Higher Thinking

Congratulations to our new Board of Directors! This year the board is made up of returning members: @CuttleFishandCoral, @Gil&Fin, and @Gumby, and new members @Parzifal and @reefrun. 

Looking forward to an incredible year ahead!

Not sure exactly what you're looking for, but yeah, get yourself a quality needle valve and you should be good. 

Heads up, per the forum rules, you have to post a price. You can add OBO, of course. 

Yeah, I've also been using the Unread tab option. The unread messages being displayed when you first log in was definitely superior. The removal of that feature is a disappointment for sure. Looks like we're at the mercy of the developers. 

Looks like an Oregon Mummy Eye chalice. 

Flushing for an hour seems wild. I guess whatever works for ya. My top off is hooked directly to the RODI so it turns on countless times throughout the day. I've never actually tested the water as it arrives at the sump. Now I'm curious. 

I live in Scappoose, but my work is over by CBs. How far are you from that? I'm down 181st where it turns to Airport Way. I could stop by and chat at some point, maybe Friday after 4. Or sometime next week. Do you have any top off water? Test kits? Refractometer? (To test salinity).

If you just drive to a local shop you can buy saltwater. Or order a batch of Instant Ocean from Amazon and have it in a couple days and then head to the grocery store and get some 5 gallons jugs of RODI water and make your own. 

The clam can be high maintenance, FYI. 

Great to hear!

Yeah I run 1.25" on my return. I remember that being tricky to find all my pieces. Particularly because I went with the furniture grade black. At any rate, here's a link to one. It'll probably take a week to get to you. No prime delivery for this! 😀

https://www.pvcfittingsonline.com/1-1-4-hayward-bulkhead-fitting-fpm-soc-x-soc-bfa1012ses.html

Also, I happen to have 4 90-degree black elbows at that size is you needed them. 

6 hours ago, SuncrestReef said:

I don't buy into the conspiracy theories about Neptune milking customers for huge profits on reagents.  Put yourself into the shoes of a manufacturer of technical equipment for sale into a market full of people with a wide range of technical skills, many of whom won't read directions, and an extremely wide array of aquarium environments.  The Trident's reagent consumption varies depending on your parameter levels, so some people will run through reagents at a faster rate than others.  If the tests aren't run frequently, the sample water and reagents left in the tubes will start to evaporate and leave behind salt residue or other solids, ruining the test precision.  To play it safe, they include extra reagent in each bottle to accommodate the more extreme parameter conditions, and require tests frequent enough to avoid evaporation.  That means that some (or many) people will end up with leftover reagent when the Trident reports it's time to replace them.  If they didn't, then the reagents would run out prematurely and people would complain about that being a defect.  Bottom line...you can't win.  People will complain at one end of the spectrum or the other.

I personally would never want to produce a hardware product for this industry because all you would get is complaints, no matter how hard you try to please everyone.

You definitely make some good points. I certainly don't want to continue beating this same old drum that's been exhausted before across the interwebs. All I would say is give consumers the option. They are far and away sophisticated enough to program that. They can make their recommendation and give warnings to the alternative. Apart from that, it's just manufacturers "protecting" consumers from themselves. My thoughts anyway. Worth as much as you paid for them. 😀

So sorry! 😢 Wishing you the best!

41 minutes ago, Manny Tavan said:

Yes I reset it when it told me it ran out but still had a lot left. That was a week or two ago

Yeah that's lame that Trident tells you it needs replacing much earlier than it actually does. If anything they should have an option that allows you to push it a little further without doing a full reset. Line give yourself a 3 day alarm. 

Of course Neptune will spin some yarn about doing this in order to protect you from ever running out, but it seems like a cash grab to me. Same with having to do so many tests each day.

The company just needs to protect you from yourself. 😉

Looking good! Those look like some well grown pieces. 

I'm not an expert on those, but my guess would be it just needs to recover. I would try to avoid moving it anymore. Let it chill without getting messed with and it should bounce right back. 

Awesome rebuild! Seems like it went pretty smooth. 

Nice work. I didn't realize the full extent of your tear down, either. Glad to see life returning!

10 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

As Treasurer, I'm thinking of investing all the PNWMAS cash into Bitcoin and GameStop stock.  What do you guys think?  🤣

Bitcoin is the AOL of crypto, old news. Best to pick a better one. Ethereum? 😆

8 hours ago, shaywood said:

Redundancy is always the key. I also have a float valve in the ATO container and sump. The seloniod normal state is closed, so hopefully if it fails it will be closed. Also, since I'm only running it once a week, hopefully it won't stop working for a while. I'll report back. 

Sounds good. But yeah, mine were both normally closed and they failed open. Doesn't sound like it'll be a big problem if that happens, though. You got a good point about it only opening once per week. Mine was opening and closing multiple times per hour. 

Hey that's pretty slick. I'll be honest, that looks exactly like the ones I got off of Amazon, both failed open. Apparently I didn't learn my lesson the first time and I ordered the same one again. Same result. The first one lasted a couple months and the second one was less than that. My sump ATO is plumbed directly to my RODI unit so the water supply is unlimited. However, I use a secondary float valve in the sump they connected to the water line. Both times they float valve saved me. 

Technically, if it failed on you it wouldn't be a huge problem since it's not responsible for allowing the extra water into your sump. You'd notice if it failed because your 11g bucket would be full when it shouldn't be. I guess that begs the question of whether you have a safety for your ATO unit or not. If not, your ATO container would be overflowing. 

19 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

Lots of Likes on the Facebook post!  One person brought up a good point:  what is the magnetic lock’s behavior if the power fails?  Does it unlock or remain locked?

I posted a response on FB. The lock needs power to engage. No power, no lock. 

Just now, SuncrestReef said:

By the way, I was on a Neptune YouTube livestream video yesterday talking about my Apex.  One person commented that "Chuck Norris has a poster of SuncrestReef on his wall".  I thought that was hilarious!  🤣

Haha, that's awesome. 

3 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

Ha!  Those links are to show the Amazon order history, so when I click them it shows me the most recent items I ordered, not the items you ordered.

Guess I'm an amateur with links. Here you go:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B086BLQ3NS?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08J2S4F16?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Glad to have you on board. Like Chief mentioned, becoming a sponsor is a great way to get integrated into the community and reach a wider audience (apart from being a technical requirement for commercial members to advertise). Glad your wife took the plunge, even if she quickly abandoned you 😆. 

Just now, SuncrestReef said:

Yes, I understand the configuration is pretty simple, but the overall concept is great and likely overlooked by a lot of people.

Can you post links to the magnetic lock and the push button you used?  I'm sure those would be the first questions people will ask.

Sounds good!

https://www.amazon.com/your-orders/pop/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_pop?_encoding=UTF8&gen=canonical&lineItemId=mjskosqtqisnwny&orderId=114-6755533-7202638&packageId=1&returnSummaryId=&returnUnitIndices=&returnUnitMappingId=&shipmentId=DWd73wc7f 

https://www.amazon.com/your-orders/pop/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_pop?_encoding=UTF8&gen=canonical&lineItemId=mjpmlpqrtmnoqny&orderId=113-6648167-5287454&packageId=1&returnSummaryId=&returnUnitIndices=&returnUnitMappingId=&shipmentId=D7fPqBTyj