# Any Aquarium Electronics Gurus out There?



## snickle (Apr 8, 2007)

I have two related projects I would like to build, but my electronics skills are 20 years forgotten. An I was never much on 120 volt switching.

Issue keeping all devices in sync.

I have two power strips with built-in timers today. They control the always on stuff and keep each set of light for 8 hours with a 4 hour over lap.

I also have a UV sterilizer and a solenoid valve on my CO2 I need to control.

Obviously more timer would be a solution, but I was hoping for a little more elegant.

So two projects:

For the UV Sterilizer: Plug a power cord into each timer strip, only power the UV sterilizer when both are on. That would give me 4 hours of UV a day.

For the CO2 Valve: Plug a power cord into each timer strip, power the solenoid when either are on. The challenge here is the solenoid is in the basement, so I will need to run a low or high voltage line down depending on the design.

Thoughts? Yes, I know I am crazy, but other than that?


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## JERP (Feb 4, 2003)

The most elegant (simple) solution is two more timers. A timer for each light. A timer for the solenoid in teh basement, and a timer for the UV. There are power strips available with multi-zone timers that might help.

Coralife Power Center

One of those under your tank and a separate timer in your garage.


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## snickle (Apr 8, 2007)

Okay, I think I figured it out. Not hard once I thought about it.










This is for the UV. Cheap power bricks each driving a relay. With the relays in series, both power brick need to be active for the UV to come on.

If I wire them in parallel, then if either was on, I would have output power.

Should be easy to build (assuming I can find the relays) and I could build both circuit in a single enclosure and use the same pair of power bricks.


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## jazzlvr123 (Apr 29, 2007)

ummmm yes simple......


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## bradac56 (May 9, 2007)

What will happen if/when you loose one power brick? There seems to be
to many points of failure with that design. I'd just get another timer and
then each one is safe unless you have a power outage.


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## Hashbaz (Apr 23, 2006)

Your schematic looks like it would work, but whenever I rig up something like that the result is less than "elegant".

Why can't you set 1 set of lights to be on for 12 hrs and the other only to be on for 4hrs in the middle of the 12hrs? You could then connect the CO2 to the 12hr lights and the UV to the 4hr lights. You wouldn't need anymore timers, pwer bricks or relays etc.


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## mhoy (Jun 12, 2007)

Isn't the simplest solution a single additional timer set for the overlap hours?


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