soferik

Thank you Chad. Dimming with the Apex is actually pretty straight forward with the Meanwell dimmable drivers. They require a 0-10v DC input signal voltage to know how much power to feed to the lights, and the Apex has 4 variable speed ports that put out a 0-10v DC signal. Tell the apex to send the driver 1v and the lights are on 10%, 2v and the lights are on 20%, and so on.. The Apex can be a little temperamental, but after working out the bugs it's been very stable and controls the lights beautifully.

Thank you! Thank you Andy. I took a peek at your build thread with the link on your post, that's a very nice build you put together! I do keep SPS, I tried to put together a nice mix of corals when I started the tank to try to get a feel for how the corals would respond to the led's. Color of the the SPS is basically the main thing that I am still closely watching. I can tell you this for sure, be patient with it! several pieces initially started to fade or turn brown, but SLOWLY colored back up again. I noticed on your build thread that the tank was started in June, and at that point you were still a couple weeks away from getting the led's up and running? if this is the case, your corals are definitely still acclimating to the led's, and as long as they are growing and have polyps extended, patience is the key! My tank has been up and running with the led's for almost 9 months now and some pieces still have not completely decided what color they want to be. This is pretty much the case with SPS color only, LPS, softies and even a nice Maxima clam that I got about a month ago are fantastic. The rest of it is pretty much a no brainer to me at this point. Growth is amazing, even the pieces of SPS that changed color were very healthy and continued to grow and have good polyp extension. Less power consumption, low heat and so on, are all pretty much as advertised so far! These are just my observations so far on this, of course everyones tank parameters and flow are different and all are equally important factors I believe. Thank you very much Tom. Definitely Not the typical Tuesday afternoon around here! All is well though, no damage, just some shaken up kids, literally and figuratively!

Thanks Roni, I had noticed on your posts on the RRC site that you were in Stafford and figured that at some point I would get the chance to ask you if you were from Stafford, or were transplanted from somewhere else? Hopefully you guys can fill me in on some of the saltwater stores up north that I should check out the next time I am up that way. My brother-in-law works right down the street from Marine Scene and we went to check it out a few months ago, I liked it, they had a good selection of fish and corals. That's the only place I have made it to so far.

Hello all, I just joined WAMAS and figured I would introduce myself to the group. My name is Jon and I live in the west end of Richmond Va. I have been reefing for close to 3 years now and I am an active member of the Richmond Reef Club down here. I know I am a little bit farther south than most on here, but I actually started in NOVA ( born in Alexandria, grew up in Stafford, graduated North Stafford, moved down to Richmond a few years after that ), and I still have friends and family up north. Which basically leads me to why I finally joined WAMAS, we frequently come up to spend weekends with my wife's sister and her family who live in Montclair in Dumfries Va. Therefore, I figured this would be a good way to feed my addiction to this wonderful hobby of ours by tapping into another knowledge base and hopefully get to expand the great group of crazy reefkeepers down here that I've come to call friends, we are an interesting breed! I have met some members already as a few people from our group I believe are already members. I also had the privilege of meeting and spending a little time with John Coppolino in June when I hosted our club meet and was fortunate enough to get him to come down and be a guest speaker for us. Thanks again for that John, people are still talking about that meet down here! I look forward to getting to know as many others as I can. Some quick info on my current setup, I have a 150 Deep Dimension (36x36x27) through-the-wall mixed reef DT viewable in both the kitchen and the family room, lit by 96 cree 3w LED's (built by myself) controlled/dimmed by an Apex, skimmed by a Deltec APF-800. In my laundry room, one floor up directly above the DT, I have a Neo Nano 34 gal frag tank w/ 29 gal sump. As well as, a salt mixing station consisting of a 35 gal RO/DI vat above a 50 gal salt vat w/ closed loop for mixing, plumbed downstairs to the sump underneath the DT for water changes. I will try to work on posting up a tank thread when I get some free time.