SuncrestReef

They are great fish! My wife named ours Hawkeye, after the MASH character, since it's a surgeon fish. 😂

By the way, these endoscopes are really cheap, and very handy. It even comes with a hook, so if you lose your wedding ring down the plumbing, you can recover it. 🤣 https://www.amazon.com/Lcat-Inspection-Megapixels-Waterproof-Adjustable/dp/B07PRS2CCG

How many of you are running flow sensors on your plumbing? One of the reasons I do is to know when my reactor media needs to be changed. I normally run my carbon reactor at about 140 gph, The carbon usually lasts about 6 to 8 weeks depending on water conditions, and the flow sensor stays consistently around 140 gph. As the carbon starts to get clogged up, the flow sensor drops off rapidly in a matter of days. In the past week, it dropped down to 73 gph, so I know it's time to change the carbon.

Maybe that's the reason for the delay... @pdxmonkeyboy is probably dosing steroids in his tank and waiting for maximum bulking up before ending the contest. 🤣

Maybe we should set up a PNWMAS Endoscope Booking Thread like we have for the PAR meters. 🤣

I haven't given up on it. I've been waiting on our fearless leader @pdxmonkeyboy to post the final growout thread. There's no way mine will win. It has a few new branches, but it's only about 1cm taller than when we started.

I would have done that, but I don't have room for a ball valve due to the position of my refugium above the sump and right in front of the valve. That's the only benefit to Red Sea's valve...it's slim.

OK, this was interesting...I put the endoscope down my Reefer's overflow pipe until it got to the valve. I'm surprised it's not very dirty. There's just a bit of detritus and a few sponges. I didn't try pushing it further into or through the valve because I'm sure it would have gotten stuck. Maybe if I opened the valve all the way it would fit, but for now this sets my mind at ease because I thought for sure it was going to be a lot more clogged than that.

How old is the tank? My Reefer XL 425 has just recently started acting up as well after one year, and I think it's due to buildup or snails in the overflow pipe and/or valve. Yesterday I completely closed the valve, then completely opened it, then fine tuned it back to a normal drainage flow. That seemed to fix it for now, but I think at some point I'm going to have to take the valve apart to clean it. I have an endoscope that can display video footage on my iPhone screen. I'm planning to put it down the overflow pipe to see what's inside. Not sure I really want to know what's in there... 😬

I have been searching for any scientific studies on roasted vs raw seaweed, but haven’t found anything. But there’s a lot of interesting info on nori at Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nori

I use this: It says “100% dried seaweed”. It’s never caused any problem with my skimmer. Kole tang loves it!

My favorite is when drivers like to go 10 mph under the speed limit for no reason. I run into this every time I’m heading to CNC and for some reason people on Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy read the 40 mph speed limit as 30. 🙄😠

I use my spare Neptune PMUP attached to 3/8” tubing into a bucket.

I didn't quite go to the extreme detail I was planning, but i did write up a pretty detailed user guide for my tank sitter. Attached is a copy with the private details stripped out. Aquarium Instructions Template.pdf

After 30 years in the IT industry, I'm a strong proponent for redundant systems and disaster recovery planning. So far in my aquarium build, I've taken several steps to ensure I'm prepared for problems: Spare parts for critical components: COR-20 return pump, WAV and Gyre powerheads, heater, PMUP, power adapters UPS Battery backup and Apex programming for power outages Whole-house generator with auto transfer switch for prolonged power outages Backup copies of Apex configuration, along with printed copies of the configuration At least 40 gallons of RO/DI and saltwater on hand at all times, up to 75 gallons storage capacity for each, and spare buckets of salt Equipment to set up a quarantine tank if needed, including MarinePure blocks in my sump to seed bacteria in the QT Written documentation/instructions for a tank sitter or LFS staff to help if I'm not available The only thing I've been missing up until now is a spare Apex and EB832. Well, now I can check that off my list as well! I ordered the Apex 2016 head unit and an EB832 to keep on my spare parts shelf. I also walked through the process of restoring my saved Apex config to the new Apex to confirm it reads the file properly and all the programming comes across. So far it looks like it will work fine. The only thing I'll need to do if my primary Apex fails is to be sure to plug the add-on modules into the new Apex in the proper sequence so they maintain their previously assigned AquaBus addresses. Call me paranoid, but I like to be prepared!

Today was a big maintenance day for me. I installed a 2nd DOS controlled by my Trident to dose magnesium, replaced all my dosing tubing and added John Guest push connect fittings, disassembled and thoroughly cleaned my skimmer, and siphoned detritus out of my sump. For the past few days my skimmer has struggled to start up, with the motor running for about 30 seconds before bubbles finally foamed up and my Apex warned me it was drawing more watts than normal. After cleaning, it now starts up right away and no power warnings.

RussM posted this comment on the Neptune forums: “It is normal for the first set of tests after a Trident firmware update to take longer - it tests, then immediately validates those results by running another set of tests. Subsequent tests will take the usual amount of time.” Good to know.

It finished at 00:17:12, so 17 minutes vs the previous average of 15 minutes. It must have been a one-off glitch, or perhaps it did some addition initialization or priming after the update. I know it ran the initialization process right after the update because that's when I captured the screenshot above. But no idea why it ran 40 minutes on that first test after the update.

My next test will begin in 5 minutes. I'll report back how long it took. Did you already install the new AOS update?

Hover your mouse over the graph: Or click the graph to go to the more detailed view, and again hover your mouse over the graph:

Update: I just checked my latest Trident graph and noticed an increase in test times. I currently have mine set to test 8/4 times per day, so calcium & mag are tested at 00:00, 06:00, 12:00, and 18:00. Here are the times logged on the graph for calcium test results: 6/10/19 00:14:57 (15 minutes) 6/10/19 06:15:00 (15 minutes) 6/10/19 12:15:02 (15 minutes) 6/10/19 13:08:00 --- installed AOS update --- 6/10/19 18:39:39 (40 minutes) I'll be curious to see if this was a one time increase, or if all tests will take that long now. Next run is at midnight, so I guess I'm not going to bed for at least the next 45 minutes or so...

I love my gyre! Do you run yours in one direction only, or alternate forward and reverse? I recently changed mine to alternating and it seems to have a very nice effect on the overall tank flow.

It would be interesting to measure how much salt is actually in the skimmate. It probably varies based on how "wet" it is, or if it's solid sludge. My problem is that my dog would want to roll in the garden. That's what he does every time we go to the coast and he wallows in the biggest pile of washed up seaweed and dead crabs. It usually takes 3 baths to get rid of that smell...🤢

I installed the new AOS update (5.05_6B19) and updated my Trident to version 12. The AOS installation took longer than previous updates (about 30 - 40 minutes), but the Trident update was pretty quick. I like the new detailed descriptions of what it's doing: For full details of this AOS release, see https://forum.neptunesystems.com/showthread.php?27028-AOS-5-05_6B19-is-now-available! @CrazyInside I'd recommend installing the update.

Neptune just released a new AOS update that enhances the Trident display tile and fixes a few non-Trident bugs. @CrazyInside I’ll update mine tonight and let you know if I run into any problems.