roni

Tom, Thanks for the input. The LM3 does 1500 (or some other high amount) of small on/off additions throughout the day to split the dose, which is set manually. In addition, I've got a high level sensor that shuts off the unit. It's been pretty reliable in the past 7 years but as always, there's a risk. Ideally I'd probably have a second high level sensor independent of the litermeter and may consider that tied to my apex. I've also got email alerts from my apex (though need to set that up again since the move) for elevated pH. In terms of stirring and then waiting, that would be harder to coordinate. I've dosed kalk slurry before and not had a problem due to how slowly the LM3 doses. My understanding is that you lose some of the hard metal precipitating prospects of kalk but that there isn't any other big issue with dosing a little slurry. Have your experiences been different? I think bruce's method is better then what I've got proposed. My problem is space under the tank (or lack thereof) as well as having everything else in the basement (and not being able to redrill into the ceiling...if I want to stay happily married). My thought is to let the kalk fluctuate over time and then adjust my second form of calcium supplementation by dosing calcium reactor effluent through a peristaltic pump and checking alkalinity regularly...or taking the plunge and getting a kH monitoring and control system (damastaco reactor). thanks as always for your considered and detailed input. it's greatly appreciated.

Working through my kalk topoff method and curious about any suggestions. In the past, I had RO water in a later container, which got pulled by a LM3 which fed a kalk reactor, which then gravity fed into my sump. With my water in the basement now and limited space below my tank, that's not a possibility. My original plan was to draw kalk water from a still 10 gallon reservoir containing kalkwasser, separate from my ro reservoir. However, the logistics of getting water from the RO reservoir (55 gallon drum with AVAST barrel tender) to the 10 gallon reservoir is an added step that I think I can skip. Does anyone see a problem with simply drawing water from the 55 galon drum and added kalk directly to it? it's metered by the LM3 so no chance of overdose of kalk. It'll be a pain to cleanout the barrel of kalk but if it's once a year, it should be doable. I don't imagine it would cause problems with the barrel tender. I will have to weight down the feed to the LM3 so it sits at the bottom, since I believe the barrel tender doesn't kick on until the container gets near empty (correct?) Am I missing anything?

Graham, Looks fantastic! How did you get that flat rock from the left column to overhang that much? I need to grab some frags from you once my new system stabilizes.

Looks fantastic. I think you'll be happier with the more robust overflow and the peace of mind that comes with it. I still have a bunch of acrylic rods here if you want to use with your rock work.

I'll echo Tom's sentiments. Thanks for all you have done and continue to do.

Looks fantastic! What happened to the last tank?

Dropped the lights to fix the spread issue while still getting coverage. Still battling the Apex and wxm issues but got the tank aquascaped. Fairly happy with how it turned out since I didn't do a lot of planning like I have in the past. Hoping to get the auto topoff and water change fixed and then get my corals/fish back (thanks Jon and Maureen). A few pics in the meantime. It's not nearly as blue as it looks but cellphone pics are it for now Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Finally got the tank filled this week and with some water cycling. I've been battling my apex and still need to get some stuff done for the water top off and auto water change. However, had a dilemma I was hoping to get some advice on. I ran an ATI hybrid light on my last reef, which was great. On this tank, I didn't want to spend quite as much on a light and went with a used powermodule. The problem is that the light spread from the tank is a lot, and the tank is located much closer to the living room. I think it's going to be a problem long term so I'm thinking about whether LEDs would give me a little less light spillover. I'm thinking of getting 2 Radion xr30s or a kessil 700. Any thoughts? Anyone use these and have input? Is there a significant difference between gen 2, 3 and 4 for the radions? Any other lights you'd recommend? I'm currently favoring getting a couple of the radion gen 2 or 3 lights since I can use my wxm to control. The kessil has a separate controller from what I understand...

thanks everyone. after going back through everything step by step, it looks like a have a slightly wonky ethernet port that gets loose easily. everything is good now in terms of internet. However, I'm now trying to connect some mp40s to my wxm. One went easily and an outlet appeared immediately. The other one flashes blue and orange like it's supposed to but then goes to green and doesn't create an outlet. I've tried powering off the pump and repeated the clearing of the memory and the steps to link but get the same. This same mp40 also gives me an error when I put my battery backup on it. I'll send another ticket to neptune but figured I'd check here first. I like the neptune products once they are setup but they are definitely giving me some trouble right now

so, tried to connect back to my router (hard wired) to reflash update and the apex flash utility program doesn't even detect my apex anymore.

yeah, that's the version i updated to. Not super happy right now. I think it may have reset all my settings, which may be why I'm having trouble getting everything working. Do you have that old faq for the classic somewhere in your files? I think that had a step by step way to get through the apex setup.

thanks tom, let me try that.

Yeah, did all of those. There used to be a step by step trouble shooting manual someone made but I can't seem to find it. Yeah, opened a ticket but they are only open mon-friday, when I'm working.

Hi, Finally slowly getting everything hooked up again after a move. My apex was working well before I moved but after I moved, it said that it needed an update. I did the update over a hard wired connection (not wifi) as they stated. Before, it connected to the internet, now there is no connection. Even bought a new router thinking that was the issue and still no go. Any ideas? thanks, Roni

Come over and help me finish setup I'm actually getting close. Need to figure out the barrel tender thing and then should be able to fire up my ro/di and start making some water.

Looking great! Okay, now i'm motivated to get some water in my tank soon

I'm ready and willing Now you just need another 8 people.... fantastic progress since the last time I saw everything

Haha...Eric, what did I tell you We used 8 last time. Tank is looking good.

Thanks Tom. Thanks...Just giving you guys a hard time. Avast is always quick to respond with great products. I think i nearly have your entire line...waiting on that frozen feeder though I know I'm maybe being a little slow on the uptake but so I am sure...basically, it cuts off the output from the ro unit, which triggers the asov to turn off the ro unit? or does it cut off the input into the ro unit?

Looks fantastic! How is the goldflake behaving?

Okay, adding on to this thread... trying to understand this a little...tried pming justin but he's too important to empty his inbox Is it essentially a solenoid that cuts the input to the ro/di or does it use backflow to stop via an asov? Basically, I've had an ro unit that was hard wired into my utility sink with a solenoid valve between the sink and the feed into the ro unit. I had a float valve on the bucket that the ro unit fed and an asov but for whatever reason, if I forgot to turn off I'd still end up with a small flood. I used to plug the solenoid valve into the power to turn on and unplug to turn off.

Tom, I'll defer to you....I'll see if I can hunt down that article at some point..I may have read it incorrectly. Thanks for your help.

I mean benefit for a kalkreactor versus into a still reservoir. I think using a still reservoir allows you to get fewer impurities in the effluent (more precipitation of heavy metals out) as well as a higher ca/alk dose (I believe tmz on reefcentral ran some numbers). Just trying to see if there is a benefit to running the kalkreactor...

Yeah, I just went back and read some of my ramblings...can you see how frazzled I am by the move and everything else I think Bruce's method definitely allows more control and his results speak for themselves. One of my problems in the past has been fluctuating levels due to variable evaporation. By running discrete lines, you avoid that to an extent. However, it does add an extra pump into the equation. It would be 2 lines for water change, 2 lines for ca reactor, 1 for ro feed with float switch, 1 for feed from kalk reactor...good thing I put in that extra line Are you still finding benefit for the reactor? I'm thinking of just going to a still reservoir.

Tom, Much appreciated. Forgot to list. Plan to likely do an MTC dual chamber fed using a Aquarium Plants regulator. I'll probably further regulated effluent via a peristaltic pump I picked up from Avast. I'll likely use 2 of the lines to keep the calcium reactor in the unfinished and keep more space under the tank.