victoly

ugh. sorry to hear that. Next time, skip the anthias and treat yourself to a steak dinner. same cost

tim can you tell us a little more about your setup/experience?

I don't need a full order, but I'd love to buy a few pieces off of another purchaser (i'm looking for a particular dimension to replace some of my pieces)

It's amazing to me that we can ship fish halfway around the world, and even very advanced aquarists have trouble moving fish even short distances. Dangit mother nature!

Googling turns up quite a few, anyone have first hand experience?

from RC "I used both BRS HC GFO and their pelletized GFO. I used a hana meter to measure the phospahte level each week. From my experience, the HC GFO lasted 1.5 weeks longer than the pelletized GFO. So in my tank I change the HC GFO at 3.5 weeks vs about 2 weeks for pelletized GFO, just to keep my PO4 level down at 0.02." Sounds like it just gets the phosphate down faster, but calcium carbonate may foul it before you can realize the benefits of having it come down that fast. Consensus seemed to be buy the cheaper stuff and replace more frequently. "I have found it to actually work much faster and IMO better. And when you do the math its really not that much money. Most other GFO like ROWAphos is much more expensive, and doesn't work as well IME. I guess the regular GFO from BRS is cheaper, and I have never used it, but I was so happy with the HC I never saw a reason to. " "If I remember correctly, the high capacity is about 1.5 times better at removing phosphate. The cost difference is close to 2x. You will need to change out the lower capacity GFO more often. When one has a high phosphate reading, the HC GFO will reduce it quicker. Once your phosphate level is down to the recommended level, the HC GFO may be wasted. "

The problems aren't so much in the initial setup, as you're starting fresh. Problems for me occur when I try to change the network setup (adding routers, changing service, etc). Like bio said, after setup is done, you'll wonder how you reefed without it. As a corrollary, backup your settings, so that if something like this happens, you can restore your settings instead of having to reprogram if you have to wipe tha apex.

Ok, let's start fresh here. McJudge has the right idea. I'm gonna go kindergarten here, don't take offense, I'm just trying to give you a step by step. I'll flesh this out in an edit when I get home and can access my uverse residential gateway. 1) You need to access your router (usually uverse is 192.168.1.254, type it into your browser). 2) Find the section that sets your router's IP (it should currently read 192.168.1.1) 3) Change it to 192.168.0.1 4) Change your gateway to 192.168.0.1 5) You may want to reboot your router at this point. 6) Plug your apex in via an ethernet cable to your uverse RG (residential gateway or modem) 7) Type in http://apex to your broswer hopefully at this point you can access your apex and tweak. if this doesnt work, for steps 3 & 4, try 192.168.1.1 in both fields. Let us know!

You are in for a treat! I've been all over, and I'm biased of course, but I think Austin is one of the greatest cities in the country. That neighborhood is a good one in terms of accessibility, you're right on Loop 1 or Mopac, which is one of the 2 major North/South thoroughfares through town. You'll use it to get just about everywhere. Make sure you get yourself a good real estate agent! I think you're right to sell all you can while still in CA. There have been quite a few california->texas moves for members, and when it comes to livestock it never seems to go well. There are many folks in town with great livestock and several good stores to boot. Let us know before you head out on your visit, we'll point you to the finest eateries and best activities.

Sounds exciting ! When will you be here, and what part of town are you moving to ! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds like ill get my 200G around the time you get your 400G. awwwww.

So sounds like the winner thus far is to try to increase the lighting oomph. Then maybe move on to GFO for phosphate redux.

The reason Tim is suggesting a mentor for ULNS, is that it's not the case that if you overdo ULNS (for instance you are too vigorous with your biopellets) that your corals don't flourish, it's that you can potentially wipe out your livestock, specifically any softies you may have. DSB in your case is going to be kind of redundant, as the denitrifying capability of BP is kind of like a turbocharged DSB (surface area + carbs left over from the fermentation process from the manufacturing of BPs). You may still get the benefits of biodiversity, but it is an additional potential point of system failure (though unlikely). Question JE; so is the phosphate necessary for the BP reactions to take place? A byproduct of BP reactions? Totally untouched? I was under the impression that BPs consumed PO4 in addition to NO3.

because we're in texas, and it's hard to keep a tank in the 78-79 range without a chiller. It's not uncommon to see people running up in the 81-82 range, and it doesn't seem to have adverse effects.

good lord i need to stop requoting, that last message is ridiculous.

OK I will look a little deeper into what I am going to do. The first Kessil I mentioned, the A350w is dimmable by using two knobs on the top for either channel 1 or 2. So I thought that was the only was the Kessil could be dimmed. But is an apex or something similar can over ride and still do automated dimming, that might be the way to go. Thanks again for everyones input. I will do some more reading and let everyone know which unit I decide to go with. Ah, i overlooked the A350w. It looks like you in fact can manually dim, but I don't see any product specs that say that you can remotely control the dim. I don't mean to push you in the direction of tank automation, I've just noticed that as people's tanks increase in complexity, they frequently tend to end up with a tank controller, whether it be APEX or one of the other controllers. There is a community of people on ARC who are proficient in the setup and can help you if you choose to go that way. Good luck on the light search and let us know! Ok dont worry about pushing me any which way. I really appreciate all the time and info everyone has shared today. I also have looked into tank controllers, im just not too educated thus far. I really like the apex jr. I believe it can do all the same things as the other one just doesnt have an lcd screen and its smaller. Correct me if im wrong on that. Also, with a controller.... would my main lights be on a separate timer tyan moon lights? If i go with kessil, they cant be dimmed to moon lights so a separate moon light fixture will be neaded. But they would all be on timers so on and off of each one will be controlled? Just realize that the Jr does not have screen like you said and also does not dim unless you buy the additional module (apex has this built in) If you have moon lights you just build a profile to fit each light schedule as you want it. Then tell the apex to use that profile on that light it will be following the schedule and directions found within the profile. They just pass arguements to keep it easy. OK that makes sense. Any preference between reef keeper and the apex? apex hands down.

Tons of people are doing SPS with LEDs, but I dont think that you can say positively that it is low light without looking at some other factors. While I agree that 175w of MH may be a little on the low side, I would look good and hard at your nutrient levels, specifically nitrate/phosphate and see what you're working with. There's a reason that many SPS keepers shoot for ULNS (ultra low nutrient systems), and that reason is that SPS tend to show their brightest coloration when you keep nutrient levels low. The other side of the triangle would be flow. Can you elaborate on your current setup?

Don't worry ben, we're here for you.

Your right it is not a type of skimmer, but back to the OP they state "What would you recommend?" And their recommendations are no skimmer. Not gonna argue hair styles or colors because it doesn't pertain to the topic at hand. *just being an advocate, I have a skimmer on both systems... one does better than the other. The Tunze being the weaker of the two.* patrick seems to be doing just fine advocating for himself. I'm confused as to why he needs help, especially from someone who runs a different type of system than the person he's "advocating" for?

no skimmer isn't a type of skimmer just like bald isn't a hair color.

OK I will look a little deeper into what I am going to do. The first Kessil I mentioned, the A350w is dimmable by using two knobs on the top for either channel 1 or 2. So I thought that was the only was the Kessil could be dimmed. But is an apex or something similar can over ride and still do automated dimming, that might be the way to go. Thanks again for everyones input. I will do some more reading and let everyone know which unit I decide to go with. Ah, i overlooked the A350w. It looks like you in fact can manually dim, but I don't see any product specs that say that you can remotely control the dim. I don't mean to push you in the direction of tank automation, I've just noticed that as people's tanks increase in complexity, they frequently tend to end up with a tank controller, whether it be APEX or one of the other controllers. There is a community of people on ARC who are proficient in the setup and can help you if you choose to go that way. Good luck on the light search and let us know!

However, you can dim the AI fixtures via the VDM port on the apex. It's basically a wire that goes into your LED driver, and connects to your apex with a cat5 connector. However, if you don't plan on doing some heavy automating and want to start off more simply, the AI supplied controller would be more than adequate. If you get the kessil, a manual timer will be more than adequate.

Yeah, if the light doesn't have a built in control, but is dimmable, you have to have a method of dimming the LEDs even if it's a constant, manual dim. There aren't any fixtures that require an APEX per se, but there are fixtures that require a dimming device to operate. The way the dimmable drivers for LEDs generally work is that you apply a voltage of 0-10v to 2 wires on the driver. 0 corresponds to 0% brightness and 10 corresponds to 100% brightness. That being said, kessils are NOT dimmable fixtures, so they're just going to have on/off capability.

Here's all you could ever want to know about H2S in the reef http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-12/rhf/index.php#14