42 Gallon Hex build
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, 08-16-2015 at 02:02 PM (1123 Views)
When I had the back cabinet off I decided to change up a few things including mounting the outlet boxes in the cabinet assembly instead of on the bottom outer frame assembly (first two photos). I also set them at a 15 degree angle to make it a little easier to plug things in and out. I kept tripping the GFI breaker with my fingers when it was mounted on the outer frame. The wires in the second photo going in the hole were placed there just to get them out of the way for the photo. These photos were taken with the cabinet off the stand so the wires had no connections. These would normally connect to the cables to the fans. Sorry for some reason the photos are on their side here. They were correct before downloading. It must be a iPad thing.
I made a bracket to mount the fan controller on one side of the cabinet and a module for the controller on the other side out of some leftover acrylic from making the sump (third photo). I also made some holders for the power supplies that are stored inside the cabinet. This was also using leftover acrylic (forth and fifth photos). The largest supply is the 24v supply for the LED lighting. This powers the royal blue (two strings of six) and warm white strings(one string of 6). The one in front of the 24v supply is the 12v supply. It also powers the LED lighting. It powers the RGBW strings along with the UV. These strings are in strings of 2 to 3 LED's so require less voltage. The 12 volt supply also powers the fans which there are 9 in all. The other two supplies are for the MP10's. If you look closely in the first two photos you will see the power supply holders and the bracket for the fan controller and module. I just used the table saw on the holders and bracket since they are not holding water. I also used the tube solvent that I had left over from a Avast marine kit that I assembled. It is not as tidy as the thin solvent but they are inside the cabinet and not in view.
The sump is the only thing with water in it at the moment. I got the chance to beta test a new controller so I filled up the sump and used it to control the temp and power the skimmer and pumps. The return just cycles back into the sump where the water from the tank overflow would go. It has been setup since the first of December this way except when I took everything down to move it from the garage to the place where it will be setup and while I had the back cabinet off. I still have the ATO container in the garage. It will be located there along with the automatic water change container. The lighting is already running the scheduled time at 60% with a 4 hour ramp time total 13 hours. This will change once the tank is up and running. All in all the tank is fairly quite with the fans and 3 pumps and 2 MP10's(at low speeds in sump) running. I have a db app for the iPad that says "average quite home" when in the room with the system running. The numbers run from 42 to 47 db.
Since I included the photos of the back cabinet electronics area here I thought it would the appropriate time to include one of the front electronics area. The last photo is of this area. The large module in the center is the controller. It has a wifi antenna on top but it is hard to makeout with the black background. This is a new controller that was released in February. The module on the top left is for input output expansion. It has push type wire connection terminals. Only one is needed per controller. The ports are 4 switch ports, 2 0-10v ports and 2 PWM ports. At the time of the photo only the PWM ports were used. These ports control the LED lighting. I now have 2 of the switch ports used for leak detection in the stand. The left connector of the two connectors to the right of the expansion module is for signals to the canopy. The one to the right goes to the back cabinet area. These are RJ45 connectors and can just as easily connect to a jack on the back of the cabinet if needed. The 4 modules on the botton are for the input ports for various probes and switches. There is one relay output port. This is used to control the sump cooling fans. Some of the modules are there just for testing purposes. I don't really need all of those modules with this setup. The controller itself has 2 pH or ORP probe ports and a temp port it also has two other 0-10v ports that I do not have anything connected as of yet.