gsgentry Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 It is still too early to tell. I have spent a bazillion, yes bazillion dollars on this and it doesnt even have water in it yet. LOL That is ok though, it will get wet tomorrow. Link to comment
drfu Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Cool, looking forward to seeing how it goes Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 Busy day today!! I took the day off to complete a few projects on the tank so we would get it wet!! Got a package from SteveT today!!! Perfect timing too!! The quality and design on these baskets is AMAZING!!! I could not be happier with these baskets!! Kudos to SteveT for these!! I stopped and picked up the sand and a couple of pieces of live rock today. Also got some RO/DI water for top offs and my saltwater (I haven't purchased a RO/DI yet) from a LFS. Let's get this thing going!!!! Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 It's finally GO time!!! We have sand... And water!!!!! Now to let everything settle and work on another project. I did lower my heater... just wasn't sure where the water level was going to end up. Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 While designing all this in my head, I planned on placing an ATO tank on the bottom. That was one of the original reasons I placed a shelf in the stand. Well now that I have the Apex ordered, my mind keeps going on more things that I can do. So today I ran up to Petco and picked up (2) 5.5 gallon tanks. My plan is to use one for an ATO tank at the moment, but then I am going to build a DIY AWC unit using the Apex. Then one tank will be new saltwater and the other will be old saltwater. So after I picked these up, I stopped to see a friend at a glass cutting shop here in town. I asked him if he could cut a couple of pieces of glass to fit the top and drill a hole in the corner of them. I will uses these as lids (evaporation) and the holes will be for the airline tube for the aqua lifter pumps. Thank god for tape measures. I don't have any room left on the bottom and the fit just perfect!! Top View with shelf tilted back. Once I get this up and running, I have no more room for a ATO tank. So I was on ebay and found these. This guy also made (2) acrylic 3 probe holders for me. So I will plan on ordering one of these and place it next to my tank. I will also post the probe holders when I get them. 3 of them will be for the Apex probes, but the other 3 will be for the ATO, salt out and salt in lines. Well I think that about does it for now. I think I will go see how the tank is clearing up. Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 It's clearing up nicely. Also, I got some smaller rubble pieces of live rock today and placed them in my fuge basket for now. Once I am done with my cycle, I will move them to the sump and put some macro algae in the fuge basket. Link to comment
rdck99 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Good update! Very excited to see how your ATO/AWC design works out. Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Thanks... The ATO will be easy... I already have the brackets and floats on the way. The tricky part is getting water from the tank without a siphon starting. Link to comment
Nuvo24 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I see you went with the Nuvo 24 BLACK. I was thinking of going white. Will white wash out the colors of the coral? Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Not to my knowledge, but I don't have first hand experience with this. The white ones that I have seen pictures of, look pretty good to me. Maybe one of the others can chime in. Tank is looking very clear this morning!! Not bad for being just over 12 hours since setup. The live rock in the back corners wasn't planned as part of my aquascape, so I kind of just stuck them there. I am still going to tinker with the one on the left to see if I can get a better look out of it. Link to comment
TeamIM24 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Looking good. Thanks for posting all the pics. Link to comment
Cameron6796 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I love the arcing scape Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Thanks guys! I checked the water level last night and realized how much evaporation this thing has. WOW. Good thing the Apex and my DIY ATO parts will be here this week. Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 Received another package today... These are the brackets to hold the floats for my DIY ATO on the Apex. They will hold the high/low sensors and hang on the back, into the sump.The single one will go into my ATO tank and alert me when I need to add more water (via email and/or txt message). More to come on this. Link to comment
RL206 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Holy cow! Every time I look, new toys I'm too indecisive to order stuff just yet, this build is in hyperspeed Rearrange the scape yet? Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 No... I think I'm just going to leave it alone for now. Sometimes I look at it and love it and other times I hate it. Lol Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 11, 2014 Author Share Posted January 11, 2014 Happy Friday everyone!!! Came home to a few more packages!!! Apex, Breakout Box, pH Probe and pH Probe Calibration Fluid Tunze 9002 Skimmer, InTank Skinny Skimmer Cup, Aqualifter Pump for DIY ATO, Valve for Skimmer Mod, Test Stuff And lastly the float sensors for the brackets I posted yesterday... this is also for the DIY ATO. I already have the Apex up and running. Had it wired and on my network within about 10 minutes. Now I have to play around with being able to access it when I am away from home. I think I have it figured out though. I will be putting together the DIY ATO tomorrow. I will be sure to document it as well. That's about all for now. Going to see if the Apex shuts my lights off for me on time. By the way, if anyone is interested in any of the products I have purchased, I have kept a log of everything and will be happy to share where I obtained the items, prices, etc. Link to comment
RL206 Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Happy Friday everyone!!! Came home to a few more packages!!! Apex, Breakout Box, pH Probe and pH Probe Calibration Fluid Tunze 9002 Skimmer, InTank Skinny Skimmer Cup, Aqualifter Pump for DIY ATO, Valve for Skimmer Mod, Test Stuff And lastly the float sensors for the brackets I posted yesterday... this is also for the DIY ATO. I already have the Apex up and running. Had it wired and on my network within about 10 minutes. Now I have to play around with being able to access it when I am away from home. I think I have it figured out though. I will be putting together the DIY ATO tomorrow. I will be sure to document it as well. That's about all for now. Going to see if the Apex shuts my lights off for me on time. By the way, if anyone is interested in any of the products I have purchased, I have kept a log of everything and will be happy to share where I obtained the items, prices, etc. Right on, I'll probably send you a PM in regards to your apex in a few days Curious to see if it is really worth the extra $ over the Reefkeeper, I want it but the $100 difference in units I want is a bit of cash Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 11, 2014 Author Share Posted January 11, 2014 Checked the mail this morning and didn't even realize the probe holders came in. These things are pretty nice!! I am not sure how they stack up compared to the other ones out there, but I am pretty happy with them. I can see that I am running out of room in the back though and the magnetic ones would be nice so I could place them lower in the center sump where I have a lot more room. Installed in the tank with my Temp and pH probe from the Apex. You can see that I had to turn my heater sideways because I need to leave room to install the skimmer later. I am probably going to go ahead and move the heater in the main sump area (where the return pump is). That way it is downstream from the temp and pH probes. I don't like having the probes that close to the heater anyways. Anyone see any issues with the heater being there? Link to comment
Cameron6796 Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Ooo fancy apex probes Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 12, 2014 Author Share Posted January 12, 2014 I went ahead and did the airline mod to the skimmer and then installed it. I had to take it apart twice since there was a slight pinch in the air line when putting everything back together, but other than that it was pretty easy. About took my finger off when the magnets attracted to each other. Those things have some power. Good to know it's going to stay out though. I have noticed that the waterfall into the main sump is much noisier now. I am not sure if this is from the skimmer being there, the water falling onto the magnet on the other side or if I just need to do my daily top off. There are tons of micro bubbles blowing so I am hoping it's just my top off. About to get started on the DIY ATO, so we will see then. Link to comment
gsgentry Posted January 12, 2014 Author Share Posted January 12, 2014 I spent a good part of my day working to get the Apex configured with my network so I could access it remotely. 3 hours waiting on the phone with Comcast, finally they determined my modem as bad, so I went up and exchanged it for a new one. There were some other technical gateway issues that I had to resolve as well. Thank goodness for the Neptune Systems message boards. There are a couple of experts on there that helped and got me up and running finally. Once that was done, I finally went ahead and mounted everything in my stand. Everything is nice and neat now so I can continue on to the DIY ATO. Time to get some more work done!! Link to comment
Cameron6796 Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 "He says mischievously" Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.