RE: HA enabled FISH TANK owners?

["Paul Gale" <groups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ah - UPS - I hadn't thought about that - an excellent idea.

How much power does all the kit consume? What size of UPS do you use and
how long will it survive a power cut for?

Thanks,

Paul.

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Gordon [mailto:paul@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 23 January 2005 18:49
To: UKHA_D Group
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] HA enabled FISH TANK owners?


Wifey keeps tropical (not marine) fish...

TBH, there's really not a lot of scope for automating anything other
than the lights.... since all there is is lights, pump, heater, &
filter. - Pump & filter need to run 24/7, likewise for heater as it has
its own thermostat.

All of the above are on a dedicated UPS to keep the "life
support"
systems running through a power-out.

That only leaves lighting, of which you can obviously have a number of
systems. Presumably you will have the usual striplight in the tank hood,
- although I imagine it will b a different tube type for marine (more
UV?). This needs to be run on a reasonably constant schedule, since it
is meant to be simulating the sun, and so should approximate a day/night
cycle. It doesn't have to correlate with the real daylight cycle in the
UK, since you will probably want your tank to be illuminated in the
evening when you are in... just keep it to a regular schedule and the
fish will adjust their body-clocks accordingly.

You can also install effect lighting inside the tank, - Wifey has a
number of underwater LED's in her tank, mostly positioned to illuminate
certain features/plants/ornaments or whatever. There are LED's in all
the usual colours, plus even tri-colour LED's that cycle between
different colours.

In wifeys tank, the hood light is on an X10 appliance module, and the
LED's are just manually operated when she/we want them.

Having said all that, the only other thing I would add is that is you
are a virgin fishkeeper, then it may not be the best idea to start off
with a marine setup, - this requires considerably more care and
attention than a freshwater tank, the livestock are usually quite a bit
more expensive than freshwater fish, and if you don't get the
aforementioned care and attention right will all die!

Paul G.



-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Gale [mailto:groups@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 23 January 2005 18:09
To: UKHA_D Group
Subject: [ukha_d] HA enabled FISH TANK owners?


I'm just thinking about getting a reasonably large marine tank and fish.
I'm a complete novice and will be seeking help and advice from other
quarters but wanted to get some advice from the HA enabled fish tank
owners here (I think there are a few?). What do you automate and why/how
etc?

The DVD fish tank was just not good enough ;)

Thanks,

Paul.





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