dante411x

Yeah, I watched a few videos, there was a twitch stream too I saw that was saying how to fix some of the problems with it. Seems that microbubbles are a huge one. And in a nuvo 20... unless someone does magic to wish them away, there's no way I'll eliminate them from the back entirely. honestly, I didn't even realize that they only had an 18 month service life. It makes sense now that I think about how they work but that's a little.. crazy. I'm pretty sure I'm completely sold on the cheaper version at this point. 540 vs 800 is quite a difference. And I do want the new one.. thought about snagging one of the classics that keep popping up for sale here or on r2r but if that Trident thing is actually real and not yet another hoax, I'd rather have the unit that will work with it. Thanks for your help Tom! I would have been trying to figure this out for another couple weeks and probably just order the more expensive one in the end if I wasn't completely sure.

Gotcha. Yeah lol, that sounds way too fancy. I’m going to go with a similar plan of check salinity once in a while and add some saltwater. But it’s good to know that the salinity probe does have a decent use. I mean, I figured that would be possible. It’s just.. idk. I’d be too worried about something causing a bad reading while I’m away and the system doing something crazy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! That’s good to hear that I’m not too crazy. I realize the benefits of the salinity probe but for my system they are not very likely. The ato container is 1/20 of total water volume and I was actually thinking of adding an alert if the ato pump runs for longer than X seconds (x being whatever the average full time will be plus 10). Which would effectively do the same thing as the salinity alert if ato sticks open. The slow leak and ato topping it off is certainly not something I can prevent without the probe but since the tank is an all in one with nothing hanging off of it I’m willing to risk it. If I have a slow leak that will mean that the tank itself cracked. Hopefully that’s something I can notice. Edit: the ato container running dry.. I was actually going to throw a couple float switches in it and program that to send me alerts. That seems like it would be a lot more effective than waiting for salinity to rise enough to alert me. Edit 2: I don’t even know where to begin for salinity controlled water changes. That sounds super cool but.. honestly I’d be too worried about the probe going haywire to allow that much control of the tank. Plus, I can do automatic (ish) water changes with some extra float switches here and there. But either way, water changes are easy with this tank. I wasn’t planning on automating them. I didn’t see the difference in lighting control.. but the lights are kessil a360we, so wireless capability isn’t really necessary for me. And I didn’t realize I could use the second ph input to monitor orp. That’s pretty cool. So, if for some reason in the future I decide to add ozone, that’s not a terribly difficult probe to add. All that said, it seems that I’m pretty justified in just getting the cheaper version and a breakout box... (also I actually really like the fact that it’ll be separate. There’s a good chance I would have bought a breakout box anyway just for that even with the $800 one). Cool. Yay saved money. I’ll put that in a fund for when that Trident finally comes out lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I went on a bit of a rant. Skip to last sentence if you want to. That should sum it up nicely. So, after a week of glorious use my IM Hydrofill ATO failed. Multiple times the probes just didn't register that they were both dry and one time they didn't register that they were both wet.... Overall not a pleasant experience. And since that wonderful POS is now on the way back to BRS to hopefully die a prolonged death I was thinking of replacing it with a different ATO system... Then, when I was looking at the prices of most (150-200) I realized that I could look at this situation in a different light. Instead of "ugh I need to spend $200 more on a stupid ATO" I can say "hey, I get a $200 discount off an Apex!!!!" And that's when the problems started. First came the convince the wife that spending 500-800 is a wonderful idea. That took a while. With that hurdle out of the way I went on BRS website and immediately proceeded to add the $800 Apex to my cart and I almost made it all the way to the checkout. But then I remembered that there was also the EL option for $500. And I got curious. What's missing from the big, bad, do it all unit to make it $300 cheaper. Easy. ORP and Salinity probes. And a built in breakout box. So. At first I thought "I'm a professional. I need to know these readings. I need to see the charts. I WILL MONITOR ALL BECAUSE I'M A MARINE BIOLOGIST AND I NEED TO KNOW IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Then I remembered that no, I'm not a marine biologist. I have no clue what ORP even is and while I do monitor salinity, I have a pretty handy refractometer and calibrating solution. So I did research. Read a bunch of articles on what ORP is and does and why monitoring it is a good idea. Looked into salinity swings and monitoring them and ... well... yeah. Seems kinda dumb. My salinity doesn't swing wildly. And I could just add a failsafe to how long the pump will run instead of using a (what seems to be highly susceptible to problems) salinity probe to control that. And ORP... while it's an adorable little graph, I will never know what to do with it. Do I start a ritual next to the tank when it drops, in hopes that the reducers make a comeback? Sacrifice a goat for the great war? Etc. Anyway. That's the long story of me trying to figure out why I should spend $300 more on a couple probes that I don't know what to do with other than look at a graph and try to look professional while I explain to my wife that this particular thing means that I still have no clue why I bought it. Am I missing something? Is there something WILDLY useful that makes people spend the extra dough? Is there something that I can control with an apex if I have a salinity and ORP probe that I can't control otherwise? Something useful anyway?

Lol that’s exactly what I’m thinking. That light would be more expensive than the rest of the entire system. And that’s if I throw a mp10 on there and some expensive corals. I’ve been looking around for a decent deal on a gen 2, might wait and see for a month or so while the rock cycles. No real need for a light quite just yet. That’s good to know about the ocean revive. Definitely gonna get it unless something too good to pass up comes along (I’m still grumpy about missing out on that pair of ai primes)

Doesn’t that light come with a bracket stand? Looks like I could just sit it right over the tank? still lost here. The radion is now on the radar but that particular g2 didn’t work out. I’m half tempted to just buy the g4 pro and call it a day but it’s been out for more than two years. Seems a little.. silly to spend $900 for a light and mount and have the g5 come out. That would be my luck lol

Gotcha. That’s more than acceptable. I wasn’t sure if I would have to buy a reeflink no matter what. If your friend still has one and would be willing to part with it for a nonexorbitant amount of money, definitely let me know. A radion is definitely a thing I’d like to have.

Oh that's a very interesting idea. I completely ruled out Radions mainly for the slightly absurd amount of money they'd cost. Completely forgot about older generations. How would that work for controlling the light though? I don't actually have any idea how they work. Didn't I see somewhere that you had this tank at some point? As an office tank? Would that fixture work well?

Hey all. So I'm having a bit of a problem with deciding what light to get for the new nuvo 20. I've been... debating this for a while now and have loads of options in my head but can't seem to settle. So I figured I'd ask for help! Ideally, whatever light I'd get would be good enough to grow whatever goes in it. It's probably not going to be sps heavy at all, but that's the plan for now and it most likely will change. I really don't want to buy something and then have to upgrade it later. The dimensions of the tank make it kind of annoying though. This is the tank, to clear up any confusion. 24" x ~ 12" I've looked at a few things... here's my list of potentials so far: Maxspect Razor X 100w - this seems like overkill. It seems like it would fit but also I would get a lot of light spread into the back of the tank which I'd prefer to avoid. It's also quite a number of dollars more than I'd prefer to spend. AI Prime - I'm assuming 2 of these would be necessary for 24" of tank. I'm also still a bit worried about a lot of light spread around the tank from anything that's a single point. I also have no idea if it would be possible to get away with just one of these. Two of these are also not the cheapest combo. Once the goosenecks are added, they're actually more expensive than the maxspect. AI Hydra 26 - overkill? same concerns as the maxspect with added uncertainty of whether or not it would provide enough coverage for the entire length of the tank. Also I've seen quite a number of reviews of these failing after a few years from humidity and that's not exactly reassuring. Kessil A80 - assuming i'd need 2 of these as well. Also, I don't plan on having a controller on this tank, so lack of controllability unless I buy their controller or any other controller is kind of annoying. However, if at one point in the future I do get an apex again, having that option would be pretty cool... Also, while I love shimmer, I find that kessil shimmer can be a little... excessive. The money is again a thing here. Two of these plus goosenecks plus the controller... Ok. So now on to the much cheaper lights that I've no idea about: AquaMaxx NemoLight - It has a built in controller. Nothing fancy but at least it's not just a light plugged into a timer. The wattage seems.. Real low. Ocean Revive light from amazon - I mean, it looks like a chinese fixture. No idea about anything here but I did run two chinese lights on my 210 and they were awesome, so I don't necessarily immediately toss the idea. So. With all that. I'm a little lost. I'd really appreciate any help here. As a few final notes, I definitely want to spend less than all the money on this light. That said, I have thoroughly learned the lesson of not getting what's necessary at first in this hobby. That's a recipe for me to just spend all the money in the future, so I'd prefer to just get one thing and be done. I'm also rather worried about light spread on the back wall and in front of the tank. Some will be acceptable but alot would be awful. Ok, I feel like I'm starting to ramble here, so... yep. Help!

Couldn't you just put a sheet of plywood on top of the stand that's the same dimensions as the tank? that'd transfer plenty of load onto the vertical wood pieces.

the bold underlined above! you want the THICKEST acrylic you can find. ideally 2" thick, which is ridiculously expensive. As far as anything else, I'd have a chiller running at all times with a backup chiller also hooked up that's set to come on if the first one fails (temp rises above certain degree). So also a controller. They're great tanks though. And being able to actually collect for it around here... good stuff.

I'm glad he's alive and well And don't be shy about his size. That thing is a monster. He never bothered anything in my tank and my snails have reproduced at a rate that's a little alarming. But it was a big tank and he did have a lot of room. Honestly, if you see him being aggressive, toss that thing. It's worth a fraction of a fish. That was always my plan, but he never managed to kill anything. Did like waving his claws. I never got the te*****lar fortitude to see if he would eat from my hand. I like my fingers a bit too much for that

I used a 20 gallon aquarium from petco ($1 per gallon sale, 20 bucks, hard to beat) on my 210+30+75 system. Even with high evaporation, it still wouldn't go through that in less than a week and it was simple enough to have a float switch in there to tell me when to refill it. Also, beauty of an aquarium is that I could also see inside it with no effort. It requires a bit of attention to remember, but still. I also had that float switch hooked up to an apex to text me when it was low and another on the top to tell me it was full, but it's really not necessary, I'm just forgetful and lazy. It's a cheap easy solution vs buying rubbermaids. However, before that tank, I used two 32 gallon rubbermaids (bought new and cleaned) for fresh water and salt water storage with no smell problems. They were great, just used a lot more space and were much harder to see into.

Everything in the tank is responding very well. And I even acclimated my black Molly that I've had in freshwater for a year to take care of the algae in the frag tank

Well! It's been 10 days since the switch. Just tested everything, and while calcium and magnesium are still low, they're coming up. Alk is slowly going down Here's what I got today: Cal - 340 Alk - 9.1 Mag - 1180 This is compared to calcium around 310, almost 13 alk and 1000 magnesium 10 days ago!

Awesome. Can't wait. I've been tackling the primer thread, but it's just ridiculous. Will be interesting to see how an ERC quarantined one fares

I want this fish to have it's own thread. Can you make that happen?

The parking in that hotel is run by a company called "Towne park" It's fairly big in parking, they will most certainly not discount the rate unless it's specified in the macna contract. Even then, it's more than likely that it will be only discounted if you park your car yourself, not valet park. As far as security goes, if you are worried about your car, your ONLY option will be to valet park and make sure you walk around your car to make sure the valet didn't put any scratches on it. If you do valet park and there's damage, the company will do it's best to tell you that it wasn't them that caused it, but if you stay your course, they will cover it. If you park yourself and your car gets damaged, you're on your own. That's not just Towne park, that's any parking garage in the country. There may be security cameras and the hotel will help you to an extent, but don't expect any kind of reimbursement or any real help. I worked for these guys for years. If you have any questions, feel free to pm me.

Well, I went and got the real calcium mixed it up, and it got way hotter than the sodium carbonate ever did. Making another 50 gallons of saltwater, should be done by tomorrow.. Doser is back online and set to no alk, full dose of calcium and normal mag. Thanks for all the help y'all! I'm still a little freaked out that if I left it for a few more weeks without noticing this, my tank would have crashed. -_-

Oh wow. Yeah, it got warm, but nowhere near that.

It's also very easily possible that I've no idea what the calcium chloride reaction looks like. Since apparently I've never mixed it before

Huh. Well that's weird then. It definitely gets warm when I mix it. The "calcium" mix I got definitely warmed the water when I was making the new gallon earlier. However it also has 11.4 ph and it fizzles when mixed with vinegar. I just did a quick test to make sure and mixed a little bit of the sodium carbonate powder with water. It definitely warms the water as well. Same as the "calcium" one.

Hmm. They both will warm the water though, right?

Nope. 320. It's very low

Yeah. Calcium is around 320. As of last week anyway. I'll do those tests later. And as far as checking to make sure I didn't mix it up... I'm not sure how to go about it any better than what I did originally. I walk into store, ask for a gallon of calcium powder, alkalinity powder and two parts of magnesium powder. I get handed 4 labeled bags. I mix them according to BRS instructions. I didn't mix it up..