Hank SiegelJens RohloffGlenn McCreedy (briefly)Brian WaldbaumKate and her husband
Sergio set us up with nice refreshments, including stuffed mushrooms, chips and dip, drinks and more. (Still waiting for someone to serve fish with a salad and/or Pepperidge Farm Fish :-).
Mike kicked off the meeting with some brief business, went over the finances and then handed off the meeting to Sergio.
Since that initial setup, Sergio added all sorts of gadgets and more to the tank.
Sergio prepared a great presentation on how he automated the tank using X-10 technology, and his chemistry lab wizardry.
Don’t worry Mike, I won’t use that shot…
He began by explaining the components of the automation system, explaining how he had to run a rather long USB cable from where his PC is, to where the control box is. He did mention that attics get very warm, and recommended against running cables through there in warm weather.
You need something to control all that!
Sergio proceeded into a detailed explanation of how X-10 technology works, why he chose it over other technology in the same arena.
Mike explaining about the lily pipes –
Glenn, Mike, Hand and George
He went on to explain the need to remove “local control” – a procedure that involved opening up the appliance modules and removing a lead, because various electrical devices cause the module to turn itself back on.
X-10 Activehome Pro Control Module
X-10 Appliance Module
So, with a few dozen modified appliance modules on everything that can be turned on and off, he uses Activehome Pro Software to control it all.
Activehome pro software overview
Just about every component of his aquarium can be controlled through this setup.
Three X-10 controllers and the little box on the right is a light activated switch to turn on the under cabinet light when the door opens…every component!
Using the system he has macros to run the water changes, fertilizer dosing, lights, filters and everything else you can imagine.
Module settings/control example
Here is where some of the power of this system comes out. Macros let you chain events together. So, in order to dose 1ppm of KNO3, he can have a macro that runs the pump on the macro reservoir for a set time, and then stop it. Or, he has another macro for the micro fertilizer dosing, which kicks off a magnetic stirrer before the pump kicks in and delivers the dosing.
Macro designer
Watch the macro dosing in action!
See Videos at the Bottom of this article
Beyond that, each module can be set up on its own timer, which can be programmed in increments of one minute. You can actually have the PC sync with the true sunrise/sunset times, send it to the control box, and then use them as triggers. Further, you can set a different timer for each day of the week, on each module.
Timer designer
Just before the water change demonstration, Sergio demonstrated how he has a “feeding” macro, which stops the filters for 20 minutes so that the blood worms he was feeding don’t wind up in the filter as much. So, with the press of a button, on either a remote control, or the various control units around his place, the filters go quiet, and, well, he still has to throw in the frozen food. I guess if he was feeding “dry” food, he could put that on a timer as well…no more Sergio!
Feeding the bloodworms with the filters off
After the explanation, it was time for the water change “live” demonstration. The entire 15% water change, which is performed daily, takes about an hour. Sergio handed out a printout of the water change macro so we could follow along, as each of the X-10 appliance modules clicked on and off.
Ingo, Kate’s Husband, Brian, Hank, Glenn, Mike review the water change macro
Kicking off the “manual” water change
See Videos at the Bottom of this article
Sergio explaining to Kate about the water change while Kate’s husband wonders how much this is going to cost…
While the water change was going on, several other discussion came about. One of them was about overnight aeration using the lily pipes. The merits of the Cal Aqua ones vs. the ADA ones were discussed, with Sergio favoring the ADA ones for their surface tension breaking ability, mentioning that the Cal Aqua ones push water down, which brought up another point.
Since he isn’t siphoning for these water changes, he does have to occasionally go in and siphon off some “mulm” from the aquasoil and the sand foreground.
We then took a break, and enjoyed some of the refreshments, and just talked shop (water changes like this could be like watching water boil, but if that happened, Sergio would have a different problem on his hands).
Kate, Jens,Kate’s Husband, Mike, Brian
As the water change was nearing completion, Sergio mentioned that he switched out the RO feed lines (which he isn’t currently actually RO’ing) from 1/4″ hose to 3/8″ hose because the time it takes to fill the tank after the drain was taking too long, and the moss on the driftwood was drying out a little too much for his liking. While it doesn’t sound like a large leap in size, it certainly did the trick for him.
So, once the water filled up, Mike was doing some inspections and just couldn’t leave those 2 bits of algae alone. So out comes the ADA Nude scissors and in goes (not Ingo’s) Mike’s hand.
The headless trimmer (just an odd camera angle), and Mike has no head
Sergio looking for more algae for Mike to nab while George looks on…
And, in the normal fashion, we finished up with a plant swap. A large batch of narrow leaf java fern, and a good assortment of plants were brought in by the members.
The plant swap table
Not an ideal photo, but the tank overview shot…
And this ends the Ingo looking into a tank series…thanks for being a good sport about it!
Who will be the next…
And here are some pictures I didn’t work into the summary…
Some Anubias
Close up of the emersed growth on the right back corner of the tank
Mike demonstrating how he uses hedge clippers in his tanks?
