1000 Gallon Build- Here we go- Lots of Pictures
- Thread starter Socaltoaz
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wild1
New member
WHAT no Brown, in case your feeling crappy....lol Sorry I couldn't resist!They say the color of your sump indicates what kind of mood you are in. Not sure how I'm feeling today:
Fantastic! Now, here's the hard part. Tank is full of water and looking beautiful, but you have to wait WEEKS before you can put any critters in it! Well, live critters anyway. If it were mine, there would already be a few raw shrimp floating around in there. Wait, with the size and magnificence of that system, maybe a whole lobster tail would be more fitting???
Also... We need to have a talk about stocking that bar. I know Pappy is difficult to come by, and frankly, way over priced. However, there's a LOT of room between there and Makers Mark.
Also... We need to have a talk about stocking that bar. I know Pappy is difficult to come by, and frankly, way over priced. However, there's a LOT of room between there and Makers Mark.
Raw shrimp has been inserted. Bar stocking in progress. Brown mode for sump happened this morning as I awoke to find the level in the tank had dropped 8 inches only to find out one of my pump controllers had failed. They are sending me a new one asap.
Tank level back to normal as I adjusted switches and valves and flow. Luckily I had two return pumps so all is not lost.
tank is cycling now. Im tempted to throw some fish in there but patience is a virtue.
Tank level back to normal as I adjusted switches and valves and flow. Luckily I had two return pumps so all is not lost.
tank is cycling now. Im tempted to throw some fish in there but patience is a virtue.
A tank with this volume could have nearly immediate "small" additions of fish without having to be concerned about ammonia or nitrite poisoning. Of course the issue is quarantine and a tank this size would be a nightmare to try and catch fish to fallow the tank.
What's your qt plan?
What's your qt plan?
rickztahone
New member
I don't know much about the Apex, but had you had an Apex running, would it have alerted you sooner that your pump was malfunctioning?
Throw them in and pray???:spin3:
actually planning a smaller tank- will have the drain from the sump throw water into that tank. As I drain weekly, the water gets replaced and down the drain. so there is tank water to the QT but never from the QT to the DT.
AEAOFICIAL
New member
Incleible
BigJohnny
Active member
Yep, among 10 million other failures it can notify you of.
sfsuphysics
Active member
True, but you have to realize we basically build or reefs in reverse, we put fish in, then corals to let them grow. In nature the corals very often come first
QT at my house wont get set up for a few weeks. Im barely getting the tank up and running. In the short term, I have a very good friend who is going to QT the fish for me. I trust his stuff very well and he will be taking care of this initially till I get my stuff up and running.
Www.genesisreefsystems.com
Any input? Pros, cons? Worth it? Look at it for water change- auto top off.
Any input? Pros, cons? Worth it? Look at it for water change- auto top off.
I don't have a large enough tank but if I did that's the system I would use
sfsuphysics
Active member
Well for top off of freshwater there are plenty of other options out there, I'm usually extremely hesitant about any automated features that involve water, seems like quite a few great tanks that crashed was due to this, but I am a realist, doing daily top off of water can be quite draining (no pun
). That said, no way I'd ever do an automated water change (salt) system. There's just too much that could go wrong with that. While having a system that helps you (i.e. the height of drains/pipes/etc) is fine, having a system that automatically does it seems like you're asking for trouble. Also your system is a TINY bit taller than mine, but I like to siphon out water with tubing and suck out detritus that settled and didn't get pulled into the overflow
slief
RC Sponsor
It is by far the best water change solution on the market. Hands down! You will not find a more flexible, accurate, fast and easy to use water changer. I have th Renew Pro and have been using it for a number of years and LOVE it. The fact that you can do 1-99 gallons a day, week or at once and have it repeat simply with the push of a button can't be beat. I have mine doing 5 gallons a day and it works like clock work, doesn't require calibration and just does its thing without ever needing intervention. If i want to do a large water change, I enter the number of gallons I want to change, set it to continuous, hit start and walk away. It does 1 gallon every 3 or so minutes and it's always spot on. No calibration and as long as the metering bins are mounted level, there is never any salinity drift and never any calibration needed. You will not beat the Renew for auto water changes. Period end of story.
Their Storm ATO change is a great device too but I use my Apex in conjunction with high quality redundant float switches for the ATO along with an industrial 90 GPD Stenner peristaltic pump for the water transfer duties. I find the Apex to provide enough fail safes to safeguard against issues. If my salinity is too low, if there is water on the floor, if there is too low of water or too much water in my sump, my ATO is shut off and I get a notification. If my water level is too high, too low, water on the floor or my salinity is too high or too low, my Renew is shut off and I get a notification. The Stenner pump is bullet proof and the ideal pump for turning on and off several times a day for ATO duties. My apex is programmed such that my redundant ATO float switches need to sense low water level for 3 continuous minutes before the ATO is activated. This gives the Renew enough time to complete the water change without triggering the ATO. It also prevents the ATO from turning on because of splashing the sump or filter sock swaps. I also run my ATO pump for a minimum of 15 minutes which allows the ATO to top off and add just enough extra water so as to insure that my pump doesn't turn on and off more than it needs too. That extra run time doesn't really impact my sump level noticeably because of my sump size but it does reduce the frequency at which the ATO runs. The other advantage of using a pump like the Stenner in conjunction with the Apex is that the Stenner pump is slow enough that if something went wrong, the chances of flooding your system with fresh water is slim to none because the Stenner pump adds water slowly unlike a typical Eheim pump that the Renew and Storm require.
As such, for me, as a water changer, there is nothing better than the Renew. While the Storm for ATO does integrate nicely with the Renew, I prefer the Apex for the ATO for the reasons I mentioned.
Again, there is nothing better than the Renew for auto water changes. Nothing. This is fact, not conjecture or opinion.
As for Mikes comment above about too much that can go wrong.. I'd debate that one. Four years of the Renew and 2 years prior with a Litermeter 3 doing AWC's and not a problem so far. I wouldn't run a large tank without one. Same can be said about my Apex. With a controller like an Apex, it will act as a very reliable and robust fail safe for your water change device. My tank has NEVER been healthier because of it and one thing I have found after nearly 30 years in this hobby is that smaller daily water changes makes for a healthier system than larger weekly ones because you aren't allowing nutrients to build up over the course of the week.
Now that said, I run mostly bare bottom and have insane flow in my tank that is designed to not allow detritus and waste to settle on the bottom of the tank. With a sand bed, somewhat regular vacuuming is needed and should be performed regularly and you should also have sand critters to help reduce waste. Things like sand stars, fighting conchs, diamond gobys etc all play a role in helping reduce detritus along with good flow across the sand bed. The regular vacuuming will play a role in water changes as well but daily incremental changes are always a good thing.
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To add to slief, I have an Apex DOS that I use for everyday automatic water changes. I too love it and believe it is the best way to have AWC (automatic water changes). Leaving out the Genesis system would keep you with ALL Apex stuff running seamlessly, and not regretting having an "outside" proprietary system in conjuction with your Apex. Once you have an Apex, you want Everything to be run by it. It has so many fail safes, and it is nice to be able to monitor everything from your phone. I also have video monitoring as well. You will love an Apex DOS for AWC and dosing as well. I hope you have made room for a salt water mixing station as well. Love the build.
Ricardo18
New member
I just purchased the Genesis Renew and Storm (ATO) after much investigation.
I was close to deciding to use the DOS for water changes, but the two main reasons why I decided not to;(I have a 700g system)
-The DOS AWC requires 2 pumps to work in perfect unison for equal in/out.This is not possible with 2 separate pumps. A lot of recalibration will be necessary.
-In my system, the DOS pumps would have to run long and fast . I need 5 gallons a day change over=19000 ml/day.That means I would have to run both pumps 1 hour a day at max speed or 2 hours a day at 1/2 speed.Thats a lot of run time for the motor IMO.
..Having said all that, The DOS is probably a good choice if you need to stay all Apex.
I was close to deciding to use the DOS for water changes, but the two main reasons why I decided not to;(I have a 700g system)
-The DOS AWC requires 2 pumps to work in perfect unison for equal in/out.This is not possible with 2 separate pumps. A lot of recalibration will be necessary.
-In my system, the DOS pumps would have to run long and fast . I need 5 gallons a day change over=19000 ml/day.That means I would have to run both pumps 1 hour a day at max speed or 2 hours a day at 1/2 speed.Thats a lot of run time for the motor IMO.
..Having said all that, The DOS is probably a good choice if you need to stay all Apex.
slief
RC Sponsor
I am a long time Neptune user.. I've been using Neptune controllers since Curt released his first Gen 1 Aqua Controller back in the early to mid 90's. Well over 20 years now. I've been using them ever since and have had my Apex since they first hit the market. I've probably got the largest Apex system in terms of add on modules, EB4's and EB8's of anybody here on this forum. I also own a Dos and make good use of it. While the Dos is very capable of automatic water changes and is easy to use, it falls short in that it's still slow and would be very cumbersome to do a large bulk water change. Try telling your Dos to do a 40 gallon or better yet, 99 gallon water change... How long would that even take?? With the Renew, you select the amount you want to change from 1 to 99 gallons and hit start. If it's set to daily, it will change out that amount in one day and repeat daily. If it's set to weekly, it will change out that amount in one week and repeat if it's set to. Set it to continuous and it will change out that amount one gallon at a time every 3 or so minutes. For a large tank, there is no better solution. Having said that, the Apex makes a terrific fail safe for the Renew. Things like water level monitoring via float switches connected to the breakout box and salinity monitoring via the PM2 are both part of my automatic water change failsafes and my Renew is plugged into my EB8 so if the Apex needs to intervene it can. I'm not knocking the Dos. On a smaller system, the Dos is great for water changes but on a large system, the Renew adds a whole other level of control for bigger, faster and easier to control water changes and does so without the need to calibrate or replace peristaltic tubing.
I had an issue a number of years back with some bleach and my son. It was a near catastrophic issue. I was able to save all the corals in my tank and the Renew was instrumental in that process. It made large fast water changers a push button process that would have otherwise been a nightmare. Even with automatic water changes, the occasional large water change never hurts and being able to select the amount in gallons and hit start and have it done reasonably quickly and hands free is worth the Renews weight in gold. Like I said, for automatic water changes, there is no better solution on the market regardless of whether you have an Apex or not. This is from one Apex user to another. On the flip side, the Renew isn't cheap and it requires wall space for the metering bins. As such, it's not for everybody but if you have a large tank and you have the space for the hardware it includes, you won't beat it regardless of what else you use. For the task of changing out water, nothing else compares or even comes close. And I LOVE my Apex and would never run a big tank without one.
You will love the Renew. The only thing I will say in regards to your comments is that the Dos is very easy to calibrate but if you are doing higher volume water changes like 5 gallons a day, regular calibration to make sure it's keeping it's accuracy would be very important. I do however agree, it would be a lot of run time. Fortunately, the Dos motors are servo motors and can handle the abuse. I'd only be concerned about having to replace the head tubing on regular intervals. For me the biggest pitfalls would be what I mentioned above. Speed, convenience and being able to easily do bulk water changes. That and the maintenance which is pretty much non existent with the Renew.
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