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

[Nirethell]

I have to say I just read through the entire post and I am absolutely amazed at how awesome this tank looks. You did an amazing job! Everything looks fantastic in there, love all the documentation. I will eventually move to a bigger tank and most likely grab some of the fantastic information within this tread.

However I am curious. How are those tiny WD frags doing? Did I miss that update somewhere?

 

[Terence]

Thanks for the feedback. I love hearing when people appreciate all the info.

The WD is in the video above at 1:17. It’s still small, but getting ready to explode. Remember this thing was say 2mm and had two polyps!

 

[Muttley000]

Hi Terence!
I didn't know this thread existed until I was researching on calcium reactors a week or so ago. I have spent my spare time reading it since. What a great collection of information, and several ideas to use. I am relooking at my DI arrangement (I currently run 3 mixed DI cartridges and my ATI test shows high silicates). My multitank system just passed 500 gallons so I am obviously enjoying your calcium reactor journey. I have a 270 gallon plywood and epoxy sump I built, with a Kessil 380 growing cheato in a 2' square area, and you are spot on about tons of sump room. I have the Apex 2016 which I love, and you have provided lots of good stuff there too. Thank you for your work in this thread. I am planning on building a 10' plywood tank to finish my system and I look forward to your future updates with continuing great inspiration on making my own system better!

 

[flowflezy]

Following

 

[flowflezy]

Following

 

[Terence]

Hi Terence!
I didn't know this thread existed until I was researching on calcium reactors a week or so ago. I have spent my spare time reading it since. What a great collection of information, and several ideas to use. I am relooking at my DI arrangement (I currently run 3 mixed DI cartridges and my ATI test shows high silicates). My multitank system just passed 500 gallons so I am obviously enjoying your calcium reactor journey. I have a 270 gallon plywood and epoxy sump I built, with a Kessil 380 growing cheato in a 2' square area, and you are spot on about tons of sump room. I have the Apex 2016 which I love, and you have provided lots of good stuff there too. Thank you for your work in this thread. I am planning on building a 10' plywood tank to finish my system and I look forward to your future updates with continuing great inspiration on making my own system better!

Thanks for the feedback and for following along.

 

[Terence]

Just got back from a week away from the tank. Went to SoCal to check out a college for my son, did some sightseeing, and then on to Orlando for RAP.

Tank looks great - no big surprises - lost a couple of the Evansi Anthias - ya, I know, down to two now - they eat, but evidently not enough - I guess this is another fish they should just stop taking from the wild as its chances in a reef tank are probably not great from all I hear. The rest of the fish are doing well. One of the three heniochus was an acan-lover. Had to put all the acans not encrusted down in the sump with a 80w LED over them for now. I will figure out what to do with him later.

Corals continue to grow - Alk crept up to 10 so need to tweak that I guess. Cleaned the skimmer. Bulkhead on RODI 100g tank is slow leaking - no biggie as it just drips into the ground but I need to address that.

Cleaned two of my WAV later. I will have to post a video of my technique. Basically I take a pretzel container or BRS container and put citric acid and/or vinegar in it. Set it next to the tank. Pull WAV out of tank still plugged in (they automatically shut off). Drop it into the jug. Wait three hours. Brush off with to0th brush. Put back in tank.

That's all for now.

 

[Fishlee]

Just got back from a week away from the tank. Went to SoCal to check out a college for my son, did some sightseeing, and then on to Orlando for RAP.

Tank looks great - no big surprises - lost a couple of the Evansi Anthias - ya, I know, down to two now - they eat, but evidently not enough - I guess this is another fish they should just stop taking from the wild as its chances in a reef tank are probably not great from all I hear. The rest of the fish are doing well. One of the three heniochus was an acan-lover. Had to put all the acans not encrusted down in the sump with a 80w LED over them for now. I will figure out what to do with him later.

Corals continue to grow - Alk crept up to 10 so need to tweak that I guess. Cleaned the skimmer. Bulkhead on RODI 100g tank is slow leaking - no biggie as it just drips into the ground but I need to address that.

Cleaned two of my WAV later. I will have to post a video of my technique. Basically I take a pretzel container or BRS container and put citric acid and/or vinegar in it. Set it next to the tank. Pull WAV out of tank still plugged in (they automatically shut off). Drop it into the jug. Wait three hours. Brush off with to0th brush. Put back in tank.

That's all for now.

Nice how often do you clean your wav. I find soaking for 3 hours isn’t enough usually but I clean mine every 3-4 months when they’re totally covered in coraline

 

[Terence]

I think the last time was almost a year ago - I know, I know, I'm a LAR.

 

[Terence]

Two down and three still to go...

 

[seldon]

Cleaned two of my WAV later. I will have to post a video of my technique. Basically I take a pretzel container or BRS container and put citric acid and/or vinegar in it. Set it next to the tank. Pull WAV out of tank still plugged in (they automatically shut off). Drop it into the jug. Wait three hours. Brush off with to0th brush. Put back in tank.

Thanks for the tip, I haven't cleaned my WAVs in over a year and this made it very easy!

 

[revhtree]

Just got back from a week away from the tank. Went to SoCal to check out a college for my son, did some sightseeing, and then on to Orlando for RAP.

Tank looks great - no big surprises - lost a couple of the Evansi Anthias - ya, I know, down to two now - they eat, but evidently not enough - I guess this is another fish they should just stop taking from the wild as its chances in a reef tank are probably not great from all I hear. The rest of the fish are doing well. One of the three heniochus was an acan-lover. Had to put all the acans not encrusted down in the sump with a 80w LED over them for now. I will figure out what to do with him later.

Corals continue to grow - Alk crept up to 10 so need to tweak that I guess. Cleaned the skimmer. Bulkhead on RODI 100g tank is slow leaking - no biggie as it just drips into the ground but I need to address that.

Cleaned two of my WAV later. I will have to post a video of my technique. Basically I take a pretzel container or BRS container and put citric acid and/or vinegar in it. Set it next to the tank. Pull WAV out of tank still plugged in (they automatically shut off). Drop it into the jug. Wait three hours. Brush off with to0th brush. Put back in tank.

That's all for now.

Can't wait for that video. How about we make it an R2R special video?

 

[Terence]

Working my way through the WAV pumps for cleaning. Did #3 yesterday evening. Here are a few snaps. Sorry for the shameless plug here for my own gear, but these pumps will take a beating - they had so much crap on them I have no idea how they were still working.

 

[Krazie4Acans]

Terrance what is that orange tool in the last picture?

 

[Terence]

Terrance what is that orange tool in the last picture?

Wow, that didn't take long for someone to call me out on that little Easter egg. That is an impeller removal tool that was designed and 3D printed by none other than the Apex-master and Control Freak of the Year winner - Russ! At some point in the near future, if people ask nicely, he may publish the file so that others can print one. In fact I think we should get a little library together for things like this we might come up with and share it all with our customers.

 

[Raptor72]

Wow, that didn't take long for someone to call me out on that little Easter egg. That is an impeller removal tool that was designed and 3D printed by none other than the Apex-master and Control Freak of the Year winner - Russ! At some point in the near future, if people ask nicely, he may publish the file so that others can print one. In fact I think we should get a little library together for things like this we might come up with and share it all with our customers.

And the secrets start trickling out. [emoji3]

 

[Muttley000]

Please publish the file, pretty please even. My first pair of wavs will be delivered Wednesday, I can't wait!

 

[Terence]

Please publish the file, pretty please even. My first pair of wavs will be delivered Wednesday, I can't wait!

I think we will start a sub-forum on the Neptune Systems Community Forum just for the sharing of these kinds of designs both from us and between those in the Apex community.

 

[Terence]

SUPER busy weekend maintenance. Wow. So much done.

First, I have to admit I am not good with regular maintenance. In fact, I am a LAR. But things had really gone too far.

So testing parameters was the first thing to do. Alk has been running a bit high lately - 9.8. But this jived with my Jim Welsh prototype system (aka AMI) so all is good there. Just need to turn down the dosing a bit. The phosphate on the Hanna ULR checker came in at .06 so all fine there for me. The Red Sea low range Nitrate test was another story - it goes to 4ppm and I have never exceeded that in the last 18 months. It was dark purple. Uh oh. Went the the NYOS test and it showed somewhere between 12 and 25ppm. Not good. What is going on?

Downstairs I went. First chore was to change out the two canisters of carbon that barely had water trickling out of it. I dumped them out and soaked them in citric acid for a few hours to clean them all out. Then, I refilled with ROX carbon from BRS and reinstalled. The PMUP on this dual reactor is still going strong despite tons of crap growing on it. The first one I was not so lucky with - some kind of stomatella crawled up into it an seized it - but this one has been running for almost a year now.

Next I went to the Denitrator and took a look. Hmm, DOS was still spinning every once and a while. What is this... there are bubbles in the output but not the input. Hmm. I took the to output tube off and let it run. Almost nothing. So, the pump head was shot. Shouldn't have been a surprised, the ORP probes pH value (see previous posts if this confuses you) was showing 11.2-11.6 for at least a month. Oops. Then I looked into the reactor chamber and there was green stringy things on the crushed coral on the top. ugh. So I snapped on a new DOS head and fired up the pump using my Calcium Reactor profile so I could clear some tank water through it and clean it out. Immediately you could smell the rotten egg smell of sulphur dioxide. But, after a couple of liters it was coming out nice and clean and no smell. "pH" dropped to 6.2 and then began to rise back up. Set the "dosing" back to 20,000ml and watched it climb back up over the weekend into the low 11 so I just now moved up the dosing to 60000ml and try and get it to settle in around 10-10.5.

Now on to the next chore. The skimmer. I have NEVER cleaned the skimmer since I put it in the tank. But until recently it had not become that dirty. However recently I had to put a bunch of Acans and my Scoly down in the sump since the stupid Heniochus I put in the display thought they were all pretty tasty. This meant I had to put a Kessil light over them and then came the coraline and other algae inside the skimmer. To clean it I filled a tote with old saltwater I had and then added about a cup of citric acid powder. I let that run for about five hours and then brushed all the algae away. I also disassembled every single piece and cleaned it - including the pump itself. Once reassembled, there was a noticeable difference in the output in terms of bubbles generated and moving up the stack.

I also turned on the RODI in my saltwater mixing tank to get ready for my first water change in six months. I think I am going to go back to more frequent water changes for a while at least to make sure to boost back up some of the trace elements even though I am running Triton.

I will report back soon to see how the nitrates do - if they reduce down in a week or so.

 

[lolgranny]

SUPER busy weekend maintenance. Wow. So much done.

First, I have to admit I am not good with regular maintenance. In fact, I am a LAR. But things had really gone too far.

So testing parameters was the first thing to do. Alk has been running a bit high lately - 9.8. But this jived with my Jim Welsh prototype system (aka AMI) so all is good there. Just need to turn down the dosing a bit. The phosphate on the Hanna ULR checker came in at .06 so all fine there for me. The Red Sea low range Nitrate test was another story - it goes to 4ppm and I have never exceeded that in the last 18 months. It was dark purple. Uh oh. Went the the NYOS test and it showed somewhere between 12 and 25ppm. Not good. What is going on?

Downstairs I went. First chore was to change out the two canisters of carbon that barely had water trickling out of it. I dumped them out and soaked them in citric acid for a few hours to clean them all out. Then, I refilled with ROX carbon from BRS and reinstalled. The PMUP on this dual reactor is still going strong despite tons of crap growing on it. The first one I was not so lucky with - some kind of stomatella crawled up into it an seized it - but this one has been running for almost a year now.

Next I went to the Denitrator and took a look. Hmm, DOS was still spinning every once and a while. What is this... there are bubbles in the output but not the input. Hmm. I took the to output tube off and let it run. Almost nothing. So, the pump head was shot. Shouldn't have been a surprised, the ORP probes pH value (see previous posts if this confuses you) was showing 11.2-11.6 for at least a month. Oops. Then I looked into the reactor chamber and there was green stringy things on the crushed coral on the top. ugh. So I snapped on a new DOS head and fired up the pump using my Calcium Reactor profile so I could clear some tank water through it and clean it out. Immediately you could smell the rotten egg smell of sulphur dioxide. But, after a couple of liters it was coming out nice and clean and no smell. "pH" dropped to 6.2 and then began to rise back up. Set the "dosing" back to 20,000ml and watched it climb back up over the weekend into the low 11 so I just now moved up the dosing to 60000ml and try and get it to settle in around 10-10.5.

Now on to the next chore. The skimmer. I have NEVER cleaned the skimmer since I put it in the tank. But until recently it had not become that dirty. However recently I had to put a bunch of Acans and my Scoly down in the sump since the stupid Heniochus I put in the display thought they were all pretty tasty. This meant I had to put a Kessil light over them and then came the coraline and other algae inside the skimmer. To clean it I filled a tote with old saltwater I had and then added about a cup of citric acid powder. I let that run for about five hours and then brushed all the algae away. I also disassembled every single piece and cleaned it - including the pump itself. Once reassembled, there was a noticeable difference in the output in terms of bubbles generated and moving up the stack.

I also turned on the RODI in my saltwater mixing tank to get ready for my first water change in six months. I think I am going to go back to more frequent water changes for a while at least to make sure to boost back up some of the trace elements even though I am running Triton.

I will report back soon to see how the nitrates do - if they reduce down in a week or so.

Reading this makes me feel like this hobby is a lot of work lol.