SPECIFICATIONS

The Automatic Aquarium Water Changer will perform the task of removing and replacing a prescribed amount of water from and into the tank. For the teams design, the prototype will utilize a 20-gallon aquarium and perform a 20% water change (4 gallons) once every week. Due to time considerations, our prototype will perform a water change once a day for 7 days. This will accurately model the system and satisfy the problem statement.

In order for the system to complete this task, the following resources will be needed on site;

Power - 12V DC (using a 120V AC adaptor)
Utilities - Tap water to fill the fresh water reservoir, and a water drain for the waste water.

The system we have designed is going to be sold as an addition to a customer's preexisting aquarium. Therefore, the customer needs only to have enough space for 2 reservoirs. The design uses 5 gallon buckets as the reservoirs. Many of the components required for this system will be purchased (control board, pumps, reservoir buckets, etc.). The only parts that need to be manufactured are the components of the Arduino housing (including the housing bed and lid). There are two options for producing the Arduino housing's components; Additive Manufacturing or construction in the UB Student Machine shop.

If the team decides to proceed with Additive Manufacturing, the material properties will not be very different, however, the manufacturing cost will be higher than using the UB Student Machine Shop. The 3D-printed part will be made of Polylactic Acid (PLA), whereas, if the team utilized the machine shop the material would be made of polycarbonate. The properties of both materials are in the table below.

Since all of the parts needed to be manufactured are rectangular prisms, the only machines we would need to use would be the band saw to rough cut the stock, and a mill to carve out the final shape.

Update 04/15/2018

The housing assembly was manufactured through Additive manufacturing. The two components cost approximately $30 to produce. They were produced in the 3D-printing laboratory at the University at Buffalo. This is what the group choose to do for the prototype, however, once mass produced, further consideration will be needed. It may be in the company's best interest, financially, to mass produce the housing with extrusion or forming processes, depending on the quantity needed. This will need to be examined further as the design continues to be refined.

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