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

revhtree · Jan 16, 2017

Show off...

120reefkeeper · Jan 17, 2017

Can't say I've read your entire thread yet but I'm about to. Thanks for sharing your build with us. Now onward to read 59 pages! Lol

s2nhle · Jan 17, 2017

Wow, very awesome. Thanks,

RobertP · Jan 17, 2017

Terence, only up to page 47 but thought I better post this before I forget. Wouldn't it be cool to hit a button on your phone to pop open your canopy? I know I have seen electric actuators that could do that and you should be able to control it with the apex via power. Not sure how it would hold up to salt but they do make them for the auto industry.

Terence · Jan 17, 2017

RobertP said:
Terence, only up to page 47 but thought I better post this before I forget. Wouldn't it be cool to hit a button on your phone to pop open your canopy? I know I have seen electric actuators that could do that and you should be able to control it with the apex via power. Not sure how it would hold up to salt but they do make them for the auto industry.

Funny you should say that. I have already come up with some counter balance and actuator proposed designs. I still think that the physics are going to be tough. The canopies weigh about 55 pounds each, loaded with the Philips fixtures. The canopy is 24" wide so there is a bit of moment out there. And, I could have a "lever" hang off the back, but then it would put a ton of stress on the canopy if it simply pulled straight down. So I think I need to have at least 10" up of post with a wheel on the end to help lessen that. If I did that and attached a cable to the front of the canopy and had the linear actuator pull down on the cable, it could work. Just a lot of work to make it happen.

If you have any good ideas - my ears are open because that would be exactly what I want to do.

RobertP · Jan 17, 2017

I see where you are going and like the counter balance idea...similar to a castle gate! I was thinking have the actuator do all the work of pushing it open because it is easier but unless you had 2 per canopy it could twist it. There are tons of different lengths and saw one on amazon that was 220 lb rating.

The other thing is how to wire it. The ones I have seen are reverse polarity controlled. That is simple with an electric switch....think switch for your electric car windows. I built a relay systemyears ago to replace a window switch for a boat but not sure it will work with the 110 power option. Not sure what custom option apex has. For example if you had an extra cable and port can it be made to send signals for up and down? Then the relays can send full 12 volts either way...
Can you tell I am out of my element? I can come up with an idea but not always the solutions.

gettaReef · Jan 18, 2017

In the photo you posted showing the FMK graph, I understand that "MAINFL" is the return pump(s), but what is "RO-FLO"? And do you plan to install/measure the flow of anything else in your system (I assume you wouldn't need to install one on the sulfer denitrator intake bc it is run by the DOS, maybe the output though?)? Thanks, I'm just curious and trying to figure out myself where to install them once they come out

markstubb · Jan 18, 2017

probably his reverse osmosis filter for ATO or making saltwater for AWC

gettaReef · Jan 18, 2017

I suppose it could be the reverse osmosis filter. RO could also stand for reef octopus. My guess is it is the skimmer pump. Why would you need to measure flow for making saltwater or for a AWC?

Damion · Jan 19, 2017

To measure waste water, product water, the difference between the 2 for efficiency data?

Terence · Jan 20, 2017

A little nighttime action...

Terence · Jan 20, 2017

The 1/4" is for the feed line to my RODI. Should it get left on at times outside my normal "make-water" times or should the flow exceed normal values, I get an alarm.

Brandon Buerkle · Jan 23, 2017

Ok so it only took me about 2 weeks to thread all 59 pages between work but it's a fantastic build. I finally managed to get a 120g set up with a fish room and apex, but watching this just makes me want to go bigger and more in-depth. Keep up the inspiration!

Terence · Jan 25, 2017

A little brain action this morning:

revhtree · Jan 25, 2017

Nice vids! Love your tiny url! HA!

Terence · Jan 25, 2017

Interesting things happening on the Fugazzi425 of late.

First, last night I did some adjustments to my salinity (to bring it up), over shot, and then had to drain some and add RO to dilute. After an hour of dinking around in the Fish Cave, I came upstairs and looked at my tank. It was super cloudy. I panicked. Then I had a closer look. In addition to it being cloudy, all these specks were flying around in the water. I called Nancy over and she says "look, why is there smoke coming out of that snail!" I laughed so hard. So I grabbed a bit of water in the tupperware and looked at it. Specs dropped to the bottom and didn't move. Last time my shrimp had a spawn, they were dancing all over in the tupperware. So it seems that all the salinity fluctuation must have told all my snails that the apocalypse was coming and then then searched all over the tank looking for each other, and then had little orgies of 4-8 snails all over the tank. It was crazy to watch as one would rear up and spew out all the eggs and then moments later, a snail somewhere else would "puff" out tons of sperm. Of course all the corals were out and loving it at this time.

Next thing that happened is that I changed out my ORP probe in my @MarineDepot AquaMaxx Sulphur Denitrator. After a month of not being able to bring down the ORP, I figured it had to be bad. So I put in a new probe and bam, it went right to zero in 20 minutes or less. The Apex cannot register negative ORP (there are some technical reasons I will not get into here) but you can do something else to "fake" it. If you set the second pH/ORP port to from ORP to pH (but still use an ORP probe of course), you can read the actual positive or negative ORP using a conversion of pH units. Basically everything >7.00 is negative, everything below is positive ORP. Each full unit of pH is ~58mv of ORP reading. So, as an example, 9.00 pH would be equal to -116mv ORP.

Right away my ORP was dropping and reading super low (9.3 which is -133 using this method). Now recently I changed feeding my Denitrator with my PMUP and a pinch valve to using the DOS. I just couldn't get a consistent drip rate from the pinch valve. It is now set to 2ml/min on my Apex (actually about 20ml every 10 min). Since before I wanted to get an alert and not dose any more when the ORP was lower than 25, I put in a limiting OFF statement in the advanced menu on that DOS set up. However, last night I forgot about that so I was not feeding the denitrator again until this morning when I could not see any dosing in the dose chart. Now everything is working well, my ORP topped out at 0 around noon today and has been steadily dropping since then (the chart below shows it rising, but remember, positive direction in pH over 7 is a drop in ORP. I know, hard to wrap your head around.

I hope this info helps some of you out there that might be running a sulphur denitrator or thinking about trying one. I love the AquaMaxx so far. The build quality is sound for sure. Now, I just need to get that ORP down to around -150-200 and hopefully I will see it make some difference - my nitrates could use it right now!

Terence · Jan 25, 2017

Some new photos. I am getting better, but still a long way to go.

s2nhle · Jan 26, 2017

Very very awesome pics. Thanks,

Dxpert · Feb 4, 2017

Cool trick with the ORP/PH setting. I'm interested to read more about the sulphur denitrator and the relationship it has with ORP. Have you come across any good articles that you would recommend?

Love seeing the great shots of the coral, keep the fantastic pictures coming!