binzer
Member
3v0 said:Is this fresh or salt?
Even without automation two of everything on 2 separate circuits is a good idea. That is the place to start.
This is a good idea but depends on the room, most split the overhead lights and outlets, if the room is being built then the option exists. I know that I would like to do that also for my tanks, and computers but since the whole place was finished I doubt I can pull it off.
Size the heater so if one fails to shut off it will not cook the fish. If one fails to come on the other it enough to keep the fish alive if not happy. When you have the controllers installed I would turn the heaters up to where they do not turn off and use the uC to switch them.
I agree , but most of the better heaters ( I have jagers ) have a good temp control built in. They usually say to stagger 2 heaters, one at the temp you want and one a couple of degrees lower in case of an ' off ' failure. If the heater fails ' on ' is where the uC monitoring would come to play and be used for ' overtemp ' and maybe sense which heater is on at the time and disable it. As always there is more monitoring to do than controlling, as was said before it can get very complex real fast if you consider all the factors, still it's nice to caht about and toss out ideas.
Size the filtration so that either one can handle the entire load. In normal operation each will have about half the bacteria needed. If one fails the other will rapidly grow enough bacteria to handle the additional load.
A wet/dry and 2 pumps may cut down on cost, a spare pump is cheaper than a spare filter unless you already have one.
In addition to the filtration I suggest you keep an airstone in the tank to keep the water moving should both filters fail. The tank walls are covered with bacteria and as long as the water is moving it will do some biological filtration. Also with 2 filters you can alternate filter cleaning.
Never thought of that.
A battery operated air pump to keep the water moving when power fails is a good idea. Next best thing to using battery backup on the filters.
All of this will help keep the aquarium alive with or witout monitoring.
He should be making a list, picking priority, equipment list ( have & need )
EDIT:
Everything need to be on a GFI
I agree, but most of the pumps, filters, lights, etc are all 2 wire polarized, the GFI's measure leakage current thru the ground leg to trip, correct??