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40B Automated Aquarium

6K views 32 replies 10 participants last post by  KhanQueso 
#1 ·
Hey all,

This thread is a journal for my newest :) and only :( tank. (Is it bad that I want MTS?)

Present state as of (4/16/2014):


Gonna do a bit of a re-scape soon, couldn't see what was going on because of the murkiness on my first attempt. Most of these plants will be cycled out and replaced with more interesting species later.


In the spring of '13 I got an itch to make a nice 3D background for my 29 gallon tank and the project has been spiraling out of proportion (and increasing tank size) ever since.

----STAND----
I made the stand myself, mostly with 2x4 lumber and 1/4" plywood. I already knew (roughly) how I wanted the background to look, so I chose to enclose the top of the stand on 3 sides, hiding any trace of wiring or plumbing. Unlike most aquariums with equipment along the back, my aquarium has its equipment housed along the sides.

One of two equipment chambers in the background:


I wanted to make sure the stand would hold, so I made a CAD model and did a stress analysis.

Solid model of 2x4 structure:


The result was a completely over-engineered, nearly unbreakable stand. The frame is able to support about 8 US tons (according to the theoretical models). My floor will give out before the stand does :thumbsup:

One of the few pictures during the stand construction process:


I am no carpenter; the stand took far more perseverance than skill to complete. I spent over a month of on/off work to finish it.

----BACKGROUND----
The background has two purposes: look pretty and hide all the equipment. I created two equipment chambers on the left and right sides of the background. My canister filter draws water from one and pumps it through the other to ensure good circulation around the heaters and the like.

I made the background very durable. All foam pieces are held in place with 1.19 mm music wire in addition to silicone glue. After the foam structure, there is a 1/4 in thick layer of Quikrete built up over 5 coats. After this, I added 2 uncolored layers of Drylok just in case adding concrete pigments weakens the sealing properties. Then I added a brown layer of Drylok, followed by a layer of other colors to add more visual appeal.

Completed background, just before gluing into aquarium:


Water intake for one equipment chamber, currently doubles as a planter for some Anubias barteri:


Foam structure, shaped using knife, acetone, scrapper, and blowtorch:


Close-up of chamber inlet/anubias planter, pipes are hidden under gravel:


Drilled holes all the way through background and filled with concrete to weight it down:


First Quicrete coat of 5:


Gluing background in place:


Background during chemical detoxification and leak test stage, lots of drains and fills, sitting on table outside:


This was the most time-consuming part of the entire build, mostly because I did it during school when I had little time and waning motivation. I could have finished the shaping in a weekend and the concreting and sealing over a couple weeks, but it ended up taking 5 months.

----AUTOMATION----
The aquarium is not automated in the slightest at present (4/16/2014). I will be using an Arduino Mega as the brains of the whole operation and an Arduino Uno to control the human-machine interface (HMI) (lcd screen, buttons, indicator alarms and lights). I am no programming genius, so there will be an ungodly amount of debugging involved. The HMI code is about 30% complete and I have not started on the actual controller code.

Here is a list of features I plan on implementing:
-pH control using CO2
-High level CO2 alarm
-High level TDS alarm
-Intelligent temperature control
-Automatic water change (AWC)
-Automatic lighting control: day, high noon, night

For sensors, I am planning on using:
-Atlas Scientific pH Sensor to control pH level and CO2 injection
-Custom colorimeter/drop check to detect high CO2 levels
-Atlas Scientific TDS Sensor to detect high TDS and trigger AWC
-Atlas Scientific ENV-TMP Temperature Sensor
-Any good ideas for a compact float switch? The cheap ones seem unreliable and the expensive ones are too large.

That's all for now, I'm going to sleep.
 
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#5 ·
Just found my fish gasping for air at the top of the tank this morning :eek:
Never had that happen to me before. Not a lot of surface disturbance and no aeration probably did it. Got an emergence airstone running right now, might have to add an inline air diffuser so it doesn't push my CO2 out.

Looks awesome. I love the background, what plant and fish species are you keeping in there?
Thanks! The background was probably the hardest part. I'm an engineer, not a sculptor :)

Right now I have 6 juvenile German blue rams and 20 Cardinal Tetras. I brought them, and a canister filter over from my temporary 29 gallon (now scrapped).


I currently have two different anubias species (I think one is A. barteri), Amazon swords (Echinodorus bleheri I think), Cryptocoryne wendtii 'red', a single tiny, lonley corkscrew val, and a smattering of hair algae waiting to happen. They are all old plants from my 29 and will probably be phased out later. The hair algae is because my 29 went through an algae bloom just before I moved the plants over :mad:

I love that stand! How do you get water flow to your equipment behind the background? I'm assuming you have the heater, etc in there?
Thanks :)
The stand looks better from a distance; the molding a looks a little rough here and there due to my lack of woodworking experience. Learned a lot though, next stand is gonna be even better :)

I use my canister filter inlet and outlet to create water flow around my equipment. The equipment bay shown below has a few small holes in it that the water passes through to get to the tank. The other equipment bay has a more intricate design that I thought I might try; it is a set of pipes under a patch of gravel (my anubias sit on it since they don't care too much about substrate).

Left equipment bay:


Unlike most aquariums, my equipment is all on the sides of the tank. When it is finished there will be no wiring or plumbing behind the tank.

Wow that background took some work.
Yup :)
It's not going to fall apart on me anytime soon though! I plan on keeping this tank for at least 10 years, so the background needs to last.
 
#6 ·
-Any good ideas for a compact float switch? The cheap ones seem unreliable and the expensive ones are too large.

You could try this: http://www.adafruit.com/products/464

It's a bit pricey, but you could have the Arduino accurately measure the depth of your water at all times, which is much more than you can do with a typical float switch.
 
#7 ·
I have considered this sensor for the main tank, but it is definitely too expensive to use in all of my applications.

I plan on using float switches as low level sensors in my automatic water change and fertilizer reservoirs, as well as high level sensors in my waste water reservoir (no drain unfortunately) and main tank. That totals six sensors, about $240, which is more than I can afford with all of the other expensive sensors I'm going to need.

I'm hoping to fork out $100 or less for all six sensors.
 
#11 ·
Can you go into some detail on how you plan to set up the auto water change?
At the basic level, I will add supply (new) water in on one side of the tank and excess (old) water will drain out the other side (using an overflow similar to a sump).

I plan on using an Arduino microcontroller as the brains for the auto water change (AWC).

The AWC will be triggered by a timer or high total dissolved solids alarm. Ideally, it will do 2.5% - 5% four times a day.

Once triggered, the Arduino will turn off filter and any circulation pumps (all on/off switching uses SPST relays). This is to prevent mixing during the water change. I don't want much of the new water to drain out with the old water.

Next, the water change pump will be turned on and run for a fixed amount of time (long enough to do a 2.5% - 5% water change) before turning off. The pump supplies new water to the tank.

During this time the excess water overflows into a waste water reservoir (5 gallon bucket, I don't have access to a drain).

Once the pump is off the Arduino will restart the filter and circulation pumps. The AWC is complete.

I will have a float switch in the supply water reservoir to determine if there is enough water to do a water change. Another switch will be in the waste water reservoir to make sure it doesn't overflow. Finally, I want another switch in the main tank to make sure it doesn't flood if the siphon breaks in the overflow.

The supply water will be reverse osmosis, reconstituted with Seachem Equilibrium and Alkaline Buffer (possibly some Acid Buffer too, but most likely not).

This is not nearly as cheap as Optix's method.
 
#12 ·
You could easily design an automatic water change system with a DPDT relay and two cheap cheap cheap float switches...they are actually very reliable if used correctly...while thing for $30 ( and $25 is from buying the relay new)
Good to hear that the switches are reliable.

I'm not sure how you would accomplish an AWC with a DPDT relay and two float switches.

I'm assuming one switch is the drain limit and the other is the fill limit. From there you would use the relay to control a drain pump and a fill pump. Beyond this, I'm not sure how it would function without the float switches running on 120V, which I'm trying to avoid for safety reasons.

I'm all ears for a cheaper method if you care to explain :)
 
#13 · (Edited)
Sorry...didnt realize I had a question (tapatalk usually notifies you if youre quoted)

Anyway...I was thinking of an auto top off...but you could still do a very reliable, very easy, very SAFE auto drain stop fill stop auto top off sequence with 2 dpdt relays and 3 float switches (you would either need 1 pump 1 solenoid or 2 pumps to accomplish it tho) ...Im sure there is an easier way but this just came to mind first
 
#15 ·
Sorry...didnt realize I had a question (tapatalk usually notifies you if youre quoted)

Anyway...I was thinking of an auto top off...but you could still do a very reliable, very easy, very SAFE auto drain stop fill stop auto top off sequence with 2 dpdt relays and 3 float switches (you would either need 1 pump 1 solenoid or 2 pumps to accomplish it tho) ...Im sure there is an easier way but this just came to mind first
No problem, time isn't a constraint right now. I'm waiting for my next paycheck before I do anymore purchasing anyway. Aquariums soak up money faster than my college-student budget will allow :mad:

2 DPDTs make more sense than 1. You had me drawing up circuit diagrams trying to figure it out :confused: :)

In the process of writing this post I figured out my plan for eliminating automatic top off (ATO) will not work, so now I also have to factor that into my auto water change (AWC) system as well. Right now I am thinking that ATO and AWC will be from the same source (RO water) and the reconstituting agents normally added to AWC ahead of time will be dosed like fertilizer instead.

Good looking setup you got going there!
Thanks! :D
 
#16 ·
Thinking about this thread makes me want to design something myself...I would use a 50 gal trash can as my reservoir...and then a control panel with 2 momentary push buttons...and an on/off switch as an e stop...I would have two pumps connected...I push the 1st button, my sump filter, heater and co2 turn off...the first pump turns on and the sump is drained...the three floats drop and turn off the first pump (the lower float would be used to latch the relay -on low it opens)...when the other two dip...they turn on the second pump and fill the sump with water...this would also function as an ATO unit..the second push button could be used if I want to over ride the system and over fill my sump ...not sure why but I would think to dilute my tank off something bad happens
 
#17 ·
Thinking about this thread makes me want to design something myself...
Do it! :thumbsup:

As far as that second momentary button goes, the more control you have the merrier IMO. If you can remember what all your buttons and knobs do, you don't have enough. :biggrin:

I am a bit confused as to how opening the lower float will latch the relay; wouldn't opening the switch unlatch it? I'm assuming the middle float is for the ATO, so far that is what I have programmed on mine.

Are you thinking of controlling this purely electro-mechanically, or will you be using a microcontroller as the brains?

-------------------

I am chomping at the bit to continue working on my aquarium, but I need to wait for enough spare money to build up. School just got out, so I can finally work full time! Should have some significant progress after the next paycheck.

On the sunnier side of things, I have made major progress in programming the controller. Assuming everything works right the first time (haha, yeah right) I should be able to just slap everything together when I get all the parts. :thumbsup:
 
#18 ·
Float switches are reversible...open circuit at top...closed at bottom...and you can switch the orientation of the floating ring so that it is closed circuit up top and open at bottom...worst case scenario is that you completely flip the float switch so that it is mounted upside down...it accomplishes the same thing

ill draw up a ladder diagram and upload it later today to show you how it would work in my mind...I think im gonna do a test 20 gallon to prototype it...I want a tank that is mostly set and forget...

And yes I would use relays...it is significantly easier to design...and when it is right, you dont really need the flexibility that a microcontroller would offer
 
#19 ·
Thanks, a ladder diagram will definitely help.

I do agree, relays are definitely easier to work with than microcontrollers. I'm going with an MC for the sake of flexibility. I can change the water parameters and timing schedules at will with button presses rather than digging through my equipment this way.

As I work on this tank I'm already getting ideas for my next project. I'll most likely use relays and timers for cost effectiveness and simplicity.
 
#20 ·


Only requirement here is that the drain pump is faster than the refill pump

I've actually started building my power control station and bought some wood to build a stand

Looking at it now..I realize that I could do a total drain as well if I hold the drain push button
 
#21 ·
Makes much more sense now, thanks for the picture.

I wish I had a PLC; ladder logic is easier to use for this type of application than coding is. The only problem is that a basic PLC costs nearly as much as the rest of my setup combined (minus stand).

Looking back on what I have done so far, almost every one of my problems is money related. I guess that is hi-tech for you.
 
#23 ·
money isnt the issue...finding TIME to do it all is...
I know what you mean. I have sunk about 50 hours into programming the controller (all functions, not just the AWC). I'm no computer scientist, this its the most difficult program I have written to date. I enjoy the challenge, but not the pace.

Hopefully I will be able to wrap up the coding soon. Once I get ahold of my display I will be able to test it.
 
#25 ·
I'm not too surprised, you struck me as an engineer :)
There seem to be a large population of engineers here, I guess planted aquariums appeal to us.

I don't blame you for hating coding. If I had to code for a living I would hate it. As it is, this project is wearing my patience thin on the programming side.

I [STRIKE]am[/STRIKE] was making a CO2 diffuser for my aquarium, the first design listed here.

I managed to crack the acrylic straight through the middle of the largest piece, so no more progress tonight. I will probably be going with a different method for CO2 absorption. I talked to my boss over lunch and he suggested a helical design with slow-flowing water to increase contact time with the CO2 bubbles.

Here is a diagram of the system:


The helix will be constructed out of 3/4" - 1" ID tubing for slower flow to optimize dwell time further. I haven't determined the number of loops yet, it may take some experimenting to get it right. A booster pump will combat head loss added by the extra length of the tubing. Combined with the throttle valve, pressure in the helix will be raised which should aid CO2 absorption (most likely only marginally).
 
#26 ·
Ive always wondered about that as well...why this hobby attracts so many engineers...especially since we typically are not the most artistic...yet some people can produce some of the most stunning displays

You may want to use the booster pump in parallel...I have a textbook that explains what happens when you plumb two pumps in series vs in parallel...just don't remember of hand
 
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