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I'm lazy, I just pump water in as i'm siphoning water out. Yes my 20% water change turns into ~18%, but that is a small price to pay for my sanity Having my ATO setup with 2 pumps (1 for RO, 1 for SW) makes my changes really easy. Drop the pump into the bucket of new SW, flip the switch on the ATO to select SW, start the siphon and walk away. Float valve stops the siphon once the bucket of old water is full, ATO only pumps in enough SW to keep the water level right.

Any problems not dosing religiously? My nitrates are nill but I still have quite a bit of algae on the glass. Been toying with the idea of a low level of carbon dosing but I know I won't be religious about it.

25% off blue bottles + 21% off 2 part stuff + $10 off $100 coupon = WIN! Thanks for setting up the GB!

My understanding is that hydrogen peroxide and bleach will both kill off/dissolve organics, while the phosphate bound to the rock is inorganic and will be unaffected. Acid would dissolve the top layers of rock taking anything organic or inorganic with it. I'm by no means an expert and may be completely wrong!

You mean the 9002 with the 1073.008 pump? I don't know about recommended, but I don't think it hurts to do the mod. I picked up a used one last year and did the mod right away. I can't do a before/after comparison, but I've been very happy with the mod. There were some issues when the airline got kinked, but after replacing it everything was back to normal. I've also tried a few different type of valves, but I like this one the best so far: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23076&catid=858&clickid=emailrecommended The YouTube video I watched to walk me through the process was also on the newer version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t80cE7eBiHg

I don't agree with this. I think number of on/off cycles would be the primary factor, and that's determined by the number of doses per day you choose to do. In fact being on for a shorter period of time (within reason) should be better for the motor since there will be less heat buildup. Agreed, but as long as the error is predictable (fixed or normally distributed) it should all average out over a longer period of time. If I can save $170 while keeping the alkalinity from drifting more than .3 dkh over the course of a month, I'll be happy as a clam.

I'm preparing to switch from kalk to 2 part using my inexpensive, but fast dosing pumps (~21ml/min). Since my need for 2 part is pretty small I need to have fine control of the amount of time the dosers are on. I'm hoping a Apex guru can double check that the code will do what I expect it to do. This is what I want the code to do: Every 4 hours from 2AM to 10PM dose for 20 seconds Every day at 11:15PM dose for 6 seconds Every Saturday at 1:15AM dose for 6 seconds For a week, that should give me an average of 106.85 seconds per day. Fallback OFF OSC 015:00/000:06/044:54 Then ON If Time 01:00 to 23:59 Then OFF If DoW SMTWTF- Then OFF OSC 015:00/000:06/044:54 Then ON If Time 00:00 to 22:59 Then OFF OSC 090:00/000:20/149:50 Then ON If Time 22:00 to 02:00 Then OFF Note: I know I can also use virtual outlets to do this, but I would like to minimize them if possible.

Here you go, my soon to be dosing containers.... When do they start to qualify as antiques? ;-)

I'm still dosing kalk but am planning on switching to 2 part. I stole a couple of large containers that held Parmesan cheese from my dad. They have been sitting on his garage since 97! They hold about 9 cups each.

Ya it is a little bit tight for some maintenance. I can do basic tasks like refilling GAC/GFO reactor and cleaning the skimmer cup without any issues. For removing the pump and skimmer for thorough cleaning I just need to remove the shelf above the sump, but that's not too much of a problem. For full blown cleaning, the plumbing comes apart and the power cords have enough slack for me to slide the whole sump out of the stand (I will probably have to drain a couple of gallons first).

What about adding another pump and using it as a sort of a closed loop setup to add bottom flow? Leakage of plumping or pump would still be a serious issue though.

I've been wanting to put together a low maintenance coral only tank (5-10 gal). My thought was to try to do a system based only on water changes. Drill a small overflow in the tank and run it straight to a drain. Then every hour or so use an aqualifter to pump in some fresh SW into the tank (targeting about 50% of the tank size per week). The fresh SW would have to be somewhat lower than the tank to account for evaporation and would take some time to dial in the right number. Not sure how well it would work in practice, but I'm pretty sure I'll give it a shot at some point.

If you have a multimeter you could check the output of the controller to make sure it's putting out 24V on one of the pins and 5V on the other (if it's on the high setting). Might help narrow down if it's a pump or controller problem.

Glued on the top and trimmed it so i had a fully enclosed box, then I drilled large holes (~1 1/2 i think) in the 4 corners. I then flipped it upside down on the router table and went from hole to hole until the center piece fell out. Finally ran a couple more passes to smooth things out and smoothly transition from the straight router cut to the circular holes. I struggled with that last part, so it's certainly not the most beautiful eurobrace

Finally got around to actually installing my new acrylic sump last night. Custom sized to fit my annoying stand that has a wall dividing the cabinet into two sections. It's about 13.5x9.5x14 with a 3/4 inch eurobrace with rounded corners. Seams look like #%$#&&$, especially on the baffles, but it doesn't leak! Was certainly a fun learning experience and I have enough acrylic left (extruded unfortunately) to make an ATO container and maybe a small frag tank. It holds about 7.5 gallons, and has about 4.25 gallons while running. Previously I had a 6 gallon bowfront wedged in there partly hanging out the back of my stand. Now I just need to make a more permanent bracket to hold my float switches....

Ugh, I've got to stop being so lazy and order a small generator. Hopefully I can tempt fate through 1 more storm.

I think he meant 10 or 20 or 1000 years old

Well the new standard solution matches the old standard solution almost exactly. The small batch of DIY i made came out ~33.5 so I'll have to work on my weighing techniques to get that up to par. I wonder how I mishandled the refractometer to throw the calibration so far out of whack. At least now I have a high level of confidence in my standard solutions Also I switched out my ATO bucket with a bucket of freshly mixed SW to bring the salinity back up to target.

How do you store your standard solutions and how often do you replace them? My old standard solution is Aqua Craft from BRS, and the new one on order is the Pinpoint solution. Both of them have the appropriate refractive index according to BRS and Drs F&S.

Agreed, that I would rather zero the device (jaddc has a good point that we zero, not calibrate refractometers) with 35ppt standard solution. However my tank, freshly mixed saltwater, and RODI water all point to my standard solution drifting over time. If the standard solution can drift 2ppt over the course of a few months, and there are no expiration dates on it, how can you trust the standard solution? In any case I have a new bottle of standard solution, a precision scale, and a calibration weight that should be here on Wednesday. That way I can test my old standard solution, new standard solution, and Randy's DIY standard solution and find out what I can really trust. With the precision scale/calibration weight I should be able to make Randy's DIY solution in small batches with an accuracy of +/- .3ppt.

Ya I always give the sample a couple of minutes for the temps to equalize before reading the value. Eventually I'll probably switch over to using just DI water for calibration.

Anyone have their calibration fluid shift over time? I finally decided to calibrate my refractometer after a few months, and it read 2ppt too high. I adjusted it accordingly, but I did think it was a little strange, because it seemed to be reading correctly with freshly mixed water (using same amount of water/salt I have been for a while). Decided to try DI water, and now it was reading DI water at -2ppt. I thought the calibration fluid was closed up tight, but it seems like there must have been some evaporation. Anyone else have that happen before? I'll probably have to pick up some new calibration fluid just to be sure.

Does that mean if you run it on a 15V power supply that ELSE mode will only vary between 50% and 62.5%? I've been considering switching from my MP10 to 2 WP10's for better random flow.

Sounds like more than enough time for the PVC primer and cement to cure. What about baffles? Did you add them recently? If so was there enough time for the silicone to cure? What type of silicone?

What sump section does everyone keep heaters, dosing lines, ATO lines, reactors, probes, etc in? My current sump is just a small tank with everything thrown in it. Finally building a custom sump with baffles and skimmer/regugium/return section and was curious where everyone else kept everything.