FarmerTy

Just realized the reflection off the tank glass during the day shows my formal dining room... and that's where I mainly do my work from home so the camera will be down during the daytime.

Makena, you can flip it on/off all you want at 6am, I won't even be functional awake to ever see it. Yeah, you won't get much action on the lights until this evening... 4:30pm-1am. Sent via Tapatalk

Thanks for the heads up Thai!

All this craze about repurposing old phones as webcams got me all excited and so I did the same with my old Samsung S3. http://107.207.77.238:8080/browserfs.html username: jeeperty password: corals Just hit the flash button and fullscreen on a regular computer or if you're on a mobile, hit the browser button and the full screen button. Lights are on from 4:30pm - 1:00 am for you night owls like me. I don't know if I'll have it up all the time but it's fun to play with and I know what's going to babysit my tank the next time I'm out of town. Hello Apex and webcam!

I want to play too! http://107.207.77.238:8080/browserfs.html username: jeeperty password: corals

Yeah, as the image of that thing expanding once put in the tank, I knew I couldn't buy it. It probably has a 1.5' radius once fully extended. Sent via Tapatalk

No exaggeration, that thing is huge! I thought about it but realized, I have nowhere to put it!

Got mine ordered this morning.

Isn't it usually combined with carbon dosing too? Like vinegar plus kalk in essence? Though you can't separate the carbon dosing from the alk/ca supplementation.

Yes, correct. Sent via Tapatalk

Jestep, Only 1 pH probe is needed for control but it is nice to have the 2nd one to read your tank pH and use that as a fail-safe with your Apex programming in case the ph level drops too low in your tank.

I'm waiting for that day too Jestep. Throw in a nitrate and phosphate probe too and call it a day. I seem to remember my 2-part dosing days with a peristaltic pump to be more troublesome than what I am dealing with now with the CaRX. It may be just memory bias but I only have to adjust my CaRX every once in awhile when everything is steady and replace the media and CO2 twice a year. Adjustments are easily made with my Apex pH control for the solenoid.

Well, it wasn't the news I was hoping to report but I found out it wasn't the SSR's fault... well, kind of... I should say. First off, both SSRs are functioning to specs. The problem is they still pass a little current along even when it is not activated. For a scenario on my vent fan where only a connection needs to be made between the two red wires to engage high mode, the little bit of current leaked is enough to complete the circuit so toggling the modes will be impossible with the SSR. What is confusing however is when I tested it with the 9-volt battery for the VDC source, and plugged up my 400-watt MH to test. The light came on immediately without activation of the SSR. I am still confused how that little bit of current leaking would be enough to trigger my 400-watt bulb to come on. When I tested a small clip on fan in the same scenario, it would only activate when the VDC source was connected (9-volt battery). So, the SSR performed it's function. For now, I'll just program the fan to come on for a couple of minutes every hour to vent any moisture and then turn on the entire time the lights are on. I'm sure I'll think of something to use the two SSRs for, something I can program the Apex to run. I might aim to have one run my chiller independently because if I plug my chiller to either EB8, it'll max out the amp draw for them. Putting it on its own SSR being activated by my VDM ports should hopefully alleviate that but still give me Apex controllability.

In the summer I keep my house at 77 during the day, 76 at night. During the winter it's 72 during the day, 68 at night. Sent via Tapatalk

The heater turns on at 79.5 degrees and chiller/fans/exhaust vent come on around 81 degrees. I'll probably move down the temperature range now that winter is here so I'm not trying to heat up 250 gallons too much.

Understandable Robb. Just wanted to toss the thought out there if it helped. Tim will fix you up in no time!

I want to play too!

With readings like that Robb, would a simple fix of more aggressive GFO usage and no water changes be an option? It would certainly be a lot less work. Salinity is a bit high and may need to be slowly lowered as well. Timfish has the ability to make things pretty again so I'm sure he'll take care of business. Just offering a thought.

Fun video of the Jaebo pumps in sync via my Apex and creating a nice smooth wave. Usually the wave isn't this visible since the water is crashing over the overflow but since I was working on the return pump the other day, it gave me the rare chance to capture what it looks like when they are synced up in wave mode. No fun music this time around but I promise I won't ever slack again...

To the untrained eye, you may even miss where I have added new rock. [emoji6] Here's a closer inspection... I'm digging it for now and will be happy when it's not eye-blinding sparkling white anymore.

I'm very impressed with your generosity bigsby and your free giveaway makes me feel proud to be a part of such an amazing club with such great people that contribute to it!

My brain used to put out 2-3" sweeper tentacles at night. Be sure to give him a little elbow room. I am a big fan of the Red Sea Energy B complex, vitamins and aminos. I don't use any of their other stuff so I can't comment too much on their program. I do like their testing kits though.

You know me, all style, no substance! :-)

Oh, forgot to discuss your pH. I would NEVER, and I repeat, NEVER aim to adjust pH levels in a saltwater tank. Please don't ever use buffer to increase or decrease it. It just further complicates the goal of trying to get all your other parameters in line, such as alk, Ca, and Mg. The only reason I can even see anybody ever worried about their pH is if it is really low while using a CaRX (talking <7.7 pH) or super high from using kalkwasser (>8.6 pH) or from dosing alk, kalkwasser and alk being temporary conditions. Even then, the only method I would employ is manipulation of CO2 levels in your water. Don't worry about aiming for a target level for pH, the corals don't really care and neither do your fish. You'll do more damage in the process for something that doesn't really matter if within normal levels.

Just wanted to check on the salt as a source of your continually increasing alk but it seems like the mystery is solved. In the effort to help anyone that may be reading along, what was the error with your original alk reading? Where you not reading to the bottom of the rubber plunger? Or perhaps read the color change too quick on the titration and didn't let it fully change color? For your nutrient problem, it could be perhaps too high of a bioload for your current nutrient processing methods to handle... and may not be able to be further influenced by feeding or lack thereof. If that is the case, you have two roads you can go down, either increase your efficiency of nutrient processing or decrease your bioload/feedings. Since most would prefer to increase the efficiency of nutrient processing instead of letting go of precious livestock, let's focus on your nutrient processing methods. Currently, your liverock, sand, refugium, purigen, water changes, and GFO remove nutrients from your system. Though we haven't been able to verify yet, I would imagine your GFO is making short work of your phosphate issue. It would be ideal to get a good test kit for phosphates so you can track your progress on lowering the levels in your tank. Even once you remove all the unbound phosphates in your water column, some will continue to leach out from your rock and sand so knowing what your levels are would be a great benefit to knowing where you are in your phosphate removing goals. But before we even get too deep into removing phosphates, let's focus on nitrates first. For nitrates, there are many ways to go with it. Yes, increasing the efficiency of your refugium would be very helpful. If you cut out the vinyl adhesive in the back and expose the whole 2nd chamber of your rear sump, you can almost triple/quadruple your efficiency of your uptake of nutrients via macro algae. Just get a good enough light that will light up the whole 2nd chamber from bottom to the top of the water line. A well placed, yellow LED bulb would probably do the trick. RichardL and I were looking into this one for his refugium. Maybe he will chime in on your public thread on his success with it. http://www.lowes.com/pd_179879-75774-LPAR30L5KLEDG5_0__?productId=50109648&Ntt=utilitech+15+watt&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dutilitech%2B15%2Bwatt&facetInfo= Protein skimmers are nice and definitely help the battle with nutrients but when I had a nano-type system before, I didn't run a skimmer and I was fine. I did do water changes religiously and kept a very low bioload... I only had 2 fishes in my 12-gallon nanocube. If you can find one that fits in your system and works well, I say go for it. It will only help the cause. For rinsing frozen foods, see my rant from a couple months ago: Just a quick note on why I don't bother rinsing my frozen food. Randy Farley-Holmes, a reefing guru chemistry buff, has quantified the phosphate addition of the rinse water of frozen foods and calculated it at roughly 1% of the phosphate content of the food itself. So basically, rinsing the frozen food gets rid of 1% of the phosphate addition of your frozen food. To give scale, that 1% of phosphate added from the rinsed water to 100 gallons of water would bump the concentration of the tank up roughly 0.0003 ppm. Quoted from Randy: "That amount washed away does not seem significant with respect to the "in tank" target level of about 50-100 times that level (say, 0.015 to 0.03 ppm), nor does it seem significant relative to the total amount of phosphate actually added each day in foods (which is perhaps 50-1000 times as much..." Here's the article he wrote for reef keeping magazine, for those that like to read the nerdy stuff. http://www.advanceda...012/3/chemistry So, I don't bother with rinsing the frozen food. I'd actually try to feed pellets more if possible, more nutrient dense, and doesn't foul water quality as easily, depending on the brand you use. I'm a big fan of New Life Spectrum foods. I'm a huge proponent of solid carbon dosing (biopellets) for nitrates but in your tank, I don't think that is quite applicable. It would require a reactor and a great skimmer. Even with vodka dosing, the critical element in any form of carbon dosing is a great skimmer. You are in essence trying to encourage bacterial growth to uptake nitrates and even a little phosphate by supplying what they are lacking, carbon. Once the bacteria grows, you use a really good skimmer to remove them out of the system, thereby, exporting nitrate and some phosphate in the process. If you don't have a great skimmer, the bacteria will uptake the nitrates and phosphates, but upon them dying, will just release it back into your system if not exported by a skimmer or other means. Unless you are planning to get a good skimmer, I would just stick with water changes as your main form of nitrate removal and aim to ramp up your refugium to aid in the process. Again, a good, accurate test kit would help a lot in gauging your progress. What I'd like to determine is if your nitrate levels are continually going up? Or is the high concentration of nitrate just a remnant from your cycling of the tank when you first started it.