Newbe from the Great North...

[Roy]

Hello from Montréal!

I found this site and I think it is absolutely fantastic. Exactly what I have been looking for!

I do not have a vivarium...yet, but I have grand plans in the works and I'm counting on asking you all tons of questions. My target size is a 130 gallon tank with about 30 gallons of water in the bottom (maybe fish), and since I am also a IT pro by day, I plan on spending just as much time automating and over-complicating every support system as much as the interior of the enclosure itself. Not only will the vivarium support itself, but the H20 subsystem will also water my houseplants located nearby (wife won't let me run hoses all over the apartment LOL). Should be great, and alot of fun!

I'm not so interested in animals to start, 2 cats is enough for now. But I do want the environment ready for frogs, or turtles, or salamanders some day. I want to focus on beautiful plants and orchids first.

Everyone's pictures and suggestions have provided insight into the design I am working on and I thank everyone for sharing their ideas and pictures!

-Roy

[Epiphile]

Hey Roy,

Welcome to the forum. I'm really keen to see what you come up with as far as an automated system of watering your houseplants with aquarium water. 130G is a bold aspiration in it's own right as well.

I know it's been getting a bit colder lately, but let me know if you're into doing some plant trades in the future.

[stimpy]

Hi Roy!
Welcome to the forum. I am also from the far north, Vancouver,BC.I did a lot of web surfing before I found this site, and glad I did. I agree it is one of the best so far.Sounds like an ambitious project you have planned.My advice to you would be to look at the "sticky threads" These are topics that are very informative with plenty of detailed build logs.You can also use the search button and find just about anything you need.There are many very knowledgable people on this forum,and you should have a pile of replies to your post by the end of the day.Good luck to you, can't wait to see what you you will decide.
ps: everyone on here loves photo's, so the more you have the better

[beckdg]

so i'm assuming you're looking into x-10 and equivalent controllers... sounds like the fun my wife wont let me have... lucky you! i'm interested to see what you dome up with.

welcome to the site.

and yes we do love photos... i, for one can be downright insistent.

[Roy]

Yeah, I had the feeling it would be a bit ambitious for a start, but hey...it's a long term project so why not? My interest stemmed from the inability to keep up with the watering demands of my houseplants. I work long hours and I don't have the time to spend 2-3 hours a week watering and soaking all kinds of plants. When I couldn't find a suitable product on the market that would meet my needs I decided I'll just make my own. With the snow around the corner, I decided a new hobby was in order.

Originally I was thinking of automation with a personal computer, or some kind of serial communication to a web front-end (realtime status is always good). But, we all know that personal computers are not 100% reliable 24/7/365 so I think I will go with multiple timers that control each system independantly. I don't want to worry about the viv while on vacation, I have enough to worry about!

Right now, I'm planning on using products from Sentinel which seem to be geared towards hydroponic applications, but I think they will work nicely. They are a bit industrial and seem to be pretty good quality. Has anyone tried any of their products, particularly the DRT-1 Digital Recycling Timer? I like the EcoZone viv controller b/c it has onboard Ethernet capability, but I don't care for gizmo type feeling I get when looking at the specs.

I'm not made of money unfortuneately, so the entire project will be based in stages:
Phase1 will be the timer controlled plant watering system for approx 20 plants (large and small), 4 misting heads with RO and timer controlled grow lighting (the future viv lamps and housing). MistKing will have a nice order soon. Phase2 will be the aquarium equipment integration with the watering system to have automated water-level control and fresh supply (RO) to the future "viquarium". Phase3 will be the actual viv/aquarium construction, environment controls for temp and humidiy and bringing everything together. Everything will be documented with photos and uploaded to this site!

It's all inspired by the members of this forum. :-)

Epiphile - Plant trades in the future are for sure. Thanks!

[Epiphile]

If you haven't already, check out The Orchid Board as well- there are a lot of greenhouse growers and people with really large indoor setups that you may be able to take a thing or two from. I'm personally really interested to see how your automated house watering system goes- I can see the appeal of overhead misting, but are you not worried about the mess? Those nozzles really let loose, I can say.

I wouldn't go so far as one of those Sentinel timers- I looked at it just now, and though it does look veritably indestructible, it doesn't do anything past the digital timer offered through Mistking besides have another power outlet. I mean, if you were running some serious power through it, maybe, but you may do well to save your money there and blow it elsewhere. Just a thought. You may not be able to run fluorescent lights through it either, it being digital and all.

Beckdg and I spoke briefly for a short while here about using RO water in aquarium/vivarium setups- there are lots of things to be considered there, and even more so if you'll be routing that water to a misting system. It has great potential, though, as a system- aquarium water apparently makes for great fertilizer.

[beckdg]

since you are looking into full automation you should look into home controllers and security. you could do everything your talking about with one system and a few modules. you could go fully automated, control it with a remote and be fully web capable with everything from monitoring to complete control through the web or phone.

i would definitely look into systems that are capable of timing by the second as opposed to by the minute like most timers. especially for misting and plant watering.

another thing i would consider is an overflow box. mount it on the back of the tank and connect it to the tank with a u tube. use the drain in the overflow to determine the height of the water. works well. just feed the drain into a house drain or out of the house.

seems like you got a pretty good handle on the equipment. i would still look into home controllers and compare price, versatility, functionality and overall control. looks like you're looking at spending close to $700 just for your controllers at this point. for that you could add a little camera and start a "rainstorm" to show off while on vacation. and watch it live. or you could add a little control or security to your home.

either way you go i'm looking forward to your build thread.

+1 with the orchid board.

yes, r/o can strip essential minerals. i would look into an auto doser either for minerals or to dose a dechlorinator and call it a day. for a mist pump or drip waterer you can always get a small micron filter pad and rubber band that over the intake. small particles happen regardless unless you live in an industrial clean room. the filter pad is pretty good at keeping them out in even murky water.

[Roy]

The two of you bring up a critical factor in all of this...I live in an apartment. I won't have the luxury of having a drain, city-water supply, home alarm, or the ability to accept damage and move on if something does wrong. My landloard lives in the unit below so I must be able to control the amount of water distruted, to a minimum, at all times.

I will have something like a 5 or 10 gallon supply tank that I manually add water to, hopefully, on a two week or more basis. I need to play with a working system to gauge the refill rate, but the point is, if I am gone and something happens, I don't want the viv or plant system to keep pumping water out until the day we come back from vacation. So with a supply tank, the worst that can happen is 5 to 10 gallons is evacuated. On the flip-side, I don't want the system to run if the supply tank is empty.

The misting won't really be used until I have the tank, I will have to calibrate my flow rates for each system and make it all work with 1 pump. I don't want the pot watering to blast a trench through my houseplants, and at the same time, I don't want weak performance from the misting assembly. Neither system will operate at the same time, but I have to establish a common pressure (b/c 1 pump) among all branches of the water supply. So the misting will be on the water circuit, but disabled until I have the tank.

The overflow control for the tank is where it gets tricky. Thanks for the box idea, but I think I will just control water overflow by using a water-level sensor tied to the control system. I might actually use two sensors, one to control the RO supply to the resevoir in the lower third of the viv (to keep the resevoir filled to a minimum height) and the second to kill all water supply (resevoir water supply and misting heads) if the water level gets to high (I don't want the water pouring out the front air intake vent. If there is overflow for some reason, it will just return to the supply tank and be recycled.

This will all be trial by error. I don't have a flow rate yet, don't know how much evaporation will happen (it seems like a lot if I consider my plants), and I'm not sure about ventilation (I don't want fogging or mineral deposits on the tank and there will be alot of interior surface area with a 130G tank).

Thank you for all your advice and comments. I'm sorry for the long posts. :-)

[beckdg]

you could always throw the box in there for redundancy and have it drain back into your reservoir/supply tank in case of system failure.

you could always use a manifold from the mister and have each hose after that on it's own solenoid with timers. then your mister could be set to mist at multiple times for each plant. or you could set each manifold to open on different days at the same time and have the mister mist once daily.

you could always run an extension cord to your wall to power an x-10 or equivalent system and mount everything into a stand or an old dresser. it doesn't necessarily have to be hard wired to the apartment. quite a few people have done it for their aquariums.

just shooting some ideas at you. hopefully you can benefit from it. if you have your heart set tell me to shut up. it's okay.

to remove fogging on the glass you'll want to install a recirculating system with small fans. a few pc fans should work well. just remember to plumb it so the air is recirculated instead of wasted if you need the humidity for the plants and animals you plan on.

[Roy]

Yeah I am planning on a system similar to what you suggest with multiple valves/timers, etc.

Can you tell me more about the "auto doser" you have in mind? What is it?