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[twan]

 

[twan]

Lets get updated:

• 
  [li]Won the battle with Cyno, battle with hair algae is half over.[/li]
  [li]Lost a torch and gonipora to the cyno.[/li]
  [li]Fragged the staghorn as the main colony is a magnet for hair algea.[/li]
  [li]Steady growth on everything else.[/li]
  [li]No new additions, would like 1 more fish and some more SPS for the tanks 1 year birthday coming in April.[/li]
  [li]Stable tank parameters thanks to the apex.[/li]

FTS:

Side shot:

Birdsnest growing rapidly:

Grubes Gorgonian loving high flow:

Yellow leather and SPS island:

Red Planet Tabling:

 

[twan]

For better or worse here it goes!

 

[twan]

Lets get updated:

1.) Tank will be 1 year since water added on 4/13/13.

2.) I won the battle with hair algae except for 1/2 a dozen spots. They are the width of a dime and by the time my bi-weekly water change rolls around they get about 2 inches long. I manually remove them as best I can while siphoning in the area during the water change. I cannot remove the rocks where it is because they are integral parts of the aquascape.

3.) The staghorn main colony is only just surviving while the 2 frags I made of it are flourishing.

4.) Looking to add another fish soon.

5.) My PH has been very consistent and spikes to 8.25 at the tail end of my light cycle and drops to 8.11 before the the lights go back on. I think this is right where I want to be, can someone confirm? I do notice however that in the 2 days after a water change (reef crystals) that my PH will spike to 8.40. Cause for concern?

My next post will recap the 1 year journey!

 

[twan]

Ran into an issue yesterday after 16 months of continous Apex use without issue.

Aware
Noticed at 5pm that the display unit was dead.
The OSC email alarm I have programmed worked fine at 12 noon so I know this situation lasted no longer then 5hrs.
I had yellow blinking lights on both EB8's and the WMX.
My devices seemed to be running or not running based on the fallback statements I have in my programming.
The weird thing is I saw the lights on both heaters on even though I have fallback off statements for them to be off (more on that later).

Actions
I first checked the main apex control unit & it did not have any error lights.
I unplugged the aquabus cable from the unit which cut power to all devices and waited 5 minutes.
When I plugged it back in everything went back to normal but I see my tank is now a very warm 83.4 degrees.

Heater Settings
I have two 150w Ebo Jager heaters ( for redundancy backup) set to 79deg on the dial.
My programming language for both outlets is as follows:

Fallback OFF
If Temp > 79.0 Then OFF
If Temp < 78.5 Then ON
If Temp < 70.0 Then OFF

Questions
1.) What caused my EB8's and WMX to go blinking yellow? *I do not believe there was a power outage that sparked this. When I have had power outages in the past either running off a whole house generator or when power is restored my Apex in the past always synched back up.

2.) Why did my heaters continue to stay on when the manual ring on them is set to 79 and the outlet language looks ok to me?
Do I need a "set" statement in there?


Side Question
That reminds me. *I have not recalibrated the PH or Temp probe.
What interval is reccomended to perform this task?

 

[twan]

Been almost a year since I updated this thread but with some recent private messages I thought I would pop over.

YES THE TANK IS STILL RUNNING! I will have pics later this week. Here are some fast notes.

Livestock
- I have not lost a single fish (the yashia sometimes is missing for days then I see him again so he must move burrows often)
- Hermits were taking out all my snails so I do not run any crabs in the tank anymore.
- No corals added, but those in tank have been fragged many times.
- Lost 2 gonipora's as I cant seem to keep them alive.

Water Quality
-All parameters are in line and I am still using Reef Crystals salt.
-I have unexplained red slime algae breakouts about once a month. When this happens
I do a 2 day lights out and it goes away, still unexplained though.

Equipment
- Had an MP10 dry side die on me after 1 and 3/4 years of no performance issues. The motor just gave up. Ecotech provided a refurbished one at a great price and fast shipping.
-Other then that no issues and I want to say that the APEX was my best purchase ever along with a webcam on the tank.

Maintenance
- Bi-weekly water changes of 15g and the sump is 1/2 drained and cleaned each change.

 

[Metrokat]

 

[Metrokat]

Twan, would you explain how these heaters are installed?

 

[Metrokat]

Also, when they re-made your tank, did the overflow specifications work out the way you wanted? This was your original order:

The return will be 3/4" and hard piped.
The drain will be 1" with a hard piped durso.
This was done to still fit both in an overflow box that measures 3"x5".
The 3" portion of the rectangle overflow will be along the back wall.
The 5" portion of the rectangle overflow will be along the right wall.

The first tank they sent you had 1/2 inch return instead of 3/4.

 

[twan]

Metrokat:

The heater holders are part of the sump as designed custom.
The drain and overflow specs were corrected.

 

[twan]

The tank is now 2 & 1/2 years old. Still battling some red slime and GHA on and off.

Here are new shots:

Here are comparison shots from 1.5 years ago when I last took pictures:

 

[Metrokat]

Wow look at the size of that Euphyllia! Looks great.

 

[Metrokat]

What are the dimensions of your custom sump?