Gilroy 425g Build Thread (All Apex, all the time)

[Albertastorm]

Depends how you drive.

I don't think you are getting it. The DOS head-caps and their peri-tube (like all peristaltic pumps) are a consumable product. Not unlike brake pads or even inkjet cartridges. Depending on how much you use it determines how fast it will need replacing.

Ultimately this is not the place to hash this out. If you want to have this kind of discussion, I encourage you to engage other DOS users over on our forum dedicated to the DOS here: https://forum.neptunesystems.com/fo...-amp-DDR-%96-Dosing-and-Fluid-Metering-System

Thanks for the compliment on the tank!

You are the man when it comes to all this stuff..i have designed my tank from reading and studying this thread!
I trust all you say and promote...but ...we want a dosing system we don't need to worry about.
Admit it may be a bit silly to have to replace heads at 750 hours and we are good!

 

[Tristren]

I respectfully disagree. If your brake pads wear thin on your car, and you hear the wear indicators scrape, and you continue driving, and you ruin your rotors, whose fault is that? Did the brake pads fail you. No. They simply wore out. Laziness and complacency were the culprit by not listening to an indication of the worn pads and acting on it.

The DOS head wore out. It was my fault for not replacing it before it did. It was my fault for not listening to my Apex when it told me my Sulphur Denitrator ORP probe was showing 12.4 pH for days on end. Finally, when my brake pads scraped the rotors I listened and corrected the situation before I drove off a cliff due to failed brakes!

Ah, but in your analogy the wear indicators let you know when something goes wrong. You ignore it at your own risk.

In this situation the pump head died as you said "a week or two ago" and you had no idea until it gave its little spurt. I'm not saying that the pump head dying means it was shoddy. All I'm saying is that the problem (the sulfur dump) was caused by an equipment failure, not user error.

Now when the problem hit, you were alerted by your Apex and were able to catch it before it did serious damage. So that shows the value right there.

I was just responding to the "user error" comment. The pump failed because the pump failed.

But yeah, shows how important it is to have a quality controller in place for when things inevitably wear out or some other random thing happens. I certainly appreciate seeing all of the great things that the Neptune systems can do through your examples.

Cheers, Tony

 

[Terence]

My ORP (shown as pH) of 12.4 was the indicator that the pump head wore out as there was no flow through the pump. I ignored that indicator. I also was running that pump head for far too long without replacing it.

Had I went and checked the SD when it pegged at 12.4 I would have seen that there was no flow.

 

[Tristren]

My ORP (shown as pH) of 12.4 was the indicator that the pump head wore out as there was no flow through the pump. I ignored that indicator. I also was running that pump head for far too long without replacing it.

Had I went and checked the SD when it pegged at 12.4 I would have seen that there was no flow.

Well, fair enough. Let that be a lesson to you then!

Take this as a reminder to check the rest of your system over. How old are your probes?


Cheers, Tony

 

[Terence]

Well, fair enough. Let that be a lesson to you then!

Take this as a reminder to check the rest of your system over. How old are your probes?


Cheers, Tony

Absolutely, that was my point really. That not only do you have to do your own inspections and preventative maintenance, but also when your equipment is telling you something is not right, don't dismiss it. I dismissed the 12.4 and if I had dismissed the dropped ORP in the tank, things might not be so good right now.

 

[Tristren]

Absolutely, that was my point really. That not only do you have to do your own inspections and preventative maintenance, but also when your equipment is telling you something is not right, don't dismiss it. I dismissed the 12.4 and if I had dismissed the dropped ORP in the tank, things might not be so good right now.

Yep, you should always pay attention when your readings shift and you don't know why.

If you need help figuring out what all the readings from your Apex mean I can put you in touch with someone from Neptune if you want.

He's on the marketing side though, so not sure how much help he'll be...


Cheers, Tony

 

[dragon99]

Here is something I want to share that relates to the Apex and a feature in Apex Fusion we just improved. If you happen to have the new (2016) Apex with the Energy Bar 832 you know that it can monitor the power usage of your devices. Most people don't realize that there is a great feature inside Apex Fusion that makes use of this data in a way that can save you a ton of money - and help the environment at the same time. It's called the "Power Log" and is accessible from the main menu using the lightning bolt icon button.

Thanks for pointing that out. I'd kinda forgotten about it.

On the dashboard, what's the $ mean on the right? Is that a daily/hourly cost?

 

[Terence]

Pretty sure that is your daily run cost of operated 24hrs

 

[Terence]

So here is the next drama. Evidently, unbeknownst to me, the Triton Core7 liquids (at least one of them) does not like winter temps below 59 degrees. Not freezing. 59 degrees F. My FishCave gets into the high 40s in the worst of winter.

I can imagine this might be quite a problem for people storing this in opaque containers in their basements and not even knowing this has happened. Not too happy right now as I love this product so far and don't know what to do. Moving dosing up to my living quarters is out of the question.

Did I somehow miss the giant letters on the outside label warning me of this? Going to go check tomorrow.

Grrr.

 

[reefpaddy]

[/QUOTE]

Frozen solid? Wow, should be relatively easy for others to replicate to test or go check their basement!

 

[Terence]

Frozen solid? Wow, should be relatively easy for others to replicate to test or go check their basement!

Not frozen, crystalizing.

Now what do I do?

 

[sebastiaan1985]

Not frozen, crystalizing.

Now what do I do?

Common problem, but not adequately mentioned on the packaging. Getting the temp up, should re-solve the crystallization.
They do mention to keep the Core7 around room temp and not below 16C (don't know exact for Fahrenheit).

Hope this works, and this is another reason for using the DDR

 

[siggy]

Not frozen, crystalizing.

Now what do I do?

Make some space in the sump for your containers if you can. I think you may have a little space there.
also I am surprised you don't have a runtime log of the dos heads to alert @ 500 & 750 hours, also can a calibration show signs of wear?

 

[Bob Tiffany]

Terence, I just spent most of my lazy Friday reading this entire thread, and all I can say is WOW!! Your build and the attention to detail are absolutely astounding, this is my dream setup! Someday in the near future when I build my new home I plan on doing a 250 deep dimension, and I will be looking back at your thread for tips and ideas. When I down-sized to my 32 gallon Biocube I gave my Apex to my brother, I miss having that level of security and the automation. When I build my big tank I will go all-out Apex, I absolutely love the product and the customer support has always been second to none! Just a couple of questions for you concerning your progress...

Have you skinned the stand and hood yet? Did you redo the hood since you had to change the mounting height of the new LEDs?

What do you think about the flow from the RFG nozzles? I was considering one of these for my biocube to mix up the flow a bit, but didn't want to lose flow from added back pressure. Can you tell the difference in the flow patterns from these?

Also, AMAZING pics from the iPhone X, I absolutely love mine! I posted some pictures from our TSO concert a couple weeks ago and people were floored by the quality of them, they thought I took my DSLR to the concert with me.

Anyway, awesome build and keep the updates coming!

Bob

 

[Dxpert]

Fantastic idea to store the containers in the sump. You could also use a pmup and some ro-tube to coil around the container then add a little insulation.(aka put the whole mess in a box with a lid)

 

[ReeferBud]

Make some space in the sump for your containers if you can. I think you may have a little space there.
also I am surprised you don't have a runtime log of the dos heads to alert @ 500 & 750 hours, also can a calibration show signs of wear?

This is a great idea. Having a runtime of the DOS heads could take the guessing work out and make preventative maintenance a bit easier, as well as probably increase DOS head sales (probably a bunch of us running them beyond their recommended use).

Awesome progress on the tank, Terrence!

I have the same SD but do not have ORP monitoring on the main tank. You’re making me think about getting it as a problem indicator in case something goes wrong. I too have had periods where the flow to the SD is diminished and the ORP drops too low.

 

[CeeGee]

Terence,

I read your entire thread and I think I missed it but was wondering if you could tell me what you ended up doing on Nitrate testing? I am currently using the Red Sea Pro and I find it to be pretty lousy (actually I have found all their kits to give me crazy numbers compared to hanna and salifert). I don't know of any Nitrate test kit that has been worth anything to me up to this point. Was hoping you could point me in the right direction.

thanks,
C.G.

 

[CeeGee]

Triple post. Very sorry posted from a PC and this is what I get.

 

[CeeGee]

Triple post. Very sorry posted from a PC and this is what I get.

 

[Terence]

Common problem, but not adequately mentioned on the packaging. Getting the temp up, should re-solve the crystallization.
They do mention to keep the Core7 around room temp and not below 16C (don't know exact for Fahrenheit).

Hope this works, and this is another reason for using the DDR

Getting the temp back up to room temperature does not help. According to Triton the temp must go above 80F to dissolve it back. What I do not understand is that one of my 10L jugs of the same liquid did not precipitate. Also, what happens if this stuff actually freezes?

Have you skinned the stand and hood yet? Did you redo the hood since you had to change the mounting height of the new LEDs?

What do you think about the flow from the RFG nozzles? I was considering one of these for my biocube to mix up the flow a bit, but didn't want to lose flow from added back pressure. Can you tell the difference in the flow patterns from these?

Also, AMAZING pics from the iPhone X, I absolutely love mine! I posted some pictures from our TSO concert a couple weeks ago and people were floored by the quality of them, they thought I took my DSLR to the concert with me.

Anyway, awesome build and keep the updates coming!

Bob

Thanks for the positive feedback Bob. I still have not skinned my stand. I have tried to get two different outfits to help me with it, but we seem to not be able to connect and make it happen. The RFG is working great. I have it on one side right now. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical. But even after getting totally crudded up with surface algae it was still doing its random flow magic. The only negative I can see in some applications is that it must be fairly submerged to not create bubbles and suck air. I do think the best use for these would be for someone who puts four returns through the back wall and uses no locline. Just nearly flush mount to the back glass. That would be a killer app as you would get all the random flow and almost no protrusion into the tank. You just would need to make sure that you fashioned some sort of siphon break on the outside (a few ideas how to do that).

Fantastic idea to store the containers in the sump. You could also use a pmup and some ro-tube to coil around the container then add a little insulation.(aka put the whole mess in a box with a lid)

Not a fan of this idea. One issue with a glue joint on the acrylic and 2L of a solution flows into the tank. I like the PMUP idea - basically lengthen my carbon feed tube to do it. I still think this a janky way of handling it. A heating mat for reptiles might be a better solution.

This is a great idea. Having a runtime of the DOS heads could take the guessing work out and make preventative maintenance a bit easier, as well as probably increase DOS head sales (probably a bunch of us running them beyond their recommended use).

Awesome progress on the tank, Terrence!

I have the same SD but do not have ORP monitoring on the main tank. You’re making me think about getting it as a problem indicator in case something goes wrong. I too have had periods where the flow to the SD is diminished and the ORP drops too low.

I am looking into doing the DOS-head-meter. For sure. We have had it out there on an internal list somewhere at one time, but we did not bring it over the finish line. We will see if it can get some engineering cycles.

As far as ORP, so many people poo-poo this or just don't get its real use in monitoring your reef tank.

Terence,

I read your entire thread and I think I missed it but was wondering if you could tell me what you ended up doing on Nitrate testing? I am currently using the Red Sea Pro and I find it to be pretty lousy (actually I have found all their kits to give me crazy numbers compared to hanna and salifert). I don't know of any Nitrate test kit that has been worth anything to me up to this point. Was hoping you could point me in the right direction.

thanks,
C.G.

I like the Red Sea low-res value version. The regular one never worked well for me when my nitrates were higher. I just used salifert then.

 

[Terence]

So this morning I went down to do my weekly check on the fish cave, drain the skimmer cup, refill my DDRs, and fix the crystalized CORE7 3b issue.

To fix the crystallized solution, I had to go get some hot tap water, pour it in, stir it up, and dump it out. Then, for 3b I decided to dilute it 1:1 with RODI and dose double. Not my ideal answer for this problem as I will have to refill twice as often, but at least I think this will fix it in the short term until things warm up in a couple of months. Next season I will have to have a better solution.