DaveSamsell
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Posts posted by DaveSamsell
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2 hours ago, Daniel said:
Yeah, I think guppies swim around tasting everything going 'is this food...is this food'. They were my first tropical fish when I was 9 or 10. I kept them in quart mayonnaise jars. When that first pregnant female dropped her babies, I was hooked!
Daniel,
I remember going to carnivals as a kid and winning a ping pong ball toss game. The prize, a little water bowl with a live Guppy in it. 😊. Good memories..
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6 hours ago, pedrofisk said:
For fun, because I am genuinely curious and maybe to inspire @Cory, what's your dream aquarium product that doesn’t exist?
One that just occurred to me is a quick test strip for Ammonia.
The one thing I do worry most about is an Ammonia spike due to an irregularity (dead fish etc) that I might not notice right away. My issue is my aquariums have to be negligent resistant because I have three young kids and pre-virus traveled for work a lot. So regular water changes can be spotty. I've tried those in tank circle ones but they always expire before doing anything (which is good I guess) and I am never going back to test tube drop testing. I burnt out on that years ago.
Let's hear about your non-existent dream product!
How about an automatic, ultrasonic biofilm/algae scraper. With fully adjustable parameters not to damage silicone seals, remove programmed levels of layers of build-up & an alert when completed. Well, at least I can dream.. 🤔😏
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On 7/17/2020 at 4:52 PM, Leo2o915 said:
Had a question want to buy some fish on aquabid how do I know they legit? First time buying fish from there
My experiences with Aquabid have been very favorable. Have received, across the United States, shipments in excellent condition. Be selective & don't settle on something, just to make a purchase. Take your time, look around.
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36 minutes ago, Sliceofnature said:
I feel ya. I really only test nitrates anymore before each water change. I usually only use the other tests if something seems off.
I tried that method a couple of times, but proved to be disadvantageous. Unknowingly, one of my tanks KH & PH was dropping, fairly quickly, with only moderate nitrate readings. It takes only a few minutes more of testing to see the full picture I suppose.
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6 hours ago, Sliceofnature said:
I used a 1/2” bit and its a nice snug fit
Yes, 1/2" is definitely snug. I used multiple drill bits, leading up to 1/2" (since that was the largest bit I had available). I have some manual tools here and then used a hand reamer to widen the opening a little bit on mine, for ease of use. It's not an exact science, of course, but worked well with form, fit & functionality.
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20 minutes ago, Sliceofnature said:
Im super clumsy and have knocked over my test tubes on more than one occasion so i knew i needed something like this but i just hadnt taken the time to do it. When i saw your stand today i decided i was done putting it off so i went out and made one out of an off cut i had lying around. So thanks Dave, if you hadnt made yours i probably never wouldve actually made one for myself.
Hey that stand looks great. 😊. I know what you mean about dumping the test tubes. Am sure the stands will help the both of us. 👍
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6 minutes ago, Daniel said:
How does it work?
Hi Daniel,
It works by preventing the test tubes from tipping over, when filled with liquid. Each tube is fully removeable.
My testing area stays much dryer, now. 😊
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Was tired of dumping the liquid test tubes. So, I constructed a personalized, DIY test stand.
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5 hours ago, Bill Smith said:
Okay, I have a new idea, and I need you electronics math guys to help me:
I'm thinking it's worth a try to go with a USB solar panel ONLY (sans battery), and connect it to the "pass-through" battery from the other test. That way, the panel can do its thing to fill the battery, and the battery can do its thing to pass on the power as needed.
I'm thinking of trying this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Lixada-Effiency-Activities-Lighting-Monocrystalline/dp/B071Z1LGFV
I think that assuming the USB nano pump only pulls 5 watts, I would want a solar panel that provides more than that in order to charge the battery by the amount that was drained drained overnight, while powering the pump...maybe an extra 5 watts isn't enough.
How would you decide?
Hi Bill,
Estimating on the high side, my Nano pumps draw about 150 ma or .150 Amps on average. So, if you multiply 5 volts x .150 Amps = .75 watts or 3/4 watt (not sure if you can see the decimal). Note: Each pump may vary, of course.
Personally, I would at least double or triple the wattage requirement as a safeguard.
In other words, a 2 to 3 watt source should be able to power the pump only, quite easily.
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All,
A study of Ohm's & Watt's law would also be beneficial, to fully understand what principles are being dealt with. I feel the charger is more than capable, but where the issue might be is the "pulsed" direct current, from the solar panel, through circuitry. The inherent design of the charger is, of course, to charge a battery. By adding anything else, besides a rechargeable battery to the chargers output, would simply be experimentation.
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35 minutes ago, Bill Smith said:
- Did you fully charge the battery last night manually?
Yep, sure did.
- How about trying a different output port for the pump.
Both ports behave the same way.
- If you have another Nano pump, try to swap it out.
I do have several, and a second nano behaved the same way.
- Try covering a solar panel, one at a time and note the results of the pump.
Yes, this is super interesting. Selectively covering one or more panels reduces the bubbles more and more, until I'm down to one panel. Once I'm down to one panel or none, it goes to full blast. So clearly, the charger is delivering an output based upon its input.
- Make sure there are no clogs in the line.
Brand new line, not clogged. Plugging the nano into an extension cord resulted in fully normal operation.
- If using an airstone, try removing it.
Did that, it's very, very slow pumping of just 2-3 bubbles at a time.
- Was the output ever much better, regarding bubbles while charging in the sun? If so, what changed?
Only for the first few minutes when I started the test this morning. Almost immediately went to pulsing.
- If the bubble output was always this way, perhaps there's an incompatibility between the charger & pump. I.E. Too much alternating current pulses for a direct current device (pump), etc.
Yeah, stands to reason. Maybe time to look for a battery that doesn't have that feature.
- Is the Nano pump warm or hot in operation?
Nope, cool to the touch the entire time.
Thanks so much for the troubleshooting help!
Bill
Bill,
Most of the newer solar chargers I've researched have the "pulsed/smart technology" , built-in & microprocessor controlled. So,adjusting the pulsed direct current output from the solar charger would not be practical. The true engineering of the charger is just that; to recharge a compliant battery.
Will have to look some more. There possibly is yet still a charger of more simplicity out there for our application.
If not:
Maybe one way around it would be by having two of these chargers. By only using the pump on a charger (non-dependant) of the solar panels. I.E. Covering up the solar panels & using the stored power from the fully charged internal battery only to a certain discharge level. Then, once the battery is low, just swap in the other new, fully charged unit. Charge the disconnected, depleted solar pack, simply by the sun exposure.
Then repeat, etc. Would require swapping chargers every "so many days", but it's an option, with a free recharge, compliments of the sun.
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1 hour ago, Bill Smith said:
Nah, that pulsating is too weak. Here's a video to see what I mean.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/rAnul_lZAN8
I don't see any reason not to pull the plug on this test for now...maybe I can find a battery that won't have such weak output.
Any suggestions?
Hi Bill,
Seen the video and that is surely weak. I have a few ideas\questions.
- Did you fully charge the battery last night manually?
- How about trying a different output port for the pump.
- If you have another Nano pump, try to swap it out.
- Try covering a solar panel, one at a time and note the results of the pump.
- Make sure there are no clogs in the line.
- If using an airstone, try removing it.
- Was the output ever much better, regarding bubbles while charging in the sun? If so, what changed?
- If the bubble output was always this way, perhaps there's an incompatibility between the charger & pump. I.E. Too much alternating current pulses for a direct current device (pump), etc.
- Is the Nano pump warm or hot in operation? It shouldn't be.
Keep us advised. Thanks. 👍
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Hot-rodding a new AquaClear 20 for an aquarium. 🛠️
This is how I personally break up the giant Wonder-shell. Safety glasses are MANDATORY... 🚩
Made a DIY algae scraper from a bit of hardware laying around. Used an old ice scraper with a home-brew swivel mount. Carbon fiber rod. 👀
Converted the algae scraper into a scrubber, with one of the Co-Op's foam pads. 👌
Made the handle a good length to keep my hands dry. 👏
Customized an ordinary bucket into a "fish-room-only bucket". Made a bracket in the basement ceiling for hanging it out of the way. 🧺
Maybe I'll do some traveling, in the future. ✈️
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7 minutes ago, David Humphrey said:
Bill, Thanks for a most informative post, and doing all the leg-work, for the rest of us! 👍
David,
I agree. Bill is devoting much time & effort. It's an interesting experiment. That is one of the great aspects of fish-keeping; the folks are very helpful. 😊
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35 minutes ago, Bill Smith said:
UPDATE:
It's 6pm, and the charger is finally under shade. the bubble intensity has gone back to full power, leading to an interesting conclusion:
This battery charger pulses at lower power while it is being charged by the sun. I THINK I can live with this.
But since I covered one of the panels earlier by turning the battery pack upside down, I don't have a clean test anymore.
I'm bringing the battery back inside to fully charge it overnight and starting the test all over tomorrow morning, again with all four panels available.
Incidentally, this tub can NOT serve as a daphnia culture; it gets far too hot. I'll have to use this one just for green water and set up the daphnia tub elsewhere.
Live and learn!
Hi Bill,
Sounds about right. With the solar panels no longer providing power, the unit switched over to its internal battery for output. The pulsations are a somewhat newer "Pulse Technology" that is supposed to recondition and\or maintain a battery (if you were charging one). But rather you have the USB Nano pump as the load instead. I was reading some specs on this charger. Under full sun, it should easily power the pump & still be charging the battery as well. It should do well for you. Depending on how this test goes, maybe you can experiment with multiple pumps running at the same time. I.E. Additional load testing, etc. Or put a chiller fan on the Daphnia tub, using one of the chargers outputs. Lots of possibilities. 🤔
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20 minutes ago, Bill Smith said:
Hi Dave:
Thanks man, good stuff. Yes, I would think the battery charges at a faster rate than the pump consumes. We will see. I'll basically be checking each morning to see if the batter loses any "bars".
I'm excited about the potential, even if the solution is a "hybrid" approach, where the solar charging only slows down the consumption, and I have to manually recharge the battery every month or so....
Bill,
Am thinking the unit is either a Lithium Polymer or Lithium Ion design. Charge rates are usually expressed in a "C" rating. An example would be "1C". This means that a battery should be able to be charged at an amperage charge rate equal to the battery rated capacity. Often times, the charge rate is much, much less, for safety. Where people get into trouble is by overcharging or charging at a higher current level, than what is safe. Personally, I would never charge a lithium battery beyond a "1C" rate. It appears that charge regulation, from the sun to the internal battery, is automatically done with this charger. Also, often times, with lithium batteries there are 'sense' lines, because the battery itself is made up of individual cells that need to be monitored, charged individually and evenly. Not all batteries are advanced designs tough. In the electronics repair world, it is referred to as "cell balancing" Lithium batteries are very volatile, especially if the lithium is exposed to oxygen. I.E. battery is dropped, damaged, cracked open, overcharged, etc. In addition, lithium batteries typically, don't like to be "stored" for long periods of time, fully charged. Roughly 40% - 60% is best for storage. Also, they don't like to be run down low either. If they are run down too low, there is a point where the battery won't recover. So, they are a little tricky, but can deliver a lot of power.
Just my $0.02 on the matter.
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2 hours ago, Bill Smith said:
Extending the USB Nano Pump: Solar Power
As my second test for the Aquarium Co-Op USB Nano Air pump, I have decided to start writing before the test is done, and to kick things off today.I'm hoping a few tests will come of this, but an "instant fail" is just as valuable. I'm hoping what may come of this will be some numbers (mAh in, hours per day, etc.) that can be used in later selections of solar powered batteries for this pump.I hope to answer this question: Is there a low-cost solar-powered battery by which I can run the USB nano pump indefinitely? Failure is defined as the power running out or the battery otherwise failing by other means.SELECTING THE SOLAR-POWERED BACKUP BATTERYIn making my choice of backup battery, I listed the following criteria that needed to be satisfied:1. It has to be water-resistant.2. It has to be reasonably sized (not too large).3. It has to be affordable.Not too much. The whole trick was to find something that is a balance between power and price. I settled on this IEsafy Solar Charger 26800mAh, Outdoor Solar Power Bank with 4 Foldable Solar Panels and 2 High-Speed Charging Ports for Smartphones, Tablets, Samsung, iPhone, etc, with Waterproof LED Flashlight from Amazon:
(non-affiliate link)It cost $27.50 when I bought it last week, but seems to have risen to $40. A quick search of Amazon and the internet suggests that if you're resourceful, you can find one in the $30 range with these specs. But I still don't yet know if these specs are sufficient.A WORD ABOUT LOCATION AND TIME OF YEAR
This test is going to be a bit less useful around the world; access to sunlight matters a lot. I live in north San Diego county, California, and it is currently July (middle of summer). It stands to reason that if I pick my spot correctly, I will get direct sunlight for much of the day. If I can figure out how many hours of direct sunlight I'll need each day, in theory I can move the charger around as needed.But in winter months and in locations farther from the equator, this may be more difficult.THE SETUP
THE FIRST THING I DID WAS CHARGE THE BACKUP BATTERY BY PLUGGING IT IN. This has to be done first before expecting to make use of solar power at all. It took several hours to charge fully.I am combining this test with another project: A small daphnia culture in a 17-gallon tub. These tubs are $5 at Walmart, so there's no excuse not to have several!I filled the tub with well-used greenish water from my small pond, added extra mulm for good measure, dropped in a medium sponge filter from Aquarium Co-Op, and connected it to the USB nano pump. The pump is hanging from a hole I drilled in the lip of the tub.Then I connected the pump's power cable to the backup battery, which I placed on an empty Amazon box. I placed this entire rig in a spot where I expect it to get much sunlight all day.
(I know that the sponge filter is not necessary daphnia, and many folks keep daphnia in still water even. But I HATE mosquitoes and want to stabilize things as much as possible. Also, I won't be ordering daphnia for several weeks, as I want the water to get much greener from the direct sunlight; I'll be feeding it a steady diet of grass clippings as needed.)TEST ONE: IS THIS REMOTELY VIABLE AT ALL?Today is lightly cloudy, but the clouds are seeming to burn off. The sun hit the charger at 9am this morning, so we are off and running!
I will update this post as developments transpire. Thanks for reading!BillHi Bill,
Really seems like a nice test of the unit. If I am understanding it correctly, they are rating the charged internal battery at a capacity of 26800mah? Would probably be much less than that for many reasons. Loss, efficiency, duty cycle, etc. I measured the current consumption of one of my USB Nano pumps at it draws about 120ma or .120 Amps equivalent, under load with about 5 feet of tubing, check valve & air stone attached. So doing quick math: The pump should run on a fully charged battery approx 223 hours without the aid of the sun. Now, again, that is in theory. It will be less that that. This is all assuming that the battery is rated at a true 26800 mah. Every Nano airpump will probably draw slightly different amounts of current, dependent on installation factors. If I had to guess, and it's only a guess, I would go with about 70% efficiency and it might run about 155 hours or 6.5 days of continuous operation, from the battery alone, at the stated current consumption. All ideas/information presented herein are my opinion.
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Just having some fun: 😊
I like to make it easy on myself & my fish, by using quality products sold/carried by the Co-Op.
Here are some aquarium products I have purchased and like to use; also of which the fish have enjoyed not only on Holidays, but throughout the year as well.
Thanks for making the hobby easier & more enjoyable.
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5 minutes ago, Pete said:
Where'd you get that haul of snails? I followed some suggestions online to go to a big-box store and ask for their "pest" snails to get some MTS, but only ended up with bladder and pond snails.
Hi Pete. Nice to meet you.😊
Personally, I don't consider any snails as "pests", but they get a bad reputation sometimes. Often, it might be from over-feeding & now there are a bunch, etc, in one's aquarium. Snails helped my aquariums a lot.
Bladder & pond snails are great also. I like the MTS because they burrow into the substrate.
I also have Nerites for eating the green spot algae & some Mystery snails for other benefits.
But to answer your question:
These particular MTS's pictured are from Aquabid.
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Just adding some new Malaysian Trumpet Snails to the aquariums.
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1 hour ago, Streetwise said:
I will bring this question to the sailing forum I am on, as many folks are using solar for refrigeration, charging, and other functions, while balancing cost, weight, space, and efficiency.
Can you specify power requirements for me to ask the right questions?
Streewise, What is the total wattage consumption that is needed? I feel that to be looking for a device such as this, one would need to know their power requirements, first.
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10 minutes ago, Bill Smith said:
Ah, very cool. I didn't know you could just hook up a USB port to a battery pack like that. I have both...gotta try it. How do you know which wires to hook up? And I wonder if you could increase the pumping power by boosting the voltage?
Hi Bill,
Nice to meet you.... I used a USB 2.0 mating connector and viewed the pin diagram on the internet for observing the proper wires to use. Also, proper direct current (dc) voltage polarity must be observed. There are 2 data lines (which will not be used) & 2 power lines which were used. Do a search on the connector and you will see what I mean.
BTW, the pump, I would imagine is only rated for 5 volts, USB voltages and I definitely would NOT use higher input voltages. What might help is having higher current capable batteries, for longer run times, etc.
With the above mentioned batteries fully charged, I can operate the pump for about 12 hours minimum.
Of course, the above information is provided "as-is" and any personal experimentation is at your own risk.
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I quickly made a small device for emergency/portable use for my USB nano air-pump.
Had spare parts laying around and did some soldering. Can use 4 high capacity rechargeable size AA 2800 mah NiMh batteries, for the necessary input voltage required by the pump.
Works great and now made multiple units, one for each aquarium. Just plugs in and it didn't cost me anything to build.
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I feed the aquariums once per day. One day would be a Repashy product, the next day Xtreme Krill flakes with some Hikari sinking algae wafers and the following day just protein pellets & a Banquet food block. Of course, it really depends on the exact fish and livestock you are keeping. That will determine what is fed. Personally, I place all "opened" food in the freezer and just take out what is needed for that day.
Electrical Safety ⚡ 🔥
in General Discussion
Posted
⚡ ⚡ Do you use surge protection and\or Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) outlets or other devices for your aquarium electrical equipment?