dandy7200's 400g SPS tank

[Leishman]

No baby yet, still in a "any day now" holding pattern.

 

 

Good luck. Kids are awesome.

[dandy7200]

Dan,

 

With the shed are you concerned about temperature, especially during the summer with heat? Second, that is not sealed to tight, what about any pesticides, fertilizers, dust, etc. in the air that might make its way over to it.

 

 

I have a pretty elaborate temp control scheme, I'll detail a little better when I have some time. It is sealed tight enough where I am not concerned about the pesticides.

 

MOT, thanks, hopefully over the summer I will have a tank tour/bbq.

 

Rik,

[rioreef]

Just remember to keep the doors closed when cutting the grass.

[FishWife]

Hey, Dan... GREAT looking stuff.

 

Question about the heaters and UV: are all those plumbed into one unit each? And, do you drop that heating unit into a sump, or does water flow thru it and heat? Inquiring minds want to know...

Edited December 31, 2007 by FishWife

[dandy7200]

The return goes through the UV at 3000gph then through a Hayward automated ball valve to the tank. There is a separate feed line that goes off the hammerhead to the chiller and then the heaters and back to the sump running essentially a closed loop.

 

This system controls the heat/cooling functions of the tank via the AC3. Basically if the temp sensor in the outside sump reads a super low/high temperature then the return valve closes and the water is recirculated from the sump through the heater/chillers until an appropriate temperature is reached and the valve opens again.

 

Here is my graph of December temps:

 

 

You can see that temps are pretty stable even in December. There is also a test of the systems achilles heel on Dec20th that is visable in the graph. The power went out for a few hours when outside temp was pretty darn cold. When the power came back on the Hayward valve closed, 2000w of heat kicked on and temp stabilized, valve opened and temp rose at a steady rate to the set number.

Edited January 1, 2008 by dandy7200

[lletellier]

Dan do you have any recent pictures? I havn't seen it up and running for over a month

[dhoch]

Dan... lletellier was telling me about the wiring you did for your power center (I guess you did on your old one)... Care to show some pics and explain?

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

[dandy7200]

I wanted to build a bigger and slicker power center for my new tank. I wanted to use the DJ panels as relay switches for my ACIII so I can override them quickly without getting into the ACIII menu. With this configuration, I can also see the lit rocker switch meaning the ACIII has turned something on or off. Also, I wanted the outlets to be top mounted this time around since it will be difficult to get to the plugs on the new setup. Grey plugs are controlled by ACIII and black ones are just wired to the DJ rack only.

 

First I wired up a bunch of duplex plugs with power cords. I pulled the connector pin so each outlet goes to a separate power source:

 

 

 

Next I wired a few cords with cord grips:

 

 

Open up a DJ rack:

 

 

Remove top sets of jumper wires and set aside:

 

 

Remove bottom wires and discard, remove power cord and save for another project:

 

 

 

Drill holes in back of panel and insert extension cords:

 

 

Common ground connected:

 

 

Power cords have new connectors installed and go on bottom part of switch. Jumpers are reinstalled on top part of switch:

 

 

Close it back up and mount to 32" rack rails:

 

 

 

Some goodies installed:

 

 

Hon, can you unplug the skimmer for me?

 

 

Done:

 

[stratos21ss]

So the outlets are surface flush mounted on top of the cabinet? Is there a labeling scheme?

[dandy7200]

So the outlets are surface flush mounted on top of the cabinet? Is there a labeling scheme?

 

 

Yes and yes. I have gone through many rolls of dynmo label tape

[dhoch]

Now that is too cool. Man I wish I had your fabrication skills!

 

Nice Job.

 

Dave

[davelin315]

You crack me up with your DIY skills! Out of curiosity, do you have the rack system on a cooling system as well that is controlled by the ACIII? Looks like you've got at least 1000' of cable in there... I imagine the temperature with the wiring is fairly warm when things are all running since a lot of them seem to be independently controlled.

[dandy7200]

Dave, thanks

 

Dave #2, I took that pic right after I finished the wiring and tested it. I shortend all the wires to minimum lengths and ripped out about 150' of that cable once it was testing in working order. But....yes there are 4ea CPU fans blowing into the unit and.....they are red LED fans, cause I'm a dork :P

[lletellier]

Now that is too cool. Man I wish I had your fabrication skills!

 

Nice Job.

 

Dave

 

ditto on that!

 

told you dan is the man

[jamesbuf]

Stop being stingy with the pics. I know there's more.

[dandy7200]

OK here is the remote chiller:

 

Making my indoor chiller (pacific coast imports 1/2hp) an outdoor one. First took off the front panel and clipped the wires:

 

 

Made a 30' jumper cable (still needs to get wrapped):

 

 

Closed it up and covered the hole where the control panel was with some scrap PVC sheet and marine goop:

 

 

I mounted the display to the front of the power center along with the tunze multicontroller and the vortech display thinggy's.

 

It is fed by the heater/chiller loop mentioned above from the return pump. Works well and keeps the heat/noise outside.

[WallyBackm]

This whole set up is insane. Not surprised considering it is from a man that designs and makes his own skimmers and calcium reactors. Kudos

[davelin315]

Hey Dan, can you provide some more information on what you had to do exactly to convert it to an outdoor chiller? I'd be interested in looking into that for mine, but it's a drop in chiller so I'm not sure if that's possible or not.

[gmubeach]

All I can say is wow

[dandy7200]

Hey Dan, can you provide some more information on what you had to do exactly to convert it to an outdoor chiller? I'd be interested in looking into that for mine, but it's a drop in chiller so I'm not sure if that's possible or not.

 

 

Put your sump outside and drop your chiller in........

 

I just ran the wiring remote to the inside and run a flex pvc from the pump to the chiller. PVC is a pretty good insulator so it is very effective. You could run a inline chiller with 50' of flex from just about any setup and as long as you had enough pressure and flow behind your pump, this would work very well. My run is much shorter since I designed the system for a remote chiller but the principle could be applied to many different situations. The only part of a chiller that is not waterproof is the control board and that is easily moved as the pictures illustrate. If you needed the chiller to kick on when it was freezing outside a case heater would be needed but that is a very inexpensive part.

 

gmubeach,

[ctenophore]

A chiller should be extremely efficient when it's freezing outside. You're pushing heat from the tank to the environment, so the condenser coil will be hot. It needs to cool off, which is easy when it's freezing outside. On the other hand, a water heat pump in heat mode is very inefficient in sub freezing temps. That's when the condenser freezes up since it is trying to suck heat out of the environment.

[dandy7200]

It's the compressor you have to worry about in freezing weather, it can't go below freezing temps or a major freeze up will occur. A case-heater to keep the compressor from going below freezing while running is what I was trying to say, sorry for not being clear.

[flowerseller]

Good thinking Dan. We had to put those on our 2 of our cooler compressors that we re located outside for noise and heat issues.

[dschflier]

I sometimes feel I am the only person on this site who does not have my electrical engineering degree, chemistry degree and marine bioligy degree all in one.

 

This thread is amazing. I find I look at the thread as well as other tank builds then try and research what everyone is talking about.

 

Not to sound redundant but great planning and great work.

[dhoch]

I sometimes feel I am the only person on this site who does not have my electrical engineering degree, chemistry degree and marine bioligy degree all in one.

 

Don't feel bad Dan has more skill than just about everyone here... with a couple of exceptions... I am humbled by it, and I would love to have him build my next tank.

 

Dave