DIY Drop Checker - Page 9 - DIY Aquarium Projects

hoppycalif · 11-11-2006, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dennis

That's very clever. Well done. A suggestion though, next time try painting the inner tube white so that the color of the indicator is easier to see.

TAP plastics sells white acrylic tubing I think. If so, that would work best of all.

bpimm · 11-11-2006, 05:29 PM

A white center tube would help.

My total cost was $1.99 for the suction cups, I already had the rest. I saw at pet smart some lift tubes for $2.99. I had paid under $5.00 for the 3' lengths.

If you went out to but everything from scratch it would be about $15.00 but that's enough to make 10-15 of these guys. so the actual cost is around $2.00 EA. It would be a great project for a club to get together and make a bunch.

gpimm · 11-12-2006, 10:19 AM

Another source for white center tubes would be the standard white PVC pipe. Not sure if the acrylic glue will work but you could use the "Multi-porpose cement" for plumbing fittings. It glues PVC, CPVC, and ABS. I use this to glue 1/2" CPVC pipe caps on the 5/8" clear aquarium tubing to make bubble conters.

Gary

Blacksunshine · 11-13-2006, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gpimm

Another source for white center tubes would be the standard white PVC pipe. Not sure if the acrylic glue will work but you could use the "Multi-porpose cement" for plumbing fittings. It glues PVC, CPVC, and ABS. I use this to glue 1/2" CPVC pipe caps on the 5/8" clear aquarium tubing to make bubble conters.

Gary

Acrylic glue will work fine with PVC. Or you can use the pipe glue.

And that is a GREAT idea!. I will be making a couple tonight.
Luckly I have a TAP plas's around the corner from my house.

hoppycalif · 11-13-2006, 09:47 AM

My wife occasionally has artificial finger nails "installed", and they are built up using acrylic plastic. She uses ordinary nail polish on them, so if you use white nail polish (is there such a thing???) it would work fine on the acrylic pipe.

kamel_007 · 11-13-2006, 10:20 AM

This's My Diy "drop-checker"

hoppycalif · 11-13-2006, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kamel_007

This's My Diy "drop-checker"

Is that a shot glass? How did you make it? Once you understand how simple this device is, there must be a dozen ways to make one. The absolute simplest I have heard yet is to take a plastic tube, bend it into a "U" shape and cap one end. Of course a suction cup is still needed, but there are lots of options for that too.

dennis · 11-13-2006, 05:07 PM

OK, while I am discovering that I really like to melt glass (maybe a new hobby for me. I can be a double threat!) I just don't like the uncertaintly of this. The whole yellowish, greenish thing is just to much for me.

So, I give you the electronic drop checker:

hoppycalif · 11-13-2006, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dennis

OK, while I am discovering that I really like to melt glass (maybe a new hobby for me. I can be a double threat!) I just don't like the uncertaintly of this. The whole yellowish, greenish thing is just to much for me.

So, I give you the electronic drop checker:

Dennis, how did you seal around the probe, to keep the air from leaving the drop checker? Incidentally, you beat Tom Barr to this! He has been posting about making one of these by mid December. The only non-fool-proof part of this design that I see is the electrical interferrence issue. How do you satisfy yourself that the probe is not being affected by interferrence?

dennis · 11-13-2006, 07:12 PM

Re: the seal.

I started playing around with tubing and discovered thet my PinPoint probe was a good fit for 1/2" eheim tubing. Next, I played around and found a 5/8" forstner bit that was a good fit for the slightly expanded tubing around the probe. I pushed a short piece of tubing onto the probe, easiest when wet, and then forced (gently) the tubing/probe into the hole in top of the "checker". No leaks. I also know the tubing will expand a tiny amount when underwater for a while, which should improve the fit even more. YMMV with regards to probe size, tubing availibility and drill bit size. I probably got lucky that I had a bit that fit well.

An alternate method would be to use a specially made connector that holds the probe. I know IUnknown made an inline probe holder using one of these fittings.

Now, re: electrical interferrence, I have wondered about that several times in the past. Each time I double checked the reading with everything on verses everything off and unplugged. Never any issues.

Now, I have been using the regular drop checker for several days and find that with kH ~5 the indicator is yellow by the end of the day. The fish are fine, maybe a little skittish but fine. I have not adjusted the CO2 flow at all. My electronic drop checker (we need a name for this) has stabilized at 6.3 after 3.5 hours. The water to air interface is much larger on this than on the little drop checkers so I am pretty confident that everything is about right. The water in the electric version is probably not as alkaline as in the drop checker. My next step, now that it works, is to get some DI and make a proper solution of kH 5 and set the controller to ph 6.5, which will give me ~45ppm CO2.