Electrical

Bobby finally had a little time to come over and I put him to work. I needed a number of things resolved or completed.

Two outlets in my home were flakey with bad connections, so he swapped those out.

The AquaController 3 had stopped communicating with all the x-10 modules in the sump area, and he had the tool to replace the phone jack connectors on the wiring to the kind that fit the sockets correctly. All four were replaced to get a good connection, and now the x-10s ...

Years ago, I got a kit from Aquahub.com for my reef. I never did update my float switch system to his safer relay approach. Here's what I had for the past 8 years or more: http://www.melevsreef.com/plumbing/auto_topoff.html

With the new set up, I've tried to avoid holding anything back and went "all in" so to speak. So I pulled out the kit and noticed I needed some goodies. I called up Patrick at Aquahub and asked if he could ship me the missing pieces. He wondered where I got ...

Last night, while cleaning out my living room, I accidentally got one of the American DJ switch assemblies wet. I quickly unplugged it and dried it off, and today I opened it up for inspection. What I discovered was a discolored spot at one of the connections. There was no water inside, fortunately.

Here's how to open one up. Remove it from use, unplug it of course, and remove the two screws from each end.

...

And like that, the tank is now level. I ran up to Home Depot and bought some 2" flat aluminum stock. An 8' stick was $17.50, and I cut it up into 6" sections with a jigsaw using a metal-cutting blade.







The aluminum is 1/8" thick. ...

I ordered a Majano Zapper from PaulB last week. This is a device that was cleaned up from the version I posted about last January / February when a buddy of mine let me watch his DIY handiwork in Seattle take out some pest anemones. PaulB decided he could make a better mousetrap and fabricated something I was willing to hold -- after all, it is an electrical device we submerge in our saltwater system!

Before you ask, I don't know if he's going to make any more of these at the moment ...