dchild

I'll give a tentative "I'm in" pending details

I once had a blukhead leak under the paint on the back of the tank, water couldn't make it through the nut but there were strange bulges in the paint and water on the floor. Popping the biggest one revealed it was full of water and a slow drip kept coming out of it. Now it's my sump and I have made sure in a power outage water will not reach the bulkhead.

I've had success adding "cured" rubble a pound or two at a time to my sump without ill effects to my tank. If you wanted to add more than that, I would recommend you buy all you need and set it in a rubbermaid container with a heater and a powerhead - that way it is perfectly cured. Use water taken out of the tank at water changes to ensure similar parameters. After the rock cures you can add it bit by bit or all at once - maybe one peice per day would be perfect. I am of the opinion that live rock plays a critical role in filtration and stability and that aside from bettering your tank's looks it will give you a healthier tank

Hey, some of the things I saw that I was interested in are: Sgt Fury orange cap - 2 purple cap - 2 D33rex 2-green candy cane 3-red candy cane OUSnakebyte green or orange monti caps I have some decent size chunks of brown/orange zoos and some purple mushrooms - and cash of course lmk please

Thanks everyone! Jacob, you can run up to 10 amps through this, you won't need a pump nearly that big. Any powerhead will work just fine. Slower flow is probably better b/c it is not as quick of a temperature shock, but it doesn't really matter. A Maxijet 1200 is capable of pumping 4ft up if you are adding water directly to your tank. Make sure the end of the tube which dumps water into the sump is ABOVE WATER!! Otherwise you will siphon saltwater into your topoff reservoir.

Carribean Jake right? He posted directions earlier in this thread ------------------------- Ok here are the directions to my house. address: 13401 Alfred Mill CT, Herndon, VA 20171 and if you get lost call 703.437.1889 Take 7100 - Fairfax County Parkway (South if coming from Toll Road, or North if coming from Springfield) Turn into West Ox Road (Right if coming from Toll Road, or Left if coming from Springfield) Continue about 1.3 miles and look for Floris Lane on the left hand side. Turn left into Floris Lane. Turn right into Alfred Mill CT. House sits on corner of Floris Lane and Alfred Mill CT. (13401) If you want you can use Map Quest for better directions.

I have built one and posted in the gallery what it looks like - you can't see it there but all the connectors are labeled. The traces are exposed, so this will definitely need an enclosure, I recommend the blue plastic boxes you buy at HD, then put a duplex (outlet) in there. The more irons the better, even if we don't use them all, and plywood is just for a working surface. See you all tomorrow! I will try to bring some change, but checks work just fine since $13 isn't a nice cash-friendly number.

We will need some soldering irons, some wire clippers, and a peice of plywood. Krish is bringing an iron loaned by doug, I will bring one, if we can get another that would be ideal. Note that we have left out the two aspects of how to mount the boards and how to mount the switches. I am thinking we can leave that up to individuals as the connections are pretty basic once the boards are stuffed, if you can wire an outlet then you can wire this.

got the relays. We're on! (like donkey kong)

11th hour for sure... My parents wouldn't let me get my license until I finished up my Eagle, otherwise I would have been there too

Thanks for loaning the iron Doug. I can do Sat at 1 or Sun at 1, but based on Chip's feedback, lets aim for Sunday at 1pm at Jacob's house (that ok with the owner ), also pending the arrival of the correct relays which should be today. I'll confirm if they arrive tonight.

I got the components! I assembled a board and found 2 mistakes. First off, I ordered the wrong relay gvl]] They were the same color and right next to each other... the ones I have are plug-in replacements except they are 12VDC/15A. Second, I had the fuse holders drilled 90 degrees out of sync. This one's not a big deal as we can solder to the ends of the fuse (or jumper it). Anyway, I am willing to order the right relays, pay for 2-day air and return these concurrently. Everything else looks to be hooked up right (ie connecting the float switch leads gives me 5V across the relay coil, disconnecting gives me no volts). So we are on for this Saturday. Sorry guys.

no components :( we'll have to do this next week

Howard, It is true that we could easily make the boards and add topoffs later. I'm not sure you'd need to solder or quick connect those wires though - I designed screw connectors (think they are phoenix type) onto the board, so you can connect wires directly to it. Unfortunately I do not anticipate the components arriving until Monday and I'm not sure a meeting would help unless we had the components. Ha, I think 29 of my 30 posts have been in this thread too :p

If the components get here tomorrow I could still do it this weekend - also we wouldn't need the floats to put the board together. The units are pretty easy to build, if you know how to solder they could take <20 min, but with a bunch of us sharing irons I anticipate an hour or two. I have 5 extra boards ($5), but only 15 sets of parts.

Oops.. this thing may be off. Now UPS tracking is telling me it has a scheduled delivery date of Jan 10. I'm sorry guys, any chance we could move this back a week? It was supposed to be 5-day shipping, and I made the same-day deadline last Friday. :(

Components are shipped via UPS Ground, they tell me that can take up to 5 business days, with today being the first... so I should get them by Friday. I've got the boards, so we're good to go.

Looks fine for you Chris - if you take one, we'll still total 15 boards which is how many components I've ordered. You'll have to check with Howard on the float switches though.

Excellent point! The output of the hose (where FW flows into the tank) must be above water. I have ordered components for 15 kits, $13 each for board/components will cover it. I got a couple extras of everything except the transformers (since that is half the price). Jameco claims same-day shipping before so it should be here in time.

I'm Steven! ph is something I measure in my tank :D I have only purchased 20 PCBs, not the components for them - I will purchase components tomorrow in the quantity listed here. I will NOT need any float switches. I think the Chinese Gent sounds fine. Howard, you may have adjusted Doug wrong as he is in your list as 0 switches, 1 PCB, when he wanted 2 switches and 0 PCBs? Steven

Just want to make sure I am not the Stephen referred to above; I won't need any float switches. I will take a board though

All right... I have done the board layout and posted it in the gallery set-up section. I should get the boards in the next few days. For a couple reasons I had to get 20 of them, and the unit price is right about $5. Here's my count so far: HowardofNOVA >head count so far? >Howard-2 >Doug-2 >Lee-2 >Jacob-2 >Krish- 2 >Stephen 1 >Chip-1 >Luke-1 >Kannan-1 >Total so far-14 also GaryL-2 I'm not sure about the number of float switches people need (remember our *highly* recommended setup is one board with 2 float switches) so I would appreciate if we could verify the number of boards vs the number of floats. I've already paid for the 20, so if you know anyone else who needs one, pls let me know. However, I'll only order the components for the number of people we need. I've added a 10A fuse and connectors to make it a complete package. So it looks like the complete board + electronics cost will be $5 (board) + @6 (components) + $1 (estimated divided shipping) = $13 I'd like to place the parts order Friday. Those in for 1 will get 1 set of components. Howard, Doug, Lee, Jacob, Krish and GaryL, can you please verify if you want one or two boards?

Howard I'll take care of the boards and components with the parts I mentioned earlier. I'll try to snag a couple extras of some of the parts. My mistake on the boards, it is Dec 27 I must order them by. I'll post the pattern in the gallery when I get it done. Merry Christmas from Colorado eveyone!

correct me if I'm wrong... but I believe the "normal" operation refers to the "no water" state - so you want Normally Closed. Even if I'm wrong, on that style of float switch you can usually reverse the float to switch operation, and we can also use the other side of the relay (these are double throw, so we can select NO or NC on the relay itself). Also, we shouldn't have to worry about the switch ratings; we will be running 5VDC @ ~80mA, <.5W through it. I think all of those switches are rated at least an order of magnitude above that. I am thinking of adding two peices to the layout. For safety's sake we should have a fuse on the mains supply, and we should have a connection to the board such as a terminal block (screw connection), otherwise we'll have to solder all wires to the board. This will add $2-4 to the component cost. Also I am not sure how we ought to mount the board to the case. I can get standoffs/screws and I have a drill, however a glob of Goop on 2 corners would probably work just as well.