60G cube Clown and anemone tank

bdejong1112o · Mar 19, 2018

I have a 60g cube tank cycling that I built for a (Male/Female)pair of Lightening Clowns I won in a raffle. Yes, won a pair of clown and used that as an excuse to build a new tank. I already have a mated pair of clowns in my 220g main tank that I use a full Apex system on. There, now you know I am a little touched but it justified the new tank with my finance department(A.K.A wife).

So, since this is mainly just going to be for the clowns and anemones I am keeping my love for gadgets somewhat at bay. I really dont see the need for a full Apex system on this one especially given the cost. It was a no brainer for me for the big tank and has been great on that one.

So far I am using the following equipment.
60g cube
Icecap 1K Gyre
Current eFlux 6010 DC return Pump
Skimz SumpPro 22 sump
Somatic 60 Skimmer
Ecotech Marine XR15 light
Jebao dosing pump - Planned but not purchased yet.

The question is what controller. I have considered the Apex Junior since it would at least give me the basics. Good integration with my current Fusion account and at least give me basic feed modes and stuff that I have grown to appreciate. The minimum I need is the temp probe as I have not really found ORP or Ph on my main tank to be all that important. Ph is a simple test and I dont run ozone so ORP is not really that necessary. I do however, want heater control and pump and skimmer control to be easy for feeding, maintenance and the eventual collection of clown fry if these end up breeding.

I looked at Reefkeeper and it would be cool to try something new. Also going to read up on the ReefPi(?) project since I have access to some of those devices. What other options that are budget minded are out there?

Main needs are:
Control over the pump and skimmer for feeding modes etc
Control for the heater output.
No need to control return pump speed since its a simple dial
Some easy to see monitoring method, I like the cloud access that Apex gives me but will not plunk down $800 for this tanks controller.

Thanks.

Bob Escher · Mar 19, 2018

bdejong1112o said:
I have a 60g cube tank cycling that I built for a (Male/Female)pair of Lightening Clowns I won in a raffle. Yes, won a pair of clown and used that as an excuse to build a new tank. I already have a mated pair of clowns in my 220g main tank that I use a full Apex system on. There, now you know I am a little touched but it justified the new tank with my finance department(A.K.A wife).

So, since this is mainly just going to be for the clowns and anemones I am keeping my love for gadgets somewhat at bay. I really dont see the need for a full Apex system on this one especially given the cost. It was a no brainer for me for the big tank and has been great on that one.

So far I am using the following equipment.
60g cube
Icecap 1K Gyre
Current eFlux 6010 DC return Pump
Skimz SumpPro 22 sump
Somatic 60 Skimmer
Ecotech Marine XR15 light
Jebao dosing pump - Planned but not purchased yet.

The question is what controller. I have considered the Apex Junior since it would at least give me the basics. Good integration with my current Fusion account and at least give me basic feed modes and stuff that I have grown to appreciate. The minimum I need is the temp probe as I have not really found ORP or Ph on my main tank to be all that important. Ph is a simple test and I dont run ozone so ORP is not really that necessary. I do however, want heater control and pump and skimmer control to be easy for feeding, maintenance and the eventual collection of clown fry if these end up breeding.

I looked at Reefkeeper and it would be cool to try something new. Also going to read up on the ReefPi(?) project since I have access to some of those devices. What other options that are budget minded are out there?

Main needs are:
Control over the pump and skimmer for feeding modes etc
Control for the heater output.
No need to control return pump speed since its a simple dial
Some easy to see monitoring method, I like the cloud access that Apex gives me but will not plunk down $800 for this tanks controller.

Thanks.

So why don’t you just use your existing APEX and add the new tank onto it

bdejong1112o · Mar 19, 2018

The new tank is about 50 feet away from the existing tank. I was hoping that the WXM would reach the XR15 on the new tank so I could sync its schedule with the main tank. I am not sure how to stretch a controller cable for an EB8 all the way over to the new tank. That and the temp probe probably wont reach that far. Would be cool to do that if it was closer to the main tank.

Bob Escher · Mar 19, 2018

I do know they do make cables that long go onto the Neptune forum and look around

bdejong1112o · Mar 19, 2018

Cool, heading over there now. I do know that the aquabus could reach but was not sure about the others. I may be crawling under the house this weekend to run cables. I dont know whats worse, paying the money for new equipment or battling spiders, cobwebs and junk in the crawl space, lol.