victoly

I won't be tweaking it all the time. Just until I find the look I want. Main reason for ramp up/down is for the mid day being a little warmer to help with coral growth. This is all just from info I have read through various forums and gathered from talking to others. But a lot of people seem to agree that the warmer light will aid in growth as the bluer light look really nice but doesn't grow quite as fast. I would like to have a nice automated mix of the two. During the day when I'm not home to view the tank, the lights would automatically change to the warmer light to benefit the corals. As the day ends and I am home with my family, I'd like the light to go to a bluer look before moon lights come on. Yeah, that seems to be the prevailing opinion. However I don't know that you need to necessarily turn down the blues during the day. They still provide usable light. What the most common approach is, in terms of timeline : blue -> blue+white -> blue -> moonlight.

they allow you to remotely monitor and control anything that can be plugged in. you can control the speed of your ecotech mp's or dim/brighten your LEDs. it's a pretty incredible tool and there is a dedicated forum section for it. Reason I ask is, if you choose to go that route later, a controller for the light unit itself is redundant, because the light can be controlled via the apex.

It's the beauty of genetics.

yeah, this is nice because you can increase the amount of time your tank is lit without running into some of the heat/algae problems that you might encounter if you ran all lights 100% during your photoperiod. best of both worlds IMO.

The only thing that I have to add to what mike said is that the differentiating factor in the super high end fixtures (radion comes to mind) is that you can split the color channels and tweak to your hearts content. While this may be necessary for very finicky aesthetists, seems that most people just pick the color spectrum they like and stick with it and aren't constantly tweaking.

Not stored "dry", a PH probe should have a cap on the end with liquid in it to keep it wet. If it doesn't have the cap you should avoid it. This guy speaks the truth. I tried to find one used when I was putting together my apex, and came to the realization that I spent 500 bucks on a controller, god knows how much on my livestock and I'm going to skimp on a used temp probe/ph probe?

are you going to use a contoller like an apex at any point in the future?

yeah, that's the issue. the mask is bad. I had the same problem when i switched from TWC to uverse. the ip should be 192.168.1.XXX vs 192.168.0.XXX. The gateway will probably need to be switched to 192.168.1.254 as well, if yours is anything like mine.

we are doing a tour with one of our sponsors in the next week or two (buildmyled.com) and they do custom units for a pretty cheap price.

I personally like sunrise sunset because it gives you a longer photo period where you can view your inhabitants. As for storms, totally unnecessary and IMO don't look good as well as having a tendency to freak out fish. In terms of kessil, and I'm just conjecturing here, but you may need 2 kessils to fully cover a 4 ft tank. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You better get behind the scenes and start making deals before he puts them up for auction, things might get crazy.

With respect to steering people down to "it's out of line" to steer people " to high nutriant biothemes" I ask you, why can you justify that your opinion is more justified than my opinion. I hear the hi-tech logic. I also hear your strength in conviction in everybody else is doing it. One does not need to intimately know the names of complex bacteria to use them. Only to provide the conditions that they require to perform, this is not rocket science. As I see it, because you are of superior intellect, you no longer have a need to know something that you did not consider important from your education and experience. The world around you has more truth than your experience and education. I consider that "arrogance of youth". We will agree to disagree. La bonne temps roulee, Patrick Right, so you can ad hominem by calling me arrogant and then take the high road by agreeing to disagree. The reality is that just because I am not old enough to draw social security does not mean that I don't have world experience. You have no idea who I am, where I've been or what I've accomplished. The title of the thread is "what skimmer should I get", not why should I use a DSB.

shamless plug. SHAMELESS.

you're at the right place. welcome!

duly noted. haven't unlocked since I ran my iphone 2 on tmobile

lemme know

I don't know how many ways I can say this, but very few people on ARC are keeping high nutrient lagoon biothemes. A majority of club members are running mixed softy/LPS/SPS reefs that work better low nutrient with steady parameters than the converse (myself included in this category). I'm not saying your methods don't work, and I'm not saying that it's out of line to suggest them. What I do assert is that to steer every new member in the direction of skimmerless DSBs with no automation whatsoever is a path to failure for all but the most experienced hobbyists who are capable of troubleshooting and maintaining a complex biological filtration system. If the end goal is to have low nutrient with even a moderate component of SPS, i feel that a skimmer is the best path to achieve low nutrients and stability. That being said, the OP is asking for skimmer recommendations, not why skimmers suck and DSBs are preferable.

for a pH probe, just buy a new one or one that has been unused. temp probes don't really ever "go bad" like pH/ORP/SpC/DO do, so if you could find used it should be fine. For simplicity, I'd just contact one of our sponsors and see what kind of deal they can cut you.

So whose going to be the first ARC'er to procure one?

+1

While I agree with the premise that "you do not know what is in it", the same could be said of every fish in your reef tank. Depending on what animals eat determines what is in there biomass. Barracuda that are 2000 miles away from the origin of bacteria which produce Ciguatera kill people on a cruise ship. Legionnaires disease was caused by breathing air. While these dangers have always been there, we did not always fixate on them. I do not put my head in the sand to ignore the facts, but I do not jump to conclusions about good and bad. Let us pick two heavy metals, cooper and zink. I have used both in agriculture of pecan trees. The heavy metal molecules trigger an enzyme to start using nutrients that were always there but required triggers to initiate complex biological and chemical reactions. This also happens in the marine enviroment. Trace elements of both cooper and zink are indeed required by most marine invertebrate. So I will not 100% agree with your conclusion. Patrick The difference here is, sargassum is constantly growing/dying/being consumed in the tank. According to ClarkiiCircus, who presents a convincing argument, why take this risk? A frag of coral or fish will hopefully not be in the same circumstances of being consumed by other tankmates. The use of copper and zinc in pecan agriculture are at best an extraordinary tangent to copper toxicity in the marine aquarium. Trace elements are introduced via salt mix, and it is reasonable to try and take unknown variables (ie heavy metal introduction vis a vis release from dying/consumed sargassum). Reduce risk, reduce risk, reduce risk.

Are you asking me or is directed toward someones post? At this point, I plan to have a tank, stand refugium, sump, light, rocks, fish corals and water. Everything else is still in the air. I was being mildly facetious. In the long run, if you do not have significant denitrification, you will continually have to dilute your tank with partial water changes. The built in requirement to do partial water changes tells me, the method is flawed. I provide sufficient nutriant pathways with DSB and mud filters. No skimmers, no partial water changes, water from the Trinity Aquifer goes straight into the tank. When you operate large systems with 1000G, I question any assertion that tells me it is good husbandry to throw away good tank water. Patrick I disagree. A water change isn't a flawed method. It's a time tested method that 95% of successful aquarists use. Not everyone has access to well water vs city water, and not everyone has 1000 gallons to do water changes on. You have to consider that not everyone has a system like you, and your method may not be the best for any and all scenarios.

the point of BB isn't biological filtration. Biological filtration can be achieved through live rock and if necessary or desired, a remote DSB. BB is to keep detritus from settling on the tank bottom by way of blowing around the crud so it can be removed mechanically by filter socks.

variation is fine in an open system like a real reef, it's not as fine in a small cube of water. sps keepers in particular strive to keep constant conditions that are reproduce-able (via rodi and salt). i guess to that end, it depends on desired livestock as to the methods chosen.

It's about removing variability in the system. There shouldn't be nutrients in tap water (N02, NO3, NH4), and the removal is more for silica and carbonates. Making saltwater with RODI gives you a much steadier baseline condition than mixing saltwater with straight tap water. As far as skimmers and DSBs go, the debate will never end (chevy/ford, apple/pc, republican/democrat).