Reefer 250 build

Wrasse update
I added 2 new ornate wrasses to the tank with a resident ornate about a month ago. One wrasse is MIA. The other new ornate was getting bullied by the resident ornate. Moved resident to fuge jail for 4 days, which allowed new ornate to feed and get comfortable in the tank. She now eats pellets and frozen shrimp and stays up for most of the day. I got an acclimation box from a fellow reefer and put the resident ornate in the box for 2 days now. There doesn't seem to be any obvious attempts at aggression now. I drop some pellets in the acclimation box which attracts both wrasses to the box, they can get within an inch or two apart from each other and no charging or posturing.
I plan to release the resident ornate tomorrow morning - hoping they stay amicable!
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Some led light updates. I cranked the radions very high very fast in month 3 and 4, which combined with low nutrients and high alk made my frags unhappy and pale. I dropped the lights down, improved water chemistry and slowly brought up the radions from 55 to 70% max intensity (sps ab+) over the past 2 months. All but two frags have significantly improved in color, which is great to see.
Here is the latest par readings
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The 15% increase in radion intensity really improved par readings along the central row of frags mounted on the top shelf. Many are in the 200 par range. I still have some room if I want to crank the lights higher, but I am planing to keep lights as is for the next month before tweaking things.

But not all acros are in the sweet 200 to 300 range... the Bottom left shelf is still stuck at par of ~ 100; mostly unchanged from two month ago. I am not too surprised because it juts out to the corner of the tank where the led have poor coverage. Most of the increase in led intensity was felt in the center.

So back to my original dilemma from November. Should I raise or reposition that shelf by a few inches up or center to give it more light. Sure I can keep cranking the leds to get more light on the corner but I worry that this will overexpose the sticks on the top shelf...

I can keep things as is but the bottom left shelf has seen the least growth out of all the tank so it certainly can use a little intervention...

What are your thoughts on the matter?



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Hmmm... I don't why, but I am getting a sudden urge to buy an Apex controller... I like probes, I like graphs, I like programming things... seems like there could be great possibilities for nerding out...


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I've been on the fence as well about the apex....I'm thinking I've done fine so far without it. Maybe the future after I get a new tank lol
 
It's mostly because I have to manually unplug skimmer, ato and return whenever I target feed, then I have to plug return back, wait a few min before turning skimmer and ato. Would be nice to do this with the touch of a button on my phone. Also, now that I am dosing kalkwaser, would be great to have the option to stop the ato if ph gets too high


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tenurepro said:
It's mostly because I have to manually unplug skimmer, ato and return whenever I target feed, then I have to plug return back, wait a few min before turning skimmer and ato. Would be nice to do this with the touch of a button on my phone. Also, now that I am dosing kalkwaser, would be great to have the option to stop the ato if ph gets too high


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Click to expand...

This is the code I use for my skimmer -

Fallback ON
Set ON
If Outlet VarioS6_2 = OFF Then OFF
If Power Apex Off 010 Then OFF
Defer 010:00 Then ON

VarioS6_2 is my return pump. If my return pump shuts off or I shut it off my skimmer shuts down automatically. The last 2 lines tell me skimmer to delay startup for 10 minutes if it has been shut down. This prevents me skimmer collection cup from overflowing.

So when I shut down my return for water changes my skimmer shuts down, when I turn my return pump back on my skimmer will start up 10 minutes later.

I also have a break out box and floats in my sump and ATO container. Low level float in my return section will shut down my return pump IF the water gets to low to prevent burning the pump up. Heaters will also shut off.

High level switch will shut the skimmer off to prevent the collection cup from overflowing. The ATO switch simply notifies me via text and email when the container has 2 gallons left in it. So if I get this notice first thing in the morning I know I have enough water in the container until I get home.
 
Sweet! Thanks P. What are you thoughts on the new apex vs. classic; I don't have the option for hardwiring via ethernet so wifi is how I want to run it. But hearing scary stories re. Wifi and new apex...


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tenurepro said:
Sweet! Thanks P. What are you thoughts on the new apex vs. classic; I don't have the option for hardwiring via ethernet so wifi is how I want to run it. But hearing scary stories re. Wifi and new apex...


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Click to expand...

I am running the classic, I bought it from a buddy who bought a complete system from someone and he already had an apex on his tank. I wouldn't hesitate to buy the new apex if money isn't a concern. For me I couldn't justify dropping that cash without first using one, but today I would in a heart beat.

Since my tank is located on the first floor of my home and my network switch is upstairs I am unable to run a Ethernet cable down to the apex. Instead of buying the netgear wireless extender I took an old linksys wireless router I had and updated the firmware on it with dd-wrt. Basically this flashes the firmware on a wireless router and converts it from a wireless router to a wireless extender. The ports on the wireless router still work so I am able to plug my apex into it and it will communicate through my wireless network.

I do have a 100' cat5 cable that I use to run from my network switch to my apex if/when I ever need to update the firmware on the apex. If you do go with the classic you'll never want to update the firmware on it over a wireless connection.
 
I just set up a reefer 350 with similar equipment. Im thinking that my last big purchase for a while could be an Apex system. Im leaning towards the new Apex.
 
marper331 said:
I just set up a reefer 350 with similar equipment. Im thinking that my last big purchase for a while could be an Apex system. Im leaning towards the new Apex.
Click to expand...

The new Apex does have some additional features that are nice, especially for you setting up the 350. You can add the WAV pumps to the new apex directly since it has the 1link built in!
 
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