obrien.david.j

I use option 3 from John's article.

3. Apex controls the temperature range, and the heater's thermostat or external controller acts as a safeguard:

But I do it with two different inkbirds, and three different heaters.   One heater plugged into Primary, Two heaters plugged into secondary.   I call it two stage heating.  if first tiier heater isn't enough (on cold days), second tier kicks in.    BTW, my sump and frag tanks are in a room in the garage - not heated by the rest of the house.   I'm adding my chiller programming too, for completeness of temp control.

Heat_Tank:

• If T-Tank < 77.8 Then ON
• If T-Tank > 78.0 Then OFF

Heat_Tank2nd:

• If T-Tank < 77.5 Then ON
• If T-Tank > 77.9 Then OFF

Chiller:

• If T-Tank > 78.7 Then ON
• If T-Tank < 78.0 Then OFF

Did I mention that I also run multiple APEX temp sensors to make debugging problems easier.   For example, I've got a 2nd sensor just in the "Air" inside the garage sump room.   I also have extra sensors in remote frag tanks, air inside the light hood, and most interestingly in the RO water makeup tank.  To make sure my nightly ATO is with water approximately the same temp as the tank.

9 hours ago, reefrun said:

Ok I finally made it to the end of QT and unfortunately I lost one of my 2 dream fish.. the orange shoulder. Good news is the large blonde naso made it through and is now in the DT and my yellow tang doesn’t seem to intimidate him.. I’m gonna call it a win and hope it continues this good luck ❤️

I love my blond naso, glad yours made it through.   Sorry your orange shoulder didn't make it.    They're beautiful fish. 

5 hours ago, reefrun said:

You’ll have to come back over and see it sometime, looks so much better than before! 

Looking forward to seeing it again some time!

amazing color!

These fish have always intrigued me, but I've never kept one.   If you get one, keep us up to date.   

3 hours ago, Totroc3 said:

I have had the same issue. I also have the 2016 units and found that replacing the old aquabus cables resolves it. 

Is the idea that cables may corrode in time, and not make reliable connections?

14 hours ago, SuncrestReef said:

On the Fourth Day of Giving my reef club gave to @WeBeReefin ... Coral Frag Rack with Plug and Slide Locking System!

Congratulations!  Your prize is available at Cuttlefish & Corals.

Hey, that's a really cool rack system!  congrats @WeBeReefin!

I plumbed my fish room and systems with true union ball valves from two sources.

• https://www.pvcfittingsonline.com
• https://www.supplyhouse.com

Example of 1" are below.  But I used all the way from 1/2" -> 2" valves in my builds.

https://www.pvcfittingsonline.com/fpv-1-pvc-true-union-ball-valve-socket-threaded-ends.html

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Hayward-QTA1010CSEG-1-QTA-PVC-Compact-Ball-Valve-w-Socket-and-Threaded-Ends-Gray

19 hours ago, Lexinverts said:

Gathering 10 SPS frags from the display tank for the SPS raffle at the holiday party on the 10th.

Any special requests?

What's this yellow/light greenish one, in the back...  

On 12/2/2023 at 2:25 PM, Lexinverts said:

At the holiday party on Dec 10, we will hold a white elephant gift exchange.  If you'd like to participate, just bring a wrapped present (reefing-related or not, $20 limit, and family-friendly only) to the party.  Each participant will have a chance to pick a random gift to open, or to steal a gift that someone else opened.  Due to time limits, a gift may only be stolen once.

See you on Sunday the 10th!

I'm in!  I'll be bringing a white elephant gift to exchange.

2 hours ago, Eatfrenchfries said:

You could. It would take a while to reach that volume. It'd be neat to do at night to see your flow. 

The dinoflagellates are from cooler waters so they won't last. The constant mechanical filtration will also ruin their bioluminescence. 

Won't last mean, they'll survive an hour, overnight, a week,   Not looking for scientifically accurate answer, but a gut guess works.

Just me.  (1)

This looks like a fun Christmas project for families.   Are you sure I can't grow it out into a gallon or two, and then flood the display tank with it? 

Congrats!   Cant wait to see this beast filled up with sticks.

Great looking sticks, and I hope to see your vision actualized in the near future.

Did the new tank make it from the airport to your house in one piece yet?

16 minutes ago, Lexinverts said:

Yes, 2 grams per gallon of tank water for 4-6 hrs with heavy aeration for the dip. I do it 3 times with a day in between each treatment.

That's a pretty strong concentration.   I dosed 20g for my Whole system (350-400 gallon volume).

So I understand better now.

1 hour ago, Lexinverts said:

Hi Bill:

Send me a message via Facebook if you need a quicker response. If possible, I would recommend dipping these corals in a bath of OA or dipping them in addition to the whole tank treatment. The direct dip is more effective at stopping the STN. I recently saved most of my favorite Oregon Tort colony with dips.

Good luck!

Andy

Andy, 

Is your dip any stronger than the whole tank treatment strength?  And how long did you dip for - minutes, an hour, 6hrs, a day?    (this defines what the dip setup needs to look like)

These things are soo handy.

16 hours ago, Lexinverts said:

Many thanks to @The ReefBox for a killer collection of wrasses for the reef. They were the missing piece. I'm loving this combination of fish and corals.

Me too.  I love my sticks, but also love the movement of fish seeing what they are constantly doing.

Looking good!

17 hours ago, NanoNerd said:

I bought some critters from a web site, which I hate to do (because of all the risks and costs of shipping), but they had Pederson's cleaner shrimp in stock, and we wanted more than the one we have. Everything came good, large, healthy, but the only problem is... they sent us two White Spotted Anemone Shrimp instead of Pederson's. 😭

That is the risk of buying sight unseen.   Reach out to Jeff at cuttlefish, see if he can order you some.

12 hours ago, Brittany said:

I use to use captiv8 manganese but it isn’t sold on any of the normal sites anymore,  anyone have a great source of manganese?

Here's my source:  https://andremueller.e-junkie.com/product/1577105/Reef-Moonshiner26230393Bs-Elements---Manganese-500ml

I'm currently doing a monthly ICP-MS.   With a goal of ~0.25 for Manganese and ~0.75 for Iron, I'm using a daily does of 12ml/Manganese and 24ml/Iron.

45 minutes ago, Krux said:

I may have accidentally picked up some pieces from @World Wide Corals acro sale yesterday.  It feels so good to be so bad!

My plan is to order a CNC mystery box this weekend.  This will be my 3rd year in a row, and haven't been disappointed yet.

Harvest #42 complete (Nov 19th) 

- Easy Summary, no change to procedures, same good results, including 100% Poseidon Reef Fertilizer.   

- Life has been busy, so harvests have moved to ~3wks apart.  Still giving 2nd dose of fertilizer after week1.   These 3 week windows are stretching it.  But Phyto comes out dark dark.

Those are sweet Goni's.   I got inspired by Goni's on the floor of the tank from @Lexinverts.  Needless to say, mine need more time to grow.  They're just not this good.

Well Done!

On 11/17/2023 at 10:21 PM, jtarmitage said:

And a few sticks to spruce up the tank…

Those are some nice sticks!

On-Line Black Friday sales are here!  This morning I got emails from BulkReefSupply, Saltwateraquarium.com, Aquacave.com, premiumaquatics.com and others.   

What's everyone ordered this holiday season?

Got my first order in, 6month supply of Trident Reagents at 15% off.  Let's hear what you order.