GreenJeans

Personally, I'd swap it for a 2p2t switch and simplify the whole problem https://www.amazon.com/MTS-101-Position-Miniature-Toggle-Switch/dp/B0799LBFNY/ref=sr_1_6?crid=37LBZYGJANK3Y&dchild=1&keywords=2p2t+toggle+switch&qid=1587525982&sprefix=2p2t%2Caps%2C224&sr=8-6 If Sw = closed Then ON, problem solved

I would also give the end of the faucet a quick sanding to remove any burrs affecting the seal. Be careful with the wrench! And use plenty of tape, more than it looks like you did

This really hasn't been so bad for me. My whole office has gone remote so I've been working from home, and am more productive than ever. I'm a bachelor, have my own place, and a bidet! No kids or family dynamics stress added here... I used to go grocery shopping maybe once per week, that's been easy to scale way back, and I've had no reason to leave the house for a while now. I have two dogs and two cats in addition to the new (since early Feb) reef tank, so I get plenty of companionship for an introvert like me in times like these. Having the new reef tank has been a really satisfying and fun project to work on! It's sparkling clean, and I'm super aware of how everyone's doing... Plenty of time to research how to really dial in my apex, my vortech pump profiles, and watch the dino bloom start in the tank...figure out whether to do anything about it... I've got a coral QT tank set up and just did my first coral dip and fragging! That was fun, so interesting to see all the creatures that come out in the dip - I really want a microscope now. And I just ordered a Foxface from LiveAquaria(diver's den) to hang out in the fish QT tank with me while I'm in QT! Plenty of time for observation and careful treatment.

Update! Things are going well, progressing along as expected I think. Just starting to get a patch of dinos in a portion of the sand...should I address this, reduce light? Or just let it play out...? Some green algae starting to form on the rocks too. I re-spaced the lights to get more even distribution, ~18" apart and centered. I also removed a good amount of sand - it sounds wise to keep it relatively shallow so it's easy to maintain. My skimmer is WAY too big! It's been hard to tune given how light the current bioload is. Current stock: - Clown pair - 3x Red firefish - 5x Green chromies - 1 Randall's goby w/ pistol shrimp - 1 Pintail fairy wrasse - medium-sized cleanup crew - 2x mithrax crabs, hermits, snails... My Fish QT tank is empty! What should I add? Some ideas I had - a blenny, royal gramma, small yellow tang, coral beauty... In coral QT: - Frogspawn - candy cane? - some little orange encrusting guy - 2 heads of zoas I'm waiting to dip these all until I receive some frag plugs to mount them on, they're all just loose, and then I'll start a 45+ day QT period for them.

pics?

Another question - can I use Mintime and Defer together? I want to create a two-step feed cycle, based on a physical button. vFeedFish - turn on for 5 minutes when the button is pressed Set OFF If BtRt CLOSED Then ON Min Time 005:00 Then ON vFishNTTM - wait 5 minutes then turn on for 5 minutes Set OFF If BtRt CLOSED Then ON Defer 005:00 Then ON Min Time 005:00 Then ON Vortech pump it's controlling ... If Output vFeedFish = ON Then MP_Const10 If Output vFishNTTM = ON Then MP_NTM40 ... This doesn't seem to be working, the NTTM doesn't run. Do I just need to change the Mintime statement to 010 instead of 005? Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

How does the power setting of the slave pump work when in anti-sync mode? - Given the master pump is set to a random mode @ 20%, and so varies from say 10-25% (I have no idea) - And the slave pump is set to anti-sync at 100% - Then the slave pump will vary in power from 75-90%? So, - Given the master pump is set to random at 20% - And the slave pump is set to anti-sync at 10% - Then the slave pump will vary in power from 7.5 - 9%? Or - Given the master pump is set to random at 20% - and the slave pump is set to anti-sync at 10% - Then the slave pump will vary in power.... 0 - 10%? How does this all work? Can someone recommend a tried and true anti-sync pump setting when running "Tidal swell" or "reef crest" modes? Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Young Electric were quick, responsive, friendly, did a good job, and had reasonable prices when I used them to add new circuits and outlets to my breaker Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Sold, thanks!

This is also the first I've heard of Seachem Prime - can I use this to help mitigate the ammonia toxicity in my QT while using copper and prazi? Poor dudes in a little 10gal tank are probably not super happy.

I was initially thinking I would just observe and treat if needed - but I'm too new to trust myself! I'm sure I'm terrible at visually identifying fish disease, and it will take me a long time before I feel confident in my observation skills. And even then, what if you missed an internal parasite that wasn't observable? The point my LFS made to me - they know the supply chain, how polluted it is, and how it's hard to really trace where fish came from and what they've been exposed to. As a result, they treat everything that comes through their store with hypo-salinity, copper, and prazipro, and recommend anyone who buys do the same. TTM isn't really practical for me either, so I'm treating proactively instead (hypo-salinity, copper, prazi). That Safety Stop stuff seems like it might be a good idea, I should do more research on that. It would be nice, I especially like the idea of soothing ammonia burn. While we're on the topic - if QT ammonia got too high (briefly), would it be a good idea to treat with some ammonia burn soothing product? My QT got up above 0.25 ammonia for a half of a day, and I'm worried about my little fishies...

Here's what they look like on my apex (driven from the BRS temp controller), too fast.

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/titanium-heater-element-bulk-reef-supply.html Those ones ^ The recommended wattage chart on the BRS page is way off - I picked up two 600w heaters (one as backup) to use in my ~160gal system, they pull 660watts, and increase my tank temp by 1deg in about 20 minutes! This is way too fast...I'll need smaller (or less efficient) heaters. These are obviously fantastic, efficient, and sturdy heater elements, but too big for my system 😞 I can't return them to BRS as they've been in salt water, so I'd like to sell them. They've been running for about 3 days, barely used at all. $60/ea?

Progress! Thanks for the tip, trimming the bulkhead was no problem and the overflow box looks great and runs silent. Here's some fresh pictures of where I'm at! A little bit of cable management to do, and installation of the WXM module once it comes back from Apex support...almost there. Running another batch of fish through QT now! Some chromis, pintail fairy wrasse, and 3 fire fish gobys.

3 buttons and two switches...what should I use it all for? I was going to have 1 button for 5minute feed mode and another button for a 10 minute feed mode One switch to toggle "maintenance mode", and another toggle for "oh god what's happening, go into safe-mode" That leaves an extra button and an extra toggle switch free! What would you use them for?

I'm just starting out and currently running my second batch of fish through quarantine, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I'd start with a bigger tank than 10gal. I have a 20gal long that I added a glass divider into for two 10gal sections, and it's hard to keep ammonia low in both sections. I could get away with less frequent water changes if I had a larger system (or fewer/smaller fish in there). At some point you're going to want to quarantine a larger fish, or a school of small fishes, and 10gal will be hard to manage. A simple hang-on filter and heater will be fine, definitely run the filter in your sump for a few weeks before hand like you mentioned to establish the bacteria. Don't hesitate to add some nitrifying bacteria in a bottle to the QT tank when you set it up also, just to make sure there's plenty of bacteria. Rubble rock is a great idea to add more surface area for the bacteria, but it will absorb any medications you might run and can never be used in any other system. Also add some larger PVC elbows and Tees to give the fish somewhere to hide when they're stressed. Use a lid to reduce evaporation, but you don't need to put a light on the tank - just enough ambient light to allow you to observe the fish is enough. ADD AMMONIA ALERT BADGES. https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-Ammonia-Alert-Year-Monitor/dp/B01HHA4ITY/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=ammo+alert&qid=1582661357&sr=8-2 Test for ammonia daily (twice a day if running 10gal and larger/more fish), salinity, and test for copper if you plan to dose it. Following my lfs advice, I'm running my QT with hypo-salinity (1.018), cupramine, and round (or two) of prazipro. I decided that the added stress of this treated water was worth the peace of mind of greatly reduced risk of introducing parasites to my display. I think of it like the trolly problem - "Would I rather maybe kill 1 fish with a stressful treatment/QT, or would I rather maybe kill all my fish by letting a parasite through?"

1 - I agree, use the larger size right up to the end of the line, and use an adapter to step it down - you'll get more flow this way (less length is restricted) I had an initial design very similar to yours, and due to a lot of Hard Choices™️ made during the build, it turned out much simpler - and I'm very happy for it. 7 - Maybe use one return pump instead of two? I had planned on two return pumps like you, but ended up with one larger return pump. The additional plumbing complexity was just not worth it. Adding check valves before each pump, additional ball valves to manage flow when changing out pumps (I didn't want to rely on the check valves alone), and trying to fit all of that plumbing into the space was barely going to work. Also, trying to balance their flow output so that one pump wasn't overpowering the other...in your design, that pump behind the elbow has about an additional 1' of head pressure to deal with, and so it should be set faster to match the output of the other pump. Hard to do. If you had two returns drilled you could run two pumps on separate plumbing, but I wouldn't re-drill the tank....that scares me personally. 8 - I avoided using a check valve on my return by using a Siphon Stopper return instead https://www.customaquariums.com/siphon-stopperr-return-fitting.html So far I really like it, but it does intrude into the tank quite a lot. It works as advertised, and prevents a siphon of water from the tank. 9 - Consider not plumbing a manifold to the return line. I'm very glad I didn't! Consider how often you'll be running multiple reactors, UV, etc - for the vast majority of the time, this plumbing will be unused, taking up space, and adding to the initial build cost. This was a point BRS made in their BRS160 fails video recently - If there's room in your sump, a cheap kit with a pump works great when you want to run a specific thing - https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-gfo-carbon-reactor-deluxe1.html Every time you attach something, it will affect the return flow, which will affect the overflow, which will require you to re-tune the overflow's gate valve anytime something about the manifold is changed - sounds like a headache. 10 - Use silicone tubing instead of braided vinyl for the return pump connections - braided vinyl is pretty stiff and won't isolate the vibrations like you want, and is harder to bend when you want to work with the pumps.

What's the consensus on running two heaters from the apex? I know to have the switching for temp control done at the heater controller (not the apex power bar), but should I have the two heaters alternate cycles or leave one heater forever off as a backup with the other always on? That is, set up Heater A to run 00:00 - 11:59, and Heater B to run 12:00 - 23:59, or else have heater A on and set heater B on at a lower temp? Wear one controller and not the other, or wear them both equally?

I ordered a bunch more calibration packets, I'll try a recallibration with a ziploc and a rubber band, that's a great idea. I'll re-route the wires for the probe to be separate from the other equipment (for 90% of the wire run), and I'll mount it inverted in the sump. If the reading is still off, I'll then calibrate it to my tank water after getting a reading with a milwaukee digital meter...crossing my fingers! Seems like seeing this constant salinity reading is only a nice-to-have...could alert you if your ATO gets stuck on I guess? There's other monitoring for that situation though...

This thing is driving me crazy! Maybe I calibrated it with bubbles in there, and now they're gone? I have no idea... I've moved it to a high flow/no bubbles section of my sump, it's sitting at a 45* angle, and the holes on the side are facing upward. I gave it a little push forward and backward this morning to hopefully flush any bubbles from inside, and the salinity reading jumped up to like 46. It drifted down to 43 over the day and then DROPPED to 37.6 a little after noon today while I was away - no changes to the water or flow. I then gave it another little push forward and backward after getting home because maybe there's bubbles still? It jumped to 58. wow dude, [language filter]. I have an optical refractometer, but it's a cheapo and feel like I have to recalibrate it before each use...testing with this immediately after calibration is showing ~36.5. A little high but not a big deal...certainly not 58. help! How do I get any confidence in this thing? Do I need to manually calibrate the probe once it's stabilized? Is mine a lemon?

Honestly, that's part of the fun! Programming is interesting to me because it always seems there's something new to learn, and this is so drastically different from what I'm used to that it's exciting to see how it's put together. It's a double-edge sword, it's hard to trust such a "small time" architecture with the health of my tank...but they've been around long enough now to instill confidence. If you haven't, I'd recommend checking out the games from Zachtronics - tis-100, space chem, human resource department...all interesting "programming approaches" http://www.zachtronics.com/ I'll absolutely take you up on the dashboard review! Thanks for the offer.

@SuncrestReef I also wanted to say thank you for this, it's been super helpful as I get started setting up my apex! And thanks for replying to my post on the neptune forum about my broken WXM, you clearly have a passion for this. If you don't mind, I might ask for your general opinions on my configuration at some point later when I've got it set up how I like...just now learning how to configure my 0-10v pumps, starting to think about using virtual outlets...I also have a programming background, the possibilities are exciting

Thanks for the tip! That makes perfect sense, I just need to figure out how to safely trim the bulkhead while it's attached. Yes, lots of running between rooms, lol.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm only running the one gate valve at the sump, and mostly have the hang of tuning it from there - I read somewhere that the valve should be at the sump end of the line, and seemed to make sense to me for optimal flow. The overflow is the one from customaquariums, the Stealthbox H2Overflow. I have it configured bean animal style - currently the open pipe has no cap or U or anything, so it's making a bit of noise. The plumbing I got doesn't fit due to the bulkhead poking into the overflow, so I'll need to figure something else out to silence it.

It's all set up, and nothing leaks! I originally planned to hard plumb everything, all sorts of fancy valves and manifolds - but needing to get behind the tank to hook things up necessitated I keep some flexible tubing, and there just isn't much room in the sump area for lots of plumbing. The result is that the sump is much further away from the wall than I was hoping, and the whole system is much simpler than I was planning, but flow and serviceability are much better over the alternative...I would have had to use so many 90's to get everything to fit with pvc. Ended up only being able to install one return pump, so I'll be planning to upsize it soon.