"Larry Blanchard" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 12 Nov 2005 00:35:36 -0500, NetMax wrote:


The question is, would it sell. Would you buy one? Is it complete,
anything missing?

Well, some of it, like the changing lighting, sounds nice, but the
whole
thing reminds me of computerizing a model railroad - takes all the fun
out
of operating it :-).

That's very true. So automate the bad and keep the good, but that
balance differs by everyone's definition of good or bad. I'm perfectly
happy to never clean filters or do the daily feeding, as long as I get to
give the frozen food treats. Gravel vacuuming holds no interest, but I
don't mind cleaning a bit of algae and pruning live plants.

And with the number of heaters I've had die on me, I'd be really leery
of
building one into the canopy unless it was easily replaceable. In
fact,
that would apply to most of the components you've imagineered.

I'm also a big fan of redundancy and the use of commonly available
components. I imagine someone could make a fortune selling proprietary
heaters to fit this canopy, but a proper design would be to have 2
cavities where standard submersible heaters were installed. A small LED
indicator on the canopy could be optionally used to indicate operation (I
like very visual indicators), and the heater's current usage (amperage)
could be monitored (through the GFI circuit) so a no-current condition
(heater failure) could be flagged to the user.

thanks for the feedback
--
www.NetMax.tk