Jimbo’s CDA 250

[DanK.Reefer]

I wouldn’t worry about pH for now but if you want to peg it, go with recirculating CO2 scrubber, you should hit 8.4 peak during the day and settle to 8.1 at night.

Good call on just relax...I find my PH gradually creeps up on its own once the tank settles in and dosing starts. You could just add kalk to your ato for now...its cheap and it would also help with coraline growth by also raising CA and ALK. Then when you are ready to run your reactors just clean out the ATO.

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[Smite]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you have the hole in the wall already, then yeah I would for sure feed your skimmer with fresh air. That'll give you a boost in ph with no maintenance costs. A tip I got from the RMS method is to shut your skimmer down for a minute everyday, this helps dissolve salt creep in the lines and keeps your skimmer drawing air at 100%.

Keep in mind you're still in a cycle and bacteria consume oxygen and lower ph as they grow so that could be contributing to your suppressed ph

 

[Jimbo327]

Thanks for the tip. I'll keep that in mind. If I can figure out this APEX, I will program to shut down skimmer for at least 1 minute.

My nitrates are sky high...it's registering over 75. The bacteria is working good.

 

[bakbay]

If you’re impatient (like me) just use bacteria in a bottle! Fritz or even Dr Tim and you can start adding fish and (soft) corals in a week. I’ve actually added sand and Chaeto from my established tank and now I have an opposite problem on my 175g — having to dose N&P to bring them up! lol

 

[Jimbo327]

Doing a lot of cleanup in the shed, look what I found. LOL.

 

[DanK.Reefer]

hey its part A of 2 part solution. I wonder if it has a shelf life?

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[Jimbo327]

My first attempt at APEX program. My RODI is powered by a booster pump, so if there is no power to it...the RODI does not work. So I want the RODI booster pump to turn ON once a week on Sunday (from Midnight to 8am) to refill the freshwater barrel instead of keeping it on all the time.

Here is my APEX code.

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If DoW -MTWTFS Then OFF
If Time 00:00 to 08:00 Then ON
Min Time 005:00 Then OFF

 

[Jimbo327]

Also I programmed my ATI Straton LED lights. Still tweaking it to see how I like the look. So far, I'm digging it.

The coolest thing about LEDs is that it has almost infinite ways to be programmed to change color, intensity, and ramp speed. Too bad the ATI does not have the "storm" mode like Radion, that would be fun to try. Reefers with LED lights can take advantage of all of this control, and not just program a blue look to maximize coral growth. I programmed my lights to alternate between full natural light and a more blue look during the day.

 

[DanK.Reefer]

I am un-familiar with the stratons and their power output but I can tell you that I recently melted the head off of a hammer coral using an AI prime. LED's are very cool but it is definately worth renting a PAR meter to learn your PAR zones. I found that, that particular location in my small tank directly under the AI prime was recieving just over 300 PAR in the middle of the day. This was fine for the stylo next to the hammer but fried the one of the heads off the hammer. I have since adjusted and set the light using a PAR meter rented from my LFS for $15 a day. Everyone is much happier now.

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[Jimbo327]

I lowered the LEDs to be 9 inches above the water line. There was too much glare previously.

I will measure the PAR soon: Another reefer is 3D printing me a meter holder, so I’ll pick that up.

 

[DanK.Reefer]

I like the way the stratons have such a wide spread. Since I am running an AI prime on my frag tank and a Kessil AP9x on my display I have to raise them up a bit in order to get the light dispersal that I need. For this reason I am looking to switch to 2 radions over my DT and another AI prime over the frag system.

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[Jimbo327]

Yikes...Almost flooded my sump. Forgot to add a siphon break on the ATO fill line. Glad I checked the sump before heading to bed.

I think I'm going to drill a small hole on the fill tubing (inside the reservoir) to create the siphon break.

 

[Jimbo327]

I looked at the problem this morning, and it was definitely the siphon on the ATO line. So I drill a small hole on the fill line in the reservoir. It got to an inch of the top of the sump. While I was draining my sump, I also noticed that my reservoir was completely filled, which shouldn't have happened since I programmed the APEX to refill only once per week (on Sunday) for 8 hours.

So I looked at the programming for the refill of ATO reservoir, and it is wrong because the conditions weren't "nested", it just reads the code from top to bottom. I have to get used to how APEX programming works.

So I googled and changed the code a bit, and it's trial and error at this point.

Original code (wrong):

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If DoW -MTWTFS Then OFF
If Time 00:00 to 08:00 Then ON
Min Time 005:00 Then OFF

New code (hopefully correct):

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If DoW S------ Then ON
When On > 480:00 Then OFF
Min Time 005:00 Then OFF

 

[Jimbo327]

I calibrated my APEX salinity probe, Hanna Salinity Checker and the refractometer with a packet of salinity solution. My salinity is running at 36ppt.

 

[Jimbo327]

Setting up the APEX Dos and DDR in the shed. I think I’ll be dosing calcium and alkalinity with a doser since the initial tank demand will be low. Looking to make my own 2 part solution if I can get my hands on some ingredients. The plan is to keep most of the dosing containers in the shed.

I modded the Dos with John Guest fittings (get 4 of the Part Number PP450821W) for ease of use, and allowing for harder tubing that is less likely to kink. One of the simplest and effective mods I’ve done. This is important to me since I have to squeeze the tubing through the exterior wall hole.

 

[Jimbo327]

The tank is alive! Dumped in the 2 bottles of coralline algae, a jar of double strength galaxy pods from Algaebarn and some snails/crabs from Ellis Aquatics. My son is so excited and already naming the CUC. ?. We got a little of each: Christmas hermits, Scarlet hermits, Cerith snails, Nerite snails, Turbo snails, Trochus snails, and a Conch.

 

[Jimbo327]

Got some Nassarius snails, Nerite snails and Pom Pom crabs from Reefcleaners group buy. Some of the Nassarius snails were so tiny that I thought it was a joke. Out of the thousands of snails they have in stock, this is what they chose to send out to customers. ?. At least the Pom Pom crabs were alive and have their pom poms, dropped them into the tank and haven’t seen them since.

 

[Jimbo327]

My rock finally looks “dirty”. I have dosed vinegar daily to feed the bacteria.

 

[Smite]

Nice got some CUC food served up. Looking good Jimbo. I'll be pulling some chaeto soon, if you want some let me know. Should have some brittle stars, pods ect in there. Maybe some some bristles and nuisance algae/cyano. I'll probably have near a 5g bucket full.

 

[Jimbo327]

Yes, I’ll take some chaeto. I don’t have a refugium on my setup, so I would like the chaeto for the pods, biome diversity, brittle stars/pods, and bacteria that's in the chaeto. Just trying to get more life in the tank. PM me when you do your cleanup.