[scolley]

Originally Posted by digthemlows

Steve, howz the tank coming along?

Tank's doing fairly well. I need to get a post about it out...

Algae's MUCH better, though still not perfect. But good. I changed the 'scape a bit to accommodate more plants. It's not as attractive anymore, but it makes room for a lot of plants. I'll post soon. Thanks for asking!

Originally Posted by lekyiscool

btw how in the world were u able to configure the draining and refilling with the solenoid to your desired settings and also the ferts.

Draining and filling have nothing to do with the ferts. Check that diagram. In fact, draining and filling are independent. It's just you set the AC III to turn on the drain for a little while, and then have it turn the drain off and turn the fill on for a little while.

Originally Posted by lekyiscool

Also how is it controlled are you using a similar system to Serejo with the pressure valve or is it all with the solenoid controlled electrically?

Do you mean Serjio? Either way... I'm not sure how Serjio is doing auto water changes. As far as I know, I'm the first person to ever use a pressure valve to measure the depth of the water column through a hole in the tank, so whomever you are referring to is probably doing it like me - assuming they have the same setup.

The pressure sensor is just simple switch that is connected to a tube in the bottom of the tank. It can tell how high the water is. When the water a certain height (or higher) it turns on. There are two little wires running from it to the switch sensors on the AC III - it's made to do stuff like this. During the timed fill process, the AC III has a command that basically says "if that switch turns on, stop filling - even if there is more time left on your alloted fill time." So I have the fill timer set to go just a little longer than needed to fill - and the sensor switches on - and the fill process stops a minute or two early every night. That way I'm making darn sure it does get enough water, without being too much. And if the switch ever fails, the extra minute or two of filling will not be enough to flood stuff. Easy really.

Originally Posted by lekyiscool

Even though your OC filter goes through a heap of tubes does it still maintain good flow rate?

Good enough. I should have made all my tubing 1" rather than 3/4", and it would be better. But I can still run the tank on a single OC and pump. The one with all the tubes gives me about 350-380 gph, and without the tubes or filter it's almost 600 gph. With filter alone it's something like 500gph. So there is loss from the tubes, but not nearly what you would assume. And with the second OC and second pump the total has to be closer to 800 gph. I've not measured with both pumps, as it is visibly overkill. More than enough.

Originally Posted by lekyiscool

Are you able to control the temp automatically or does the system have auto shut off to control the temp?

The AC III controls the temp. Three of those big blue Pentair modules have a 300 watt heater in them - they are just normal submersible tank heaters. I've got the thermostats on those three heater set at something like 86 degrees - higher than I'll ever want, but not enough to boil discus. Those thermostats don't regulate the temperature - the AC III does. It has a temp sensor that is in my outflow manifold (near the pH sensor) that detects temp. If it's cold, the AC III turns on one of the heaters (they are normally plugged in, but the AC III provided no power to their plug. They are effectively turned off.) If it gets colder still (an extra 0.1 degree) it turns on another one. If it gets 0.1 degree colder than that, the final one gets turned on for a total of 900 watts heating. That's what allows me to fill the tank with Connecticut water at night in January.

What you are missing is the DC8's that the AC III uses to control everything. The DC8's are like big power strips that the AC III has a control wire running into. No plug in the power strip gets any power until the AC III turn on the power to that specific plug. So, for instance, you put a UV into the 1st plug, you could set the AC III to run the 1st plug at night. With the UV turned on, it still only gets power at night when the AC III provides power to it's plug. The heaters work the same way.

Originally Posted by lekyiscool

ALSO why 3 intake and only 2 ouflow ?

For the same reason that many in-line pumps have a larger inflow diameter hole than the diameter of the outflow hole... you never want to restrict the in-flow. Pumps do great at pushing, but are not good at sucking. So you want to provide them more water than they can use. The work pushing the water should be what restricts their flow rate. Never restrict them by not providing enough water fast enough.

Originally Posted by lekyiscool

btw did you plan this out before working like with a software( or even one to draw your configuration)? if so which?

I built the whole pluming setup first - outside of the stand. I even water tested it in the middle of my family room floor. It was pretty funny really - a big pile of tubes sucking water out of a trash can and BLASTING it back in. A leak would have been bad.

I had the size of the stand taped off on the floor as a big rectangle, and all the plumbing had to fit within the rectangle. That let me mess around with the configuration until I knew it would all fit. That and the fact that all my PVC connections are threaded. So if something didn't fit, I could just unscrew it and try a new configuration.

I did use a tool to predict the flow of the pump, with all the tubing. That is the Pump Head Loss Calculator over at Reefs.org. Or more accurately... I didn't use the calculator in that web page, but used the spreadsheet found in one of the links on that same page. I used the spreadsheet because it has a few additional types of plumbing. In particular, it had flow-thru and branching "T"s, of which I have quite a few. 90 degree elbows aren't nearly the big deal people make them out to be. But branching "T"s are bad news.

And I wanted to change value the tool used for the specific gravity of the water - fresh water flows faster than salt. The tool uses a 1.024 for specific gravity in its calc's - fine for salt water calculations. But in the spreadsheet I was able to change it to 0.85, which I gather is closer to the correct value for freshwater at 84 degrees (discus temps).

Originally Posted by lekyiscool

sry for the heap of questions =)

No prob! That's why I post.