Gyre Nano

[kwirky]

woot! it's up and running. lots of DIY on this system

Right now it's a mj1200 on each end still on the 15 minute coralife light timer. They alternate 15 minutes each.

I'm just about done soldering up my DIY wave maker. It's done with a 555 timer, and it's adjustable from 4 seconds to 60 seconds. When the wavemaker's ready, I'll be getting 2 more MJ's (one on each end) and I'll probably alternate it 10 seconds per side.

These are the parts I used for the 555 timer wavemaker:
555 timer
2 x 10uF tantalum capacitors (for timing capacitor, ran in parallel to work as a 20uF capacitor)
0.01uF tantalum capacitor
5.6kohm resistor as R1
R2 consists of the following in series:

• 200kohm resistor (always on)
• 1mohm pot
• 2x1mohm resistors on switches

high speed 2A diode as snubber for relay
125VAC 3A DPDT relay

here's the program that gave me the calculations nessesary and the schematic to use the components:
http://555-timer.clarkson-uk.com/program.html

After I get the alternating wavemaker going, I'll make a second device that'll turn off the pumps for 8 minutes at the touch of a button, then turn them back on automatically.

It's tapped into my 120g's sump, and a 100gph pump feeds the gyre-nano from the sump. There's a 150W stealth heater hidden under the platform as backup heating because of the low flow to the sump.

But here are some pictures in the mean time. It's lit with a 150W HQI giesseman 13k megachrome marine. the PAR of the best 10k's, but with a true 10k colour. It's a DIY pendant from a 500W halogen outdoor fixture. I really like how it's hung. If there's interest, I'll let anyone know how I modified the light to work as a pendant.

[Delphinus]

That's really awesome. I'd love to try something like that for a gorg tank. .. One day ...

Question (slightly off topic), can the 555 timer idea have different on/off settings, or do the on/off settings have to match? I.e. can you do 10 seconds on, 5 minutes off, kind of thing?

[kwirky]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

That's really awesome. I'd love to try something like that for a gorg tank. .. One day ...

Question (slightly off topic), can the 555 timer idea have different on/off settings, or do the on/off settings have to match? I.e. can you do 10 seconds on, 5 minutes off, kind of thing?

actually a 555's perfect for that. they call the ratio between on/off the "duty cycle" and a 555 timer can theoretically never run exactly 50% between the two. Download that program in the previous post, go to the Astable tab, and play with the two resistor settings (remember the slider bars change the resistors to a finer degree).

You could get it to run exactly 10 seconds on, 5 minutes off, by increasing the size of the capacitor, and then changing the ratio between the two resistors.

You would use a 470uF capacitor, a 2.0mohm resistor as resistor A, and a 15kohm resistor for resistor B.

Thinking of using something like that for dosing or the likes?

I'm thinking if I increased the number of MJ's to a crazy ammount, I could use quick 5 second alternations between the sets, and have some REALLY cool turbulent movement in the upper region of the tank

[Delphinus]

Yeah, dosing was one application I was thinking, another was an automatic misting of my mangroves (they need to be misted routinely to flush the salt sweat, and lately I'm getting lazier and lazier about that task). A full on minute of misting from mist nozzles would be way too much. But I dunno, it would have to be an inordinate ratio of difference for that specific application (ie. more like 10 seconds on, 6 hours off).

Most of that 555 timer info, I did give it a fair try to read it, but a lot of it was basically like reading Greek. I did do some hardware back in my early days but I'm just a s/w guy these days.

[kwirky]

soldering the circuit board and making cut-outs in the project box is turning out to be quite labour intensive. I think with the ammount of time that's gone into the wavemaker project so far, the advice I'd have to give to anyone would be to make sure it's an important thing you want if you're designing custom circuitry and have never done electronics before . There was a lot for me to learn.

Plus cost. I think I've spent about $100 in various things to get the ting working. I could build another one after this for about $20 in components though, as most of the $100 was in tools and incorrect/unessesary components.


The potential of DIY electronics is exciting though. Been reading about some people who've used programmable IC's to make some stuff as advanced as the profilux equipment (minus the web server). T5 dimmers, pump frequency oscilators, stuff like that.

I had a friend who was learning about electronics along side me, helping prototype the circuit. He was thinking of all sorts of crazy stuff to use electronics for in his own home theater hobby, too.

[kwirky]

So I've begun moving some of my LPS into the nano tank. I've decided it's a good area to raise SPS without my shrimp and fish stealing the food. I'll be able to feed them more regularily and the 150W lighting is almost perfect for them. The water flow makes them look quite appealing too.

So there's a zoo rock in the tank, and my frogspawn. I'm debating whether to bust a chunk off my xenia rock to seed the nano. It would look nice as well in the water column.

[BCOrchidGuy]

I just did a small feeble take off on your set up in a 10 gallon, the xenia seems to be loving it as does the mushroom rock, thanks for the idea, I think I'll pick up a decent power head sometime soon and take a good look at doing it right.

Doug