So I guess I'm not going to be sleeping tonight so I'll briefly give one of the biggest reasons I chose to drop the coin on an apex. Keep an opened mind, as I'm not pushing or selling anything to you. It took me time and setbacks that really "learned" me about growing things, not just keeping things alive in a tank. I've seen the ocean and got knocked over by a wave 35 years ago, that is my knowledge of that beast. Lurking on this site for years before joining, I read about all the different ways people get to the same end result, a tank they are proud to show. One of the threads I pay attention to is the bubbas sps journey thread for insight. He doesn't hide any secrets, it is all freely given. I understood from the year of research before I even got a tank wet was stability. That's great, keeps stuff alive and happy, I got so I could do that no problem. So to get to it without writing a book, with my new build, what is going to take my skillset to the next level? That is where his thread really made me focus on wanting to see happy, healthy, growth in my tank. You have a ph probe in your tank, right? I'd look at mine on the reefkeeper and it would be around 7.95, 8ish mostly during the day & all the advice says to run a fuge light opposite hours in the sump to keep the lights ph swing minimal. Ok, did that, sweet. Well, it's not in stone, but looks pretty good, a ph of 8.2 to 8.4 is ideal to get to my next level, happy acros that a monthly visitor could notice growth. It's old news to run the air intake to an outside source for the skimmer, or open windows for CO2 exchange in your house. We have CO2 scrubbers we can build also to help the ph stay consistent. So I want to stabilize my ph, what the calibrated probe says at a 8.2 average. My skimmer takes fresh air in from outside, it won't always with that apex gadget. To maximize the the scrubbers efficiency, you run moist air to it from a port in the skimmer lid. So the day and night swings will be controlled by electric ball valves tied into a breakout box, controlled by the apex ph probe. During the day a ball valve or any rich O2 time, the outside line will be fine, a automated valve to the CO2 scrubber will be closed. While I'm sleeping and the ph in the tank drops, the outside air ball valve will close and send the skimmer air through the CO2 scrubber, which will be recovered out of the skimmer lid to go through again saving the media, as the skimmer is on the scrubber air circuit and already been scrubbed. A solid 8.2 ph is what I need to try out. I drank bubbas koolaid and needed precision and automation to achieve it. When I'm go hard farming and working 14 hour days, I just want to shower, eat, and sleep. Not worry about ph in the tank, my phone should tell me what it is all day with a graph. Sorry this got long, that was what pulled the trigger for me. Enhanced stability.
