SC Aquariums 50 gallon PNP

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@Why-Me

I know you mentioned the trident earlier when I asked about Alk, Cal, and Mag testing on the apex. I saw a video on it over the weekend from melevsreef on youtube. Wasn't a super in depth video on it but he mentioned that he was just sent a unit by Apex and looks like he is just starting to use it.

Just curious, if this is something you plan on running or nah? My initial thinking is that one day I may do something like this. With an initial investment of around ~1500 including the new apex (just rounding on prices here) I think I should def hold off for now. Especially since it is "version 1" that is not even out yet and I need to get more strict with the budget to help save up for our house AND my large peninsula tank! The sooner I start saving the sooner I can get both haha.

Eventually I could me see myself getting something like this. If testing is cut back a little $10 per month is not too bad at all. Anyway, just making conversation mostly. lol
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
Philipgonzales3 said:
@Why-Me

I know you mentioned the trident earlier when I asked about Alk, Cal, and Mag testing on the apex. I saw a video on it over the weekend from melevsreef on youtube. Wasn't a super in depth video on it but he mentioned that he was just sent a unit by Apex and looks like he is just starting to use it.

Just curious, if this is something you plan on running or nah? My initial thinking is that one day I may do something like this. With an initial investment of around ~1500 including the new apex (just rounding on prices here) I think I should def hold off for now. Especially since it is "version 1" that is not even out yet and I need to get more strict with the budget to help save up for our house AND my large peninsula tank! The sooner I start saving the sooner I can get both haha.

Eventually I could me see myself getting something like this. If testing is cut back a little $10 per month is not too bad at all. Anyway, just making conversation mostly. lol
Click to expand...
I already have an Apex but would need the 2016 base unit before upgrading to the trident. I definitely will buy one but not until both tanks are set up here in my house, it may be this time next year by the time I can get one.
Ps. Don't buy the $800 apex just get the $500 one and add on modules down the road as needed. Also believe the Trident will release between $500 and $600 so you'd be $1,000 to $1,100 not $1,500. Either way it is a big investment, great thing is these things are very re-sellable if you get out of the hobby or don't like it or need cash...
As for being version 1 that wouldn't bother me knowing how in depth their beta testing has been.
I believe the 3 reagents for trident to be around $20/month so operating costs are $240/year plus initial cost keep that in mind as well.
I'm amazed how stable some of these guys tanks are though. There's a guy in my local reefing forum who's an NSI tester for the Trident and he is keeping a 12G nano perfectly stable with the thing which makes me believe it's almost set n forget on anything larger seeing how difficult a nano would be to keep stable at all times. Watching his graphs go from up n down every other day to perfect straight line is amazing. Knowing what your parameters are doing 4x per day and being able to dose/adjust that in increments small enough to keep everything flat lined all day every day really makes me want one.
 
Why-Me said:
I already have an Apex but would need the 2016 base unit before upgrading to the trident. I definitely will buy one but not until both tanks are set up here in my house, it may be this time next year by the time I can get one.
Ps. Don't buy the $800 apex just get the $500 one and add on modules down the road as needed. Also believe the Trident will release between $500 and $600 so you'd be $1,000 to $1,100 not $1,500. Either way it is a big investment, great thing is these things are very re-sellable if you get out of the hobby or don't like it or need cash...
As for being version 1 that wouldn't bother me knowing how in depth their beta testing has been.
I believe the 3 reagents for trident to be around $20/month so operating costs are $240/year plus initial cost keep that in mind as well.
I'm amazed how stable some of these guys tanks are though. There's a guy in my local reefing forum who's an NSI tester for the Trident and he is keeping a 12G nano perfectly stable with the thing which makes me believe it's almost set n forget on anything larger seeing how difficult a nano would be to keep stable at all times. Watching his graphs go from up n down every other day to perfect straight line is amazing. Knowing what your parameters are doing 4x per day and being able to dose/adjust that in increments small enough to keep everything flat lined all day every day really makes me want one.
Click to expand...

Meant to link this URL when I first tagged you. Says they are pretty confident reagents can be stretched to two months. I think cutting testing in half Alk twice a day and Cal/Mag once a day should still be better than most people could do manually. Especially in the long term. Buy yeah still very neat either way.

https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/apex-trident-alk-cal-mag-monitoring-device-neptune-systems/
 
Tidal Gardens
Ok guys,

someone PLEASE take the internet away from me! Just bought 5 more frags! ;Facepalm

"Hi, my name is Philip and I am a reefaholic".

The rastas were only $5 for 2 heads on cultivated reef. Wanted a clove coral also, figured might as well try an acan and ACRO while I am at it! ;Nailbiting

I've been able to keep my dKH within .1 since I started using the dosing unit. Pretty sure I can keep my dkh constant without any major fluctuations. I think o_O;Nailbiting;Wideyed...I hope.

Either way I guess this will be a good way for me to see how I would do with SPS. Guess it could be worse and I could have ordered all acros haha.

Ok, just a small relapse, no more corals after this for a while this time for sure, for sure, for sure.:p

liamcloves4.jpg
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Sod Buster said:
Uhhhhh ohhhh. You caught the acan virus. Next week you'll have an acan garden, then May it'll be look at my rock flower anemones! You'd better get a purse closet built here quick. Away we go!!!!
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I'll have to admit thier feeding response is pretty darn cool. They have a pretty good deal of colors and some of the cool colors are pretty decent on price, like sub $20. I think I was dismissing them too early. I think you are right @Sod Buster acan garden coming up! Haha

Good news! At least one of my Zoa's has another polyp! These were like $20 per polyp so pretty stoked! I think some of the other Zoa's have more polyps too but those are hard to tell because they already have a lot.

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Top Shelf Aquatics
Acans can morph pretty quick under different lights and conditions. Don't crack the vault in a midnight hour for them. They are pretty easy while fed, and a splash of color for a bonus. I was and still am a little acan crazy. I guess my favorite salt creature, so I'm bias to the argument.
 
One thing I haven't been able to figure out is why my devil's hand leather isn't opening much. Been 8 days and this is the best I've gotten out of it so far.

20190405_115348.jpg

I went ahead and moved it today. Hoping it'll get more flow here?

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Philipgonzales3 said:
One thing I haven't been able to figure out is why my devil's hand leather isn't opening much. Been 8 days and this is the best I've gotten out of it so far.

20190405_115348.jpg

I went ahead and moved it today. Hoping it'll get more flow here?

20190408_193532.jpg
Click to expand...

Hmm maybe the rock is blocking a lot of the flow there. I tried to move it a little higher up on the rocks but my dang kupang damsel knocked it right off. May need to glue it to a rubble rock and stick it a little higher.
 
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AS
Well I've heard these things like flow. Shouldn't have anything to complain about here! Rubble rock is not glued to my main rocks yet. I've also heard you can't glue soft corals and leathers. Seemed to work for my pulsing Xenia so gave it a try.

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Nutramar Foods
Hemmdog said:
Nice growth man! Happy to see that! Where’s your Ricordea and BTA ? I didn’t see it in the last few pics.
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They're on the opposite side.

The goby decided to bury my Ricordia a bit. At least the rock it was on so I moved it.

Not the best pics but they are getting some z's.

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Got my Ranco controller today. Perfect fit!

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As long as I don't ever need to unplug anything or adjust any other controller that is!

These are my settings:
S1 78 C1 D1
S2 77 H2 D1

What I think that means is the cooling fans come on at 79F and stop at 78. Heater comes on at 76F and stops at 77F. Will bump these temps up a little higher but want to see what happens.

High today was 92, tank only got up to 79F from what I saw. Tomorrow it gets 97F so we will see what happens.

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www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
Ok guys, gals, and children of all ages. For those of you following at home I've spent approximately 18 days trying to slowly balance my calcium and alk out until they were balanced. My plan was to get them balanced and then start dosing in equal parts. From what I've read consumption is balanced for the most part and most people are better off dosing equal parts of 2 part.

I think it may slowly drift due to certain things but not at a large enough rate that I wouldn't notice. I've been dosing 15ml of calcium per day and 3ml of Alk per day. My goal was to raise calcium without dropping Alk and I feel that I was successful in doing that. Maybe just dumb luck and nothing to do with my dosing though? Lol.

Here are my params from today. (Full parameter tests are done on Thursday until I feel comfortable going longer without testing).

Not shooting for perfection here but pretty darn close. 4ppm more calcium would be 100% balanced lol.
Screenshot_20190409-204802.jpg

Now what I am going to do is skip one day of dosing and see if there is any noticeable consumption over a 24 hour period. If not then go 48 hours and then divide by 2, etc.

Then I will use a calculator to figure out how much alkalinity I need to be dosing daily. I will then match my calcium and alkalinity dosing amount. Then make sure my pumps are calibrated again and dose away and then of course verify and adjust. From what I understand if you just target alkalinity, calcium should follow. Worth a shot.

My goal is to match Red Sea Blue buckets params but if I can maintain Alk at 9 rather than 8 so be it. Either way is fine.

My Xenia seems to be pulsing away and definetly looks like it's growing to me.


Quick tank vid. Moved my devil's hand leather to be more facing up and a little out of the way of direct flow. I have a feeling it's going to be happy here. Will let it be for at least a week now.

 
A couple of quick notes. My flow seems to be a little lower than what I remembered in the beginning. I bumped up both MP10's another notch or two. About 50% on one and 60% on the other. Maybe it's time to upgrade to mp40's? Lol. I've been in the camp of not doing any preventive maintenance on any pumps. Maybe I should switch camps? Anyone see these things slow down over time or it could be my changes in coral placement.

Also still can't tell if this thing is one color or two. From the top the water has too many ripples to see it clearly and from the side the view is not very good.

What so you think? It looks like 2 colors right?

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IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%

  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%

  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%

  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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