Help me design my new 240gal setup!

Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum

Help Support Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum:

Sparky52, I like you dude, but resistance does NOT cause ANY voltage drop untill a circut has loading. Running AC through wires near eachother causes inductive loading (and capactive), which is the cause of the voltage drop.

An unloaded wire will NOT have voltage drop unless its getting SOME type of loading. Any other EE's here on the board are going to be haveing a good laugh at your above concept missunderstanding. Your observations are correct, but your thought of the cause is incorrect, dont feel bad, its something that a wire runner doesnt need to understand to do there job.

BTW, I write my posts with the least technical jargon I can manage. I take out a bunch of things from them, and rewrite stuff to try to make it understandable for people who arent specialized. I'm sorry if they are still too complex. If you have a better/more simple way to describe inductive and capactive loading that is created anytime a wire is near another wire for a long distance I would love to know it.

Thats right, I cant spell, I also dont know left from right, I have trouble seeing and remembering colors, I have insomnia, I deal with mental stability issues, I have spots in my vision and a lot of other problems. I would love to see how it relates to me not haveing a strong passion for physics.

BTW, my calc reactors fit my tiny budget, and they have never had a problem. I am proud of them. IMO form follows function.

I know you are a pro wire runner, but you have a missunderstanding of what is causeing the voltage drop in the wire. If you dont belive me, here is a 3rd party voltage calculator.
http://www.csgnetwork.com/voltagedropcalc.html

enter in 1000ft for wire legnth, and use .000012amp load to represent at 10Mohm resistance (standard for DMMs). What voltage drop does it give you? 0 volts (too low of a drop for the precision of the calculator and measureing tools to matter).

If you do this is real life with DC, you will measure on your own meter that it has zero voltage drop. This is because DC doesnt have any inductive losses, but it has the exact same wire resistance.

Now, connect it to AC and measure your 1000ft wire, and I belive you that it has a 4volt drop. But its not because of the wire resistance, its because of inductive/capacitive loading.

I respect your oppinion, and its clear you are a pro wire runner, however, no load means no voltage drop. Ask any fellow EE this, they will tell you the same thing. If you measure a voltage drop, they will say something like, well, its wasnt unloaded then, it had inductive or capacitive loading.

Im sure you know that when you just run wires next to eachother, and/or in a grounded metal tube or whatever that you are loading the circut, because you have created a capacitor, which is useing current to charge and discharge it every cycle.

I think you dont belive me, and that you dont trust EE's (like most electricians). So, try the same 1000' test out with DC and notice that you will have zero voltage drop. Was the wire resistance any less? Nope, its because its not loading the circut through inductive and capacitive means.

I like you reguardless, and I enjoy your contributions.

-Luke
 
Last edited:
Imposter of what? I took 3 years of EE (before switching majors, then switching again, and then switching again), I used to build custom amps for money, I actively build tesla coils and lasers for kicks. Thats pretty much my electrical experience. I dont what you percieve I am pretending to be.

What am I impostering? Have any EE read what I wrote, they will go, yup, the guy is totally correct, and they will tell you that you have a concept missunderstanding.

Once again please tell me what I am an imposter of?

FYI, the inductive/capacitive load comes from having a long run of wire. Thats why you read the voltage drop. The wires BECOME a capacitor and inductor when its set it near another wires. This is just common knowledge when you have basic principals of EE. I mean, shoot, most tesla coil builders use Coaxial cable in long spools for high voltage capacitors.

I dont want you to make more of a fool of yourself because I like you, so please talk to an EE or somebody you know with a good grasp of electricity before you keep this making a fool of yourself up.

If you wana talk to a professor about this, I have many I would be willing to put you in contact with if you cant find somebody local to explain it to you.

Sparky52, I dont want this to hurt your feelings, I like you and I respect your experience and knowledge in this field. Just please talk to a professor or EE before you keep this up. You dont even have to appligize or anything after you get it figured out, I still will like you and respect you.
 
Last edited:
Im broke because I've been a student for around 6 years now. I have a lot of hobbys, a girlfriend on her unpaid medical internship I support, and a racecar that seems to just viciously attack my wallet about every 2 months or so.

Yes, I do have some beakers, I generally use them for chem experiements rather than physics, but yeah, I have some beakers. Maybe I am missing how that relates to my passion for physics? Please enlighten me.
 
It seems that we went way off here, this is a great subject but we need to give back this thread to SlickDonkey. If either or you want to start a thread in the Advanced area we can, it is very interesting subject but we need to keep it there.
 
Scooterman said:
It seems that we went way off here, this is a great subject but we need to give back this thread to SlickDonkey. If either or you want to start a thread in the Advanced area we can, it is very interesting subject but we need to keep it there.

I totally agree!!!!!

Brian (Slickdonkey) is doing an awesome job in this thread, documenting his trials & tribulations with setting up his new beautiful 240 tank!!!

NONE of us know everything, no matter how much we may wish to impress people, so like Brian has done here... he asks questions for others to give him input. Everyone reading along can gleam some knowledge from the various inputs people are able to give.

Yet, this is about Slickdonkey's journey... not ours.

If we can all remember that, keeping our inputs with that thought in mind... we will help Brian much more than going too far off subject. And, isn't that what having this awesome Forum at our disposal is all about??? Helping fellow Reefers?!?!?!?!
 
You guys are right...I was acting like a jerk....I am sorry!
Sorry livefor no more flaming it is cool to disagree sometimes...I will try to act more like an adult about it.
 
Last edited:
So anyway, while I'm working on my plumbing and electrical, would anyone care to recommend an algae magnet? I've never had a tank this big so I'm sure my existing one is totally inadequate (not to mention 12 years old).

Just like everything else, there is so much to choose from! These suckers are expensive; I'd hate to pick one I don't like.

My acrylic is 1/2".
 
I would recommend the Hammerhead Float Magnet Cleaner (about $70).

Yes, they are spendy... but when I see how well my friend's works on his tank compaired to my poor little Mag-Float, and the amount of work I have to do to get it to do the same job, I kick myself around the block for not ordering a better Mag Cleaner to start off with.
 
Hmmm, I have a Hammerhead pump, so why not? :rolleyes:

Anyway that's one of the magnets I was looking at. Do you know if you can leave it in the tank? I wouldn't do that all the time but it makes it much more likely a that lazy man like myself might use it.
 
That, I couldn't answer you... but knowing me, if I owned one it would be on the side of my tank ready for use also! *Grinz*
 
wow, love seeing those pictures of the freshly drilled tank for the closed loop. You will not regret it Brian. You are doing an awesome job.

As far as the magnet goes, I have a 1/2" acrylic tank also, and bought a Hammerhead magnet. If I was going to do it again, I would spend the extra $20 and get the Tigershark. I leave mine in the tank all the time.

Mat
 
Lumber

Ok, I got some more lumber ordered and will try reinforcing the floor again if I have time this weekend. Unlikely, but I can try.

Last time I went to Home Depot on Saturday morning along with everyone else in town, had to lift and fit 16' boards on my cart, waited in line to get it cut to size, waited in line to rent a truck big enough to carry it, waited in line to pay for everything, had to load and unload everything myself... well, let's just say it was an unpleasant experience and wasted a good part of my Saturday.

This time I called Dunn Lumber in Kirkland. After a 5 minute phone conversation, they'll deliver it straight to my door in 24 hours, cut it to size, and charge me $25 to deliver it. :) Incidentally this is what it cost me for the truck rental at HD.

Why didn't I do that before? What an idiot... :lol:
 
I just got my Sander 200mg ozonizer in the mail last night. Expensive for such a little box! I've heard good things about these units.

I also got a bunch of loc-line. I was too cheap to spring for the $20 pliers. Man that stuff is a pain to break apart and put together.
 
hehehe That Loc-line definately makes you work for it! *Grinz* Luckily... you'll only play around with it a couple times until you're happy (for a while) with its length and placement... then all is good.
 
Slickdonkey said:
I just got my Sander 200mg ozonizer in the mail last night. Expensive for such a little box! I've heard good things about these units.

Hey where did you get this unit?
I think I want to run ozone on my tank when I ever get it going lol!
 
Scooterman said:
Hey where did you get this unit?
I think I want to run ozone on my tank when I ever get it going lol!

I got it from www.fishsupply.com. Never ordered from them before but you're right, this unit isn't stocked by any of the major vendors.

I e-mailed them about choosing an air dryer for the unit but they never answered... so I just bought one of the Red Sea units with the beads from MarineDepot.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top