Neptune Aquatics

Hornberson Reef - DSA 90 gallon mixed reef

Winnfield, (sorry had the wrong name oops)

You should add me to your Fusion account (View only) if you needed someone to watch over your system...only if you want tho....

Did your Apex reboot at that time???
What were your amp graphs at 5am that your return pump is plugged into
 
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jonmos75 said:
Winnfield, (sorry had the wrong name oops)

You should add me to your Fusion account (View only) if you needed someone to watch over your system...only if you want tho....
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Thanks. I'll drop you a PM.


jonmos75 said:
Did your Apex reboot at that time???
What were your amp graphs at 5am that your return pump is plugged into
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There was no power outage. I think the impeller in the pump seized. The pump had power the whole time and didn't show much change in amps drawn.

The dc-9000 has a fail safe mode that's supposed to handle the sump running dry and disable the motor. This may have triggered which prevented damage to the motor. The pump did not restart after multiple power cycles. I broke it down and soaked the impeller in vinegar and then scrubbed everything before re-assembly. It started up just fine after this. So either something got lodged/dislodged in the impeller or more likely mineral deposits built up over time and slowly ground the impeller to a halt.
 
We had a 20 minute power outage today. It was re-assuring to get notified on my phone from both the Apex and the webcam going offline.

Thankfully, everything came back up successfully and nothing overflowed. Our Reef Octopus skimmer is very sensitive to raised water levels in the sump and easily overflows, but the cold start sequence delays it about 5 minutes after the return pump so it's able to drain the sump to normal levels before the skimmer comes on.

I haven't hooked up our battery backup emergency airstones to the tank, but this is a reminder I should do that before we go away again.
 
If I had a UPS, I would put the whole system on it.

The battery powered airstones are set to provide a minimal oxygenation of the water running off of D cell batteries.

I have a manual battery backup and a power inverter I could use to run a heater and a powerhead in an emergency, but it's not a UPS or automatic failover.
 
I have two UPS one LARGE one for the tank and I have the Apex shut down non essential parts like light, I have my Vortech pumps run at a slower speed and other things turn off to conserve power in the UPS until I can get home and hoop up the Generator....the smaller UPS is hooked up to my modem & router to give me internet to be able to still communicate with the Apex unit remotely
 
Enderturtle said:
Does the apex have the capability to notify you when it turns on after an outage?
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In Fusion you will get a power failure notification that you have lost power and then after power is restored you will get another notification that the Alarm is off...(power is restored)
 
Nav said:
These stories scare the hell out of me! My job involves a lot of travel... and controllers/backup power is not cheap :(
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This is the reason I post whenever something goes wrong or I make a mistake: so hopefully other folks can think about their tanks or learn something without the stress of going through it. I hope we can all be open about our tanks, especially when things go wrong.
 
I've wired up the doser to dose Calc on the second channel, 40ml/day to start (6am, 12pm, 6pm, 12am) and upped the Alk to 120ml/day (1.2 tsp baking soda) every odd hour (1am, 3am, ...). The corals are all growing like crazy but using up slightly more Alk/Calc each week.

I bought a Flame Angel at the CA Reef Co event today, likely our last fish in this tank:

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Amazing, bright colors and hopefully some extra motion and activity in the tank once he's a little less shy.

Current fish list:
- Pair of Ocellaris Clowns
- Pair of Green Mandarin Gobies
- Female Banggai Cardinal
- Male Flame Angel

I might try to find a male Banggai to pair off with our female.
 
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Tank is doing well. The Flame Angel has acclimated well to the tank and is less shy. He's got some beautiful bright colors and he's starting to fatten up with better food. I've set the autofeeder to feed pellets 3x a day now (8am, 12pm, and 4pm) - a pinch of Omega One Marine pellets. I feed frozen cyclopeeze and spirulina loaded brine shrimp once a day as well. Even with more bioload and increased feeding, I can't get the phosphate above 0.03 or so. I'm glad the tank is maturing.

Corals continue growing like crazy. Some recent pictures for grow out contests:

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Acan is doing well, about 7 baby heads with one large one. 4-5 of them have green color around the mouths as they get bigger.

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Your tank and pictures look amazing! Your "competition" corals look so great too! I really hope that flame angel doesn't start nipping at your corals - mine did so I had to borrow a fish trap and give it away.
 
Thanks, Geneva. I've been reading about flame angels for years and debating getting one. The color and the movement were hard to turn down now that we finally have a tank that's large enough.

With my luck, this guy will devour that beautiful acan :-/ I'm doing my best to give him lots of space and other food to eat. ::fingers crossed::

Also, thanks for the great hollywood stunner chalice from the fragging workshop. You may not see it in the full tanks shot, but it's doing well. The main colony is in the back right corner where I could find a low enough light area it would be OK. There are two smaller colonies in the shadows on the left and inside the main central cave.
 
I really like following your journal and all the various issues you raise that are relevant to others' tanks. I am both paranoid about many issues and unaware of others so I find it interesting and valuable. I will be checking back on your fish posts when I prepare to stock.
 
MolaMola said:
I really like following your journal and all the various issues you raise that are relevant to others' tanks. I am both paranoid about many issues and unaware of others so I find it interesting and valuable. I will be checking back on your fish posts when I prepare to stock.
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Thanks! We're located in Mountain View if you'd ever like to come see our tank.
 
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