Migration to Neptune APEX

[plankton]

I’ve been running ReefKeeper elite with most of the modules on a 25G lagoon nano mostly with success although have had a few hiccups. Had luftpump failure then added second pump on my ATO. Allowed salinity and alk to drift as I got busy at work and older test kits basically led to inaccurate alk readings and lost some really nice SPS coral colonies.

My plan over the next few days is to migrate tank to a full Neptune managed system so I could go away on a vacation for up to a week and have some confidence my tank Parms will be stable or at minimum be notified if they are not.

I bought apex (with salinity probe), trident, ATK and DOS.

Wish me luck and if you already have such a setup or also recently migrated any advice is always appreciated.

 

[bsr2430]

Check out my build thread, I show how I set up my trident and apex. No apex doser yet, will be getting one!

 

[plankton]

Here is BEFORE image of sump

 

[plankton]

Here is BEFORE image of sump

Check out my build thread, I show how I set up my trident and apex. No apex doser yet, will be getting one!

Just did and following along. Of course my wife also has same requirement that there are no wires or stuff growing out of the tank and that all equipment is contained with a cabinet.

I found this nearly matching black end table that I would like to put the trident, DOS, and DDR

 

[plankton]

Step #1 remove old float switches connected to SL1 module and dual luftpumps and connect RTK. This removes two pumps connected to power bar and ATO program on RK.

 

[plankton]

Step #1 remove old float switches connected to SL1 module and dual luftpumps and connect RTK. This removes two pumps connected to power bar and ATO program on RK.

I realized I don’t have stand for pump nor low level sensor for RO/DI reservoir so just ordered same on eBay. And will eventually add APEX and notification for low RO/DI level

 

[plankton]

So, hide the Grey and Orange or show case? So y’all hide equipment or mount on the outside so you can visualize the proper operation of the various components?

 

[plankton]

Step 2 - take out old RK elite, power bars, ph and orp probes and dosing pumps, then install apex and apex power bar add probes, connect heater and refug light, apex display and tablet. Done.

tomorrow will calibrate ph and salinity probes, then connect ATK to apex then add DOS. Super excited because net result is much fewer wires and clutter.

 

[plankton]

Step 3 : calibrate all probes and add DOS & DDR. Done!

The biggest pain was calibrating the conductivity probe because I was getting different salinity values from Neptune, Pinpoint and Hanna 35 ppm solutions I have. I finally decided on Hanna because I have many of them, learned to turn on temperature correction coefficient and to temperature acclimate the Hanna standard packet to get readings consistent with my pinpoint salinity probe. Took hours but done.

Maybe tomorrow tackle setting up the trident and connecting to DOS.