Semi High Tech Nano Tank

[ervinelin]

Hi guys,

It's been more than 4 months since I've setup my 1.5ft nano tank, I thought I would share my progress thus far.

The main thing about this tank is that I wanted it to be as autonomous as possible, as there are times when I can be away from the tank for a few days up to more than a week. As such I DIYed a few automated gadgets to help with this.


Here's the tank 1 week after setup. If you are wondering what's with the multi layered substrate, it's made up of 80% potting soil, the other 20% made up of 3 types of different leftover substrate materials from a previous project.


Here's the tank in September just after I upgraded the 11W PL light into HO LEDs. One of the reasons for the upgrade was the sluggish growth I was seeing.


The insides of an Aqua Zonic clip on light removed and replaced with 3 x HO Cree LEDs. See here for more details: http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=59437


The LEDs are controlled by a DIY timer with an inbuilt "sunrise/sunset" simulator, it brightens and dims the lights slowly instead of just turning them on and off. You can download a timelapse video I made showing this effect from here -> Timelapse Video

The tank is also kept in a room in which the air conditioning is not always turned on, as such I wanted to make a thermostat which will turn off the fan when the air conditioning is turned on and the tank's temperature dips below a preset level.


Internal guts of the thermostat


Thermostat at work


Overview of the tank and it's components at it's current state (end Nov). On the rear right of the tank is the DIY 2 channel automatic doser which doses about 1ml of Excel and liquid ferts every day.


The DIY autotop up float switch sensor as well as the inlet for the water which is pumped up from a small reservoir under the table. The thermostat's probe is also seen here.




Here's how the tank looks now, about 4 months after initial setup and with hardly any input from me on a daily basis.

I just do the occasional topping up of food, excel, liquid ferts and water in the reservoir. On top of that is the weekly pruning and that's about it.

Now I'm having problems controlling the tennelus from overtaking the japan hair grass and vice versa.

Yup, hope you guys like it..

[seanskye]

I must say... WOW! This is really impressive! You should consider mass producing those DIY gadgets. I'm sure there would be a market for such products!

[Shadow]

cool DIY. courious, how did you pressed the auto doser pump?

[stormhawk]

I can only say WOW.

You made all the gadgets by yourself? The DIY fan thermostat is simply impressive.

[rent_broker]

Wow, I would say you are a very technical person with passion in love for passion..

Impressive.

[Ben555]

Wow!!! I would consider this as pretty high Tech in terms of equipment design and setup. Well done

[ervinelin]

seanskye: Thanks! As for selling the gadgets, I thought of it but the cost of manufacturing a product mass market is just way too staggering. Not to mention how easy it is to copy the design of the product as it's really quite easy (relative to say making an ipod).

shadow: To press the auto dosing pump bottles, I use a high torque low RPM AC motor attached to the back of that black box. The motor has a shaft which connects to a cam (I believe that's the term) and that cam has a roller on it which when the motor rotates will press a bar down and dispense the liquids.

I'll post another photo to illustrate this when I'm home. However I have 2 versions of this, for some reason one of them which I use in my other tank has stopped working. So I don't advise you use this method.

stormhalk: Yup, all done myself. I actually went to learn how to do it by reading books and such. When I set up the tank I had no idea how to do programming and such, so I read books and went online to learn how to do it. But it's not all perfect, the gadgets have on occasion gone a bit crazy for no apparent reason. As such I don't advise anyone to follow my lead on this.

rent_broker: Thanks! But I actually wanted a low tech tank, somehow hands got itchy and the tank evolved into this. haha!

ben555: Haha, but I didn't go with a canister CO2, I figured DIY is more than enough. Seems like I'm right.

[ervinelin]

Oh yes I forgot to mention that the important components (filter & lights) are also attached to a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) I had lying around.

I think it'll run the tank for a few hours should the power go off.. not long enough, but better than nothing...

[Xianghao]

i'm in awe with all your automated aquarium. are you an electrical engineer? anyway, care to share your estimated costs of DIY-ing everything? I am especially interested in your HP LED bulbs, don't they cost a bomb?

[ervinelin]

Shadow: Here's a photo of the inside of the auto doser, You can see how the shaft of the motor connects to a cam and a roller. The roller presses the horizontal bar down and thus dispenses the liquid.

It's setup via a timer that operates for about 1min/day, which equates to about 1ml if I remember correctly. It's not v. accurate nor is it reliable, but it's cheap.



Xianghao: Nope, I'm not an electrical engineer. I just learnt everything by reading books, reading online forums and experimenting.

As for the LEDs, you can check out the link here: http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=59437

As for the total cost, no I didn't keep track. Material costs are relatively low, but I had to buy a lot of other stuff like the programmer, the soldering iron etc etc etc...

Yups!

[Shadow]

interesting idea, may I know where you got the motor from? Is there any torque spec of the motor? I wonder if solenoid can do better.

By the way, well done for non EE to achive such just by reading, incredible . Make me wonder what can you achieve if you are EE .

[ervinelin]

interesting idea, may I know where you got the motor from? Is there any torque spec of the motor? I wonder if solenoid can do better.

By the way, well done for non EE to achive such just by reading, incredible . Make me wonder what can you achieve if you are EE .

I bought it from Sim Lim Tower, doesn't have a torque spec but written on it, only the RPM, 2-3RPM.

As for a solenoid (or actuator), unless your solenoid is very strong, it won't be able to do the job as it takes quite a bit of force to push down the bar. I thought about that too but realised that it wasn't the best solution. Not to mention the cheapest solenoid I could find was a lot more expensive than the motor.

I thought about this for quite some time and realised that this is probably one of the most elegant methods. I have another version which does away with the two bottles, it draws fluid up from reservoirs but I've had it break down on me, so I think I'll troubleshoot it further before showing it.

[alas]

You have a UPS for your tank! Wah.
I can imagine your house as a DIY shop haha.

[ervinelin]

You have a UPS for your tank! Wah.
I can imagine your house as a DIY shop haha.

Was originally for my computer actually.. haha... but hardly ever ever came into use.. so might as well use it for the tank.

[madnugget]

your diy skills are amazing man... even being a EEE student i dont think i can do it..

[mozesyap]

your diy skills are amazing man...

That is my exact same thought.
Kudos to your skill ;p

[ervinelin]

That is my exact same thought.
Kudos to your skill ;p

Thanks thanks.. but I just like tinkering lah, and I've always DIYed stuff because in my studying days no money to buy the proper equipment, so DIY was the only way. Haha!

I just wished I had more access to proper tools, like mills, CNC machines, rapid prototyping machines, etc etc.. haha.. A dremel can only do so much!!

[popon]

speechless... ... cool DIY equipment you have there

by the way is the LED lamp give a promising growth to the plan?
another is what is the use of LED strip from Taiwan?

[p.albert]

the effort you have invested is wow. lol. considering you read up to DIY. i must say its really impressive. that LED thing is really neat. saves the fishes from getting that shock, when the light suddenly comes on.

[limz_777]

this set-up is well deserve to be in the high tech category , surface of tank looks oily , maybe a diy skimmer?