My 50 gallon slice of the ocean

[LEOreefer]

Hey everyone a quick update, I've been busy at work being 4th of July weekend so I haven't had much time to update. I got the apex installed in its home. Nothing is worked into it yet and there is no salt water in the tank. Man I have to say that this thing is intimidating! I don't want to rush settimg it up until I have a good handle how to use it. I've been reading a ton on the apex forums and my head is spinning.

 

[LEOreefer]

Some more progress I decided to redo my electrical plan as the cabinet I originally mounted was way to small. I upgraded to a bigger cabinet with smoked glass on the front. The main equipment will be mounted on a false back hiding all the ugly wires. I also put together my DIY cheto reactor.

 

[LEOreefer]

More pics to come tomorrow of the competed controll cabinet. I also upgraded my return pump as I was running the system wide open during the leak test and was not happy with the flow and turnover rate

 

[msab]

Hey everyone a quick update, I've been busy at work being 4th of July weekend so I haven't had much time to update. I got the apex installed in its home. Nothing is worked into it yet and there is no salt water in the tank. Man I have to say that this thing is intimidating! I don't want to rush settimg it up until I have a good handle how to use it. I've been reading a ton on the apex forums and my head is spinning.

Following along! Looks awesome so far! Congrats on the BRS win! Let me know if you need any help or examples on the apex programming. I can share my dashboard with you as well if you want to take a peak at mine.

 

[LEOreefer]

Following along! Looks awesome so far! Congrats on the BRS win! Let me know if you need any help or examples on the apex programming. I can share my dashboard with you as well if you want to take a peak at mine.

Thank you! I've been reading the apex forum and just ordered the ATO from Neptune. To start it will be the new apex with all probes , 2 leak detection probes , and the ATO. I'm definitely going to need help programming it as I've been reading for about 2 weeks now and still have no idea what I'm doing hahahahaha. I also have the Fire 7 tablet that going to be a display module. The one thing I'm trying to figure out now is I've read that the salinity probe can't really be ran near other electronics wires but that's not really an option for me as I don't have much space. How important is this fact if at all ?

 

[msab]

I cant speak too much on the salinity probe as I don't have one, yet . I have seen Neptune recommend keeping it away from other devices when they are not getting accurate readings. Same probably goes for the ph probe.

I would focus more on keeping it away from things that draw large AC current like a chiller. You will have more EMF from that over some dc led light power supply.

I just picked up the ATK and got in installed a few weeks ago. It's awesome, the PMUP gets water from my garage into the living room. No more carrying water for me!... besides water changes

Have you gotten your apex online to fusion yet? If so send me your username and I will add you to view mine. I am no apex expert but I have a pretty good handle on it.

 

[LEOreefer]

I cant speak too much on the salinity probe as I don't have one, yet . I have seen Neptune recommend keeping it away from other devices when they are not getting accurate readings. Same probably goes for the ph probe.

I would focus more on keeping it away from things that draw large AC current like a chiller. You will have more EMF from that over some dc led light power supply.

I just picked up the ATK and got in installed a few weeks ago. It's awesome, the PMUP gets water from my garage into the living room. No more carrying water for me!... besides water changes

Have you gotten your apex online to fusion yet? If so send me your username and I will add you to view mine. I am no apex expert but I have a pretty good handle on it.

Yup I'm online and connected to fusion! Just nothing hooked into it yet I'll PM you so we can talk apex!

 

[LEOreefer]

My newly thought out control panel I call it "the brain"

 

[needbiggertanks]

Dang that is looking legit... #tankgoals

 

[LEOreefer]

Fire tablet for control

 

[LEOreefer]

Started working on aqua scape today. Let me know what you think and any suggestions ?

 

[LEOreefer]

I think this will be my final scape. I'm going to leave it and let it sink in over the next few days

 

[LEOreefer]

Plenty of "shelf room" for corals

 

[Barrett]

Plenty of "shelf room" for corals

That's one thing I wish I had more of.

 

[LEOreefer]

So we are close to getting wet ! There's a few more things that need to be hanndeled before I start cycling.

First is my remaining apex equipment: I have the ATK coming today and we'll as 2 additional optical sensors and a ATO container arriving next week. Once all the items are hooked up I have to program my apex which is a daunting task for me. I'm still trying to learn the programming language and how to set up different things. I want to be able to have a feed cycle , a set of pumps shut off when the leak detection detects water, etc......

Second : is I need to nail down this aqua scape and decide if this is what I really want. The wife approved and she really liked it so I might just keep it, but I'm leaving it for a few days to see if I decide to change my mind.

3rd: I need to figure out where I want to set up my quarantine tank, the wife again suggested place the tank in our bedroom which I wasn't against
I also want to find a camera so I can monitor the tank visually when I'm not home. I have the next system but I don't want to shell out anther $200 for a camera. I'm looking for a cheaper solution that I can use one camera from a few feet away and one right up against the glass


Ive come a long way since the start of this build many months ago. I don't anticipate fish until after my honeymoon and wedding at the end of October ( deal I made with the wife) but I may try to sneak some coral in there

I always I look forward to you guys commenting and making suggestions on how I could improve in different areas. This site has been a god send along with the great people and advise I get every day on here! I look forward to closing the build chapter and starting a new chapter with everyone on here!

 

[Barrett]

So we are close to getting wet ! There's a few more things that need to be hanndeled before I start cycling.

First is my remaining apex equipment: I have the ATK coming today and we'll as 2 additional optical sensors and a ATO container arriving next week. Once all the items are hooked up I have to program my apex which is a daunting task for me. I'm still trying to learn the programming language and how to set up different things. I want to be able to have a feed cycle , a set of pumps shut off when the leak detection detects water, etc......

Second : is I need to nail down this aqua scape and decide if this is what I really want. The wife approved and she really liked it so I might just keep it, but I'm leaving it for a few days to see if I decide to change my mind.

3rd: I need to figure out where I want to set up my quarantine tank, the wife again suggested place the tank in our bedroom which I wasn't against
I also want to find a camera so I can monitor the tank visually when I'm not home. I have the next system but I don't want to shell out anther $200 for a camera. I'm looking for a cheaper solution that I can use one camera from a few feet away and one right up against the glass


Ive come a long way since the start of this build many months ago. I don't anticipate fish until after my honeymoon and wedding at the end of October ( deal I made with the wife) but I may try to sneak some coral in there

I always I look forward to you guys commenting and making suggestions on how I could improve in different areas. This site has been a god send along with the great people and advise I get every day on here! I look forward to closing the build chapter and starting a new chapter with everyone on here!

Excited to see this coming together, can't wait to see your stock list. I have a few more fish to add, then going to start deciding on more coral.

 

[LEOreefer]

A little update today I just started my work week so not much will be done until middle of next week. I did a rough install of the neptune ATK and have a BRS shipments sitting at home with other goodies. I will be epoxying my rock work together to make it more stable as well as finalizing my ATO setup. I also want to get 2 cameras so I can see what's going on when I'm not home, is anyone using cameras and if so what are you using ?

 

[LEOreefer]

Excited to see this coming together, can't wait to see your stock list. I have a few more fish to add, then going to start deciding on more coral.

I was playing with the idea of getting some beginner coral first and go with fish after the wedding. I'm not sure though, I am working on my stock list over the next week or so and will post it up for some feedback she competed

 

[Devaji]

great build sir! I just read from the 1st post. I have the Sca 90 gal and was playing around with the 50 for a Seahorse tank.
a few questions for ya:
I wanted to do the ghost over flow as well. did Steve charge for the drilling?
how do you like the overflow?
noise level?
anything else I should know about that overflow? if you had to do it over would you still go with it?
if you dont mind can you post some more pics of it top down shots if you can. thanks

I love the ikea apex box I have been meaning to do the same.

 

[LEOreefer]

great build sir! I just read from the 1st post. I have the Sca 90 gal and was playing around with the 50 for a Seahorse tank.
a few questions for ya:
I wanted to do the ghost over flow as well. did Steve charge for the drilling?
how do you like the overflow?
noise level?
anything else I should know about that overflow? if you had to do it over would you still go with it?
if you dont mind can you post some more pics of it top down shots if you can. thanks

I love the ikea apex box I have been meaning to do the same.

Hey thanks for reading ! Steve disk not charge me for the drilled tank but I believe lead time is like 22 weeks. The noise I can't 100% comment on yet as I only ran it with water for a day while I did the leak test. What I can say was once it's dialed in its dead silent. I did have so,e gurgling but I believe that was because my return pump was undersized and not pushing enough water. I got a larger return but haven't tried it out yet.

I love the design of the overflow itself it really gives you so much extra room to work with in the tank and you can barely see it on the black background. It does a really good job at skimming water off the surface and it would be near impossible for fish or critters to make it down the overflow.

Some of the negatives, make sure you account for the rear overflow box. I did not account for it and the fact the tank would stick 6 ish inches off the wall. The wife was not happy that it was so far off the wall but she got over it . I did have a leak issue but that was from my own stupidity in not setting up the gaskets right. I was suprised to see the plastic flex when the bulkheads where tightened but it was minor and did not affect performance. Because of the overflowntakig up 16" of the back wall I guess they where really limited on what to do with the return hole. The return hole is predrilled tomfit a 1/2" bulk head on the left side of the over flow. It gets VERY tight once you add the lock line return. I also with the hole its self was bigger but I guess you really can't go much bigger without really running into issues with the overflow.

Now the biggest issue I a, trying to solve is the cover issue. I wanted to order a artfully acrylic mesh top , the problem is because the return is so cramped it comes up out of the water and that would prevent a top from sitting on the tank properly. On the other hand I could just lower the return lines in the tank but if a power outage happens it would siphon more volume than my sump could hold and flood the floor. When I was doing the leak test I flooded about 15 gals of water by accident because the returns where to far down in the tank.

All in all so far I would deff order this setup again. Obviously it's very early in the game but I think the space it gives you is good enough reason alone to go with one of these. I will deff post some more pics of it once I get home in the morning