Gilroy 425g Build Thread (All Apex, all the time)

[lulei0829]

I am still waiting my new Apex,I did pre-order 3 weeks ago.

 

[Afishionado]

Ah! Brad and Amanda brought that fire! Very nice Terence!

 

[shadow1013]

Love the flashlight. I picked one up at RAP Orlando. Love how you can focus so much you can see the diode.

Also To help people who haven't purchased their apex and accessories yet but want to figure out a neat order for a board like you have do you guys think you could create some templates for each piece.? I have a Red Sea Reefer 450 and it doesn't have a lot of room in the stand for all the accessories so if we had templates we could print them out to place them where they fit and make a nice and neat equipment board.

And, one last thing for the day. I got some nice goodies at RAP in NYC. First, Joseph from Marine Depot was gracious enough to give me one of their fancy AquaMaxx coral flashlights. This thing is amazing! It has two intensities and a focus ring. It really lets you see the total potential of a coral when you amp up the low end of the spectrum.



Also, I was able to get this gem at the show as well - I call him "Two Face"

 

[Terence]

The orange board was simply finish grade plywood painted with a nice orange spray paint.

The templates for the mounting of the Apex and EB832 are linked in the Online Get Started guide.

 

[shadow1013]

That is good to know. What about any of the add-on modules?

The orange board was simply finish grade plywood painted with a nice orange spray paint.

The templates for the mounting of the Apex and EB832 are linked in the Online Get Started guide.

 

[Terence]

Not yet but we should do that.

 

[shadow1013]

I know the accessories will have the new grey exterior. Will the old 8EB get it too?

 

[mmw64]

Love the flashlight. I picked one up at RAP Orlando. Love how you can focus so much you can see the diode.

Also To help people who haven't purchased their apex and accessories yet but want to figure out a neat order for a board like you have do you guys think you could create some templates for each piece.? I have a Red Sea Reefer 450 and it doesn't have a lot of room in the stand for all the accessories so if we had templates we could print them out to place them where they fit and make a nice and neat equipment board.

I definitely second the equipment board idea! Have a red sea reefer 350.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

New apex setup looks good. Have you gotten the darn ATO hooked up yet?

 

[Terence]

Have you gotten the darn ATO hooked up yet?

No, I am waiting for this little piece of equipment from a company in CA first

 

[Terence]

This graphic shows how much more consistently the Sicce pump is running compared to that point of sale AquaBee pump. If you go back a few pages you can see the charts I posted for it just a day after installing - it was cutting out and all over the place. Now with the new Apex, I can show not just the result in the pH of the reactor, but how smoothly the pump is pulling power - obviously no overheat situations here!

 

[SchnitzelReef]

This graphic shows how much more consistently the Sicce pump is running compared to that point of sale AquaBee pump. If you go back a few pages you can see the charts I posted for it just a day after installing - it was cutting out and all over the place. Now with the new Apex, I can show not just the result in the pH of the reactor, but how smoothly the pump is pulling power - obviously no overheat situations here!

I really hate being that guy. BUT...I told you so. LOL. jk

Really though, I couldn't be happier after switching out my Panworld pump for a sicce on my Geo reactor. I try telling everyone I know, if you need a pump check out sicce. I don't know why more companies aren't using the Sicce pump. For the money and efficiency, they are hard to beat.

I heard they are coming out with some new super efficient DC pumps. Excited to see what that's all about. I think they had them at Interzoo. Did you see them?

 

[Terence]

So far you were spot on. The adaptation was pretty simple too.

In other news - Reef Brite MH are arriving next Tuesday!

 

[Terence]

So, not everything in this hobby is fun. Once every two or three months I have to clean the filter socks. I have devised a pretty good method. First, I ask my son to turn them all inside out. Then, I soak them with two cups of bleach in hot water for at least two hours. When anyone sees this water after this step they will wonder how people run reef tanks without mechanical filtration of some kind! Next they go into my washing machine on sanitary cycle with two rinses. Once that finishes they come out and the washing machine is put into tub-clean mode. All done!

 

[Terence]

Parameter checking tonight. It's been a long time since I have checked all five. I am amazed how good things look. The Alk is still coming up slowly with the calcium reactor. The Mg could stand to be a bit higher. I will test again after this weekends water change and dose accordingly. Nitrates and phosphates are looking pretty good.

dKh=7.7
Ca=470
Mg=1200
PO4=0
NO3=4

Can't wait to really start stocking up on this tank once the lights are all going!

 

[TaylorPilot]

Oh, I told you I was going to have a busy day! This week I received a very nice surprise from my friend Ralph at Sicce USA. He decided to help out and send me a Sicce Syncra Pro 3000 to replace that point of sale AquaBee Pump once and for all. Thanks Ralph and Sicce!

So today I went down and right away I saw how easy it would be to convert. I simply cut off one of the pipe pieces and then for the other I screwed the hose up onto the threaded piece and then secured all of them with hose clamps. Worked like a charm and the pump is humming along. So happy! Now I hope it lasts a bit longer than those crappy AquaBee pumps!





Oh, and I took apart the last AquaBee pump just for giggles. Take a look, the impeller exploded!

How loud is the pump? I was interested in the Pro series from Sicce.

 

[Terence]

It did not seem loud but honestly it is down under the house so it was not a major concern. I am almost certain though that it is quieter than the AquaBee point of sale and certainly it is when that thing was rattling like hell and eating itself up. bahaha

 

[eg8r210]

So far you were spot on. The adaptation was pretty simple too.

In other news - Reef Brite MH are arriving next Tuesday!

I can't wait to read about your review of these lights. Joy has me sold on them but I want to see how people like them.

 

[Terence]

My hope is to give you all a really good look at them. Also to give you some real numbers in terms of PAR vs. Watts vs. Dimming volts (0-10v). I will basically qualifying these for Apex Ready status while they are here on my tank.

The plan right now is to have four channels of dimming for the MH (one for each light). This will allow me to do some cool sunrise/sunset panning effects on the tank I hope. It will not be too dramatic, but it will be fun nonetheless.

Then, it looks like I will have four LED bars on each side. Two of the Reefbrite Actinics (one front, one back of MH) then one white and then one UV bar. A total of four channels as I will be able to tweak the two white LED colors separately on the one bar.

I will have a total of 12 controllable channels then - 8 for LED (4 each side) and 4 for MH. I will do this with the Apex base four 0-10v channels and then two VDM modules. I think there is going to be a lot of tuneability in this set up and the edge to edge light coverage should be sick!

 

[eg8r210]

Quick question the halides, did you go with 20k/20k bulbs? Or are you going to do something more risky like 14k/20k bulbs? I think melev uses the lights with 10/20 or something like that. In the middle of the day he turns them off and then back on to get the other spectrum (been a long time but I think I remember reading this ).