TheClark

10 minutes ago, Lexinverts said:

Eli usually has a bunch of them available:

https://orchardreef.com/product-category/lps/

 

Wow, some great ones!

48 minutes ago, islandVib3s said:

Were you able to measure the par and spectrum? Viparspectra doesn't have diffusers but ivwas going to just buy a diffuser panel from homedepot.i also have a canopy so I probably wouldn't see it. Hmm maybe ill just make one and test later after I sign up for the club par meter

Yes!  I did measure the par but did not record it.  Purpose was to ease the coral into the new light from the previous Ocean Revive / Custom Blue Channel. 

This is an odd setup though, it is an 8' long 12" deep frag tank, lighting half the tank.  I can get par values for ya but take it with a grain of salt.  Lights off til tomorrow after lunch

I don't have a spectrometer but here is a screenshot of what I am running according to fusion:

This is the "Neptune Sky Spectrum", I don't have a full spectrum chart though...

It seems like there really is no with/without diffuser option on the sky, so I also cannot compare par.  Although I do hear that PAR is a trade off when running diffusers.

I am trying out the new Neptune Sky with diffusers.  So far so good, but beware of the blinding side light.  I am not sure if diffusers on a VivarSpectra would do the same or not, probably depending on the diffuser material?

The Triton tank lights and Phillips also use diffusers I believe.  The big sell I guess is the light mixing and no disco, better coral lighting from all angles.

Jury is out for me, just chatting what (little) I know about them!

Looks like fun, thanks for the pics!
 

On 8/20/2021 at 7:59 AM, Bicyclebill said:

I’m running at 6.8 ph and 65 ml/min I believe. Was keeping up on my new 150g until all my sps crashed over the last couple of months. If I get to the point that I need more flow in the future, I’ve got a cole parmer I’m the closet I bought from Kilmca a little while back that I’ll eventually set up. 

Got her running for a few days now, no more flow alarms like I was getting with the feed pump! 

Was able to get it down to 114 ml/min and register on the APEX flow meter.  Good enough!  

34 minutes ago, albertareef said:

What pH set point are you running at Jeremy?  I know you have a large volume but curious if it's more neutral than "normal" with that flow rate.

Hey Sean, 6.72

If Alk goes too high, APEX turns off the solenoid for 6 hours until the next test.

Oh hey @Bicyclebill, one last question for ya. 

Do you run pretty much full speed also?

I am running the kamoer at about full flow (140 mls/min) to get enough flow to register on my flow meter.  This shows on the APEX FMM as about 3.5L per hour (one of the measurements is wrong, probably APEX). 

Any less than this is too little for the FMM to register unfortunately.

The FMM is used to alert if for some reason nothing is flowing through the reactor. For example, if the pump died, clogged, peristaltic tubing broke etc.

3 hours ago, Bicyclebill said:

Yep, been running whole time. I’ve replaced tubing a couple times, but not out of any reason other than thinking it’s a good idea. I bought second roller assembly and swap those because it gets noisy. Soak in Wd40 then in ATF for a couple days, and quiet as new!

Awesome!  Gonna get some spare parts, much appreciated.  What is ATF?  Automatic transmission fluid? 

She is running, dead consistent flow compared to the feed pump.  Super happy to have one less thing to deal with.

Thanks Bill!

Hey @Bicyclebill, curious if you are still running this pump?  Pulled the trigger finally, tired of feed pump flow going all over the place.  Did you ever have to replace any tubing?  How long did it last?  Anything else good to have on hand for spares?

15 hours ago, xmas_one said:

Clip on fans!

It's incredible how much evaporation can help.  Both of these tips are great.

Wow, interesting!

I would welcome some APEX updates, we all know the list of favorites such as code comment, better conditional logic, support for low cost WiFi enabled outlets etc, etc, etc...

Trident 2.0 is a no brainer as well.  They nailed the trident.

On 7/19/2021 at 5:08 PM, sd45x said:

Thought I'd share, I spun up a second tank on my existing garage system recently, found some plumbing leaks. Read through a lot of forums and tried a few ideas (heat gun, flex seal, putty) but I used a technique I use in model making.

This is my solution, even under pressure while the tanks are running:

Drill a small hole (60 bit) through the first layer of PVC using a finger drill just above the leak

Get a small syringe and fill it with PVC solvent (be slow, the stuff is thick)

Put the needle in the hole and slowly inject the solvent, it doesn't mix with
water, will get pushed out and won't come back in the tank when there's pressure.

Do this 2-3 times in an hour and when the leak stops, the last injection is to plug the hole you drilled.

This worked great for me, LMK if you have any thoughts.

Love this, thanks for the share!

On 5/13/2021 at 8:45 AM, TheClark said:

Crazy update.

Went to the garage to unhook everything.

Light was flashing green this morning, instead of solid green (last night)

Unplugged USB and AC for 1 minute.

Plugged in, it all works now.

I lost all programming but had it backed up.  Re-applying now!

 

 

This reared its head up again.  Of course, late in the evening.

My original theory looks to be a fluke, bad connections were at least one of the causes of intermittent failure.

The connection from APEX to EB8 was:

Apex Controller->USB Cable->CAT6 Keystone Jack->CAT6 Cable 100' ->CAT6 Keystone Jack 2->USB->EB8

I cut off the USB and CAT6 and wired them directly together one just one end of the cord.  All problems instantly solved.

New configuration is:

Apex Controller->USB Cable->CAT6 Keystone Jack->CAT6 Cable 100' ->Directly Wired To->USB->EB8

So my keystone jack was bad.  I did try repunching it down last night, no dice.

If I had another jack, would have used it.  Haven't added new jacks in a while apparently.

Anyways, putting this out there on the great inter-webs in case it can help someone out there.

2 hours ago, Pennywise said:

I'm in Chehalis. They are about two months from being big enough to sell Gonna be anywhere from $15 to $50 ea. Yeah, possible trades for frags for sure. I will be posting when they are ready.

Buy with confidence, awesome guy.  We have a clutch from him doing great for many months now.  Having a clutch is so beautiful in a reef tank....

2 hours ago, ibondy said:

Apex is using REST API and you can interface with it. I created a custom scheduler for Trident as I found built in schedules limited for my needs. I also wrote a scheduler to dump Apex data into RavenDB to get my own reporting. There is a lot you can do if you are willing to put time into it and create code.

That's awesome!  I wish they would officially become open, maybe put their APIs out on github.  The old line would be "we cannot support that" but it is 2021 after all and open source is the way.

Thanks for the ravendb tip, was not aware.  Been using firestore for cloud (limited but fast and free), and mongo for on prem, raven looks interesting!  How are you into hacking REST APIs and pumping data into NoSQL dbs?  A dev or just having fun?

Curious if anyone is doing anything beyond what the docs show (AI prime / Hyrda)

2 hours ago, Bicyclebill said:

Hate to say it, but this is what I appreciate about having separate controllers for my components that I feel need controllers.

That's a plus for sure, my eggs are in one huge basket.  Most of the time, the basket is quite wonderful though.

Considered having a spare apex brain, spare eb8.  Expensive spares though!

That is so dang nice!

Here are a few, if any of these look good the local guys can probably set you up!   I hate making things that I don't have myself to test with.  No MP -anything here 😂 just a bunch of cheap Jebaos!

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4589722

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4709077

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4744846

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4775289

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3437651

There are also a bunch on Etsy, even with color choices!

https://www.etsy.com/search?q=mp10

On 5/13/2021 at 9:43 AM, SuncrestReef said:

I’m hoping you only lost the EB8 programming, not the whole Apex programming, correct?

If it was only the EB8 programming, then I assume the Apex detected it as a new module and assigned it a different AquaBus address.

Yes, only the eb8 programming thankfully.  Thanks again!

On 5/13/2021 at 11:45 AM, BeardUp said:

Did you have any recent power fluctuations? Shortly after I got my apex classic and set it up, I had power to my house drop for like half a second. It was not long enough for my router to die, but turned off my tv and the apex seemed to stay on, but the EB8 was gone and I had the same symptoms as you as well as the same outcome. Its been fine since though that's only been a few months. 

Interesting!!  That's probably it, we did have a recent power fluctuation doing wiring in the garage.  Very good to know!  Maybe I should UPS it, but with 4 EB8s it gets spendy!

On 5/13/2021 at 10:07 PM, Trailermann said:

I have an extra EB8 never used if it helps.

That's awesome, thanks for the offer.  Good for now, but much appreciated.

Crazy update.

Went to the garage to unhook everything.

Light was flashing green this morning, instead of solid green (last night)

Unplugged USB and AC for 1 minute.

Plugged in, it all works now.

I lost all programming but had it backed up.  Re-applying now!

52 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

My first guess is a faulty EB8, and 2nd guess is a bad AquaBus port somewhere across your setup.  Even an unused AquaBus port with a little corrosion can cause unexplained issues in other modules.  Each port and cable end should be carefully inspected for corrosion.

Before taking the drastic step of completely wiping the Apex, I’d recommend testing the EB8 on a different Apex to see if the EB8 is the fault.  I have a spare Apex I could loan to test if needed.

Sure appreciate how quick you are to always help APEX users in need!

Good idea on another APEX.  I will try to see if I can find someone in town local here like @stylaster 

For now I am going to shuffle some outlets around and free up another less critical EB8.

Then bring this one upstairs and try it in different ports / different cables as you suggested.

Depending on testing results, will probably order another EB8, worst case I have a spare...

Sure is odd though how the light goes solid green.

This guy had the same symptoms, had to reinitialize all to fix.  Hoping there is something lesser, I have 4 eb8s and a ton of programming and virtual outlets.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1943760

Just nodding off tonight, and a calcium reactor PH high alarm went off.

Went to investigate, it looks like my EB8 in the garage is disconnected.

I cannot get it back online.  Things I have tried:

- Powered off eb8 by unplugging and disconnecting USB cable for 30 seconds

- Rebooted apex via fusion

- Traced out USB connections.  They appear valid, and in fact make the light turn solid green on the eb8 when plugged in

- Deleted the module via fusion.  It won't come back now.  

This EB8 is remote in my garage.  Probably 50' or so from the apex controller.  Wired via homemade cable, cat6 with USB ends.  Been that way for at least 5 years.

Its possible the USB is bad, but seems unlikely given the years of service.  However, I can drag the eb8 upstairs tomorrow morning and hook it up closer with a shorter cord and see...

Honestly though, thinking the EB8 is finally just bad.  

Hoping not, any other ideas to try?

This is surprisingly difficult to google for some odd reason.

@SuncrestReef

18 minutes ago, Emerald525 said:

What the heck happened to that guy ?

I miss him, was an awesome LED resource and good guy.  Crossing my fingers he will be back again, so I tagged him 😂