YHSublime

Love to see it! Cool idea @Kathryn Lawson never heard of that before!

Nems gonna go where it wants until it’s happy!

This. probably abut as much insurance as using friends, but I’ve used Task Rabbit for tank moves at my house.

That's great customer service, love to hear it!

Long story short, I moved my APEX and finally setup my DOS today. While I was priming the pumps, and calibrating, all that information was recorded. I've since (I think) set both pumps to add 30ml a day of each solution over 24 hours. In order to make sure this is correct, is there any way i can go through and delete the logged information of what was mostly priming?

Yup, the refractometer is calibrated correctly. I have checked another tank outside of the mixing bucket at the same time, in the same lighting conditions. The temp might be a degree or two higher on the mixing station. This is the only thing I can think of, I just don't know how it could settle to a lower value? I am at the end of my first 200 gallon batch box, and I'm a little worried about giving another 200 a go. The directions are right in line with the old salt, and I have 2 pumps on the mixing station. The water goes clear very quickly, and I confirmed there are no solids left behind on the bottom. It's dissolving properly.

By following manufacturers instructions, 1/2 cup per gallon to get to 1.025 To be clear, I am achieving desired salinity, but for an unknown window. The same 25 gallons that read 1.025 this evening, will continue to do so within about a 24 hour period. But in the next 4 days it will be around 1.020 The anomaly here is the salinity lowering instead of rising on 3 independent containers.

Yes, you read right. For the most part it's staying in a range that it should, but I recently had an ATO malfunction into a very small tank, and the parameters have gotten haywire ever since. Let me start with this: The first thing I did was check my calibration on my refractomer... it's all good. This caused me to check my other tank, which I'm currently manually topping off and dosing, same thing, the salinity is dropping. Now on this tank, the usual suspects are out the door: New tank, so no leaks, I'd notice. Not skimming dry enough to worry about salinity dropping. And no ATO hooked up. So I go and check my salt mixing bucket, and normally over time, the saltwater in there has the salinity rise... and it's actually lower again. The only thing I can think of culprit wise is I have swapped salt, from IO to Fritz blue box. I'm figuring it's not leveling out properly? I mix at 75F, for 24 hours at least, and I have mixed up the bucket of salt (yes, you read that right as well, I guess you're meant to be stirring salt before you use it to make saltwater.) Am I missing something?

Sounds like a blast! You don't have to renew your membership, we still allow a "one time only getting out" post. Also, you might want to clear out your inbox, it's filled and you can't accept messages at this time!

Great point on the resin, I didn't even think about that. And I agree, a recipe for disaster. Sounds like I need to get a little more savy with my Apex, and I think those are all good ideas, thanks! Actually, the best ideas I've gotten yet. I have an old 30 gallon water container that I think would be perfect for this situation. I think I'll hook it up in my office closet, which sits directly behind the tank wall in the living room. That way it can feed both my frag tank and DT. I'll drill the wall and thread my RO lines through to my new display tank.

I remember this build! GLWTS! You might want to consider updating this posting with a recent photo. A lot of your build thread photos are from 8 years ago before the tank had even cycled.

Sure has been! I’m still at it! by brain I essentially mean the controller portion, not the display. I’d ask your controller question in the controller dedicated forum, it might get more traction. I did a quick google search, looks like most of the equipment is useable IF you used the aquabus cables, with a tad more restraints with Apex Jr (the Jr wont connect to Trident, which is an automatic tester) but it will connect to Dos (Neptunes Dosing Pumps.) mostly good news, seems like most equipment can still be used, but like around yourself!

Welcome back! The skimmer is probably over kill, I’d run real dry. If your old Apex still works, I’m pretty sure it can be updated to interact with new apex, but don’t quote me on that. For example, I think your EB8 will run with the new brain, but a new EB8 won’t run on your old Apex. I’m sure your probes haven’t been kept wet for a decade, so they’d be toast. Probably would want to get a new controller, and see what translates over from the old one (again, don’t quote me, I could be wrong.) i doubt you’re going to be cycled right away, I’d keep that water reef temp (79ish) if you want to keep anything beneficial alive. What will most likely happen is whatever dies/died in there will kick off your nitrogen cycle when you start up the tank. You could mix some NSW up and fill it up, keep it temp, and it would shorten your cycle a bit with new rock/old sand, but regardless, you should test to make sure you complete a cycle, don’t guess! Every thing has a dang app for it now, and I hate it, but KISS Method still works well!

Love to see it!

I can probably assist

it’s a long run, coupled with about 9’ of headspace up. yeah, even with the redundancy in place, I still don’t love it.

Hello WAMAS! I recently setup a UNS R60, which is a 32 gallon tank with a glass sump siliconed into the aluminum stand. Space is limited in the sump, and a big portion of it is consumed by a 2 gallon ATO box that gravity feeds to a float valve in the return chamber of the sump. Because space is limited AROUND the tank itself (now in the living room), I'm considering running a line from my RO/DI (in the basement) directly to the float valve return. Survey says this is a terrible idea, and if I've learned anything in my lifetime, its WHEN, not IF it fails. So I guess looking for advice, or DIY solutions to my ATO problem. If you'd like photos, or you want to see some of the solutions I think might work, my most recent posting here has it all laid out.

Cherub Angelfish are reef safe with caution. Everybody will have different experiences. While I don't have any experience with a Cherub, I can tell you that I have kept a few types of "with caution" angels in my mixed reef tank. I didn't see a ton of SPS polyp extension, but they left my lps/softies/and giant clam alone. I've also taken home model citizen "with caution" reef safe fish who i witnessed first hand thriving with an abundance of coral around them in previous owners tank, but in my tank, I was not so lucky, and provided a very expensive 24 hour coral buffet. Just because somebody else had/has a good experience doesn't guarantee you will. Or maybe you will! But it's a dice roll, and you should decide what outcomes you'd be alright with. Or maybe you just don't roll the dice.

I have had a ton of coral warfare from overgrown tanks over the past 2 years. even if the whole fox coral is being effected, not just the part that’s touching, it’s not the first time I’ve seen that happen. it could be coupled with other stressors (like alk swings) and stinging, but if the fox coral elsewhere is OK, it sounds like you already have your answer! 😁

TL;DR 1. Where should I mount my Apex? 2. What should I do about my ATO situation? Please read below for options (maybe you have another option to present?) Alright, alright, alright. So first, I have been doing a ton of reef stuff, almost like a full time job, it's kinda crazy. In between the cat we picked up last year, and all the Spirorbid worms cleaning out of the 80s plumbing, I've got scratches and bites all over my hands. Not only is it very painful when in saltwater, but last week I had cut (very mildly) become infected. As it turns out, keeping your hands out of the tank, especially a new one, is pretty tough. I'm going to try and go for a week. This is especially tough, as I'm not in love with the placement of some of the corals, but there will always be time. I'm finally starting to see some algae pop up on the glass, the CUC population of 80 gallons in 30 now has an (albeit small) mission. Before moving them over, I cleaned my MP40's in a citric acid soak, they've never looked better. Up until tonight, they were rumbling audibly, turns out just a slight adjust on both and I have silence again. You may be thinking, "wow, two MP40's on a 32 gallon tank sounds like overkill." You'd be right. I don't know if MP10's could actually handle the glass thickness. I'm ready to move my Apex over. I do have a DOS, I'm going to swap it over from the Bubble Magus, but it's intimidating, as the Magus doser is super intuitive, and I know how to use it to get from point A to B. I'm also unsure of how & where to mount the Apex. Ideally I'd do it on the wall behind the tank, but my concern is the plumbing being in the way, maybe that's not a concern? You can see the layout of the entire bottom in my black and white photo. The MP40's are hooked up on the outside of the control panel box. Each stand of the UNS R series has 3 removable panels and an open back. On the left hand side (on the R60) there is pretty limited space for ballasts, and then controllers. The way the MP's are wired, there is no squeezing the outer parts of the unit through the holes in the box, so they were mounted inside the sump outside the box. Currently the Finnex Heater Controller, and the pump controller are in there, so I need access to remove the left hand side panel if need be. I mention this because right now, the left hand side of the tank is the only place my 10 gallon top off container really fits. Other than that, the layout is pretty standard. Water drops down the pipes (Herbie) and hits the filter socks. Moves into the skimmer section, into a refugium area, and then into the return. In all of this, there is a 2ish gallons or so ATO box that sits on top of the 'fuge' area, and uses a gravity fed drain to a float valve. While I love this idea in theory, there's a high chance of failure on my part. I know this because 1. I'm not going to refill a 2 gallon box manually at what will probably be every second day 2. I will inevitably forget to open up the drain line again, or close it, or whatever it might be, there's a high probability I will F it up. I've got a few options: I can continue using my 10 gallon top off box and my Tunzee ATO. I could potentially drill my 10 gallon top off box and place it higher than the sump. I have an RO line run right below the tank, I could bring it through the baseboard and connect my RO/DI directly to the float valve, but I'm sure I would need something to make sure the water isn't constantly running? This also seems like it might have a colossal risk aspect as well? Last but not least, I ordered a new pinwheel for my Reef octopus 110 INT skimmer. I love this thing, but some of the needles were cracking and falling off. The part was $40 plus, which seems expensive, but I'll be happy to have it back at 100% again. I also bought some titanium screws to replace the nylon ones that hold the skimmer body together. If you've made it this far, I'm shocked, thanks for reading!

Here we go.

with the return, its enough. With X2 MP40's at 2%, it's definitely enough

Back in business

I added a bubble king mini 160 to the 80 gallon. It’s been just over 48 hours, and I’ve probably done about 50% water change with all the space getting cleaned up, and it’s still pulling coffee colored skimmate. I’m also suddenly getting a fast coating of coraline, I thought the tank was happy before, but now it’s really happy!