Scrapz's Ultimate Gamble 3x3 SPS Cube

[scrapz]

While the main tank is stabilizing, going to show you guys some of the corals I have cooking in the 1 week old QT tank. Friends say my tank is to immature, hopefully not.

Strawberry Shortcake

Pink Lemonade

Leng Sy Cap

Wet Thumb Frags Mother Of Pearl

ORA Blue Iris

Appleberry Monti

AquaSD Rainbow Millie

Garf Bonsai

 

[scrapz]

And my favorite piece. The light coloration and transition from blue to purple is just so eyecatching. These are true to life colors in full daylights under my ati sunpower with 3x blue + 1x acticnic blue and 2x super purple bulbs.

 

[mhucasey]

The aquascape is pretty awesome, lots of places to fill in with Acros! Those first frags are pretty great for starter corals!

 

[reefmutt]

Nice frags!
Love the branch rock. Always makes for a very interesting scape like yours.
Nice!

 

[afernandez]

Congrats on your new home !

Glad to see the tank up and running !
Love the aqua scape! Should look excellent with your corals in it.

Loving the coral selection as well !

 

[scrapz]

@Glaukos

Thanks! :beer:

@Mhucasey
Thanks! I counted over 46 places to mount corals so far.

@reefmutt
Always wanted a open scape, just hoping the fishes will be ok with such little hiding places.

@afernandez
Thanks! Hoping it settles in within a week or two. I can;t wait to buy more coral.

 

[scrapz]

Looking through my photobucket at my old corals. Never seen anything as bright as these pieces.

Sick orange fungia, look at how dull it makes the others look.

Toxic Green Fungias

Ruby Red Yuma

A emerald granulosa that began grafting in my tank.

 

[scrapz]

The tank move is officially over! Spent the last day transferring over 150lbs of live rock and making enough water for the whole system.

Don't mind the 2x4, need to stop by home depot and pick up some wire to hang the pvc. Also need to find a 1.5 inch gatevalve to stop this gurgling! First time I've used PVC for plumbing, tubing was just so much easier.

Added a rear island to fill out the tank and give the fish a place to hide. I think I'll add a few more small tongas to create more "caves".

Should be another week until the system stabilizes enough to add coral. Think I'll spend the time looking for a good reactor to finish off my calcium reactor setup.

 

[tdb320reef]

Great work the Tank(s) look great!

 

[jackson6745]

Looks great, looking forward to seeing your progress.

 

[sahin]

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year. Really like the scape. Cant wait to see SPS in your tank again; from following your past efforts I know we are in for a treat.

 

[scrapz]

A small update on the tank. I added 30lbs of Tropic Eden Reef Flakes to my main tank and I think it ruined the overall look. Contemplating if I should just vacuum it all out. I use to always hate the way barebottom looked but after having it for a month, it just adds so much depth to the tank. The option to be able to remove detritus by turkey baster is another huge plus.

As for the frag tank, I picked up a few new things to improve it's performance. I picked up a 4 month old Reef Octopus Classic 110 skimmer from a fellow skimmer for $80 and it was definitely worth it. It's replacing a Tunze-9002(way undersized) as it just finished it's breaking in period. After a day, it's already pulling more gunk. Spunky for such a small skimmer.

I finally caved in and purchased a Jebao RW-8 to add a little flow. Previously it was running with just one Tunze 6105 but I was having issues with the it blasting the corals with too much flow. A snail pushed the pink lemonade directly in front of the tunze and the tissue on the bottom half of the coral was blown off. Anyways, back to the pump. Cheap and powerful but lacking flow control on a crucial mode "ELSE" vs say yellow mode on a Vortech. Maybe I'll have to order JBWave sooner than I thought.

And a update wouldn't be a update without some corals. I got to stop by Maoiwowie's (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2455325&page=12)
Acro Nursery after he posted up a FS thread in our local forums. Didn't even know such a beautiful system existed so close to me. Everything there were colonies and colonies of stuff I liked! Of course I picked up a few more frag, I really had to stop myself from buying more since I didn't want to overload the QT tank and crash it:lol:

Lost my DSLR charger during the move so back to my cellphone pics until I get a new one ordered.

Pro Corals Rainbow
ORA Pearlberry

ORA Frogskin

Purple Something (I forget)

Acropora Crayola (another oldschool favorite)

Upscales Microlados

 

[scrapz]

@sahin

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and RC also

 

[sahin]

A small update on the tank. I added 30lbs of Tropic Eden Reef Flakes to my main tank and I think it ruined the overall look. Contemplating if I should just vacuum it all out. I use to always hate the way barebottom looked but after having it for a month, it just adds so much depth to the tank. The option to be able to remove detritus by turkey baster is another huge plus.

I've had my share of BB and sanded tanks. My current tank is sanded; previous tank was BB.

Next tank is going to be BB. But I will cover the tank with some form of ceramic tiles.

This is the current best Bare Bottomed tank. World Wide Corals' 630G is pretty nice too:

JFox BB 700G:
<iframe width="853" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m6oPG7ndEEU?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Enjoy.

 

[scrapz]

Jason Fox's tank is definitely one of the most impressive tanks /w such a wide variety of coral. Like the guy, hate that he was the one who began the trend of attaching $2000 tag to corals.

 

[scrapz]

Rant on.

Woke up today and went to check on the tank and my ranco finally gave up after all these years. . Fish looked a bit slow so I checked the temp, tank was sitting at a chill 65. Temp swings like this don't worry me too much as the temps get dropped like this during transit all the time, only thing that is important is that the coral is receiving the oxygen needed by the powerheads. Grabbed the 4x heaters out of my main display since it was fallow and got to heating the tank back up. Took about 2hrs to reach 75 degrees. No losses and everything had nice polyp extension even when it was cold.

After that, I sat around debating if I should finally get an APEX. Friends keep telling me how amazing it is and how oldschool I am. I've been using Ranco controllers for heat control for years without a hiccup, oldschool manual timers for lights and a Milwaukee PH controller just to monitor PH. T The only part that sold me was being able to monitor wirelessly. I went to discuss this with the wifey, explaining that I could remedy the issues of this morning simply by buying a new ranco for $100 or an APEX for $500. She went ahead and said, just grab the APEX. Win right!?

So off to SPS Coral Store I went to grab an APEX. For those who aren't from CA, this is a great store with a knowledgeable owner who will just sit there and talk reefs with you without trying to sell you a single item. On top of that, prices are great! Got my apex and headed home to wire it.

Got home, began wiring everything up and realized that I had to buy an adaptor to use the wireless function. I was already having doubts about buying it in the first place but after this, I began having some serious buyer's remorse. I have to buy one more part just to use it wirelessly, why is this thing not built in? My mind exploded. Does a APEX really help me besides telling me my tank is out of whack? I still have to be physically there to fix it. Usually if I'm travelling, my wifey is there to check and feed the tank anyways and can call one of my friends over to help.

For those wondering if you should get the APEX. That's something you'll have to ask yourself. If you already have a ranco temp controller, I would say it's unnecessary. It's definitely a luxury item with multiple useful extensions, but it's just that, a luxury IMO.

I'll be keeping the APEX because it's built by a solid company and I'm too lazy to return it. I'll order the wireless adaptor tomorrow and possibly a wireless extender. Oh yeah, something must have been funky with the electrical because my ranco is working perfectly fine again.

/rant off.

 

[mhucasey]

Rant on.

Woke up today and went to check on the tank and my ranco finally gave up after all these years. . Fish looked a bit slow so I checked the temp, tank was sitting at a chill 65. Temp swings like this don't worry me too much as the temps get dropped like this during transit all the time, only thing that is important is that the coral is receiving the oxygen needed by the powerheads. Grabbed the 4x heaters out of my main display since it was fallow and got to heating the tank back up. Took about 2hrs to reach 75 degrees. No losses and everything had nice polyp extension even when it was cold.

After that, I sat around debating if I should finally get an APEX. Friends keep telling me how amazing it is and how oldschool I am. I've been using Ranco controllers for heat control for years without a hiccup, oldschool manual timers for lights and a Milwaukee PH controller just to monitor PH. T The only part that sold me was being able to monitor wirelessly. I went to discuss this with the wifey, explaining that I could remedy the issues of this morning simply by buying a new ranco for $100 or an APEX for $500. She went ahead and said, just grab the APEX. Win right!?

So off to SPS Coral Store I went to grab an APEX. For those who aren't from CA, this is a great store with a knowledgeable owner who will just sit there and talk reefs with you without trying to sell you a single item. On top of that, prices are great! Got my apex and headed home to wire it.

Got home, began wiring everything up and realized that I had to buy an adaptor to use the wireless function. I was already having doubts about buying it in the first place but after this, I began having some serious buyer's remorse. I have to buy one more part just to use it wirelessly, why is this thing not built in? My mind exploded. Does a APEX really help me besides telling me my tank is out of whack? I still have to be physically there to fix it. Usually if I'm travelling, my wifey is there to check and feed the tank anyways and can call one of my friends over to help.

For those wondering if you should get the APEX. That's something you'll have to ask yourself. If you already have a ranco temp controller, I would say it's unnecessary. It's definitely a luxury item with multiple useful extensions, but it's just that, a luxury IMO.

I'll be keeping the APEX because it's built by a solid company and I'm too lazy to return it. I'll order the wireless adaptor tomorrow and possibly a wireless extender. Oh yeah, something must have been funky with the electrical because my ranco is working perfectly fine again.

/rant off.

The Apex is the single best thing I have ever bought for my reef. No kidding and no hyperbole.
With it I can be informed if:
-The temperature is out of whack
-The pH is out of normal limits
-I left my Dosing Pump on for ALK or CAL
-I can be informed if I accidentally turned my dosing pump or any other pump off by accident.
-My Skimmer is overflowing
-How much amperage I am pulling from each Power bar

Aditionally:
* I can see what my tank is doing parameter wise no matter where I am, from my computer or phone.
* I can turn on or off any piece of reef equipment no matter where I am
* I will never cook my tank if a heater sticks. In fact, i use simple titanium heaters with no temp control of their own.
* I can see what the ph or temp has been doing over any period of time going back a month if I want.
* I can see if I turned something off or on and how long it was off or on in history.
* I have programmed complex wave and current flows that achieve true randomization
* I can kill all flow in the tank with a single button if need be
* I don't have to find the plug for any item I need turned off or on. Once its plugged in I can leave it that way.

I control the flow pumps, lights, skimmer, reactors, heater, dosing pumps etc. I would never run a reef without one again.

 

[scrapz]

I could probably rebuttal most of the points but im not going to argue since it is a nice piece of equipment but still a luxury item to me. Almost everything you stated besides logging stats can be done manually or is already controlled by a independent controller built into that hardware. Any successful reefer already own the gear with controllers and failsafes built in, no doubt that the Apex helps tie it all together.

Just want to be clear that I'm not saying APEX is a bad product, in fact the opposite. Many reefers have been successful without it and will continue to be without it.

 

[qqwwee]

nice

 

[mhucasey]

I could probably rebuttal most of the points but im not going to argue since it is a nice piece of equipment but still a luxury item to me. Almost everything you stated besides logging stats can be done manually or is already controlled by a independent controller built into that hardware. Any successful reefer already own the gear with controllers and failsafes built in, no doubt that the Apex helps tie it all together.

Just want to be clear that I'm not saying APEX is a bad product, in fact the opposite. Many reefers have been successful without it and will continue to be without it.

It's much more than any of the independent items. I've already averted disaster multiple times where independent pieces of equipment would have let me down.

For example, I have turned on a dosing pump to prime a line, then forgot I turned it on. If only a simple timer was controlling the pump, I would have dosed an entire container of 2-part into the tank and never known it. In fact when I first set up the tank, I almost did that. I left the Alk dosing pump on overnight. I found it because the PH had risen above the alarm limit. With the APEX I was able to see exactly how long the pump had been on to see how much was dosed, and I was able to take appropriate action to reduce the ALK spike. After that I set up an alarm that texts me, emails me, and sets off an audible alarm if the pump is on continuously for more than 15 minutes. It's saved me at least twice more. The same kind of alarm tells me if the Alk and Calcium pumps don't come on when they should. Without an Apex a timer driven pump could sit in the off position for days before you would find it.

I had a heater die in the middle of one of the coldest nights of winter, and was awakened by a text telling me the tank temp had dropped out of range. I was able to throw spare heaters in the sump and keep the tank warm until I could get a replacement. I looked back on the APEX and saw the heater was running on and off way more than I had known and that was likely why I burned out the original. This led me to a larger heater and a lot of insulating(Sump was in the garage). A temp controller like the Ranco will turn the heater on and off only. You could plug the Ranco into the apex and provide two levels of control and safety.

I see sentiments like yours, even some reefers who say they would never trust their tank to a controller. I also see a lot of disasters that happened to old school reefers that make them shut down their tank. Many of these could have been averted. With the amount of money that goes into a tank, using a controller for safety is prudent.