Mike and Ashley's 150g reef tank (our first)

[Flagg37]

OK, thanks Vincent for coming to my rescue and getting the system running and everyone who offered advice. We still needed some additional assistance and neptunesupport played with it quite a bit today to get the display and all systems aligned. Hats off to those guys as well. Apparently I am now beta testing their new AOS........................

Located some ammonia (hard to find the straight stuff with no additives) and dosed up to 4 ppm. Pulled the filter socks and shut off the skimmer (I can do that now, yeah) per Dr. Tim's instructions and added 3 bottles of Dr. Tim's One and Only. The countdown to inhabitants begins! This is going to be tougher than I thought staring at an empty tank. I think I need to get something in quarantine soon...............

How narrow do you recommend controling the temperature band on the system and what is a good setpoint? + 0.5 degrees, + 0.2 degrees, + 0.1 degree? I am set at 78.5 + 0.5 right now and thinking that may be too wide of a variation. PH is 8.1. Salinity is 1.024. Haven't measured anything else, was working on the Apex..............

I moved both WAVs to one side of the tank (the far side) - anyone have a good program they recommend with this configuration?

Best regards,
Mike

For the cycle it won't make any difference but warmer (80 degrees +) will be better to promote bacterial growth. When you go to start housing animals obviously the more stable the better which would lean more towards a very narrow band. Keep in mind that the more narrow it is the more it will turn on and off which is added wear and increases a chance of failure. Mine comes on at 77.0 and off at 77.5. It's actually been a while since they have come on with it being so warm lately. My fan has been controlling the temp of my tank. It comes on when the tank hits 79 degrees and goes off when it gets below 78.

 

[WCKDVPR]

Thanks, I'll bump up the temperature (going to try it via fusion from work). Right now without lights over the tank, it takes about 3 hours to drop from 78 to 77 degrees and kick the heater on. I figure that will change when the lights arrive. In 36 hours since adding ammonia and Dr. Tim's, the ammonia dropped from 4 ppm to a little more than 2 ppm. No trace of nitrite yet. A few parameters to tweak tonight, salinity is at 1.022, Alk is at 5.8, and pH is at 7.9, so getting after those when I get home. Phos is 0.00. I didn't test anything else yet.

 

[Flagg37]

It's a good idea not to run your lights during the cycle. The bacteria doesn't need light and algae can start growing and it may be a while before you have herbivores to keep the algae under control.

EDIT: I just reread your post saying WITHOUT lights. I read with lights originally.

 

[WCKDVPR]

This is pretty cool, I upped the temp from work via fusion and we are now at 81 F (80-81 range).

 

[scuzy]

Are you controlling your heaters from apex? So you don't have redundancy in heating controls?

 

[Flagg37]

I control them with the apex but the thermostat of the heater itself is set to 80 degrees. That way even if probe goes wonky and the apex turns on the heater then the heater will turn itself off when it reaches 80.

 

[scuzy]

I control them with the apex but the thermostat of the heater itself is set to 80 degrees. That way even if probe goes wonky and the apex turns on the heater then the heater will turn itself off when it reaches 80.

I use a ranco

 

[roostertech]

http://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/apex-fusion-club.20084/

You can post your user name to be added as viewer, so we can spy on each other's tank.

 

[WCKDVPR]

username = mhorzewski

Feel free to give advice. I figure I'll be learning the apex while I cycle the tank, so I am probably doing lots of things wrong.

Using the apex for the heaters. I actually do not have redundancy to turn off the heaters (they have no controls themselves, just a stick and a power cord). Seems like a good idea though.

 

[scuzy]

username = mhorzewski

Feel free to give advice. I figure I'll be learning the apex while I cycle the tank, so I am probably doing lots of things wrong.

Using the apex for the heaters. I actually do not have redundancy to turn off the heaters (they have no controls themselves, just a stick and a power cord). Seems like a good idea though.

Without redundancy your are relying on apex temp probe.

 

[WCKDVPR]

Without redundancy your are relying on apex temp probe.

I see that. Any thoughts as my heaters don't have any self-temp controls?

 

[scuzy]

You can add a ranco controller in-between.

There is also asked ink bird as well but the ranco is most recommended.

Inkbird Itc-308 Digital Temperature Controller Outlet Thermostat, 2-stage, 1100w, w/ Sensor https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011296704/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_JppGzb5BD7AQH

 

[roostertech]

The other way to think of heater is to correctly size it. I have a 150w Cobalt Neotherm heater (set at 80F, apex set at 78F) in my 140g volume. So even if somehow both Apex AND the built in Cobalt controller (which BRS tested to be fairly accurate) fail, it can't heat the tank a lot more than my intended max.

 

[scuzy]

Those cobalt neotherms are the exploding ones?

 

[roostertech]

Those cobalt neotherms are the exploding ones?

Never heard of them exploding. The build on these things are rock solid vs the fragile glass cover one. Also the shorter length compare to glass version make it easier to shove it in tight spot.

 

[Vhuang168]

Only a certain batch of the 200w ones were exploding.


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[scuzy]

Well here it is not only 200

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2642498


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2376715

 

[daddio]

Well here it is not only 200

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2642498


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2376715

Wow! after reading through the second link, the Neotherms are all junk and have caused some serious tank damage!!

 

[Vhuang168]

Only a batch. They've since fixed it. I've had my 4 heaters for a long time. But I don't have anything larger than a 100w. It's easy to dismiss a product just because of some failures. Granted the failures were pretty bad but glass heaters have been breaking since forever and we are still using them.


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[RandyC]

I have multiples of Neotherms in 50W, 75W, 100W and 300W and have only had one 75W die (not exploded - just stopped working) in the last year.