SuncrestReef

In celebration of Valentine's Day, we will be holding our 2nd annual "For the Love of Reefing" raffle. Three lucky winners will each receive a $100 gift certificate to the LFS of their choice. Rules: The raffle is open to paid Supporting Members of PNWMAS only. If you are not yet a paid Supporting Member, sign up here before midnight February 13, 2022 to be eligible for the drawing: Your Supporting Membership must be valid through the end of February 2022. If you are unsure of your Membership expiration date, send me a PM and I can look it up for you so you can renew before the Feb 13, 2022 midnight deadline. There are no raffle tickets to purchase. Instead, all Supporting Members will automatically be entered into the drawing. The three winners will be randomly selected on Monday, February 14th at 12:00 noon. Winners will be announced in a new thread at that time. I will send each winner a PM and/or email to coordinate on which LFS they choose for the $100 gift certificate. Good luck to all, and Happy Reefing Valentines Day!

Slightly off topic, but watching how this guy repairs Apex hardware is impressive: https://www.youtube.com/c/FixReef/videos

This has been a common debate for years. Neptune states the relays are rated for “over 1 million cycles”. I had a conversation with the guy from fixreef.com who repairs EB832’s and other reefing electronics for a living. Here’s what he had to say: “Zettler relays installed in all EB832s are rated for 10m cycles mechanically and 100k cycles electrically at max load: Unless your heater is near 2400w, you are nowhere near the max 20A load. EB8s, on the other hand, did have an issue, specifically with outlets managed by solid state relays (6 out of 8). They failed frequently. There was no mechanical wear, but electrically they were weaker than the larger mechanical relays. I think Neptune eventually realized their mistake and did not include them in the EB832 design. But the history cannot be erased, which may explain where the legend started.”

According to DownDetector.com (a service that monitors reported problems for major Internet services) there are a lot of people in the Portland and Seattle area reporting problems with Ziply today: Have you tried the basic step of rebooting your Internet modem, just in case?

I'll take them. I've been meaning to beef up my CUC because I still have a bit of an algae issue.

Just be aware, if you want the Trident, it is not compatible with the Apex Classic or older models. The Trident requires the current model Apex 2016 or Apex-EL. See my Apex Hardware Overview article for details on all the available Apex modules: Apex: Apex-EL: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/apex-hardware-overview.775/

The Apex can be monitored & controlled from any smartphone (iOS or Android), PC or Mac. At a minimum, it can be controlled & monitored with no smartphone or computer by using the optional Apex Display module (a small LCD screen with push buttons to navigate its menu structure).

Love it! I made a similar time lapse video back when I first started my tank. It's fun watching the snails. Also, notice the hermit crab on the right side that hitchhikes on 3 different conchs:

Totally on Apex autopilot! I checked it this morning once I had an Internet signal and everything looked good. I have the AFS fish feeder full of pellet food for when I'm out of town. I'm sure the fish will appreciate getting some frozen LRS food tonight!

I spent a wonderful week in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador with my wife. Did I miss anything good here? I was 100% off the grid, but checking my Apex this morning I see that everything in my tank appears normal. Here are some photos of the amazing wildlife I saw on my safari:

Yes, leave the DOS dashboard sliders set to AUTO, and the code in the Advanced tab will take care of stopping the DOS when that condition is true. The slider will still be set to AUTO, but at the upper right of the slider it will say "OFF" instead of "TBL".

The Trident will never completely stop the DOS when the test results are out of range. It only increases or decreases the dosing up to the percentage you specify, and when outside of the range, it will revert back to the base DOS amount without any adjustments. You can automate turning off the DOS instead of doing it manually by adding a line of code into the Advanced tab from the DOS Schedule screen: If Cax3 > 500 Then OFF It will remain off until the next Trident test result is lower than this value. Read Neptune’s guide for Trident Controlled Dosing here: https://www.neptunesystems.com/getstarted/trident/tridentdos/

What are the specs on that 3-way adapter, and how many watts are your heaters? I agree with the above comment that it's probably not due to salt, but just too much load for that adapter.

Congrats to all the 12 Days winners! Thank you all so much for continuing to support PNWMAS. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and I hope your reef tanks are thriving.

On the Twelfth Day of Giving my reef club gave to @Algaewarrior ... a ReeFi UNO LED light! Congratulations! Your prize is available at Cuttlefish & Corals.

On the Eleventh Day of Giving my reef club gave to @Esheafer ... a VorTech MP10QD Powerhead! Congratulations! Your prize is available at Cuttlefish & Corals. The drawing for the BIG 12th DAY PRIZE is tomorrow at 5:00pm!!!!

On the Tenth Day of Giving my reef club gave to @VanillaMoon ... Nero 5 Powerhead! Congratulations! Your prize is available at Cuttlefish & Corals. Since you're outside the Portland area, send me a PM if you'd like to have it shipped. The next drawing is tomorrow at 5:00pm.

This morning the PNWMAS website was down for approximately 1 hour. This outage was due to a problem at our hosting provider and it impacted many other sites. They identified the problem and corrected it. Big thanks to @TheClark for assistance in tracking down the issue and keeping me updated on status changes.

I like the IceCap Stackable Lens kit: See my review of 3 different clip-on filters with sample photos here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/smartphone-camera-filter-comparison.634162/

On the Ninth Day of Giving my reef club gave to @ocboat ... Duetto Dual-Sensor ATO System! Congratulations! Your prize is available at Cuttlefish & Corals. The next drawing is tomorrow at 5:00pm.

I will say this...You're one h#ll of a salesman. You could put lipstick on a 1978 AMC Pacer with dented rims and bad alignment, yet still talk it up enough to sell within 3 hours. Kudos.

If you have any Apex equipment that's outside the 1-year warranty period but needs repair, I highly recommend you contact this guy who has done excellent electronics repairs on Apex, Radions, Hydras, Maxspect, and other reefing equipment. His repair rates are reasonable (and less than what Neptune would charge) and he replaces faulty parts with higher-quality components than the original manufacturers use. Here's the link: https://www.fixreef.com/ You can watch many of his repairs on his YouTube channel. I like that he describes in detail what he's looking for and how to repair it: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMAmpCr_0gSwhmTNGzXTPtg/videos

The PAR meter is only available to paid Supporting Members of PNWMAS. If you'd like access to it, you can become a member for $24/year, which also includes additional benefits. See: https://www.pnwmas.org/forums/topic/48002-how-to-become-a-paid-supporting-member/

On the Eighth Day of Giving my reef club gave to @Reef Chard ... Finnex 500w Heater with Controller! Congratulations! Your prize is available at Cuttlefish & Corals. The next drawing is tomorrow at 5:00pm.

Trident Controlled Dosing will make small adjustments to increase or decrease the base amount the DOS delivers, but only when the test results are within the limits you defined. Once the results exceed the limits, the DOS reverts to delivering the base amount and the Trident no longer adjusts it until the next test result falls back within the limits. This is by design, so in case a test result is way off, it doesn't instruct the DOS to do anything drastic. Read this document for details on how it's designed to work: https://www.neptunesystems.com/getstarted/trident/tridentdos/