg

[Clyde]

Very nice set up, I love it!!;)

[Automate]

Saturday 18th August
OK I finally connected the monitors back to the web server. I have done a2 x 25% water changes and have noticed some brown algea on the swords and a little on the glass. I assume this will go within a couple of weeks. I still have my old tank running....I have got 20 cardinals in there for a couple fo weeks before moving them into the display tank. I will also move the pleco's if I can catch them !

My CO2 is running a little low I'll start to crank this up..A this tank is twice as large as my old tank I'm still sorting out the bubble rate. Its not as responsive as the 200 litre old tank for obvious reasons. I do not have a reactor I just use an airstone under the filter intake pipe so the CO2 goes into the filter and gets churned up

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/webshot1.jpg

[Automate]

I have found it hard to take shots of a bow'd front tank....however heres how it is at the moment...I need to do some "plant-work" however the plants seem to be growing OK..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/1_-2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/1_-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/1_-3.jpg

I am getting some brown algae on the swords..I have not used any ferts and my Co2 is low so I'll crank the CO2 up....any advice ?

[Automate]

1st September

I have had to do a replant as the Ludwigia went crazy and I had to take 80% of it out of the tank, same as the java. Anyhow has been running now for 6 weeks and (touch wood) no algae !. I will regret saying that I bet, I did have a little brown algae however that just disappeared.

My BIGGEST problem is that I have managed to transfer those cone snail which invaded my last tank....Oh NO :cry: I never did do the copper treatment as I was worried about the fish..What are the risks on using snail rid...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/1sep-1.jpg

[Darren's Discus]

That looks beautiful,I have used snail rid before in a planted tank with good results and no problems with the discus.



cheers

[dawncollette]

Hi all, even though I pretreated all my plants, my planted discus tank has snails too and I like others was scared to use the snail med due to copper. How many treatments will it take to get rid of the snails. I hate them. I know they spread disease to the discus too.
thanks,
dawn

[poddan]

Really like that tank.
Good work.

[Lotus]

I love your tank and discus.



Lotus

[midazolam]

Very awesome!

Where could someone snag a background like that one?

[Automate]

The PIC doesn't show the true size of the tank as it looks kinda small...It is 1500mm long

SNAILS: I will get a pipe and try and manually suck out as many as I can for a few months until I finish adding plants....Thanks for the advise

BACKGROUND: This is the Juwel Root/rock background. It has a very hard surface and a black closed cell foam makes up the body. You can see from my original pics on the first page that its quite thick and does take up some tank room. The good thing about it is that the back is totaly flat so there is absolutely no water or air trapped behind the background to go toxic, not like the latex versions. It costs ~US$220.00 for the total of three panels which equates to the cost of 2 discus....At least thats how I justify it ;)

The benefits of the background is that as an entire aquascape looks good and does not rely 100% on the plants. Thus I can keep the easy plants and it should still look OK. (I think a planted tank with black background looks awesome and would be my favourite however needs 100% commitment to the plants with lots of balancing between algae ver growth and MH lights !)

Thanks for the comments guy's...Any planting suggestions would be greatly accepted. It will be a few months until I get the correct balance, as I do not want to totally obscure the background.

Cheers

rob Australia

[Automate]

I trimmed my hair grass last weekend and have some algea growing on the tips.......I think the algae started when I installed a moon light which is directly over the hairgrass, although its not really bright just a faint glow of 8 white LEDS running off very low voltage.

Here are my latest pics tonight..I still have not used any ferts at all since the tank was setup...Tank is now very stable with respect to pH,ORP and conductivity with a 25% WC every week. I know I should really do more WC however I have not had time to connect up my auto water change valve to this new tank. Its on the to do list still..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/zz-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/zz-3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/zz-2.jpg

[Apistomaster]

Your wild discus are looking good.

[Automate]

I have these damn small cone snails that I pick out of the tank every week.

I was wondering if there was some food type I could put in the tank that would attract them to one spot so I could take them out of the tank easier.

A snail trap would be great...I am scared of using copper treatment.

rob

[jacjoe]

I have found that a Clown Loach or two are very effective on those pesky snails. I've not experienced any problems keeping them with my Discus either.:thumbsup:
HTH

Joe

[Automate]

OK New tank fully cycled and 1 wire digital I/O has been installed. ...and tonight was the first fully automatic water cycle...I have an illuminated push button that starts the sequence....One press starts the cycle, however you can abort each phase if you press the button again during draining and it stops draining and starts the fill...press again and it will skip fill if you want. Although the drain and fill times are just based upon time I do have a float switch installed which will stop filling when the tank is full. Thus press the utton and it will do everything for you. The latest owfs had trouble reading my flow meter so it'll be a little while until I drain based upon metered water draining from the tank. At this stage approx 30 minutes drain time = 50 litres and it takes twice as long to fill. A good thing about this is the fact the tank temperature only drop .5 degrees from start to finish without heating the water

This is an early pic of the 1wire relay control board mounted into the tank when first installed.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/visionrelay-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0022.jpg


this is the two solenoids Drain / Fill with the small pump..all is 24VDC
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/IMG_0025.jpg


For those interested in reading code here is rev 1....

#!/bin/bash

d_max=30 # Max drain timeout minutes
f_max=60 # Max Fill timeout minutes
DO_1="/opt/owfs/bin/owwrite -s 3001 12.276B45000000/PIO.BYTE" # Power
DO_2="/opt/owfs/bin/owwrite -s 3001 12.267745000000/PIO.BYTE" # Fill
DO_3="/opt/owfs/bin/owwrite -s 3001 12.A37645000000/PIO.BYTE" # Drain
DO_4="/opt/owfs/bin/owwrite -s 3001 12.D37245000000/PIO.BYTE" #

## Calculate script loop time based upon sleep = 2 seconds ##
d_max=`expr $d_max \* 60 / 2`
f_max=`expr $f_max \* 60 / 2`

### Reset all Outputs to OFF ###
$DO_1 0
$DO_2 0
$DO_3 0
$DO_4 0


### Main Loop (Wait for button to be pressed) ###
while true ; do
DI_4=$(/opt/owfs/bin/owread -s 3001 uncached/05.FC152D000000/sensed) #Waiting for button press
if [ $DI_4 == 0 ]; then
f_time=0
d_time=0

$DO_1 1 # Enable 24VDC Power
sleep 1
$DO_3 1 # Turn on Drain
while (( d_time <= d_max ))
do
DI_4=$(/opt/owfs/bin/owread -s 3001 uncached/05.FC152D000000/sensed) # Check if button is pressed to abort
if [ $DI_4 == 0 ];
then
break
fi
((d_time +=1 ))
sleep 2
done
$DO_3 0 # Turn drain off
sleep 1

$DO_2 1 # Turn on fill
while (( f_time <= f_max ))
do
DI_4=$(/opt/owfs/bin/owread -s 3001 uncached/05.FC152D000000/sensed) # Check if button is pressed to abort
DI_3=$(/opt/owfs/bin/owread -s 3001 uncached/05.65142D000000/sensed) # Abort if level sensor is HIGH
if [ $DI_4 == 0 ] || [ $DI_3 == 1 ];
then
break
fi
((f_time +=1 ))
sleep 2
done
$DO_2 0 # Turn off fill
sleep 1
$DO_1 0 # Turn power off
fi
sleep 2
done

[Darren's Discus]

Rob,
absolutely awesome your system and mate your discus areooking great !



cheers

[Cocobid]

Hi.
I am new to this forum but on the subject of snails, have found the Kuhli loach's really take care of the problem. I like to have one or two of the snails in a tank keeps the substrate loose, but the Kuhli's control the population. They like to be kept in groups. We keep 6 in each tank.

You have a truly amazing setup. Very impressed.

Have no idea how the Kuhli's and eggs of Discus would react.

[cesar_1304]

Nice! Is this your own software or a package that I can purchase?

[Automate]

Software is kinda of the easy bit...This is the first web page I ahve ever created. The hardest part is to find instruments to measure the parameters you want to display or trend. Temperature is easy, costs about $5.00 per point, however when it come to other measurements its becomes alittle harder

[GrillMaster]

Hi ya Auto...

Nice setup ya have for sure! :thumbsup:

If you dont want to put loaches in the tank, you can put a slice of cucumber in the tank somewhere. Most of the snails will accumulate on it by the next day, an you can just net em out. I am afraid that unless ya get some sort of defense in there, snails will still plague you from time to time. They multiply like crazy!

IMO clown loaches are the best fish on the market for just such an occasion. They will dig em out of the substrate. Great personalities, colorful, an just fun to watch! Pretty much swim together most of the time, an will decimate any snails you have in the tank.

[Automate]

On the reservoir outside, I measure the water temperature and I have volume measurement of whats in the reservoir (I use a pressure transmitter to get level of the water and then derive litres) and also have a flow meter to monitor how much water has been drained....Like the web Aquarium page showing TDS/PH/ORP/CO2 for the tank I also created a web page for the water changes. Being potentially able to do a wc via the web, means the system has to know that the aquarium is actually draining which in my case is via 2 different inputs. #1 the flow meter and #2 float switch in the tank. All this coupled with how much water is available to fill the tank back up once drained makes up the automation around monitoring whats going on and making it somewhat failsafe.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/wc1.jpg

[Automate]

I got a couple of small clown loaches and within a day or two I have yet to see any small snails around.. There either hiding or eaten either way Its a good result.

thanks

[thang45]

I got a couple of small clown loaches and within a day or two I have yet to see any small snails around.. There either hiding or eaten either way Its a good result.

thanks

I just found this thread, and it is very nice indeed. I love the bash script to automate and the tank setup.:thumbsup:

[Automate]

Thought I'd just share a little more progress with respect to the interface. Under the main buttons I now have a set of tabbed buttons that display different things where the picture is. An exmaple follows the main picture of the water change reports. I now also monitor the power usage in KW and KWH. This is done by an optical sesnors that monitors the revolutions of the kwh meter.....sensor provides the No. of revolutions which I count. although need some more work on the web interface to this part.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/newweb1.jpg

Water Change report...only show partial report as you need to use the slider bars within the window
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/rjconway/newweb2.jpg

checkout www.rjconway.homeip.net

cheers

[Brian Mc]

That is possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen. :computer:

[Aquaboogie]

I'm speechless.
Just learning how far you can take this hobby...........

[Apistomaster]

Having your entire fish room automated is how far you can take this. Combine this electronic monitoring, controls and all accessible by the computer is used widely in commercial aquaculture installations.

Take your system and combine it with a fish room I just accidentally discovered and a fish raiser is in heaven. Check out Brian's fish room at www.brianstropicals.com.
As one friend I showed this to put it, "It's a fish keeper's wet dream."

I have made some progress. I have electronic meters for pH and EC/TDS and I managed to refill my 110 gal RO storage system this week without creating a flood. I haven't completed installing the shut off valves or plumbed it into the cold water system so I still have to connect to a faucet and pay attention to the holding barrels' water levels.

[Darren's Discus]

Simply awesome !
Larry brians tropicals is one fantastic set up thank's for sharing.


cheers