dchild

hmm.. I have bought twice from this guy and both times he shipped quickly. I think I emailed him once but did not get a reply. I agree with you howard about running a clean business; he does have a good price though. marinedepot only sells the ultralife system (FWIW the one we're building here will have the same power handling and probably lower voltage through the switch at less than half price). Here are some alternate links: http://www.fluidswitch.com/pages/fs01.htm $9.50 http://www.liquidlevel.com/products_components.asp $12 http://www.actsensors.com/miniature_float_switch_1000.htm (need quote) http://www.deeter.co.uk/usa_category_pages/50Series.htm $12.90 Perhaps the best approach would be a test order? Buy one and see how it goes? I have bought from him before, and reefcentral is full of people who have. I have sent the schematic and part #s off to my father (who has the software to lay out the PCB, and through whom I am coordinating the order), so we'll see how big it is, which will determine price. I anticipate < $5.

HA I am sure Jacob would be happy to have us use that surface... I have an opportunity to design a custom circuit board for this (the DIY power option) so all the components will be plug and play. At $0.55 per sq in, if anything it will save us a few cents, make the job a lot easier, and look much nicer :D I will need to order by the 21st though and will be unable to add additional boards later. I'll grab one (I don't need a float switch btw Howard) so I have: Howard, Doug, Lee, Jacob, Krish, Stephen (by this did you mean me Howard?)

It doesn't matter to me if people wish to use wall warts or build their own - I don't think it will add appreciable complexity to build the power supply. My inclination is to order the same components for all. I think it will be less confusing to have everyone looking at the same thing rather than miscellaneous donated components - plus it makes ordering easier. OK here are the things we will need regardless of power options: float switches - $6 ea 5VDC 10A relay - $1.49 7805 regulator - $0.34 PCB (printed circuit board) - $1.60 cord (I cut cheap extension cords) ~$2 blue plastic box or other enclosure ~$0.75 duplex outlet + cover ~$1 power option #1 wall wart: 6V ac/dc supply $3-4 power option #2 DIY: Bridge Rectifier - $0.34 1000uF capacitor - $0.16 transformer, (120VAC - 10VAC, 120mA) - $2.95 and we will need the following as general supplies soldering irons (I have one. dbartco?) solder (I'd need to buy another roll) hookup wire (I have Red, Green, Black 22AWG solid) - (Carribean Jake? ) wire cutters needle nose pliers wire strippers surface to solder on (peice of plywood or an area that could potentially be burned or have little flecks of solder attached) if anyone has alligator clips they'd be nice Anyone walking away with one of these will also need a powerhead to pump their topoff water. I don't mind fronting for the electronic components if someone else will take the float switches. Cheapest shipping is USPS priority, so I'd like to place the order on Jan 1 or 2 to make sure it will be here in time Lee, I'm a big fan of Dominion Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale and Sam's Winter Lager [ws] [beer2]

I will be in Colorado on the 3rd. My name is Steven btw Howard

We can use a wall wart, 9V is $3 at jameco, still ought to regulate down to 5 to minimize voltage inside the tank. The reason I suggest the other way is for neater presentation. With the wall wart either you have to have 2 things plugged into the wall (the wart and the power cord) or you have to fit the wart into the enclosure. It is more soldering but not much - just a rectifer and capacitor (6 wires) - if we are going to regulate the 9V down to 5. We also need to think about how to mount the float switches. HD sells a pack of 4 plastic clamps for like $3 with which you can clamp the wires to the side of the sump. In my link in the first post I show how I made one with a homebrew racking cane clip - I can get those for 2 or 3 apeice.

Sunday 9 Jan works for me. ctreptow, it looks like that diagram turns on the pump when the lower float switch falls and then doesn't turn it off until the water level reaches the top one. It does that to provide a buffer so the pump isn't on and off all the time. However, that introduces some salinity flutuation in your tank. That also means that despite 2 float switches there is no redundancy. Also I don't think it's necessary as some powerheads (maxijets) can handle it - if they can work for years as wavemakers they will work for years in this application. Krish - where do you find the $4 6V AC adapters? That would be easier than building our own power supply and the same price.

Here's a tentative parts list from jameco: This is a mini power supply to drive the relay. It's a 5VDC coil on the relay, so only 5V will run through the float switch. Relay is rated at 10A for 125VAC. Transformer supplies 10VAC, the rectifier and cap convert it to DC and the 7805T regulates it down to 5. BRIDGE RECTIFIER 1.5A100V 279515 W10G $0.34 CAP,RADIAL,1000uF,16V,20% $0.16 RELAY, G5LE-1 DC5 $1.49 IC, 7805T 51262 7805T $0.35 TRANS,POWER, (120VAC - 10VAC, 120mA) $2.95 total cost ~$5.50. Shipping will double that if we just bought one set, so it's worth it to see if there are a couple interested parties. We will also need boards - RS sells a decent $1.60 protoboard Electrical supplies, if you like the blue plastic box from my link above I think the box, outlet, cord and cover ran about $4-5 from HD and of course float switches, $6 each from floatswitches.net I do not have the space to host anything unfortunately, but I can attend and explain how I did it/teach you how to solder/etc.

wow! this is turning out pretty well. krish, I agree that the lower the voltage the better, and also that solid state would be ideal. I think for most of use it wouldn't make a huge difference though, esp for the price difference. Jameco sells a 10A relay with 12VDC coil for $1.09. Mechanical life expectancy is 10 million operations. Electrical expectancy is lower at 100,000 operations but that is at the rated loads (120VAC @ 10A = 1200W) - since we will most likely run far less that, the electrical life expectancy should start to approach the 10 million. For comparison, this guy (http://www.californiareefs.com/home.htm) sells float switches that look like he runs not only 120VAC through the switch, but runs the entire operating current through it! If there is interest in having a "float switch party" we should buy the relays online as a group order since shipping is such a high percentage of order costs with electronics. Grab a 6-pack and a soldering iron and we're good to go.

Hi, I saw a thread in the sale section saying a float switch would be a great DIY project. I built one recently for a total cost of <$25 (not including the powerhead). I wrote it up on nano-reef so I could include pictures. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=389085 The basic idea is that you can get cheap float switches from floatswitches.net but they are only reliable if you run low voltage and current through them (we here have a very low tolerance for float switch failure). So you need a relay to control the power. Radio Shack sells a nice little 10A relay, but the coil runs on 12 VDC. In this thread I built my own power supply at a savings of like $2 over a wall wart but you can substitute the wall wart with no problems. I believe floatswitches.net has a fixed shipping cost so it's easy to get extras to make this as redundant as you want.

As a reefkeeper/homebrewer I know tha tyou can get CO2 regulators relatively cheaply (~50) from brewing sites, esp eBay, and also locally from Bars By Bud in Merrifield or Jays Brewing - Bars By Bud also carries all the parts necessary to maintain your regulator and CO2 systems. Now, I don't know if the regulator required for a reactor is different than what you need to dispense beer. However I do know that if you set up a fridge next to your tank, you can have beer on tap next to your reef, both powered by the same CO2 canister. It's the best of both worlds! dchild

I built my own setup using switches from floatswitches.net, I use a pair in series for redundancy. The switches work just fine as long as you are running low voltage/amperage - they will stick open if you try to run a 10w powerhead, even though they are rated higher than that. At $6 each, they are cost effective, and with some minimal building (relay + power supply) you will have a great system. I think total cost on mine was about $25. I can provide pics/details if you are interested.