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Snodgrass 300gal Evolving Build (1 Viewer)

Experiment with yellow plexiglass wall... worked really well.
These are with only blue lights on full... it may not be natural but it's pretty friggin cool.
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Very cool. With the panel in place can you see the yellow, or does it essentially disappear? Wondering if tanks made entirely out of yellow plexi is the next fad.
 
Par Readings at 25%.

Help, these coral came from a holding tank at 110par on nearly everything so I'm not completely confident in how many par. Is a 40pt jump in a day a big swing for those in the higher spots? I couldn't tell a difference with my eye and searching on google has yielded nothing worthwhile. In the past I'd just put corals at the bottom and move them up but why bother with so many corals to put in when I can adjust the lights individually.

Second fun impact is that at 50% intensity I actually get some of the highest reading on the sand under the tank cross beams where 4 fixtures seems to intersect. Then a notable decrease or similar reading half way up directly under the lights.
Tank Par 1.jpg
 
cypho said:
Very cool. With the panel in place can you see the yellow, or does it essentially disappear? Wondering if tanks made entirely out of yellow plexi is the next fad.
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That's what I'm saying! I was going to buy yellow window film but my tank was too tall so it'd cost twice as much as plexi and get 20' or more.

If I had a 4 sided frag tank I'd put it on one side.

Edit... to answer your other question... it's yellow but if you change the shades of blue it will nearly disappear and turn more of a gray/white.
 
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Well my beloved ricordia have not been happy and since everything else is I'm guessing it's too much light too soon. Being off to the side I'm my last tank mush have had lower light then I thought.

I turned the intensity down to 20%, reduced the UV by 50% and moved them lower and to the side. So far after 2 days they seem happier and are not ejecting they zooxanthellae any longer.
 
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Here's the issue of the night... anyone want to suggest another large heater to use that isn't those crummy titanium rod looking ones? I've had three and not one works worth a darn.

Currently the outlet is set to turn on at 78.5 and off at 79. Doesn't take a genius to see it's not following that at all. This is due to two issues.

1) My Apex along with a ton of other people are having it power cycle dozens of times a day since their last software update and no solution. The system defaults and flys in the blind until it reboots. Naturally my heater is set to default off, because I can't trust it, and no doesn't keep up most days.

There is a digital thermometer on the unit itself that I tuned up to 85 because the thermostat built in is garbage and is affected by the unit turning on. Seems obvious that this is the source of the second problem but having the temp set that high doesn't sound smart and I worry... hence the default to off.
 
One or two 800W finnex no-thermostat tubes plugged into the reefkeeper controller plugged into apex. That would give you good redundancy and all of the capacity your circuit breaker can handle.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/finnex-th-deluxe-titanium-heating-element-with-plastic-guard.html

Or 3-4 of the 300W Neo-Therms. Multiple lower watt heaters is better anyway, that way if one fails in the on position it would not have enough capacity to over-heat the tank. Requires multiple heaters sticking on to cook the tank. And if one fails in the off position, you are still at 75% heating capacity so the temp will only drop a degree or two.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/cobalt-neo-therm-submersible-heater.html
 
On my tank I use a 500W no-thermostat tube plugged into a NC relay plugged into a NO relay. So if the first NC relay sticks on, I can shut it down with the NO relay. And if both relays fail the sump pump shuts down so only the sump cooks.

I don't worry about failed in the off position. A few hours of room temp water won't hurt anything.
 
Good thing I'm out of town as I watch the temp consistently drop like clockwork to 77 so far. Wonder where it will bottom out...

At the rate it's going it shouldn't go lower then 75 by morning.
 
Do your lights heat the tank at all? I have my MH lights programmed to act as a backup heater if the water temp drops too low.
 
Next question will be to figure out why my alerts from my Apex stopped working.
 
cypho said:
Do your lights heat the tank at all? I have my MH lights programmed to act as a backup heater if the water temp drops too low.
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They will but at present the power is so low to keep my corals from cooking they don't do much if anything.
 
RSnodgrass said:
They will but at present the power is so low to keep my corals from cooking they don't do much if anything.
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Ok, next suggestion. Would you happen to have an internet connected thermostat in the office? Heat the room if you can't heat the water?
 
Thanks for the help, additional heater and redundant temp controller purchased while in the cities (installing tonight) and some great feedback so far on my Apex to fix some programing "opportunities" (o:

It was also pointed out/reconfirmed to me by the time stamps that in addition to the built in temp sensor on the heater not working that it's likely under powered. Temp peaks at 4pm dropping each night consistently (after the prior heater replacement) and trended down as I reduced intensity of tank lighting. Yesterday it recovered due to the temperature setting on the heater being turned up further "85" so it wouldn't prematurely shut off while heating.

What struck me as odd however is that the pH is inversely at its highest before the lights come on and temp is at its lowest. 9am

Am I miss remembering? I thought pH is at its highest during the day normally due to photosynthesis reducing of CO2. My sump light is on 24/7 but at a fairly low setting and no significant algae growth yet.
 
RSnodgrass said:
Thanks for the help, additional heater and redundant temp controller purchased while in the cities (installing tonight) and some great feedback so far on my Apex to fix some programing "opportunities" (o:

It was also pointed out/reconfirmed to me by the time stamps that in addition to the built in temp sensor on the heater not working that it's likely under powered. Temp peaks at 4pm dropping each night consistently (after the prior heater replacement) and trended down as I reduced intensity of tank lighting. Yesterday it recovered due to the temperature setting on the heater being turned up further "85" so it wouldn't prematurely shut off while heating.

What struck me as odd however is that the pH is inversely at its highest before the lights come on and temp is at its lowest. 9am

Am I miss remembering? I thought pH is at its highest during the day normally due to photosynthesis reducing of CO2. My sump light is on 24/7 but at a fairly low setting and no significant algae growth yet.
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Lots of people in your office exhaling CO2 during the day could bring down the daytime pH.
 
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