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GHL Blog

Upgrade from the 11ex to the 111 coming soon. - Thursday, September 09, 2010

I hope to include Photos, full description of ease or issues.

I also hope to add some videos.

Please check back.

At this time I am awaiting delivery of the upgrade kit.

Screen Shots as promised - Thursday, September 09, 2010

General Header

Illumination

Illumination 1

Illumination 2

Illumination 3-8

Illumination Simulation

Illumination Thunderstorm

Illumination Overview

Processes

Timer 1 - Dimmable T5 unit

Timer 2, 6, 7, 8 (Blank)

Timer 3 - Halides (Centre)

Timer 4 - Halides (Leftand Right)

Timer 5 - Sump Light

Extras

Socket Functions

1-10v Interfaces

Pumps

Dosing Pumps

Maintenance

Probe / Sensor Control

Temperature 1

Temperature 2 (Virtual)

Temperature 3 (Virtual)

Conductivity

Redox

Level

Sensor Overview

Measurement Data

Display

Dimmable T5 unit installed and reduced Weather Sticks back to 1 - Thursday, September 09, 2010

Well I put put some effort into my Lighting area today.

The outcome was I finally fitted the Dimmable T5 unit that I have borrowed from TAC.

Before:-

Now:-

Close up inc Weather Stick:-

All running perfectly - Thursday, September 09, 2010

Just to let you know all is going well.

I also still intend to add screen grabs of my settings.

Small update - Thursday, September 09, 2010

Profilux now pretty much fully setup.

My ozoniser is now controlled by my REDOX probe.

I have tweaked the Stream control, so that it is pulsing every 30 seconds from eaither end of the weir, ie when 1 set of 4 pumps are operating at 100%, then the other 4 in the other weir are running at 30% (I may increase this to 40%) and vice versa all day long...

Except at night.

At night I have reduced flow between the hours of 2300 and 0700 to 50% and 30% respectivily, I may reduce it further if I see any signs of the fish / corals enjoying it.

At this time I have not fitted the dimmable T5 unit I have as I cant work out how to fit into my hood.

There are few tweaks to areas I have requested form the manufacturer but I will expand on these when they come to fruition.

Finally I do aim to produce a load of screen grabs of ALL by settings for you to crib from, but that will either this weekend or next week when I'm on holiday.

Todays update - Thursday, September 09, 2010

Level sensors all fitted, connected and working.

Setup to perform the following....Sump to low......switch on Topup pump

Sump to High....Alert.

Top up tank to low....Alert

Stream control also now fully operational.....to hard to explain in here....I'll produce some screen shots and add them when I get time and explain more when I add the screen grabs

LED Weather lighting setup....This is setup as follows:-

One of my Weather strips and a plug bar in the background:-

Moon light on at 2300 and takes 1 hour to get to full strength (will be over ridden by the looner cycle)

Moon Light starts reducing at 0715 taking 1 hour to switch off Sun rise starts at 0745 taking 1 hour to complete. Start dimming at 1000 taking 5 mins to dim down. (Actinics come on at 1000).

Just for fun I have also created a Thunderstorn at 2300 which will last for 20 mins. This will also effect my Streams by switching them all on at 100% strength. I shall be watcging the tank tonight to see that the weirs can cope.

Tonight could be interesting!!!!!

So that leaves Ozoniser control and some tweaking of the dosing pumps.

Along with the dimmable T5 unit installation.

Dont worry I intend posting Screen grabs of it all over the coming week.

Where am I at at 2100pm - Thursday, September 09, 2010

PH probe now working.......I found the fault.......it was me!!!!!! I hadnt plugged it in!!!!

Conductivity - installed, callibrated and reporting back.

Dosing pumps all connected to balling tanks etc, and in theory working but I'm not yet happy with them. I only want to dose Phyto eg during the night, but havent worked that out yet, seems you can only do it a set number of times, at set quantities all day long. So I think the dosing pumps are working but not as controlled as I want quite yet.

All items that are controlled via timers eg lights....sorted.

I have now also sorted out the Heaters thanks to a friend on UR (thanks Tony) basically by creating 2 virtual Temp probes via the main unit (remote control from the software, Function - Virtual Probes - New Virt Probe - Choose which type of probe you want to Virtualise), I have now been able to have one heater come on at 24.9, a further one comes on at 24.4 and finally if the temp realy plummets to 23.9 then my final but big 500 watt heater clicks on.

I really am beginning to understand things a bit now.

To do of the top off my mind.

3 Level sensors

Ozoniser control

Weather simulation

Stream control

Dimmable T5 unit install.

More to follow ....

Update as of 1500 - Thursday, September 09, 2010

Well all my esentials are now running and I'm beginning to understand the GHL.

My AQ has been fully removed, sold and picked up by the buyer today, that took me 2-3 hours to strip down.

My GHL is in its new home and is sitting on top of the Dosing pumps.

I have 1 plug bar in my Shed with at present my Halides plugged into and my Ozoniser. My Halides are all setup and the GHL is controlling the Timings etc...and its working. No control on the ozoniser yet though.

I have a Second plug bar behind my tank, this has 2 heaters, Skimmer Air pumps and Actinics plugged into it. The heaters still need programming into the GHL, so at present there is no control set on them to make them work. The skimmer air pumps are set to be always on. The actinics are set on timers using the GHL and again are fully operational.

The Third plug bar is beside the tank and at present has nothing plugged into it...thats the next job and I will report back.

Remote Display

I have added the redox probe and calibrated it, although my reading isnt very pleasing. Not sure on rules of being located next to temp probes etc Will read up.

Temp probe is plugged in without calibrating and is reading high so I need to read up on calibrating this probe.

I'm in the process of calibrating the PH probe but it keeps failing due to trying to use liquids 9.0 and 7.0, it says range to small. So I have a call in with Steve and reefdreams to discuss this.

Other than that, still alot to do, I need to add and calibrate the Conductivity probe, sort out the streams control and add the illumination, plus program in all my fail safe controls.

I'm learning, thats the main thing, and the tank is now sufficiently controlled to enable less panic. I would also very much like to sort out the Dosing pump and get my "baling" live again, but as yet that is a mystery to me.

Profilux and Dosing pump in situ

Picked up my GHL - Thursday, September 09, 2010

Well today I picked up my GHL.

After I "borrowed" some additional bits from TAC (they havent setup their display tank yet) I have to following items to play with....pics to follow though!

PP2EX-PROFISET

GHL Profilux Plus II EX Aquatic Computer - Pro Pack

1

PL-0334

GHL-Profilux 6 Socket UK Digital Switchable Plugbar

3

PL-0354

GHL-Profilux Dosing Pump Unit With 4 Pumps

1

PL-0077

GHL-Profilux Floating Level Sensor

3

PL-0078

GHL-Profilux Plexiglass Base Unit For Level Sensor Mounting

2

PL-0080

GHL-Profilux Floating Level Sensor Mounting Bracket

3

PL-0010

GHL-Profilux USB Expansion Card

1

PL-0097

GHL-Profilux 2.5 mtr Low Voltage Splitter cable

2

PL-0087

GHL-Profilux Connection Cable Profilux To Tunze 1

2

PL-0088

GHL-Profilux Connection Cable Profilux To Tunze 2

2

PL-0372

GHL-Profilux Dimmable LED - Moon Light - Stick

2

PL-0022

GHL-Profilux Remote Display Screen for the Profilux Plus II Controller

1

PL-0081

GHL-Profilux Splitter For Two Level Sensors

2

GHL Profilux Plus PH Probe

1

GHL-Profi Conductivity Probe

1

GHL-ProfiRedox Probe

1

GHL-Profilux T5 Twin Dimmable 54w unit

1

So I started off by checking everything and taking pictures of it all for this blog.

I then opened up the GHL Profilux Plus II EX Aquatic Computer and installed the USB interface. All that was easy. Stress levels kept to a minimum.

I then decided that as tomorrow was going to be very busy, not least becuase I have to remove my existing Aquatronica setup, I thought it a good idea to start programming the unit, especially the Dosing pumps and Digital plug bars.

Oh wow, stress levels rose doing this.

I have to say the manual is not the best and the software although as I learn the system will be found to be very powerful, again during setup its not very helpful.

Anyway without going into to much detail but enough detail to help others.

I first connected the Dosing pumps to Socket s1-4

At this point DO NOT connect anything else.

Go into the software and go into EXTRAS > Socket Functions and click on the button at the bottom called - "Program digital powerbar or dosing pump unit"

Select "Numbering of a Dosing pump station" and follow the intructions

When complete disconnect it.

Now plug one of your plug bars into socket s1-s4 and do the same as above but instead select "numbering of a digital powerbar" . Choose the sockets numbers that do not interfear with your doing pump or other plug bars and make sure you LABEL the plug bar up for future use.

Keep doing the above for any number of plug bars (3 if you have a dosing pump or 4 if not). Make sure when you do this you only have the one plug bar / dosing pump plugged in at any one time.

Once complete and saved, then you can plug all the bars and dosing pumps into one another and the internal hardware remembers your saved plug numbers etc. I have found you can actually plug them in to each other in any order once programmed as the programming is held on the bars themselves.

So right now (given up for tonight), my dosing pumps and 3 plug bars are all useable, fully programmed , and packed away in a box ready for tomorrow!!!!! All this took me a couple of hours and I must admit I was beginning to get wound up.

All good for now though.

The toys still boxed.