160 Gallon Built for Streaming
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This is 'Bee' ... my biota captive bred yellow tang.
I have no idea if Bee is male or female, but 'Bee' is 'her' name because of her bent fin. :)
I bought her from Live Aquaria in late March 2019.
Here she is in March '19 in my quarantine tank. At this size/age she was mostly translucent, and you can clearly see her dorsal fin damage. The 'front on' view shows the bend in her fin clearly.
She is friendly & fearless as long as my hand isn't in the tank, loves nori sheets, frozen mysis, LRS reef nano, premium aquatics pellets... basically everything I put in the tank. She sometimes has stringy poop which is either a parasitic worm or just mostly digested chaeto fragments (which she does eat when it makes it's way into the display). Otherwise, she's been healthy and happy. I've recently fed the tank some Dr. G's de-wormer caviar and haven't seen any stringy poop since. hopefully a non issue, and in any case her behavior signals health.
I have no idea if Bee is male or female, but 'Bee' is 'her' name because of her bent fin. :)
I bought her from Live Aquaria in late March 2019.
Here she is in March '19 in my quarantine tank. At this size/age she was mostly translucent, and you can clearly see her dorsal fin damage. The 'front on' view shows the bend in her fin clearly.
She is friendly & fearless as long as my hand isn't in the tank, loves nori sheets, frozen mysis, LRS reef nano, premium aquatics pellets... basically everything I put in the tank. She sometimes has stringy poop which is either a parasitic worm or just mostly digested chaeto fragments (which she does eat when it makes it's way into the display). Otherwise, she's been healthy and happy. I've recently fed the tank some Dr. G's de-wormer caviar and haven't seen any stringy poop since. hopefully a non issue, and in any case her behavior signals health.
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Here is a current equipment list (as of 11/14/19). I've been running most of this equipment for more than 9 months now and will do a post in this thread for each piece of equipment... why I picked it, what I've learned, any data that I have, and general thoughts.
| Tank | Custom | 160 Gallon Eurobraced glass aquarium. 60" wide, 26" deep, 24" tall. |
| Light | ATI | 48" 3x75W LED & 4x54W T5 LED-Powermodule |
| Skimmer | Nyos | Quantum 220 |
| Return pump | EcoTech Marine | Vectra M1 |
| Right Side DisplayCirculation pumps | EcoTech Marine | 2x MP40wQD |
| Left Side Display Circulation pumps | Neptune | WAV |
| Refugium Circulation pumps | EcoTech Marine | MP10wQD |
| Controller | Neptune | Apex |
| Calcium reactor | Vertex | Rx-C 6D |
| Calcium reactor pump | Kamoer | FX-STP peristaltic continuous duto dosing pump |
| Kalkwasser reactor | Avast Marine Works | K1 Kalk Stirrer |
| Sump | Crystal Reef Aquatics | Stealth SRS60 - Reef Sump (reversed right to left) |
| PVC fittings | Spears | 1" Schedule 80 |
| Overflow Ball Valves | Cepex | 1" true union ball valves |
| Chiller | AquaLogic | Delta Star 1/3hp air cooled titanium chiller |
| Refugium light | Kessil | H380 Halo II LED Algae Grow Light |
| Mixing station tanks | Den Hartog | 40 Gallon Vertical Tank |
| RO/DI | BRS | 150 Gallon per Day Water Saver 6 Stage Deluxe Plus RO/DI |
| Fishroom sink | Mustee Utilatub | Combo 18 in. x 23.5 in. x 33 in. Co-Polypure Floor Mount Laundry Tub |
| Heaters | BRS | 200W titanium heater element |
| Water testing | Neptune | Trident |
| Water testing | Red Sea | Iodine Pro, |
| Water testing | Hanna | Alkalinity, Calcium, Phosphorus ULR, Nitrite |
| Cameras | Panasonic | 5x GH5s micro four thirds w/ various Olympus lenses |
| Streaming hardware | Black Magic Design | DeckLink Quad HDMI Recorder |
| Salt | Tropic Marin | Pro-Reef |
| Fleece Filter System | CoralVue/Klir | DI-7 drop-in fleece filter system |
| Digital Refractometer | Misco | Palm Abbe |
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ATI 48" 3x75W LED & 4x54W T5 LED-Powermodule
Purchase month, service time:
The good:
The bad:
Product enhancement recommendations:
Second Choice:
Par values taken when tank was only a few weeks 'old' ... I will update these in this thread on a future post. This data was collected with an Apogee SQ-520 Full Spectrum Smart Quantum LED PAR Sensor
Purchase month, service time:
- January 2019
- In service for ~11 months
- LEDs provide great PAR, have adjustable spectrum, have a long life, are energy/heat efficient, and provide ‘shimmer’
- T5s provide great diffuse coverage, and run very tried and true Blue+ ATI bulbs
- High quality metal construction (aluminium I think)
- Well known & long time brand
- Included ceiling mount cables/fixtures included
- Clean wiring. Only one beefy wire from the fixture to the ballast.
The good:
- No fuss dependable. 0 reliability issues. I’ve cycled out 2 of the 4 bulbs just to follow a 6 month rotation policy, not because they failed.
- Powerful. I’m not running these lights anywhere close to the max.
- Low Heat. My prior setup was a smaller tank with a metal halide setup. That sucker was thirsty for electricity and got HOT. The ATI Hybrid power adds little to no direct heat to the water but has just as much if not more light output.
- Good results: My corals seem to love it. I’m running 1 Actinic+, 1 Coral+, & 2xBlue+ T5 bulbs. I’m seeing what I consider to be healthy growth from SPS, LPS, and soft corals basically everywhere in my aquarium.
The bad:
- Mine loses track of time with a power outage. This interrupts my normal start/end schedule and light intensity curve until I reset it. It’s easily remedied by simply connecting to the lights WIFI network with the app then everything is in synch. I think a recent firmware update fixes this but I haven’t gotten around to updating the firmware as power outages are rare.
Product enhancement recommendations:
- The ATI powermodule creates its own hotspot instead of connecting to a wireless network. I’d recommend that it both create a hotspot AND/OR join an existing wireless network. Creating a hotspot means no additional wireless network is required (which is good) but not being able to join another network means there’s no easy way to set up any type of network monitoring/control interface with the light, an cloud app, etc.
- Manual on/off override switch on the unit that enables a programmable ‘maintenance’ profile. There are times before/after my scheduled ‘lights on’ and ‘lights off’ times that I’d like to be able to switch on the lights for just a few minutes. Say... a coral frag blew off the magnetic frag tray and it’d be handy to have some light to put it back. Currently, the only way to do this is to switch wifi networks on my phone, bring up the app, fiddle with the light levels, and upload a whole new config. I then have to go back and undo the changes I made once the temp work is done. Even a ‘soft’ on/off switch or some way to run a ‘maintenance light levels’ profile temporarily in the software would be nice.
Second Choice:
- Kessil A360X LED Aquarium lights with the spectral controller.
Par values taken when tank was only a few weeks 'old' ... I will update these in this thread on a future post. This data was collected with an Apogee SQ-520 Full Spectrum Smart Quantum LED PAR Sensor
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Nyos Quantum 220
Purchase month, service time:
Why I chose it:
Aspects I like:
Aspects I don’t like:
Product enhancement recommendations:
Second/Third Choices:
Purchase month, service time:
- Purchased in December 2018
- Started Service in January 2019 so in constant use for about 10 months now.
Why I chose it:
- Before I decided to do a custom euro braced aquarium sourced through my local fish store (Aquatic Warehouse in San Diego) I was looking at waterbox aquariums. Waterbox was recommending NYOS skimmers which caught my attention.
- The other two contenders were Royal Exclusiv & Reef Octopus. The Royal exclusiv skimmers had external pumps and I didn’t have room in my sump. Reef Octopus had some skimmers with internal pumps and collection cup float valves which shut down the skimmer if the collection cup fills up (nice) so this would have likely been my second choice. My challenge with Reef Octopus is there are a lot of different models (14 types with 41 unique models!) and no real comp chart.
- Looks. I like how the Nyos skimmers look. Clear, clean lines. In retrospect it’s under my tank, and the red/white/clear look would have ‘gone with’ my Vertex Calcium reactor. In any case, the Nyos skimmers have nice aesthetics.
- If/when I replace this Nyos, I’ll look at Simplicity. When shopping for these skimmers I incorrectly thought that simplicity was a ‘low price / cheap’ brand. I’ve seen them in person and they are as high quality as the Nyos… only noticeable ‘build quality’ difference being plastic screws instead of titanium. Part of me wonders if my slightly elevated Aluminium and Tin levels are due to the Titanium parts on my skimmer and calcium reactor (probably not, but most titanium parts are alloys that contain aluminium and sometimes tin). Even though I don’t COMPLETELY trust titanium I’m still considering doing an Abyzz pump. :)
Aspects I like:
- Seems to work great. It pulls lots of ‘nutrient rich’ skim-mate out of my water column and is relatively stable. I don't mess with the air/gate valve much. In ~10 months I've had to adjust it ~8-10 times, usually because I'd changed something in the tank. I remember I had a small hang on back simmer from 18 years ago that needed adjustments every 2 days. This is way more stable.
- Quiet. I don’t notice it making noise, although my overall setup isn’t ‘silent’ so there may be a slight sound if I turned everything else off.
- Adjustable. Between the air screw and the gate valve I can always dial it in and put a rich frothy bubble column exactly where I want in the skimmer body.
- So far 100% reliable. I've only cleaned the skimmer motor/body twice in 10 months. I clean the skimmer collection cup weekly.
- No external controller required. I'm up to my eyeballs in external controllers / do-dads to mount around my aquarium. I appreciate that this skimmer just 'plugs in' to my Neptune EB832.
Aspects I don’t like:
- When adding Chemiclean for a cyano outbreak when the tank was new-ish, the skimmer went NUTS. This is to be expected, but there was no way to ‘turn it down’ so it wouldn’t constantly fill up the skim-mate collection cup. My choices were to A) attach a drain the the collection cup, B) turn off the skimmer for a while, C) empty the cup every 5 minutes. I ended up choosing A and draining to a 3 gallon bucket and emptying every 20 minutes or so until the skimmer calmed down. I wonder if I could have adjusted the pump down enough on the DC motor driven skimmers such that they wouldn’t constantly overflow during ‘crazy skimmer’ moments?
Product enhancement recommendations:
- Sell a float switch shut off option that screws into the collection cup top plate.
- Sell a skimmer neck wiper blade enhancement.
- Have retailers sell/stock replacement pumps… if not more replacement parts.
- Come up with some mechanism that makes the air adjustment screw a ‘tighter’ fit so it’s not so easy to turn. Part of me wonders if it slowly works down / closes from tiny vibrations.
Second/Third Choices:
- Simplicity 540DC
- Bubble King® Supermarin 200 + RD3 Speedy
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Ecotech Marine Vectra M1
Purchase month, service time:
Why I chose it:
Aspects I like:
Aspects I don’t like:
Product enhancement recommendations:
Second Choice:
Purchase month, service time:
- Purchased in December 2018
- Started Service in January 2019 so in constant use for about 10 months now.
Why I chose it:
- Ecotech feels like the most premium brand barring the Abyzz pumps that are 4x the cost.
- I liked the fact that the controller matches the MP40 controllers. My controller setup looks cleaner that way.
- Widely available. I can buy ecotech products from my local fish store as well as the main online retailers. Should one go out, I expect them to be quick and simple to replace.
Aspects I like:
- Ecotech battery backup. While I have reliable power, every once in a while my power does go out. The Ecotech backup batteries are great. DC power backup to a DC pump is efficient. Love it.
- Reliable. The pumps have been nearly bulletproof.
- Example 1: My chiller pump did stop because I stupidly put a carbon filter bag in the return pump chamber. It eventually got sucked into the intake and stopped the pump for about 12 hours. I was worried that I burned out the pump… but I simply removed the blockage and the pump fired back up and has been operating for ~2 months perfectly.
- Example 2: At about 8 months after install my main return pump starting making some noise. I turned it off, disassembled it, cleaned it, plugged it back in, and all is well. I have since added ‘clean vectras’ as a monthly Apex Neptune task, but was impressed that the main pump operated 8 months 24/7 with 0 maintenance or issues.
- Efficient, I think:
- 64 watts at around 70% power (8 dots out of 12) that pushes about 500 GPM (according to my Apex flow meter).
- Although I have an Iwaki MD-20RXT (external only AC) pump that is drawing around 41 watts in my mixing station with about 4 feet of head pressure that according to the chart should be pushing around 540 GHP. I’m not sure how much flow that’s pushing as I don’t have a flow meter on my mixing station.
- The reason I care so much about efficiency is that these pumps are almost the only device that draws more than marginal power that run 24/7. My lights are on only 12 out of 24 hours. My heater is only on sporadically during the cooler months. My recirculating pumps, skimmer pump, and powerheads are drawing real power all the time, so a 10% decrease in efficiency can actually mean quite a lot overall on my energy consumption.
- Adjustable:
- Unlike A/C pumps that adjust only by using valves/resistance, the DC vectras allow the dialing in flow rate.
Aspects I don’t like:
- None of the major retailers nor my LFS carry the PVC fitting parts or the basket strainers. I wish I had a basket strainer for the time I had my carbon dosing bag block the pump inlet.
- I’m super curious if the Abyzz pumps would be quieter and more efficient. To be fair, at the cost of the Abyzz pumps it would take a LOT of efficiency to make up for the cost, but I’m a sucker for high quality, even at high cost.
Product enhancement recommendations:
- Maybe a cable extension option from the pump to the controller. Other than that I can’t think of any enhancement recos.
Second Choice:
- Abyzz A100 or A200 IPU3.
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Ecotech Marine 2x MP40wQD Vortech
Purchase month, service time:
Why I chose it:
Aspects I like:
Aspects I don’t like:
Product enhancement recommendations:
Second Choice:
Trade-offs:
Purchase month, service time:
- Purchased in December 2018
- Started Service in January 2019 so in constant use for about 10 months now.
- Replaced 1 wetside in June so it lasted ~ 6 months
- Replaced 1 wetside in August so it lasted ~ 8 months
Why I chose it:
- Ecotech is a premium brand… known for quality.
- The VorTechs can be controlled by the Apex
- There are no cords in the tank, and the in take wetside is compact
- DC->DC battery backup available from the vendor
Aspects I like:
- Very controllable/programmable
- Oozes quality. The magnetic driver units have a nice finish, seem well made.
- The small in water footprint has been a huge differentiator
Aspects I don’t like:
- They can easily get bumped off or (very rarely) fall off themselves w/o (human) intervention. Both the wet sides and the dry sides. Every few months I’ll accidentally bump the dry side off the tank which means the wetside lands in sand. I have to go to my apex to turn everything off before placing everything back together. I’ve been running a Neptune WAV for about 6 months and it hasn’t been bumped/moved/fallen once. When the wetside falls to my sand bed it’s instant maintenance time as a few grains of sand do get into the spinning magnet chamber and would wreak havoc unless cleaned out.
- The foam filters are unusable. They instantly (within a day) get full of gunk, and I don’t want to have to put my hands in the tank and clean foam filters every 24 hours, especially when I have a decent chance of knocking the wetside off the dryside causing a whole shutdown/clean/restart procedure.
- Cord length. Your controller units have to be pretty close to the tank to have these on both ends of any larger aquarium. I only run mine on one side because of this. I would pay $$$ for an extension cord with the waterproof style connectors to extend the length between the controller and the dryside driver units. I read online about sending the unit in and the distributor adding in a longer cord. That sounds… complicated.
Product enhancement recommendations:
- Cord extension accessory, or a version of the product with a longer cord
- Stronger magnetic force between wetside/dryside
- Some kind of part that replaces the zip tie anchor/tape to keep the dry side from falling to the floor. Maybe a cable routing plastic piece that tapes to the top AND side edge of the aquarium and routes the cable at a clean angle?
Second Choice:
- Neptune WAV. It’s more integrated with the Apex and I can run it w/ 1 link which means no controller unit and it doesn’t even eat up an EB832 outlet! Although it takes up a lot more space in the aquarium.
Trade-offs:
- Ultimately, it’s a choice between aesthetics (a HUGE deal in a reef tank) and cost/reliability. I’m TORN. I love the aesthetics of the Vortechs because they don’t take up much space in the water. They generally work great. However, my Neptune WAV has been a lot less fussy, and because I don’t need a separate controller unit it actually takes up less equipment space overall.
Love your profile pic looking out the back of a dual outrigger boat on the ocean. I have so many fond memories of similar views on dive trips! Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. I'm doing this to add my experience of a 2019 build with the 'current' gear to the reef2reef community.
Neptune WAV
Purchase month, service time:
Why I chose it:
Aspects I like:
Aspects I don’t like:
Product enhancement recommendations:
Second Choice:
Purchase month, service time:
- Purchased January 2018
- Started Service in January 2019 so in constant use for about 10 months now.
Why I chose it:
- I needed a circulation pump on the left side of my aquarium, which is ~7 feet ‘left’ and ~3 feet ‘below’ where I have almost all of my electrics except for the Neptune EB832 power bars. The cord on the EcoTech Marine MP40 weren’t long enough, and I had an EB832 power bar very close to where I wanted to put the circulation pump.
- I didn’t even have to use a full ‘plug’ because of the Neptune 1Link connection.
- I liked the idea of being able to view pump performance via the neptune dashboard widget
Aspects I like:
- Plenty of flow (it maxes out at 65% during peak flow, and pushes the coral polyps around pretty fiercely at that level).
- So far, bullet proof operation. I clean it every 2 weeks. I simply gently grab the cord, lift it out of the water, and it’s close enough to my utility sink that I rinse it off directly in the sink, remove the impeller assembly and clean, then reassemble and plop back in the tank. Takes just a few minutes.
- It did stop one time… turned out a had a very young trochus snail that wedged himself between the prop and the cage. When removing the pump to diagnose, the snail popped out. I was worried that I had burned out the pump or some such… but a simple unplug/replug did the trick and it’s been back in business with no noticeable impact for a few weeks now. I’m guessing a power off/on in from apex fusion would have worked as well.
- No extra controller or power brick (controlled directly by APEX, uses 1Link).
- RPM and TEMP widget on my Apex dashboard is nice.
- Easy to program different modes.
Aspects I don’t like:
- Relative to the vortechs, the WAV has a very large in water presence.
- I’m guessing that the WAV will add more heat to the water than the Vortechs, but don’t have any data to back this up.
- I wish I could direct the angle ‘up/down’ by one more ‘click’ (maybe another 10 degrees).
Product enhancement recommendations:
- It’s pretty hard to remove the plate on the pump that captures the impeller assembly, especially after coralline growth. I always end up applying lots of torque and once it finally pops open my fingers end up slamming against the cap and hurting a bit. Would be nice if there was a little bit more tolerance or a different locking mechanism. Although it works, never comes loose…
Second Choice:
- This is my second choice relative to the EcoTech MP40s.
- The next powerhead I’ll try will likely be a Tunze. Probably the Turbelle Stream 6155 controllable. I bought a nano stream for my quarantine tank and was impressed by the build quality, functionality, and small size. The cable length in the manual shows 196” (~16 feet!)... I’m not sure if that 16 feet is power -> controller, or controller -> pump, or both power->controller->pump.
Neptune Apex
Purchase month, service time:
Components:
Why I chose it:
Aspects I like:
Aspects I don’t like:
Product enhancement recommendations:
Second Choice:
The original AquaController that I used back in the early 2000's
The head unit and 4 of my modules of the current Apex setup.
Purchase month, service time:
- Purchased in December 2018
- Started Service in January 2019 so in constant use for about 10 months now.
Components:
- Apex Controller
- PM1 - Extra temp & pH for KalkStirrer
- PM2 - Extra temp & conductivity
- PM3 - Dissolved oxygen
- WXM - wireless vortech control
- 2x FMM - leak detectors, 2x flow meters, ATO sensors
- TRI - Trident
- WAV - Wav Pump
- 3x EB832 - 24 Apex controlled outlets
- 2x DOS - 1 for auto water changes, 1 to dose magnesium
Why I chose it:
- I had used a Neptune AquaController back in the early 2000’s and loved it.
- Compared to the Neptune AquaController, the Neptune Apex is light years ahead.
- The only other major competition seems to be the GHL Profilux? It doesn’t look as ‘mountable’, and I couldn’t tell if the cloud app (myGHL) is nearly as capable as Apex Fusion. There also seems to be a much larger online community for Neptune users and Neptune offers a more complete ecosystem.
Aspects I like:
- Expandability. I love that I can measure, then measure some more.
- Programmability. I love that I can program the outputs. Although I’d die for some logical operators (AND / OR).
- Dissolved Oxygen probe. While very expensive, the DO module/probe, in my opinion, is critical. It’s a baseline parameter in my opinion and something I watch carefully. I strive to hit near saturation levels and I think this means everything for fish and coral health, algae control, etc.
- Alarms that do app notifications / emails / SMS. Especially the cloud enabled heartbeat monitor. Even if my apex goes out, I’ll know about it. The alarms on various inputs have saved my aquarium at least a half dozen times over the past 6 months. 100% critical.
- Reminders. The reminders are GREAT. It allows you to set up maintenance intervals… weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, even every 6 months. Maintenance is KEY in reefkeeping. I feel like using this feature is absolutely critical to success.
- Dependability. Now that I have a wired connection, IT. JUST. WORKS. It stays stable for months w/o restarting.
- Good support. My first Dissolved Oxygen probe came ‘dried up’ and I had to call support. The Neptune support rep was super knowledgeable and helpful.
- Good community. The Neptune forums are active and useful.
Aspects I don’t like:
- The space/wires required for expansion… I do like the ‘expansion slot’ concept of the Profilux 4. While I’m kind of nuts about monitoring, I have 6 additional modules… and that just means a lot of mounting real estate.
Product enhancement recommendations:
- A single ‘medium’ module box that accepts ~6 ‘expansion cards’ for a cleaner install that takes up less space.
Second Choice:
- GHL Profilux
The original AquaController that I used back in the early 2000's
The head unit and 4 of my modules of the current Apex setup.
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Vertex Rx-C 6D
Purchase month, service time:
Why I chose it:
Aspects I like:
Aspects I don’t like:
Product enhancement recommendations:
Second Choice:
Note: This picture is a month or so old. I've since moved the reactor to the back of my sump so it's harder to see, and re-plumbed the two blue PVC pipes (that feed the chiller).
Purchase month, service time:
- Purchased in January 2019
- Started Service in January 2019 so in constant use for about 10 months now.
Why I chose it:
- I was concerned with a ‘lower pH’ tank so wanted the second reactor chamber to raise the pH back up
- Bulk Reef Supply reviewed the Vertex reactor in a video & recommended it
- It looked high quality with durable CPVC components and titanium screws / made (or at least designed) in Germany.
Aspects I like:
- Have had zero problems keeping up with Alkalinity & Calcium levels w/o 2 part dosing. When using the ‘carbon doser’ (electronic CO2 regulator/solenoid) and a peristaltic pump (Kamoer FX-STP) I have to ‘turn down’ the CO2 and/or flow through the reactor.
- Build quality. It’s very well made. Everything screws down tight with high quality components.
- Efficient use of CO2. I went through just ~300 psi on a 5lb CO2 tank in about 9 months.
Aspects I don’t like:
- It takes up a good chunk of real estate in my sump.
- Every so often I’ve had water backflow up into my CO2 line, meaning no CO2 bubbles added, meaning an increase in pH and less Alk/Ca dosed to the water. I think this is only after my CO2 pressure got low-ish, but am not 100% sure. I have a very simple pH alarm (if the pH of the reactor gets about 7) that alerts me to this state and it’s only happened 2, maybe 3 times in about 10 months.
- I still have to dose Magnesium. I was hoping that by adding Brightwell NeoMag to the second/top chamber in the secondary reactor chamber my Magnesium would stay in balance. Vertex suggests against more Magnesium media than this amount, and it’s just not enough to keep up. I have to dose Magnesium via a separate process (I use a Neptune DOS).
Product enhancement recommendations:
- None really. Maybe re-thinking how the pump attaches to the reactor, but it’s been working fine for 10+ months in sump w/o any issues so I can’t really call that out as a flaw.
Second Choice:
- Avast Marine Works - SeaBones Calcium Reactor V2. This wasn’t available when I purchased the vertex. The SeaBones looks to have a slightly smaller footprint as the pump is under the main reactor chamber, I like the idea of the ‘spray water through CO2 atmosphere’ approach, and I just generally like Avast Marine products. I’m not sure I like the ‘hose’ (instead of acrylic tube or PVC pipe) on the SeaBones, but I’m not sure if that’s a deal breaker or not.
- Geos Reef Calcium reactors look nice as well.
Note: This picture is a month or so old. I've since moved the reactor to the back of my sump so it's harder to see, and re-plumbed the two blue PVC pipes (that feed the chiller).
Kamoer FX-STP peristaltic continuous duty dosing pump
Purchase month, service time:
Why I chose it:
Aspects I like:
Aspects I don’t like:
Product enhancement recommendations:
Second Choice:
Purchase month, service time:
- Purchased in January 2019
- Started Service in January 2019 so in constant use for about 10 months now.
Why I chose it:
- I had to come up with some way to drive water through my calcium reactor, and I didn’t implement a manifold when I designed my return plumbing
- I liked the idea of being able to control, with precision, the inputs into the calcium reactor. Using the ‘Carbon Doser’ regulator/solenoid I can control the CO2 input, and with the Kamoer FX-STP I can control the water flow. This allows me to adjust the two primary variables ‘by step’ and record the results.
Aspects I like:
- Has been working flawlessly for 10+ months with only 2 tubing changes
- Easy to calibrate
- Precise control
- Relatively quiet (does make a slight hum, but it’s nearly silent, at least compared to the monster Neptune DOS peristaltic pumps)
- Good build quality. I was worried that this would be ‘chinese clone quality.’ However, it’s construction quality is solid.
Aspects I don’t like:
- Awkward to mount
Product enhancement recommendations:
- Some provision for a mounting bracket. Ideally on the ‘back’ of the unit so the pump fittings, screen, and dial face ‘away’ from the bracket.
Second Choice:
- Manifold and needle valve (that needs pretty constant cleaning)
- Used cole parmer / masterflex
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