Mike and Ashley's 150g reef tank (our first)
- Thread starter WCKDVPR
- Start date
I think it is a serious problem with Neptune/Apex that they don’t have it on by default, or at least prompt you to set it up in the getting started tutorials, with periodic reminders when you don’t have it set up. The message boards are FILLED with people who buy the Apex partly because of this monitoring feature, figure it is on by default since it is advertised heavily, then have a catastrophic tank failure with no alert.
Anyway, rant aside, check out this walk-through:
https://forum.neptunesystems.com/showthread.php?17602-How-to-activate-Heartbeat-in-APEX-Fusion
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
Anyway, rant aside, check out this walk-through:
https://forum.neptunesystems.com/showthread.php?17602-How-to-activate-Heartbeat-in-APEX-Fusion
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
Thanks for the heads up!
Battling some serious bleaching on my tricolor over the weekend. Been slightly dialing up the output over the past 2 months (about 5%/week). Must have hit some threshold the tricolor doesn't like. Everything else is happy. Going to turn down the lights a bit.
Question on lighting spectrum. I am running 15.5k, a copy of Andy's with less total intensity. My red planet is very dark red. The other night, I turned a cheap LED flashlight on the tank and the red planet under that lighting was green with red polyps (like it was at Neptune when I bought it, under a Kessil AP 700). Any thoughts on what spectrum might make that look more green and red instead of just dark red? Attached is my spectrum.
I have been having trouble with sand drifting around, so I finally moved my power heads off the back wall and onto the sides. I can turn them up more now and no sand issues (running something close to 45x now with no sand issues). Seems to be a less flow at the bottom of the tank with more in the upper half (no surprise). That sent the anemone on a walkabout. It moved from the right rocks at the sand, to the middle at the sand, to the top of the rocks in the middle, back to the right rocks at the sand and this morning is going up the right rock structure. It is half way to the top right now. Hasn't run over any corals yet, but I did have to rescue the hairy rhodactis as it was directly in it's path and thankfully just sitting on the sand, so I could move it.
Battling some serious bleaching on my tricolor over the weekend. Been slightly dialing up the output over the past 2 months (about 5%/week). Must have hit some threshold the tricolor doesn't like. Everything else is happy. Going to turn down the lights a bit.
Question on lighting spectrum. I am running 15.5k, a copy of Andy's with less total intensity. My red planet is very dark red. The other night, I turned a cheap LED flashlight on the tank and the red planet under that lighting was green with red polyps (like it was at Neptune when I bought it, under a Kessil AP 700). Any thoughts on what spectrum might make that look more green and red instead of just dark red? Attached is my spectrum.
I have been having trouble with sand drifting around, so I finally moved my power heads off the back wall and onto the sides. I can turn them up more now and no sand issues (running something close to 45x now with no sand issues). Seems to be a less flow at the bottom of the tank with more in the upper half (no surprise). That sent the anemone on a walkabout. It moved from the right rocks at the sand, to the middle at the sand, to the top of the rocks in the middle, back to the right rocks at the sand and this morning is going up the right rock structure. It is half way to the top right now. Hasn't run over any corals yet, but I did have to rescue the hairy rhodactis as it was directly in it's path and thankfully just sitting on the sand, so I could move it.
rygh
Guest
My usual advice for people on color tweaking:
Turn up UV and royal blues near max.
Then slowly increase white until the tanks bluish tint is "not annoying" to your personal preference.
Then raise green/red/etc until you just barely start to notice.
Then you can usually lower the white a little bit.
Then multiply all that with a master channel.
Turn up UV and royal blues near max.
Then slowly increase white until the tanks bluish tint is "not annoying" to your personal preference.
Then raise green/red/etc until you just barely start to notice.
Then you can usually lower the white a little bit.
Then multiply all that with a master channel.
Vhuang168
Guest
Lol. Oh look. Exactly what Kessil AP700s achieve! The A360/160 as well but without the red/green control though I leave those at 0 anyway.
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Too funny, thanks guys! I'll play with that this weekend when I get some time.
Hey Vincent, do you have a way to share (display) your AP 700 spectrum? Any interest in coming over one of these days (for a beer or wine) and just taking a look at my tank and offering any general advice now that it has been running for a touch over 2 months?
Thanks,
Mike
Hey Vincent, do you have a way to share (display) your AP 700 spectrum? Any interest in coming over one of these days (for a beer or wine) and just taking a look at my tank and offering any general advice now that it has been running for a touch over 2 months?
Thanks,
Mike
The Mitras are pretty nice in this regards. As you can see from the previously posted spectrum, each color LED has its own slider output control, and there is also a master. You can directly view the changes to the lights to play around with it without actually loading the file to the lights. Multiple lights can be slaved or individual settings. I just have them all slaved to copy the master (only requires uploading loading one file). I do have a 5 minute delay (each) across the slaved lights, so the lights ramp on and then ramp off left to right across the tank over a span of 10 minutes.
Now if I just knew what to do with them
Crazy anemone is now almost at the top of the highest rock structure (on the right) and has been getting blasted by flow for the past 24 hours. Getting awfully close to some SPS corals......
Now if I just knew what to do with them
Crazy anemone is now almost at the top of the highest rock structure (on the right) and has been getting blasted by flow for the past 24 hours. Getting awfully close to some SPS corals......
Vhuang168
Guest
Not really. They don’t list actually list kelvin numbers.
Here is how my schedule looks like.
Color control wheel for Kessil
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Flagg37
Guest
My curve looks more like a bell instead of a hump but, like you, I start and end with the darkest blue with the lighter blue used in the middle of the day. I like the look of the whiter light like you have it at the peak but I was getting more algae growth so I put it at the middle blue color at my peak.
Hi All,
So I followed your instructions and basically wound up turning the blues all way up, added a little bit of white, and then visually dialed the red/green and wound up with them at almost zero. Kind of just like what you guys said would happen, imagine that I then dialed up the UV (which I couldn't see) per your recommendations. Color wise, I start out at 20k, ramp to midday at 16.5k, then ramp back to 20k. I kept the spectrum total brightness (lm) the same as I was previously running. Colors on some of the corals are a little richer, but still no real blue on the German Blue digitata and the Red Planet hasn't picked up any of the green tint. Oh well. The Bird of Paradise looks better as do the grape montis, the hammer, and the orange setosa. The new kryptonite candy cane is seriously radiation green (very cool). Now let's see if everything freaks out .
The anemone has been wandering for days, got its butt kicked the other night by the candy cane, and now seems to have snuggled up right next to the bird of paradise. Waiting to see who wins that one. Speaking of the candy cane, very cool looking blue tentacles come out at night from the center of the polyps. I need to figure out how to take a picture of that with almost no light - assuming a long exposure will be blurred from motion and I don't feel like turning off all the water flow. Also, I don't have a macro lens.
The orange setosa has finally settled in and is showing lots of tiny polyps with some new (white) growth extensions. Red planet has fully encrusted the plug and extended a few mm out onto the rocks in a few places. Tricolor is still seriously bleached. Still trying to figure out what happened there as everything else seems happy.
My new (donated) ricordia that picked up some sticks (birds nest fragments?) upon extraction from its home tank is still twisted up around them. Not sure how to straighten it out as it won't let go of the stick fragments. Right now I just have it sitting in the sand hoping it will straighten itself out. Any suggestions?
Thanks for all the input!
Planning to get some kind of blue coral probably tomorrow (I need to go get salt, so I might as well come home with a coral) as I have a high light, high flow area between the red planet and tricolor that is barren and needs something - probably an SPS given those conditions. Anyone going to Neptune tomorrow (Sunday) and want to meet up - help us pick something?
Best regards,
Mike
So I followed your instructions and basically wound up turning the blues all way up, added a little bit of white, and then visually dialed the red/green and wound up with them at almost zero. Kind of just like what you guys said would happen, imagine that
I then dialed up the UV (which I couldn't see) per your recommendations. Color wise, I start out at 20k, ramp to midday at 16.5k, then ramp back to 20k. I kept the spectrum total brightness (lm) the same as I was previously running. Colors on some of the corals are a little richer, but still no real blue on the German Blue digitata and the Red Planet hasn't picked up any of the green tint. Oh well. The Bird of Paradise looks better as do the grape montis, the hammer, and the orange setosa. The new kryptonite candy cane is seriously radiation green (very cool). Now let's see if everything freaks out .The anemone has been wandering for days, got its butt kicked the other night by the candy cane, and now seems to have snuggled up right next to the bird of paradise. Waiting to see who wins that one. Speaking of the candy cane, very cool looking blue tentacles come out at night from the center of the polyps. I need to figure out how to take a picture of that with almost no light - assuming a long exposure will be blurred from motion and I don't feel like turning off all the water flow. Also, I don't have a macro lens.
The orange setosa has finally settled in and is showing lots of tiny polyps with some new (white) growth extensions. Red planet has fully encrusted the plug and extended a few mm out onto the rocks in a few places. Tricolor is still seriously bleached. Still trying to figure out what happened there as everything else seems happy.
My new (donated) ricordia that picked up some sticks (birds nest fragments?) upon extraction from its home tank is still twisted up around them. Not sure how to straighten it out as it won't let go of the stick fragments. Right now I just have it sitting in the sand hoping it will straighten itself out. Any suggestions?
Thanks for all the input!
Planning to get some kind of blue coral probably tomorrow (I need to go get salt, so I might as well come home with a coral) as I have a high light, high flow area between the red planet and tricolor that is barren and needs something - probably an SPS given those conditions. Anyone going to Neptune tomorrow (Sunday) and want to meet up - help us pick something?
Best regards,
Mike
roostertech
Guest
I'm very tempted to get an AA lid every time I see one lol.
kinetic
Supporting Member
The lid looks nice! I just got mine from http://octoaquatics.com/
The quality and build are basically the same. I just found that Matt at octo was a lot easier to contact and communicate with. The lead time was also 1/4th the time of AA. He's kind of no frills to the point kind of person, which I appreciate.
The quality and build are basically the same. I just found that Matt at octo was a lot easier to contact and communicate with. The lead time was also 1/4th the time of AA. He's kind of no frills to the point kind of person, which I appreciate.
rygh
Guest
I did that at first also, but then changed it.
The trick - don't look at the "overall" red/green tint. It makes little difference.
Find corals, and particularly fish for reds, that are red/green in spots, and that do not fluoresce, and look at those as you adjust.
I ended up cranking red/green up a fair amount after that.
Hi All,
It's been a while - busy with a new job. I dialed up the reds and greens a bit and that brought out some more color, though still disappointed in the color of the red planet, but it is growing well, so I am not messing with things. In fact, everything except the green hammer is growing well and the tricolor. Polyps are out on the tricolor, but not much improvement on color - still pretty bleached out.
Ran into some of the fun with reef tanks in that I spotted two little anemones I swear were aptasia sitting on the sand (about 1/4" tall). I scooped them out with a lot of surrounding sand and haven't seen any since. Wondering if I should do a chemical treatment? I was thinking maybe a file fish, but we have two cleaner shrimp we really like and have no interest in losing them.
Last weekend we added the purple fire fish we have had in quarantine (now that we have a cover) to the display tank. It immediately took up residence at the mouth of the tunnel in the left rock structure. The clowns haven't messed with it and it is eating real well. I'm taking that as all good signs.
Question - how do you get ricordea to stay put when it isn't attached to anything I can glue to the rocks? It keeps blowing around the tank..........
Can't seem to upload a file and the insert tab so no pic of the new guy.
It's been a while - busy with a new job. I dialed up the reds and greens a bit and that brought out some more color, though still disappointed in the color of the red planet, but it is growing well, so I am not messing with things. In fact, everything except the green hammer is growing well and the tricolor. Polyps are out on the tricolor, but not much improvement on color - still pretty bleached out.
Ran into some of the fun with reef tanks in that I spotted two little anemones I swear were aptasia sitting on the sand (about 1/4" tall). I scooped them out with a lot of surrounding sand and haven't seen any since. Wondering if I should do a chemical treatment? I was thinking maybe a file fish, but we have two cleaner shrimp we really like and have no interest in losing them.
Last weekend we added the purple fire fish we have had in quarantine (now that we have a cover) to the display tank. It immediately took up residence at the mouth of the tunnel in the left rock structure. The clowns haven't messed with it and it is eating real well. I'm taking that as all good signs.
Question - how do you get ricordea to stay put when it isn't attached to anything I can glue to the rocks? It keeps blowing around the tank..........
Can't seem to upload a file and the insert tab so no pic of the new guy.