Tandor69

Does anyone turn their lights down or off during a heat wave? Would a couple of days at 50% power be bad for the corals? I know in the wild the weather can affect how much light they get. I'm not too worried about the heat, we have a/c, and I have a bunch of frozen water bottles if it goes out. Was thinking more about power usage and possible rolling black outs. Just thinking and was wondering what others do.

Love that goni. Always cool to see the different colors they come in.

Fluconazole(Flux RX, Reefflux) will take out the bryopsis like an assassin. Probably the hair algae too. Eliminated it all in 2 weeks in my tank. Now I have Dino's. Sigh.  

2 minutes ago, Emerald525 said:

It amazes me with all the moving parts on the Trident that there aren’t more issues. I mean that in a good way in how difficult it is to get an automatic tester at that price point. Glad you got it working.

I agree. It is cool to watch how everything worked together.

6 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

Did this require removing the outer shell to get to the manifold connections?

Yes it did. I feel like they could have emailed me the directions but I can understand how they might not want everyone just poking around in there. I had to disconnect the tube from the manifold and solinoid and use a syringe to blast water back through the line. Then hooked everything back up and it started to initialize. 

Success! Spoke with Neptune support and they walked me through clearing out the sample line from the manifold to where the sample line hooks to the trident and now it is drawing water! 

1 minute ago, SuncrestReef said:

Pull out the reagent tray and look inside the Trident to see if any tubes are disconnected from the internal mechanics.  I believe the sample line is at the 10 o'clock position in this photo, and the waste line is at 2 o'clock:

Yup I have done that. Watched it go through initialization I can see the solenoids click in and out, watched the reagents travel into the cuvette and back out to the waste container. Unless the supply line is disconnected or kinked between the mechanisms and the back wall where you can't see. Not sure why it won't draw water. Kinda neat to see how it works. 

So finally had time to hook up the Trident. Went through the setup process in the app just as the videos show. It primes the reagents just fine, but won't draw the sample water. I removed the sample line from the barb and blew bubbles, even sucked a tiny bit of water in 🤢. Hooked everything back up. Went through Neptune's trouble shooting guide and still no luck. Created a help ticket. I am so bummed. Love the apex though.

30 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

One more tip:  Do yourself a favor by renaming all of your Outputs and Inputs so they have more meaningful names than the default Sw1, Sw2, Sw3, etc.  This will make your programming easier to understand, and avoid the common mistake of using the wrong sensor in your code.  Outputs can be up to 12 characters long, but Inputs can only be up to 6 characters long.  And they are Case Sensitive.  And be sure there are no duplicate names anywhere across the whole system.  Any duplicates can cause the Apex to malfunction in random ways.  I recently helped someone who had an output named "FMM" on a module named "FMM".  That duplicate caused some of the programming logic to be ignored.  Another example is people naming empty outlets on the EnergyBar "Unused", again creating duplicate names.

Good advice. The outlets actually had names and basic controls, but I had to plug in my stuff in different outlets due to bricks and cord lengths so I had to rename them all. I am definitely a RTFM first kinda person so I have gone through Neptune's setup. I am (maybe) going to wait a day before setting up the Trident just to make sure everything else is behaving properly.

DOS back in stock so I pulled the trigger on that and a breakout box. Also ordered 24v LED strips off Amazon to do my cabinet. I have magnetic switches so I can set it up to turn the cabinet lights on when the door opens. Got the apex and powerbar up and running. Now to read through suncrestreef's articles to really get things going. 

Louie approves. 
 

Another question: Right now I am using LED stick on light strips that I had left over from another project as my cabinet lights. The RoboTank has 12v ports that I am using to power the leds, so no power supply and no taking up a plug on the power bar. Does the APEX have anything like that?

9 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

The WXM only provides wireless control for speed and On/Off control.  But there's no need to waste your EnergyBar outlets for the MP40's if the WXM is controlling them.  Think of the WXM like the remote control for your TV. The TV can remain powered through the wall outlet at all times, but the remote control turns it on and off.  Just plug your MP40 power supply into a normal power strip.

3 minutes ago, obrien.david.j said:

Even if you never connect the MP's to your Apex, there's no requirement to use an EB832 outlet for them.  You can turn them on/off with their "remote control."  Either WXM based, or Movidius based.

Gotcha. I wasn't thinking about it in the correct way which is funny because that is how my reef-fi lights are.

14 minutes ago, obrien.david.j said:

My two MP60's are new.  I "finagled" them back to the previous firmware rev, following provided instructions.  And I'm good to go with WXM.   

But it's a personal choice.  If you like what you've got, use it.    And they're no time pressure, used WXM's will continue to be available.   Both of mine were used.

Good to know it isn't to difficult. Does the WXM supply power and control or just control? Looking at ways to save outlets on the power bar. Even if I don't do it right away, I may try to get one now.

42 minutes ago, obrien.david.j said:

Good Cabinet.   Have you acquired a used WXM module to control your MP's with yet?

I'm kind of a heavy WXM user, and I really like the integration into Apex and what I can do with it.

I've got feed cycles and Feedstorm setup, manual override on/offs, Apex controlled flow patterns (but that's not unique).  I've got color temperature overrides setup on the lights.   They go off if temp is too high as manual form of alarm, ...   

-David J. O'Brien

 

I haven’t as of yet. It would be nice to do, but my MP40s are the newer ones and my vague understanding is it takes some finagling to get them to be controlled by the apex. 

My current controller cabinet 

1 minute ago, obrien.david.j said:

That's why you map it out!

That is a good idea. Especially since the tank has been running for 6 months. That way I can make sure as I switch everting from Reef-pi to Apex I get it set up right.

19 hours ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

once you get it set up and running and are comfortable. I would advise digging a little deeper and setting up various controls and alarms and what not that are not as obvious. 

Oh I plan on going off the deep end lol. It arrives today! Unfortunately everyone is out of the DOS.

The last month or so I have been seriously considering an apex and trident. I love my reef-pi but it doesn't do the testing. Well lo and behold Neptune goes on sale! I had been telling myself I should have bought one when they were on sale last time. So I went ahead and pulled the trigger. So glad to have the Neptune guru @SuncrestReefhere on these forums!

Awesome! Can't wait to get mine!

I've done the diy screen kits. Works good although I had one of the small fish in my freshwater tank jump and get stuck in the netting. Didn't find him in time. One of the things I would recommend is the port hole feeders. Either a 3d printed one or the one from BRS. Very nice not having to take the screens on and off, especially on my 100 gallon. 

Very nice! That yellow is cool.

Mine is from my toad stool leather. He is still alive, and much bigger but his polyps don’t extend that much any more

Yup. Several times

I am a supporting member.