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Durand tank build (1 Viewer)

Had a good tank week this week so far. Was able to hit 8.5dkh finally now that I started the addition of All for reef. And have been maintaining it after a slow rise. So that good news. And thanks to Jonty, I was able to learn how to tell when my co2 scrubber is due fro changing. It took a few days of staining at my scrubber to finally see the line where it Has changed color. LOL And today was able to swing in to Nox’s and grab some more sps(Thanks!). Yippie. LOL I have this feeling with my need to keep buying corals I may have to start a second tank to keep the trill alive HAHAH. Just kidding. Hope to not go down that path. LOL. Ive got a few buddies needng to test par. So im hoping once they have there tanks set up we can all go in to together and rent the par meter from BRS or hope that reef co gets one in soon to rent and I can start mapping my Par. If I can see what I have for par lower in the tank it might create some more room for sps lower in the tank. 🤗

I have a somewhat large rock covered in what I think is radioactive green mushrooms and my wife is just so attached to them. it takes up so much room for what I really what. More sps and chalices. LOL Might have to slowly start fragging them out. Stay tuned.

I’ll post some updated shots of the tank In a day or so. Want the newbies to settle in well. If I knew how to use my wife’s SLR it would help my FTS.
 
New to me Apex installed. Only took about 2 hours to pull the old one and install and get up and running. Ive not figured out how to set up my doser to turn off if ph is too high. That will have to wait until tomorrow. But For now were up and running. Ordering a leak detector, and water level sensor to go with it. Maybe even run my return pump through the apex. Be nice to be able to slow the pump down during feedings, Well see how crazy I get with this new toy LOL. I’d like to see trident ran on here. Be nice to not have to check alk every day manually.


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Glad you are having fun with it.

The line to shut off the doser based on pH is
If PH > 8.5 Then OFF

Where you put it depends on the doser you are using. If it is a stand alone and is connected to an EB832 outlet you would just put that as the last line on that outlet. If is is a Neptune DOS you would put it in the advanced config for the dosing head.
 
Ben Nicholls said:
Glad you are having fun with it.

The line to shut off the doser based on pH is
If PH > 8.5 Then OFF

Where you put it depends on the doser you are using. If it is a stand alone and is connected to an EB832 outlet you would just put that as the last line on that outlet. If is is a Neptune DOS you would put it in the advanced config for the dosing head.
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Thank’s Ben.
 
So now that I have the new apex that monitors I can see my PH is pretty stable. Ive added Kalk, Ive added co2 scrubber (Might add a second chamber to see what happens), is there something else I can do or missing to increase PH. Im thinking of fine tuning my ATO down little by little to get more Kalk into the system, but we are talking less than 50ml Per day, So i doubt I’ll see to much of an increase in PH. Maybe im over thinking it, and its good where its at also?

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Recalibrated my newest ph probe today. Forgot I had 2 different style ph probes. 1 being the double junction. i had an older one plugged into my new apex for some reason that was not the dbl junction. Well after calibrating the newest dbl junction probe my ph jumped to 8.25. This is great. But now i‘m curious as to how often one should recalibrate probes?
 
I do mine every 90 days but rarely see a difference in the before and after.
 
I'm not too concerned watching pH numbers as they stay fairly consistent so I only callibrate about once every 1-2 years.
 
Ben Nicholls said:
I'm not too concerned watching pH numbers as they stay fairly consistent so I only callibrate about once every 1-2 years.
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Thanks. I wont be to concern once I get things more dialed in how I want or best I can do. But dosing Kalk I like To just make sure Im not getting big spikes.
 
Dosing kalk might be one of those cases where you may want to set a 6m or 12m reminder to calibrate. I'm not dosing anything that can cause a big pH impact.

Nice thing on the Apex is you can set up reoccurring reminders and let it keep track of it for you. I've got pump cleaning and things like that all set up with reminders. I also try to be good about entering notes in it when I make a change.
 
Ben Nicholls said:
Dosing kalk might be one of those cases where you may want to set a 6m or 12m reminder to calibrate. I'm not dosing anything that can cause a big pH impact.

Nice thing on the Apex is you can set up reoccurring reminders and let it keep track of it for you. I've got pump cleaning and things like that all set up with reminders. I also try to be good about entering notes in it when I make a change.
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Thata all great info. I’ll need to maybe start do that. Keeps my current day to day calendar clear for work and life and not how it is now with remodels for water changes and cleaning LOL, Thanks. I may Pm you for help if I cant get dr.google to help me figure these items out If you dont mind. Thanks again Ben
 
Received the apex fmm today. Took some messing around but think i got it working right. Tested with a wet paper towel. Alarm went off and sent notification. So think Im good.
ph seems to holding and reading much better after swapping out the old one and calibrating. So this is good.
Sent out the ICP today. Very excited to see what comes back. Zoas still just seem to melt away when I introduce into the tank. But only new ones. The ones I have look happy and growing but new ones……🤷🏽‍♂️.
Backing that I used for the one side of the tank is starting to peel off. I used some aquarium backing glue that seemed to work for awhile but now is not. So now I need to figure out away to cover the back. I can’t get my hand into the back corner so this might be fun, LOL
 
Just placed an order for some supplies from BRS and added a small jug on AB+. Hope to see some PE from my sps that seem to be growing well.
 
Ive been struggling to add more zoas to my tank. Every time I add a frag they just slowly melt away. Ive tried them high, low, less flow and more flow. Nothing works. The zoas I have seem to be growing and looking good, but new ones wont make it. Ive added many sps and hammers with out any issues. Added a few chalices and they had a little die off I think from shaking the crap out of then in saltwater before putting in the tank to inspect for pest. I really can’t figure out what gives. I picked up a new salifert test kit for nitrates (25 after testing) and waiting for new reagents for phosphate to come in from BRS in a few days to test that. So will be able to test that again soon.

Now for the Nitrates,
I was thinking 25 was high And was thinking of finding away to add a fuge to the system. I have the room to do it. Im missing the baffles so would maybe make a rock wall of some sort with the LR in the sump to wall of an area for cheto to grow. I went back a read the directions a little better and watched a few video and see that when looking through the glass it magnifies the sample and you need to divide by 10. So if Im at 25 when doing so that would put my tank at 2.5? If that is the case maybe im still a little on the low side and thats causing my zoas to melt??? I think my icp report will come through next week. So hopefully that will confirm and maybe give me some direction.
 
After having bad test kits I finally was able to get out today and gather the things I needed.
Phosphate is at .38.
nitrate at 25

Feel like nitrates could go up a little and phosphate down a lot. So maybe a Fuge might be in order??
 
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Instead of jumping right into adding a fuge. I’m thinking the reef chili I’ve been feeding a few times a week might be the cause of the elevated no3 and phosphate. Since I have a bottle if ab+ coming any day now. Reducing or removing the reef chili from the diet and adding in the ab+ might be a better option and see what happens. I will do my water change today and then monitor for the week and see how things change before adding any other food other then the daily 2 auto feedings for the fish.
 
Did as big of a water change as I can do and it dropped my phosphate down to .17. I’ll see what it does over the week maybe testing daily or every other day. I wont be adding any other food other than the current 2 x per day pellet feeding. I hopeful that its just the reef chili that ive been adding.
 
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