Sonora Desert Fish Nook (mini fishroom)

[FischAutoTechGarten]

After a few delays, Display Tank#5 has been installed on the Top Tier of the Fish Nook. (I missed the $1 a gallon sale last week, so Tank #6, the last to go on this system, won't happen for a bit).

Some challenges having 3 levels of display tanks with a 2', 4' and 6' head... I did see about a 10% drop in measured flow performance once I put that top level tank on line with it's 6' head. However, it is still acceptable at a true 470gph. Pump is rated at 1000, but I'm seeing 470 in this configuration, which represents a true turnover of 4+ times an hour (the entire system, display tanks, dual sump, etc.. contains about 112 gallons). I plan to make a final tweak to the plumbing leaving the sump that will remove a few turns and give me a main trunk of 1" before dividing to the two existing 3/4" verticals to serve each level and then the final 1/2" (about 10" worth) that goes into each tank via a fluted entry. Should see a minor gain, perhaps restoring me back to a true 500+ gph in this configuration.

DisplayTank5OnLineInFishNook.jpg

Today, I will install the lighting. (same 2x 12.5" 6W 8000k ecoxotic stunner strips that the other tanks use). Of course, this one will suspend from the ceiling on hooks as there is no shelf to tuck it under..

[FischAutoTechGarten]

yesterday I hung the led lighting and moved three of my wife's female guppies to the new fifth display tank.

this morning, we awoke to about 40 guppy babies in the new tank with another 7 in the sump socks. these guppies are from the female that was part of the Panda Guppy pair, so they might be interesting to look at.... So much so, that we set up a little screen to keep them in for a few weeks.

GuppyNetAtTop.jpg

lots more work to do...

[Shan_Evolved]

LED's looking good!

[FischAutoTechGarten]

LED's looking good!

Thank you. The FishNook has 10 x Ecoxotic Stunner 12.5" 6W 8000k Strips, 2 per display tank. They are unfortunately a model that have not been available for sometime. So when Display Tank #6 is added, it is doubtful if these same lights weill be sourced again.

When you look, you can see the appearance is a bit odd left, right, to center... That is due to having only 5 of the reflectors, so the entire 24" width cannot be covered. Therefore, just the center where the two strips join is straddled by a single reflector on each tank..

I suspect that I can easily make more of the reflectors on a cutting machine (I have access to a laser cutter through a community hacker space), but I don't know if I can find two more of those strips. Even finding a 24" strip that's not super blue has been a challenge.

I've always been told the stunner strips were never designed to be the main lighting source. However, the plants are trimmed aggressively once a week, so they are rather happy with what they are getting out of 12watts per tank.

I like them, but have not found an equivalent. Current USA (which is Ecoxotic) had a neat 24" 10000k aluminum model, but it's out of production as well. I have two of those. They are a bit blue for a planted tank, but I may employ them anyway.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Never to proud to look at the classifieds for left-by-the-curb notices... Found one of my neighbors was throwing away this classy brushed nickel towel rack. (I checked with my wife first and it wouldn't fit anywhere in our bathrooms). It's perfect for storing my cotton wiping rags.... the individual posts swing out for extra space to air dry them too... Dressing up the Fish Nook a little bit.... with another man's trash!

TowelRack.jpg

I have something else going on the wall below the towel rack and above the ladder... But that will take a few weeks to build and reveal...

[famtsberg]

That is a first class set up. Very nicely done. I hope the bees found a new home.

Fritz

[FischAutoTechGarten]

That is a first class set up. Very nicely done. I hope the bees found a new home.
Fritz

Bees were moved by a beekeeper friend. he has a hive setup for them at his home at the foot of Elephant Head, an outcroppng of the Santa Rita Mountains in Southern Arizona. Happy Bees.

I'm working on the setup. The 3+ months I've had this system running, I am learning quite a bit. Biggest lesson is that I have way underestimated the effects of height (head), parallel branches, equipment and planting density on flow. I'm on my 3rd re-vamp of the plumping.... Simplifying and going larger diameter on the equipment.... I won't be doing many updates until I get that all sorted... It is requiring an upgrade to my flow meter, a much larger DIY CO2 reactor, new fittings on my UV Sterilizer, upsizing to 1" lines on the main section before branching to the display tanks.

I feel as if a number of folks here were pushing me to go bigger from the beginning, but I was stubborn and trusting in my calculations. Smacks of overconfidence on my part and I'm simply left with telling those good folks.... "You were right all along". LOL! Oh well. Why do something once when you get to do it 3 times...

Inadequate flow means, inadequate filtering (which stresses the fish.. even though I have undetectable ammonia and nitrites and barely registering nitrates), inadequate oxygen due to insufficient surface movement, inadequate distribution of CO2 and other minerals, and the subsequent extra work of cleaning up detritus and plant litter from dead spots more often than you would like. Tanks still look great (crystal clear water, minimal algae, tall growth, fat fish), but there is some melting of some stem plants, some deformed twisted leaf growth from nutrient deficiencies, and holes in leaves. Getting a better flow will make other remedies I apply more effective.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

This is a followup.. In preparation of upsizing the plumbing and building a CO2 reactor, I decided to try my hand at dying PVC with synthic dye.

I had allot of fittings and I decided that I would do it in 2 batches. My wife made me cover the granite counter and back splash immediately around the stove with plastic... and to put newspaper on the floor...

I'm using Rit synthetic dye... They don't make a black per se.... but rather a color they call 'graphite'.... I think they are subtly admitting that they can't successfully dye plastics black. I don't have grand expectations... i just want it to look good enough.

StovePrepForPVCDyeProcedure.jpg

TwoBatchesOfPVCToDyejpg.jpg

I'll do the batches full strength (7 ounces of dye to ~3 gallons of water) and 'cook' at 200degF for 30, 60 or 90 minutes.

Ok fast forward... first batch after 90 minutes. So-So... various shades of deep purple, charcoal, graphite and almost black...

BatchofBlackDyedPVCIsSoSoSo.jpg

BatchofBlackDyedPVCIsSoSo.jpg

I read on the internet that I could have added a small amount of acetone and started the process cold..... with the dye and parts in the water..... but I was afraid of the acetone even slightly deforming parts and making it not fit good. So, I didn't. Anyway... it was good enough... the parts will blend it sufficiently with all of the other equipment that is black...

When I build the CO2 Reactor and redo the plumbing, I will document that all very nicely...

[Shan_Evolved]

Wow that looks clean! Very very nice how would you do longer pieces?

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Wow that looks clean! Very very nice how would you do longer pieces?

Hard to say. My pot couldn't really handle anything over 10". I did have to cut one pipe and dye it in two pieces along with a coupling.

One thing I noted... I did have some warping with a few fittings.. two became ovals... and are unuseable. Next time I would do much stronger dye with a slightly lower time and temperature. If it were just a few pieces... I would try to source them online black. This process was a bit of a hassle... as I have a few pieces that are going to be tough to fit together...

[FischAutoTechGarten]

CO2 Reactor is built. It is based on an old design by Tom Barr. Will install Wednesday or Thursday night. It's crooked. Didn't realize it until I was fitting them that I had measured one of the 1" horizontal pieces incorrectly.... It was exacerbated by the fact that everything was tough to fit together on account of the prior dying step (won't do that again). Anyway, it's part of the whole filtration system getting a bump to 1" diameter and very simplified plumbing. This CO2 Reactor has a reactor chamber that is 2" x 25", so I have lots of time/distance for the dissolving of CO2 to occur... If I have to slow down the flow through the reactor chamber, I can use the 1" bypass section that I built in and throttle some of the flow through that. It has a controllable built-in venturi to collect undissolved CO2 that forms at the top and recirculate it through the sump pump so that the CO2 gets a 2nd pass through the reactor.

I'll offer more comments and take more photos once it's all in use...

DIYCO2ReactorWithVenturi.jpg

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Simplifying the plumbing with the install of the DIY CO2 Reactor has given me an opportunity to really cleanup the equipment panel of it's wires and waterworks. That nice open space is where I will put my dosing pumps in the coming weeks.

A plug for AutomationDirect... Their Dinosaur Flexible Wire Duct is a real time saver... (https://www.automationdirect.com/adc..._duct/dn35ag-1).

EquipmentPanelAndPlumbingSimplified.jpg

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Purchased 6 (actually 7 - one spare) Ecoxotic E-Series P60 24" LED lamps. They are fully programmable. Quite Nice. CurrentUSA was clearing out their old inventory and I got them for less than $30usd a piece (these were close to $180 new I believe). Trick was to mount them... so I installed Ubolts so they could be hung (simple tyewraps).

FabricatingControllerMountsForLightingFromLexan.jpg

They have controllers that are programmed using a remote, so I needed them to have a position on the rack where I would have line of sight with the remote. So I fabricated something out of Lexan and Velcro...

VelcoMountsOntheRacksForLEDLightingController.jpg

All lights ready.

EcoxoticESeriesLightsWithHangingMounts.jpg

All are illuminated. I need to program them for their sunrise/sunset function and get the correct temperature.. (going for 6500k or 8000k)...

FishNook6PackWithNewLighting.jpg

I've made a few more changes to the FishNook. With the increased height and the install of the flow meter (1") and new check valve (1"), I had sufficient flow, but not like I really wanted.... I found an open box version of the Active Aqua pump AAPW1100 for $30 usd and grabbed it (I paid $85 for the first). after lots of experimenting... I installed them parallel inside the pump.... The join together with a 1" Y connection. Flow is spectacular. All fish are trying to get used to the better lighting and increased flow.... I certainly no longer feel the need to run an airpump.

Forgot to mention... Ultimately the 1" Flow Meter had to go... it simply cut-off too much flow. It was pronounced.. despite being an axial type flowmeter (which are supposed to restrict less), I could see about 20% loss... So it's gone for now. I suspect that I will need to get an oversized 1 1/2" flow meter and just use adapters before and after.... I'll look for a good one.

Of course, from this photo, you can see that all 6 Display Tanks are online. The 6th is interesting becuase I opted for 8 Cardinal Tetras, 4 RummyNose (that's all they had) and 8 Corydoras Pygmaeus, 2 Ottos. So all small fish, no dwarf cichlids, no shrimp. I'll take better pictures once the new pieces of driftwood sink and I have a decent aquascape. I'm fighting a little algae in two of the six aquariums... which is interesting as they are all on a common system, so you think it would be present in at least 5 (the 6th tank is too new).

[Shan_Evolved]

Wow those lights are great! Amazing value too.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Wow those lights are great! Amazing value too.

Thanks Shan... yeah they were a great deal..

Small little update today.... I purchased an ambient Air Temp and Humidity sensor from Atlas Scientific. It operates over i2c interface and have it working with my Node-RED. It's a big deal becuase this sensor returns Humidity, Temperature and DewPoint with each reading... So, I had to re-examine my Node-RED code and do a little custom java-script programming to parse out the individual readings. DewPoint is not applicable to my setup, so I just configured it for the Humid and Temp... So now I know if my FishNook is getting a little toasty or a little moist... I have the sensor mounted on a shelf, so it's close to the ceiling where it will be hotter and moister... If I see it creeping up too much over the summer... I might add another multi-channel Relay board (could use a few more relays anyway for other stuff) to turn on an exhaust fan.... We'll see.. .For now the information will be useful..

AmbientHumidityAndTemperatureFromAtlasSciSensor.jpg

I've been wanting to do this for another sensore I have (Conductivity, that also gives Total Dissolved Solids and Salinity).... And of course my Flow Meter returns not just Instantaneous Flow, but can also totalize... So two measures each reading as well. So, now I've mastered parsing multiple parameters when reading these 3 devices over i2c.... good stuff... a new skill.