SuncrestReef's Red Sea Reefer XL 425 build

[SuncrestReef]

For the past week I have not been able to find ANY aiptasia in my tank or sump. I think I can officially call my berghia nudibranch experiment a success! I feel bad for the nudibranchs because I'm sure they starved and I haven't seen any signs of them for some time, but they accomplished their mission admirably.

It took roughly 3 months. If any of you have an aiptasia problem, I'd highly recommend this solution. You just have to be patient as they quietly do their work every night.

 

[SuncrestReef]

I snapped a few photos tonight after lights out with my UV flashlight. It always amazes me how different corals look at night.

 

[NY_Caveman]

That is some insane color.

 

[SuncrestReef]

That is some insane color.

I know! Granted, the UV flashlight casts a ton of blue in the photos, but the reds, yellows, and greens are all real. These photos are straight from my Nikon camera with no Photoshop editing. I just love how they look.

 

[SuncrestReef]

I added 4 new frags this week that I bought from two local reefers. They both had mature tanks with a ton of large colonies, which makes me realize how young my tank is! It will get there eventually.

Mad Mike's Tricolor


Montipora Undata


Strawberry Shortcake


Bali Green Slimer

 

[SuncrestReef]

My UV sterilizer has been in use for a year, so today I replaced the bulb and cleaned the unit. The last time I cleaned it was six months ago, and I’m surprised that the quartz tube was much cleaner this time than six months ago.

Today it mostly had little sponges attached that wiped off easily:


Last time it had a brown film baked on that required soaking in vinegar to remove:


The inside casing also had some sponges that I wiped off:


Here’s the shiny new UV bulb:


It’s back up and running for another year.

 

[SuncrestReef]

I'm still working to smooth out my daily alk swings. While the Trident does make small adjustments to the DOS to try to keep readings stable, it's still up to you to set the base dosing schedule. I'm currently dosing more during the day and less at night, but I need to tweak the timing a bit more.

One thing that's really interesting is how the frequent testing really reveals the extent of daily swings due to consumption. In the past I always tested alk each morning at 9am. If you only look at the Trident's daily 9am readings, it looks like things are pretty stable. But when you factor in the additional daily tests, you see how much fluctuation actually exists:



As the old saying goes...Ignorance is bliss.

 

[Dub_G]

Very cool to see the swings throughout the day.

I'm not so patiently waiting for some more Tridents to be available to purchase. I'd love to get this level of insight on my Alk and Cal. Just have to wait for Neptune to ship them to retailers.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Here you can see how the lighting schedule lines up with the drop in alk throughout the day:




I think I'm going to shift my dosing schedule a bit.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Here's an updated full tank video. I'm pretty happy with how things are looking lately!

 

[ClaudioA]

Here's a short video of the Trident while testing. You can hear the R2D2-like robot sounds that are freaking out my dog. Hopefully he gets used to it.

HI @SuncrestReef, can you make an inside video (showing the pinch valves and the perialistic pump) during the testing phase?
Thanks

 

[SuncrestReef]

HI @SuncrestReef, can you make an inside video (showing the pinch valves and the perialistic pump) during the testing phase?
Thanks

Unfortunately, no. During testing the reagent bottles and tray must be in place inside the Trident, so there’s no way to get the camera inside. That would be pretty cool to see, though.

 

[SuncrestReef]

It looks like the changes I made to my dosing schedule yesterday are paying off:

 

[SuncrestReef]

My old Garf Bonsai frag hasn't really recovered from anemone stings a while back, so I decided to get a new one:

 

[SuncrestReef]

Over the past few days I've been fine tuning my 2-part dosing schedule based on the readings from my Trident, and now for the past 24 hours the readings have remained within +/- 0.05 dKH of my target, so I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm just amazed at how useful the Trident is!!!

 

[BigMo]

Over the past few days I've been fine tuning my 2-part dosing schedule based on the readings from my Trident, and now for the past 24 hours the readings have remained within +/- 0.05 dKH of my target, so I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm just amazed at how useful the Trident is!!!

WoW, it does really make a difference, Trident is definitely a great investment . [emoji106]

 

[SuncrestReef]

I'm writing up a series of tutorials on Apex programming here on R2R. The first article was published yesterday, and there will be a new topic published each Friday for the next 7 weeks. Check it out:

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/apex-neptune-programming-tutorials-part-1.685/

• Week 1 - Introduction and programming basics
• Week 2 - Timers: OSC, If Time, DOW, Defer, When, and Min Time
• Week 3 - ATK programming and troubleshooting
• Week 4 - Power Monitoring
• Week 5 - Virtual Outputs
• Week 6 - Alarms
• Week 7 - Feed Modes
• Week 8 - Lunar Schedule and Lighting Profiles

 

[vic5hands]

WoW, it does really make a difference, Trident is definitely a great investment . [emoji106]

That trident was the best purchase that I have ever made Surely you’ll agree

 

[SuncrestReef]

Last night I got an alert from my Apex indicating that my sump water level was too high. When I looked I discovered that my COR-20 return pump wasn't running, and its control module had a red light on. In Fusion it said there was a Volt error.

Luckily I keep spare parts for pretty much all of my critical components, so I grabbed the spare COR-20 to swap it out. I dreaded the amount of work I was about to take on at 11pm, since I need to remove my carbon & GFO reactors just to get to the COR-20 to remove it, plus all the work of weaving the power cord through the tight cabinet space.

Instead, I thought maybe I should try swapping out the controller module first, then the power supply, and worst case I'd swap out the actual pump. Well I'm glad I went that route because I was able to identify the power supply as the failed component. A quick swap and my pump was back in business without even getting my hands wet.

I'll open a ticket with Neptune Support to see if they'll replace the power supply for me.

Word of advice to everyone out there: Keep spare parts on hand if you can! I'd be hard pressed to find a replacement COR-20 at nearly midnight on a Saturday.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Word of advice to everyone out there: Keep spare parts on hand if you can! I'd be hard pressed to find a replacement COR-20 at nearly midnight on a Saturday.

Great advice. I just bought a new Sicce return pump and picked up a used one too for parts or a backup. Surely it will fail at 3am some day.