Canopy and Stand Build for 42 Gallon Hex Tank

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Now to the back panel and cabinet assembly. The photo below is the parts of the side on the cabinet. The difference here is the slant on the horizontal parts are down to the outside. This is hopefully to keep any drips or spills down the side of the cabinet on the outside the cabinet. Both sides are Identical except for the side the door is mounted.

The next photo is of the parts for the partition in the middle of the cabinet. There is a single fan on the back that has to clear the partition and leave room to replace the fan when the time comes. That is the reason for the separate parts instead of one piece. The partition has the inserts for mounting the power bars.

The next photo shows the partition assembled.

The photo below is of the parts to the back of the cabinet except for the insert panel. This will be acrylic and have the inside painted black. All bulkhead fittings, socket and jacks are mounted to the acrylic panel. The fan covers are mounted to the back at the top for the exhaust vents for the cabinet.

The assembled sides, assembled back and assemble partition are shown in photo below.

The photo below has the cabinet partially assembled with the back panel in the background at the top of the photo. This was assembled for some testing so there are some items that were added later to the back panel to partition the electronics cabinet from the area with water. Also it just has one of the outlet boxes installed for the testing. There will be two in the final assembly. It was mainly to make sure things would fit and be accessible enough to work. It is better to find as much that needs to be changed before everything is permanently assembled. There are bulkhead feed through s for five 1/4" tubes. They will be for DI water, fresh saltwater, sump drain tube, CO2 and air. I have had good luck with these fittings and the tubing. So a leak is unlikely. The cabinet has holes in the bottom so if water does get into the cabinet it won't pool in the cabinet. There is also two receptacles for AC power cords. Also there are six ports for keystone connectors. These can have connectors such as RJ45, phone jacks and DC jacks.

The photo below shows the cabinet and back panel assembled. The original testing had the power outlet box connected to the bottom outer frame. This was changed to mount to the partition in a update after testing. This photo also shows the side of the panel that would be toward the stand.

The photo below shows a view of the back panel assembly and cabinet assembled from the back. The section of the top outer frame is also attached in the photo. You can see the cut in it for the bottom of the back cover. At this point the acrylic panel has not been painted.

The photo below is a view from the stand side.

That's it for the cabinet section for now. More to come.

 

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Next is the outer frames for the stand. Below is the parts for the bottom outer frame. Once the final assembly is complete it will be permanently attached to the stand.

Below is the top view of the bottom outer frame assembled.

Below is the bottom view of the bottom outer frame assembled. The two inside pocket holes on each section are for mounting the bottom outer frame to the stand.

Below is the parts for the top outer frame.

Below is the top view of the top outer frame assembled. The only cut on the top side of the top outer frame is the recess for the back cover assembly.

Below is the bottom view of the top outer frame assembled. The top outer frame assembly overlaps the panels on the inside which makes it wider than the bottom outer frame.

More to come.

 

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The finished front panel is in the photo below. Since this is the front panel it is a little different. Most of it covers the electronics compartment. That part of the panel painted black. The part at the top is painted white. There is a cutout in the door where the original controller is now mounted. By the time I got the tank running I had a later model controller. I intend posting about the controller later on. Near the top is a strip that mates with the trim around the top. There is a foam seal attached to the strip. This is to help keep any spill from running down the outside of the stand.

The pieces for the strip are in the photo below. These are glued onto the panel. This is on all six of the panels

The photo below is the front view of the front panel. The vent in the bottom of this panel is for ventilation of the electronics compartment only. There are two fans in the compartment for this.

The photo below is of the panel with the door open.

The photo below is the back of a finished side panel. There are four of these panels. This is the side of the panel that can get wet so it is painted white. The BR near the bottom is for my benefit so I know where they go if they are removed. There are two of each that are near identical. This cannot be seen when the panel is installed. The strip just below the door opening prevents water from dripping into the air space between the stand and the panel. This area is the air intake from the small vents at the bottom of these four panels. This ventilation helps keep humidity down in the sump area and helps with the cooling provided by the cooling fans that blow across the sump. There are two fans in the back cover that exhaust this air along with the air in the canopy. Since air is being pulled out of the areas with water exposure and it is blown into the areas with electronics. I am hoping this will help keep moisture out of the electronics areas. The hinges are also covered when the door is closed to hopefully extend the life of the hinges. The back of the door is also protected with a panel that has a rubber coating. The panel is not glued to the door but attached with four screws. The screws have plastics caps to protect against water damage.

The photo below is of the front of the side panel.

The photo below is of the side panel with the door open. I cut the covers to fit the original hinges but it would have been difficult to get to the adjustments. I came across these hinges and decided to use these instead. I still need to do this to the canopy. At that time I plan on changing out those hinges as well. The cut out in the back of the top cover is there so it clears the brace below the top frame segment of the stand. The top and bottom of all the covers and the protection panels for the doors all slant down towards the inside of the stand.

That's if for now. More to come.

 

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Adding the finishing touches to the back panel and cabinet. The most important thing with the electronics is keeping it away from water and humidity. Adding the salt to the mix makes it even more important. I designed the cabinet to house the electronics and prevent the water and salt spray from getting to this area.

The photo below is the partition painted and ready to install. Also in the photo is the back panel bulkhead for the conduit from the front electronics cabinet.

The next three photos show the back panel and cabinet assembly ready for final assembly.

It just need some final touches with the paint and it is ready.

This photo shows the back panel side. The opening near the bottom is for all the cords from pumps, heaters and equipment in the sump area. The slit above it is for mounting a flap to prevent water from splashing directly into the electronics cabinet. The larger opening is for the bulkhead shown in the above photo and for a pass through for a lack of a better word. This will allow water lines and cable to go from the sump to the back of the tank and partition it from the electronics area.

The next two photos are of the pass through. It is made out of 1/4 thick wood. Here it is painted and ready for install. The only thing missing in these photo are the holes for the conduit that runs from the cabinet to the canopy.

The photo below shows the pass through installed with the bulkhead.

The photo below is a top view before the last parts are added. The parts that will be added are cut to overlap the pass through below them to keep the water inside the pass through.

The photo below show the parts added in place.

Below is a view of the back panel and cabinet assembled from the stand side. The flap for the cable pass through to the electronics cabinet has also been installed.

A view of the back panel and cabinet assembly from the back below. There is one of the 1/4" tube feed through s missing in this photo. There are six places for the feed through s but only 5 will be used. The bottom left one is missing. I had to couple the tubing back together with it after removing the cabinet to make improvements inside. At that time the only thing in use was ATO. The only thing that was running was the sump for testing at the time.

The two photos below are of each side of the cabinet area. Near the top you can see the hole in the pass through for the conduit and the platform at the bottom of the partition that was added for the outlet box for each side. I added this after having an issue removing the cabinet stand assembly with the outlet box attached to the bottom outer frame. There is a slight angle to it to make it easier to plug and unplug power cords.

These next two photos are of the cabinet on each side with some equipment installed. It is a little crowded in there though. I would not put so much in a small place without the fan for ventilation. Both outlet boxes have a GFCI breaker and each has its own separate power input. The wires through the conduit hole in the second photo are there just to keep them out of the way temporarily. Those are from the fan controller.

More to come.

 

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I don't have any photos of the bottom outer frame completed except for when it was already connected to the stand. So the photos below were taken when the panels were removed for some improvements to the cabinet and sump. Sorry for the focus on the photos. There are two holes in each section of the bottom outer frame. These are in the cutout section. This is to make sure water does not pool there. I would rather it drain to the floor than to stay there. These holes are lined with soda straws that are glued into the holes in the sections. They are cut flush with the cutout on top and cut just below the bottom of the section on the bottom. I did this to hopefully keep water from entering the wood via the drilled holes.

The area that is under the cabinet has two large rectangular holes. This is to insure that in the event any water enters the cabinet it drains out on the floor without pooling. The photo below shows the area where the back panel and cabinet will go.

The photos above were taken after the system was ran for awhile after being put in place. The back panel and cabinet were removed to make improvements. The sump was also removed to make a permanent holder for the float switches and probes and a holder for the cooling fans. The sump was also drilled to install the drain manifold. There will be more on the sump later. After the improvements were finished and panels reinstalled the tank was put back in place and filled. The photo below is a front view of the stand without the side panels. This shows the electronics area with modules in place. I also had to do a little touch up on the paint in a few places.

The top outer frame is in the photo below. This is a top view. There is trim around the area that will be above the pass through in the back panel and cabinet assembly. These match up with trim in the back cover when it is in place.

The bottom view of the top outer frame is in the photo below. The bottom also has trim around the hole in the outer frame. This is to make sure water spills do drop down into the pass through then to the bottom of the stand.

Below is a close up where the sections mate with each other. There is just one pocket hole screw used along with glue.

More to come.

 

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The Back Cover

Below is a photo of the pieces to one of the sides of the back cover. The back cover sits on top of the top outer frame of the stand. There is a cutout in the top outer frame that the bottom where cover sits into. You have to lift the canopy slightly in the back to get the back cover on or off. So it cannot be easily knocked off the stand. The ventilation fans for the canopy and sump are mounted inside the top of the back cover and would also have to be unplugged for its removal. There is an access door on each side of the cover to gain access to the back of the tank without the removal of the cover. Since both sides are just a mirror image of each other no need to show the photo of the other side.

Below is a photo of the back. This was changed in the finished version. I decided not to use a panel in the back. I replaced the two rail pieces with two pieces of wood cut to replace the rails the same length as the stiles. That made a solid back for the cover.

Below is the assembled side for the back cover. The extra added width on one side fills in between the cover and the back of the tank below the canopy.

Below is a photo of both sides and the back ready for assembly. The doors are stacked to the right in the photo.

Below is a photo of the pieces to a door. Just like the cabinet doors these are not wide enough for a raised panel. So a 1/4" panel was used. They are the same width as the cabinet doors but are quite a bit longer.

The photo below is of an assembled door. The 1/4 round cut to the outside of the doors was done with the door assembled.

The parts for the fan partition are in the photo below. The original fans have been changed since the photo. The new fans are thicker and required replacing the fan guards with the wire type to keep it below the top outer frame of the back cover. Also the long wood strips were replaced with different widths form those in this photo to account for the bulkhead mount added to the canopy.

Below is a top view of the top frame for the cover. The notches in the bottom left and right corners is so it clears the back columns on the canopy.

The bottom view of the top frame for the back cover is in the photo below. The cutout matches the top of the assembled back cover.

The assembled back cover is in the photos below. These photos are of three cover as it was assembled for testing and not final assembly.

Below is the back cover with doors open.

Trim pieces were added to the bottom to mate with the trim parts on the top outer frame of the stand. Those are not present in the photo below.

More to come.

 

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I could not find any photos of the finished back cover. So I did the next best thing. I removed the back cover and took some photos of it. It was dusty so I just wiped it down with a damp cloth before taking the photos. It will be 2 years in October since the tank was setup. So it has that amount of wear and tear time on it. The first photo is of the inside of the back cover. There is a dark spot on the left side a little lower than halfway down. This is from the rubber feet of a pump on the bio pellet reactor. The trim on the bottom inside mates with the trim in the top outer frame of the stand.

The photo below is with the doors open.

Below is a top view of the back cover. These fans do take some abuse due to the high humidity with a little salt mixed in. These are not the original fans. I have switched to the same fans I am using for sump cooling. I did some modification to them to help with longevity. I plan to get into that later in the thread.

The photo below is a bottom view.

The photo below show a better view of the trim that mates with the trim on the top outer frame of the stand.

Since I removed the cover for the photos I figured I would post some photos of where it sits on the stand. The photo below shows the pump that was up against the back of the cover. The reactor is a kit from Avast Marine. The motor assembly for both of the MP10's are also visible in the photos along with the conduit, drain tubing and return tubing. The small stand that the reactor sits on and the reason for it is also a topic I will discuss later. All of this is hidden behind the back cover. I am happy with how this has held up so far.

More to come.

 

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The next three photos are from when the stand and canopy was assembled for testing. It was disassembled after testing. The assemblies were glued when reassembled. Notice the bottom outer frame is not touching the floor. This is to allow carpet to slip under the bottom outer frame but allow the stand to sit on the base flooring.

The photos below are of the stand during assembly. Some of the side panels still have only primer on the interior. The strips on the side panels just above the bottom brace of the stand are there to minimize the chance of water getting splashed into the air vent. If the stand were to over fill it would spill into the air vents and then onto the floor. Notice the pass through for the cords is a lot higher than those openings or the door openings. Also the conduit can be seen attached to the back panel In between the conduit is the return manifold. There are five outputs with valves on the return manifold. In the final install the return manifold was moved above the hangers. There was enough clearance between the bottom of the tank and the hangers to place it there.

The photo below is a photo of everything in place ready for water. I just stuck a couple rocks in the tank so it would not look so bare. The 1/4" tubing was a temporary ATO line to the sump. The sump was running during this time. I was testing the controller by running a small pump as a return but the water was going back into the sump. The skimmer was also running. The wire was a temporary buss cable. We do plan on changing out the old carpet, but we wanted to wait for awhile before doing that just in case there is an unforeseen event with the tank. I know that could happen at any time, but odds are a lot higher the first couple of years. Besides cutting the old carpet squares to fit around the stand gives me a template for cutting the new carpet. I do plan on using carpet squares again. The squares will be a lot easier to pull up and clean if something does happen.

This photo shows the wall plate for the five 1/4" tubes and the buss cable that is running from the garage to the tank. There is a wall box inside the wall that the conduit is attached. My thinking was if a tube did spring a leak it would drain out of the conduit from of either wall box instead of inside the wall or the attic. All tubing is ran through conduit. The conduit is insulated in the attic. The device hanging from the wall is an old android phone I was using as a webcam. I did get some of the black wire covers that is now covering the tubes and buss cable. This makes it look a little more tidy than it is in this photo.

More to come.

 

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The Sump

After browsing Marc's website http://www.melevsreef.com/. I decided to try and make my own sump. Marc has excellent direction on how to build a sump. Below in the two photos is what I came up with.

After running it in the stand in place for a few weeks I was ready to add the drain manifold and add the places for probe holders and float switches. I also made a fan holder for the cooling fans. In the photo below it shows the sump ready to go. I slowly removed the media out of the corner boxes after the tank cycled. The skimmer is a SWC 120 with a Swabbie from Avast Marine installed. The return pump is a Sicce 3.0. The float switches are mounted to 1/4 PVC. The PVC is held in place with probe holders I purchased from Avast marine. The switches can be raised or lowered to set the level that they are triggered. The bottom one is used for low sump level alarm. The upper one is used for the over full alarm. The middle one is just to alert the controller that the sump is full. I eventually added a forth float switch which can be setup to replace either of the other three float switch in the event one goes out on me. So the sump can continue to operate until the bad switch can be replaced. Unfortunately there is not a lot of room under a 42 gallon hex tank for a rectangular sump. This was the biggest one I could fit in the stand. It is close to 10 gallons if completely full.

Below is a view from the top.

Below is the fan holder I made to hold the two cooling fans. While I was doing the testing I decided I would just let the fans run without control to see how low they would cool down the water in the sump. The sump circulation pump, skimmer pump and a calcium reactor pump were running at the time. My house thermostat was set at 75 degrees. The water in the sump got down to 68 degrees in about 24 hours. So evaporative cooling does work.

Below is the fan holder with fans installed. These fans have removable blades so I was able to modify them so they would hold up longer in the harsh environment. More on that later.

Below are photos of the mounting fixture for the float switches and can also hold 1/4" bulkheads. I used them for drawing water from the sump for auto water change. Also for return from the bio pellet reactor.

In the photo below is the probe holder used for probes being placed between the baffles of the bubble trap. It can probably hold around 5 probes OK even though there are more holes than that.

More to come.

 

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Now is as good a time as any to go over the modifications to the fans. This has only been done to the fans exposed to the canopy or sump area. That is four of the nine fans. I had a fan burn up and shut down the 12 volt power supply. So I decided to add a 2 ohm 1/4 flame proof resistor to the power input to the fans. This will act kind of like a fuse. In the photo below I have already cut the power wire and have the resistor and some heat shrink tubing cut and ready. The 2 ohm value just happend to be what resistors I had available at the time. I have not had a resistor go out yet, but I have not had a fan burn up again either.

I placed the heat shrink over the wire far enough up to keep the heat from soldiering form causing it to shrink.

The photo below shows the resistor soldiered in place.

Heat shrink slipped over the resistor and heated to shrink over connections.

The photo below shows blade assembly removed. Now it is almost ready to seal up the electronics.

Before doing that I plugged the bearing area by stuffing a piece of paper towel in that area. This was to keep the RTV out of the bearing. Also you have to makes sure the RTV is thin enough that the fan blade assembly will clear the RTV. This particular fan has a 3 speed switch that was set to the high position before sealing it up.

This shows the electronics area seal with silicone RTV. In the later fans I started packing the RTV in the coils also.

The photo below shows the back side of the fan. These fans are only around $9 at FRY's I have caught them on sell for less that $5.

If they are not sealed they will only last around 3 months. I have one that is sealed that has been running over a year and it is still running. It doesn't look too pretty, but it seems to keep the salt water out of the electronics.

Below is a photo of the burnt up board in the fan speed controller and the burnt up board on the fan. Luckily the 12 volt power supply shut off before any further damage was done.

 

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When I removed the back cabinet for some improvements I made a bracket to hold the fan speed control on one side and a module or two on the other side. Below is a couple of photos of what I come up with to do this. It is upside down in the photos.

In the photo below you can see the fan speed controller mounted to the bracket. The controller has 4 speed control channels. There are a couple of the channels that control two fans. The only two fans not controlled by this are the two fans cooling the sump.

In the photo below of the other side you can see a buss splitter module mounted to the bracket just above the two power bars. This splitter is a five way splitter. Each of the three power bars are connected to a port. One port is connected to a keystone coupler mounted to the back of the cabinet. The last one is connected to a cable to the canopy. Each of the three power bars have a cable that runs to the front cabinet. In the photo one of the ports is open. The is the one to the canopy. The conduit to the canopy in removed in the photo. That is what goes in the round hole just to the upper left of the hinge.

I also took that time to make some holders for the power supplies. There were four at that time. It is starting to get crowded again in the cabinet. I have been thinking of making a cabinet to put behind the tank for the power supplies and the battery backup for the Vortech's. The power supplies are the 12 volt supply, the 24 volt supply and the two supplies for the Vortech's. In the two photos above you can see these mounted two in each side. On the side with the fan controller are the 12 volt and 24 volt supplies. on the other side is the two supplies for the Vortech's

Below is a photo of the holders with the supplies. Behind them is the cabinet on it's side.

More to come.

 

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I got a recirculating bio pellet reactor awhile back, but when I installed it behind the back cover the water temp would start to climb. It was obstructing the pass through opening too much. So I just abandoned that project until recently. I decided to make a stand to lift it up away from the pass through opening. Below is a photo of the pieces cut and ready for assembly.

The back side is shown below assembled with the pocket holes plugged.

The back side assembly from the other side. This was scrap lumber that was used for this project.

Below is the back side sanded and ready to go.

Below is the other side of the back side sanded and ready to go.

Below is the front side sanded ready to go. This side is missing the bottom rail so that it can straddle all the return and drain lines along with the power cables and conduit.

Below is the other side of the front side.

The photo below shows a bottom cross brace assembled to the front side.

Below is a bottom cross brace attached to the back side.

Below is the front and back attached by the bottom cross braces. All the pocket holes were done with a Kreg pocket hole jig. That kit was well worth the money I spent in it.

The top braces are attached and ready for the pocket hole plugs.

Top braces plugged and sanded.

In the photo below I set the reactor on the stand to check the fit. It looks good, so ready to paint.

Below is the stand painted and ready to go from the front. This reactor stand has the same rubber coating as the inside of the tank stand.

Below is the stand from the back view.

Below is a photo of where the reactor stand will go. As you can see if the front side had a bottom rail you would have to disconnect the return and drain lines along with the conduit to get the stand in and out.

Below you can see the stand in place ready for the reactor.

With the reactor in place and running the temp can be held at 78.1. So it looks like this project is a success. It has now been operating for about a month without any temp issues.

 

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The Lighting

Lighting is one of the reasons for building the canopy in the first place and with that came the matching stand. So I will get into the lighting now. I started with 3 Meanwell ELN-60-48D drivers (0-10v control), 6 cool white LED's, 6 blue LED's, 6 royal blue LED's and 2 RGBW LED's ( red-blue-green-cool white). This was changed before the the tank was actually setup. The current setup uses Meanwell LDD drivers (PWM control), 6 warm white LED's, 12 royal blue LED's (2 strings of 6), 2 RGBW LED's, 4 UV LED's, 1 deep red LED and one lime green LED. The deep red is in the string with the 2 red LED's in the RBGW's. The lime green LED is in the string with the 2 green RBGW's. The 4 UV LED's are in their own string. The warm white LED's are in a string of 6. They have a max current of 3 amps. They are driven by a driver with a max current of 1.5 amps so these should last a long time even if driven near the max of the driver. There are 6 royal blue LED's with a max current of 1.5 amps these are driven by a 1.5 amp driver. The remaining 6 royal blues are 1 amp LED's driven by a 1 amp driver. The RBGW's have a max current of 700ma for each diode. These are driven by 700ma drivers. The UV LED's are 700ma and have a 700ma driver. I use 2 PC board that are capable of holding up to 6 drivers. I actually have 4 boards but only 2 are in use. I purchased them with a group of other people. I was not the designer, but I pooled in with him and a few others to get them built. I think similar boards can now be purchased from one of the DIY LED places online. Below is a couple of photos of one of the PC boards with all the components installed except for the drivers.

Below is one of the spare boards with spare LDD drivers in some of the sockets.

These boards were originally for the H version of the LDD's I modified one to allow the use of the L version of LDD's so I could use the 1.5 amp drivers. They may have H versions of these by now, but at the time I needed them they were only available in the L version at 1.5 amps. There is one pin that is different between the H And L versions. One of the boards is powered by a 24v 6 amp supply. The other board is powered by 12v 3 amp supply. The 12v supply also supplies power to all the fans.

Below is a photo of the board supplied by the 24 volt supply. There are 4 drivers on this board. They are for the warm white LED string, Both the Royal blue LED strings and the UV LED string. Any string with 4 or more LED's is on the 24 volt supply.

Below is the 12 volt board. This has 4 drivers also. These power the red LED string, green LED string, Blue LED string and the cool white LED string. The bundle of black wires in this photo are from the moon light pods.

The moon light pods are driven by the MLC module. That module has built in drivers for up to 6 pods with each pod containing 2 LED's. The pods are available in red, blue or white. Below is a photo of the MLC module. I have one pod each of the blue and white. I have 2 red pods. The reds are for turning on at night if I want to look at the tank. Each color is controlled independently since there are three channels.

The module below is an AVC module. It is a beta version and does not have a label attached. The Advanced voltage control module has 4 outputs that can be configured independently as either 0-10v, 5v PWM or 10v PWM. I use all 4 as 5v PWM to directly control the LDD drivers. Each channel can control more than one driver. The Main control unit also has 2 5v PWM channels for a total of 6 PWM channels. The 6 channels are red, green, blue, white, royal blue and UV. Each has it's own timer so they can have independent on and off times. At the moment I have all six timers set the same. Each channel has a 4 hour ramp time. So it takes the lights 4 hours to get from no light to their maximum set amount. They then continue at the maximum setting until the timer expires. Then they ramp down to no light over 4 hours.

Below is a photo of inside the top of the canopy. I still haven't got around to getting this tidy. It is on the to do list. Those fans have about a 3 year run time on them. The lighting was run as the build was in process. The connector with the green terminal strip is the PWM signals from the main controller which is in the front of the stand. There is a smaller silver cable to the left that is the buss signal for the 2 modules located here.

At the moment I have the 6 channels set for the maximum in percent as listed below.

Controlled by main controller
UV 65
Royal Blue 60

Controlled by AVC module
Red 25
Green 25
Blue 55
White 55

I checked the output at the bottom of the tank when testing the lighting. The photo below shows the reading on a Quantum meter. There was no water in the tank though. This was all outputs at 100%. The wire ties were there for some added color.

I have some more readings that were taken at different depths and placements in the tank after it was filled and running. I will try and find the data and post it.

Below is a photo of the LED array showing the middle and one side of lights. There is another side that was blocked in the photo. So there are 11 LED's that are not shown. The white looking LED,s that are in between the green and red LED's are the RGBW LED's On the side the grouping of three consist of 1 warm white and 2 royal blue. The 2 in between the groups of three are the UV LED's. It is normal for these to appear dim to us. The other side has three groups of three and two UV LED's. Unfortunately taking a photo of the LED's with them on does not come out very well. Also one string of royal blue LED's are 1 amp and one string is 1.5 amp. So one string does not put out as much light. When I updated I replace the string of 6 blue LED's with XPE type royal blue LED's I left the original royal blue LED's unchanged. I don't remember how high they were in this photo, but it was probably low.

 

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I found where I had posted the data for the lighting on another site. So here it is. The top is just above water level. The ledge is at the rock ledge in the center of the tank. The bottom is on top of sand in center of tank. the corner was at the far left corner at the bottom. These were taken with an Apogee meter. These were taken in March of 2016. The tank was up and running at the time. There are twice as many blue LED's than the warm white LED's. A photo of the tank at that time is shown below the data.

50% Blue White Both
Top 544 297 820
Ledge 227 118 335
Bottom 137 78 220
Corner 55 49 100

100% Blue White Both
Top 895 493 1427
Ledge 383 200 597
Bottom 222 127 344
Corner 102 83 180

 

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The Controller

This I guess is a good time to talk about the controller. Originally I chose the Reefkeeper Elite as my controller. That was in October 2008. I purchased the Reefkeeper system with the NET module. Like most new toys I did not just leave it in the box until I was ready to use it. I hooked it up and got started with programming the controller. I even got a container of salt water for the various probes. Before long I was helping others with programming on the manufacturer's forum. It wasn't long before the manufacturer in this case Digital Aquatics noticed. They ask about my background and then ask if I would like to be a Team DA member. So naturally I said yes. A Team DA member is not a Digital Aquatics employee but is here to help other fellow aquarist with programming issues and answering the common questions that new users might have. There are a few of us here on R2R. I have been doing this for several years now. One of the perks is I do get to try out new things before it is available to the general public. I don't get every module or new device. It has to be something I can use and put through it's paces. One of the items I got to try out is their Archon controller as a beta tester. So by the time I had the tank up and running I had the Archon in hand ready for the tank.

The Archon has improved quite a bit since it was first introduced. It is basically a Linux based computer with a built in module. The built in module has a interface for the buss used by all the Reefkeeper modules. The same modules that are used with the Reefkeeper Elite and Reefkeeper Lite. There are 4 of these buss ports on the Archon ( upper right part of Archon in photo below). One is dedicated to a iTemp temp probe ( the bottom of the 4 buss ports in photo below). The other three can be used to connect to any of the modules (the silver buss cables upper right are connected to these three). The Archon comes with it's own power pack so buss power is not an issue. The other ports are 2 ports that can be configured for either pH or ORP ( the two BNC's in upper left), 4 switch input ports, 4 0-10v ports, 2 PWM ports. Two of the 0-10v ports ( between the pH ports and the RJ45 jacks middle left) have the same connector as the Advanced Pump Control module. So the same cables used with the APC can be used with the Archon. The switch ports, other 2 0-10v ports and PWM ports are accessed via 2 RJ45 jacks (the silver cables are hooked here bottom left). There is a module that breaks these out to terminals. It is the IOE module( above the Archon on the left). Only one IOE is required per Archon. You can also use you own cables or use a cat 5 cable to break out the individual wires. There is one USB port (Right side of Archon near bottom) which is currently used for a USB drive. All the boot up files and graphing is stored here. Once booted up only the graphing is done on the USB drive. The remaining is a wired network jack (on right just above USB port) and the power jack ( on right between buss jack and network jack).

The Archon has it own wifi hot spot. To setup the Archon you just plug in the power supply and plug the supply into an outlet. No need to hook any other modules at this point. Now just go to the device you are going to use to connect. The screen shots I have here were using an iPad. Go to where you select the wifi network you wish to connect with. The Archon should show as one of the networks.

Choose the Archon network like in the photo below.

Now launch your web browser. Firefox works best with the Archon. Also Safari works well. Type in 192.168.10.1 for the website address. You will get a login box to put in name and password.

The default is
Name : DigitalAquatics
Password: password

This can be changed in the setup page.

Once logged in you will be on the home page of the Archon. My homepage in shown in the screenshot below. A new Archon will not have all the output and input tiles that are on the screenshot below. I will go over this page later but now we are interested in setup so click the setup button.

This will give you the screen below. The first thing to setup is the wireless setup. After that you can access the Archon over you network. Under wireless setup Click show information.

Now you should have the wireless entry fields displayed on the right side of the screen. Click the down arrow on the SSID entry list box.

Note: My system already had the wireless setup done. The wireless data fields will come up blank even if they were previously setup. This is not a fault in the system and was done as a security feature. Personal data that has been entered is not displayed after the webpage has been refreshed. This applies to most settings with personal information.

A list will pop up with the networks available. Chose the one you want the Archon on.

In my case I chose my network as shown below.

Now select the encryption type used on that network.

In my case I chose WPA2. Now enter the encryption key for the network. The click the update button.

Now click the View Information button under Update Archon Connection. This is to find out what name is used by the Archon. It is Archon on mine. Look under Set Hostname. You can also change the port and the access point address when on the Archon network here. I don't see any reason to change these. You may want to change the hostname especially if you have more than one Archon.

Now you can get back on the network you connected the Archon to if you want. Or you can do the rest of the setup from here. To change the login and password just enter the name and password you want in the appropriate fields below Archon Login & Password then click the Save Login/Password button. To set the email address or addresses you want alerts emailed Type in the address or addresses in the field below Setup Email. If more than one address separate them with a comma. Click the update button. Then you can click test to see if you receive a test email.

The only thing left is to turn on/off additional interfaces. At the moment the only thing there is EcoTech. You can select whether the EcoTech button is present on the menu bar. If you click the EcoTech button it forwards you to the login webpage for reeflink. The screen shot of additional companies is in the photo below. I do have the reeflink so I can get to that webpage from the Archon controller webpage by clicking the EcoTech button. More company links may be added later.

Once you log into the network you setup the Archon to be on you should be able to enter the hostname with a / for the website to access the Archon. In my case that is "archon/". The screenshot below is of the homepage on my Archon after login via the network.

That is it for initial setup of the Archon. I will get into homepage setup and programming later. More to come.

 

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Now on to the homepage. This is a view from an iPad. Just below the Archon name is the menu. It may take more than one line. depending on the device you are using and the way it is rotated to display the webpage. Below the menu is two rows of tiles on the iPad or computer. On a phone it is all inline. The output first then below that the inputs. On a computer or tablet the left is outputs and the right is inputs. the graph/webcam is either at the bottom of one of the rows or to the right of the input row. On a computer the graph can be double clicked to view the graph in full size. Double click again and it returns to normal size.

You can choose up to 10 tiles of outputs and inputs from all the outputs and inputs attached to the system. To choose click on the gear in the upper right side of either row. The screenshot below shows the screen after clicking one of the gears. To choose tiles click the box on the ones you want displayed on the home screen. If there are too many to fit on the screen you can scroll through them like here.

In the screenshot below the output side is scrolled all the way to the end of the list.

In the screenshot below the inputs have been scrolled all the way to the end of the list. At the end of either list is a update buttton. Once you have all the tiles selected you want displayed then click one of the update buttons to update the home page.

The tiles have a symbol for a graph in the upper right corner of the tile. To display a graph click the appropriate graph symbol for the port you wish to view. In the sceenshot below I clicked on the iTemp port of the Archon module. The graph for that port is shown in the graph display. You can move the slider below the graph to magnify a portion of the graph.

The screenshot below shows the sliders moved to magnify the graph. I have the graphing set to sample every 5 minutes at this time. I think I am going to increase this to 15 minutes.

If you click on the gear for Graph/Webcam you get to select either graph or webcam to be displayed. This is only for the current session. If you leave the webpage and come back it reverts to the default of graph.

After you select and click done which ever one you selected will be displayed. In the case here I choose webcam. It was dark at the time I was doing this so I posted a screenshot from an earlier date. Also this screenshot was using Firefox. Most of the others are using Safari.

The output tiles have Off Auto On accross the bottom. You can click these to change that output to that state. A warning if you set an output to on or off it will remain there until you change it back to auto or the controller is reset. The output will only react to alarms if it is in auto. Be carefull when scrolling. I usually try to stay on the center of the tiles. That way it doesn't accidentally get set to on or off. All outputs and inputs can be named. I will get into changing the name during programming. The name you select is displayed in the upper left of the output tiles and upper middle of the input tiles. The upper left of the input tiles is the module the port is on. This is also a name you can choose for the module. The upper middle of the output tiles displays that ports current state. The input tiles display the current reading or state in the bottom left of the tile. Next will be Alarms and timers before getting into programming an output.

 

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Now I will go over setting up an alarm. I figured I would get to this before programming since they are used to help program the output ports. To setup a new alarm you would go to the system page by clicking the System button. Once on the system page you would click the new button to the right of the alarm list box. Since I have several alarms already set up in the screenshot below I clicked the alarm list box to select a alarm. The list box scrolls if you have a lot of alarms like I do. Once you have selected the alarm and clicked the show data button or clicked the new button the data shows on the right side of the screen. The first entry field is the Alarm name. The default name would be alarm with a number attached like Alarm3. In this field you can rename it like I did My name is 42g Low Temp. This alarm is for my 42 gallon hex tank and it is a Low Temp Alarm.

Under device you select the port you are using for the alarm input. By clicking the down arrow on the device list box you will get a list of all the ports attached to the Archon system. Notice the set of numbers separated with a ":". The first number is the module number the port is on and the second number is the port number. This is not important to setting up an alarm but it is important if you use some of the direct commands to do things on the Archon. After the "-" is the port name. This is either the default name are the name you have given that port. Module 0 is always the module built into the Archon unit itself. The other numbers are assigned as the modules are discovered by the Archon. If you want them in a certian numerical order then you would hook them to the system for the first time one at a time in that order. This list also scrolls. In the screenshot below the temp port on module 1 has been chosen. This happens to be the SLX module. Module 2 in that list happens to be a PC4

There are a lot of ports on my system so instead of scrolling through the whole list I can select a smaller set by choosing a sort by. In this case we can choose Temp to just display the temp ports.

After choosing to sort on temp, when I select the device list box it only shows the available temp ports. See screenshot below. At this point I use the iTemp port to control the heaters and cooling fans. I use the temp port from the SLX for the temp alarms. The over temp alarm will turn off the heater. The low temp alarm will turn off the fans. This way if the iTemp fails the temp alarms will still work. If the SLX temp probe fails it will set off one of the alarms. Module 3 in my system is a SL2v2. The temp probe is used within the SL2v2 module for temp compensation for the salinity port. It could also be used to control of for temp alarms if I wanted.

After selecting the port to use set the trip point (see screenshot below). I set mine at 75 degrees. I also checked the Trip when low check box since I want the alarm to trip when it drops below the trip point. In the Hysteresis field you set the amount of hysteresis you want in the alarm. This determines when the alarm will reset out of the alarm state go back to normal. The higher the value the less repeat emails you will get because it will have to have a higher swing before it resets. Next you will select the alarm type. The flash and beep are a carryover from the RKE/RKL alarm programming. Beep will not cause a beep at this point. I don't know if flash will cause something to happen on the webpage. I have not tried it to see. Mainly it is email that you will either have checked or not. If you use alarms for control of an outlet that is a normal function and not something you would need to be alerted for then email should not be checked. The multi controller I will get into later. There is only one allowed per system at this time. I used this on the return pump. The information below MultiController Off is not for the alarm setup. After all the information has been setup click the Update button to the right of the Alarm name field. You can use a output port for the device. If fact I do this with the return pump. I have a alarm setup to trigger if the return pump is off. This alarm is used to turn off all the devices that relay on the water flow of the return pump. In my case this is all heating and cooling. It also turns off the skimmer, Calcium reactor pump and the bio pellet pump when the return pump is off. You can use a single alarm on more than one output or control an output with more than one alarm. Since an alarm can be set to either turn on or off an output if you have conflicting alarms the alarm that was created first will get control. Most of the time you would be setting it up to turn off the output. It is just something to remember if you are using alarms to both turn on and turn off the same output port.

 

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Sorry double post.

 

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Next I will go over creating and setting up a timer. To setup a new timer you would go to the System page by clicking on the System button on the menu. Once there you would click the new button to the right of the Timers list box to create a new timer.

Since I have several timers already setup I clicked the Timers listbox down arrow to get a list of timers. I then selected one of the existing timers to show the data. The data will not show to the right until the Show Data button or the New button are clicked. As you can see from the screenshot below the data from the perious alarm is still there.

Once you click either the Show Data or New button the data will appear to the right. Of coarse this is only on the tablets and computers. On a phone there is just a single column. So the data on a phone would be below. The first item of data is the timer name field. It default name will be Timer with a number attached. A couple of examples are in the list above Timer15 and Timer16. That would not be very user friendly so change it just type over the default name with the one you want to use. In the screenshot below I renamed it to Red LED's 42g. For me that means it is a timer for red LED's in the 42 gallon hex tank. Next you can select the days of the week you want the timer to be active. A quick way to select all 7 would be to check the Check All box. After that the next data field is Start time. This is entered in HH:MM:SS. H is hours, M is minutes and S is seconds. You only need 2 digits if there is that many hours, minutes or seconds. In the screenshot below it is set a 10:00. Since this is 12 hour time the next selection is AM or PM for the start time. The next data field is On For. This is the amount of time you want the timer to be active. In the screenshot below it is 6 hours. This is also entered in HH:MM:SS. The next data field in Off For. If this was a standard one cycle timer this would only have to be one minute. but since this timer is for a ramped output. The Off For has to be longer than the ramp time. My ramp time for the output this timer is used is 4 hours so I set the off time for 8 hours. If the off time is not longer than the ramp time then the ramp down will stop where the off time expires. Again it is entered as HH:MM:SS. Another reason for a longer off time is if the timer will repeat or be used as a Continue forever timer. The next data field is Repeat x times. This will repeat the On for and Off for sequence however many time you set here. Since I have not used this one in a while I cannot remember if it is still like the RKE/RKL where it runs the sequence once then repeats the number set or it just runs the number set. I think I remember it being changes back and forth once as to how this works. In any case I think 0 will just run once. The next check box is Continue forever. Continue forever is kinda misleading. When you use this the On for and Off for sequence will start and continue to repeat as long as the unit is powered up. The start time has no affect on this. The sequence will start as soon as the update button is pressed or as soon as the unit is powered up and running. This may not work for a dosing timer as all timers programmed like this could or would dose at the same time. There is a multi-timer function that allows control with up to three timers. This would be a better choice for dosing as you can split the daily dosing into three seperate sections of time and use the repeat on the three timers to get it to dose the number of time you need during that time period. This way if there is a power failure you don't loose as many doses as you would with one timer. The start time triggers the timer and if it is already passed it will not trigger until the next start time. So if you have the day split into three time section you could only loose the dosing for that one section. That is a lot better than the potential of loosing a whole day. I do not dose at this point so I have no timers setup like this to show at this time.

 

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Now I am going to go through programming an output. This will be the ATO output for my tank. I use a DP1 as the ATO pump. I also will use the FloatSwitch function on this output. Select outputs in the menu at top of web page. Below is a screenshot of the outputs web page. The following screen shots were from a Surface computer. I did this to give you an idea what the screens look like on a computer. Also I was away from home while getting these screenshots and I had to use the computer to blank out the website area. Next scroll to select the output you wanting to program. Notice on the computer screenshots the scroll bars are shown. On the touch screen devices they are not needed to scroll. On computers without touch screens they are needed.

Click the gear in the upper right corner of the tile for the output you want to program. This will give a similar screen as the below screenshot. Since this output was already programmed the function data is already shown, If this were the first time programming the output then the output function data would not be shown on the screen. You can also change the name of the module the output is on and the name of the output from here. I have the module name DP1 42GR1. This tells me that it is a DP1 in the garage and it the first DP out of three. I named the output ATO so I can see this is my ATO output.

Below is a screenshot of the function list for selecting a function. Since i want to control the ATO with a float switch I chose the FloatSwitch function for this output. Clicking the down arrow on the Current function list box will show the functions. Once the function is selected you would click show to the right of the list box to show the appropriate data fields for that function.

The first data field is the On Input. This is the input that turns on the output being programmed. I click on the down arrow of the list box to show selections. To the right of the list box is a selection box to choose the type of input. It is already defaulted to the switch inputs. In this instance we are using the timer to turn on the output so none is chosen. If you were just using a single float here you would choose the appropriate switch input for both On Input and Off Input and leave the timer at none. For a dual switch function you would choose the lower float switch for the On Input and the higher float switch for the Off Input. A n example of the dual float switch usage is for filling a DI storage tank. I do this and will post the programming later for that usage.

The next thing would be the On when open check box. If we were using the on input you would check this box if the float is open when the level is below the switch otherwise you would leave it unchecked as shown in the screenshot below. The next thing is the Off Input. In this case we do want to turn off the output if the level get above our full float switch in the sump. I selected the full float switch from the list.

The next thing is Off When Open check box. Since the full float switch is setup so it is open when full I checked this box. In the screenshot below I selected the ATO Timer to use with this output. The reason for doing it this way is to limit the amount of top off added to the tank at any one time. In the event of a float failure in the closed state it would take a few day for it to be an issue.

The next thing is the On at Night check box. Check this box if you want the output to be active during the night period setup on the system page. In this case it would be yes so I have that box checked in the screenshot below. The next item is the Default state. In this case I have selected off. This is the state that the output will go to if the module looses communications with the controller. In this case we want it to be off.

The next item is setting the alarms that the output will react to when they are active. In the screenshot below I have checked the check box on 42g Leak Stand Front, 42g Leak Stand Rear, 42g Overfull Sump and 42g Low Salinity. They all are set to turn the output off if the alarms are selected. You can use an alarm to turn on an output but in this case I just want to make sure if it has an overfull sump, a leak at the tank or a low salinity condition. Any of these indicate a problem that would need intervention before continuing with topping off with fresh DI water.

The next item is standbys that this output will react to. In the case of this output it would be none, but I have a screenshot below if the items for standby. Standbys are selected just like the alarms. I guess you could say they a manually triggered alarm without the alert with a timer added in.

The timer settings are in the screenshot below. Since this is using a computer the timer data is in the middle column. I have it set for all day of the week. The Start time really doesn't matter in this case since I am using continue forever so I left it at 0:0:0 AM. The on for is set for 1 minute. The off for is set for 29 minutes. Continue forever is checked. This timer will start when the update button is clicked to save the timer data. SO how this will wok is every 30 minutes the ATO pump will run for 1 minute and then stop unless the Full float switch is open. A open full float switch will stop the pump regardless of the timer. Also if any of the alarms selected are active it will stop the ATO pump.

Since I normally have the graphing set to sample on a 5 minute interval it almost never sees the pump in the own state. So I decided to show the graph for the full float switch instead in the screen shot below. Since this is from a computer I double clicked the graph to get a full screen graph. I have the sliders at the bottom set to display a small portion of the data. The highlighted area in between the sliders are the area shown in the graph. Open is 100 and closed is 0 on the graph. There are time during this period that I removed about a quart of water to gradually lower the salinity of the tank a little. These are the wide gaps at 0. The really large between the 23 and 24 I raised the water level in the tank a little higher with the overflow.

That covers the ATO programming. I will cover some more outputs in a later post.