Nikki's Coral Addicts 125g Project

[TwistedEnvy]

Hi everyone!

My name is Nikki, and I'm back in the hobby after about 10 years. I deprioritized fish babies at the time because I had real human ones! It's my two girls and I now, so we needed some crazy saltwater fish in the mix!

I decided earlier this year to build a tank in my house, but I couldn't settle on a place. I wanted it upstairs, so it's in the main traffic area, but I wanted the sump and ease of water changes from that being in the basement. Unfortunately, the place upstairs I'd love it is directly over my theater room, so that was not happening easily.

So I decided to work with my downstairs area. I had a secret water closet where a bookcase opened up the wall, but I decided that even though that thing was super cool, that water closet would be great for the fish tank. I started by building the stand, based on the infamous threads here.

Then, I continued building the wall around the tank. Added an RODI, outsourced hooking up the electrical, got my controller, my lights and all my equipment pretty much from people on the hobby around me. We've got a pretty awesome reef society in Wisconsin that was fun to reconnect with.

We will stop there and I'll post more details about the last month! Here are some pictures from April-June.

Before I ironed out all the kinks with cables.... It's still not perfect lol

 

[Lavey29]

Really smart idea to incorporate it into that space like that.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Is that doorway ADA approved? Ahem, I mean can you fit a BRUTE through there?
Looking sharp!
LOL... I cut my teeth growing up, at Lake Geneva, during the summers, HS, College.
That's great you have a tight reefing community where you live.

 

[TwistedEnvy]

Really smart idea to incorporate it into that space like that.

Thanks! It is so cool to have it up and running now. My kids were sad to see the hidden closet go away though lol

 

[TwistedEnvy]

Is that doorway ADA approved? Ahem, I mean can you fit a BRUTE through there?
Looking sharp!
LOL... I cut my teeth growing up, at Lake Geneva, during the summers, HS, College.
That's great you have a tight reefing community where you live.

LOL! Yes! The door is a standard 28" door and my brute is on wheels for easy maneuvering. What's really interesting is the brute and other water storage in the tiny butt "fish hoddle". I mean room. I need to name it and then make a sign above the door.

And yes, so cool to have others in an insanely expensive hobby and not feel like you're the only crazy one! Hahaha

Where are you at now?

 

[TwistedEnvy]

Ok update time. As my title did so aptly call out, I'm a coral addict. I think I could stand to have a tank with no fish and just coral, but my kids would hate it.

Plus, they play a part. So, I have some more pictures and then we will see what you think. I've been *slowly? * adding things since mid July.

My first batch was from a friend who was like 'no, you're ready, here try these, your rock has been cycling for 8 months! '.

So, I started with the Hollywood stunner, some mushies, some zo's, and my love/hate: the uggos. You will see these palies lovingly referred to as uggos from now on. They reside on a plug, in sand, next to a torch, NOT rocks....

And then the hair algea began with the lights being on all the time...

Of course after 2 weeks, I was like YES, I CAN BUY MORE!

I accidentally ran across a pink wall hammer and was like YES PLEASE! but basically every 2 weeks or so through August I started adding more......

Door still not on, trim not on. I'm waiting for my boyfriend to be done renovating his Victorian and let me have the saw again.

 

[TwistedEnvy]

Oh did I mention, Arby's got Nothin on me! I got the meats!

 

[TwistedEnvy]

Oh and one more thing.

The uggos are stupid. They are trying to chow down on my shrimp's molt (half joking, they are stupid... Lol)

 

[TwistedEnvy]

My next project is automating a few things. I'd like to set up an ATO. I have one but it is used, and I haven't set one up before. I also want to set up a water sensor, auto 2-part dosing, and change up my sump light schedule.

Any tips on the ATO set up? I have heard that tunze is great, but I've typed with the idea of getting the apex salinity probe and using that to determine when to add water? Is anyone doing that?

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

My next project is automating a few things. I'd like to set up an ATO. I have one but it is used, and I haven't set one up before. I also want to set up a water sensor, auto 2-part dosing, and change up my sump light schedule.

Any tips on the ATO set up? I have heard that tunze is great, but I've typed with the idea of getting the apex salinity probe and using that to determine when to add water? Is anyone doing that?

I went with the Apex ATO. You have an Apex, why don't you stick with that? Then you can monitor and have saftey redundancy.
Using the salinity probe to determine when to add water, sounds like a good idea, but... your only looking at the beginning not the end. Yes, it makes sense that if the probe says " if X < .035 add RODI. but, it takes a bit for the RODI to mix with the whole system water, so you would end up with an over-dilution.
Also on another note: those three powerstrips that you have in the upper left, If those are the same powerstrips that are WiFi and are similar to the Hydros ones. The default setting after a power outage/interruption is "OFF"

 

[TwistedEnvy]

I went with the Apex ATO. You have an Apex, why don't you stick with that? Then you can monitor and have saftey redundancy.
Using the salinity probe to determine when to add water, sounds like a good idea, but... your only looking at the beginning not the end. Yes, it makes sense that if the probe says " if X < .035 add RODI. but, it takes a bit for the RODI to mix with the whole system water, so you would end up with an over-dilution.
Also on another note: those three powerstrips that you have in the upper left, If those are the same powerstrips that are WiFi and are similar to the Hydros ones. The default setting after a power outage/interruption is "OFF"

Honestly the reviews on BRS for the Apex ATO are less than stellar, while the reviews on Tunze have shown better reliability. I worry about complexity, because I tend to procrastinate things that require my full attention. Once I can dedicate the attention, I can do pretty much whatever, but in reality, I have a lot going on so anything simpler is better. But, maybe my hesitancy here is that I am still trying to program everything on my phone and have not set up a tablet (I should really do that this month).

Is the big win here the ability for the pump to sense when it runs more than a certain amount of minutes and then shut off to prevent over fill/running dry? From what I have read, it is best to connect the Apex FMM module to one of the outlets on the EB8 to run the ATO/control the power to it with programming. Would you agree with that?

Ah the power blocks on the left are for the radion lights. Interestingly, right after I ready your response, my power went off (only for about 10 seconds). When I checked on the lights the power was already back on, but they were on. I think i might be sort of protected because the Mobius app controls the schedule, so as long as those can connect to wifi, they must be able to turn back on? Am I thinking wrong?

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Honestly the reviews on BRS for the Apex ATO are less than stellar, while the reviews on Tunze have shown better reliability. I worry about complexity, because I tend to procrastinate things that require my full attention. Once I can dedicate the attention, I can do pretty much whatever, but in reality, I have a lot going on so anything simpler is better. But, maybe my hesitancy here is that I am still trying to program everything on my phone and have not set up a tablet (I should really do that this month).

Is the big win here the ability for the pump to sense when it runs more than a certain amount of minutes and then shut off to prevent over fill/running dry? From what I have read, it is best to connect the Apex FMM module to one of the outlets on the EB8 to run the ATO/control the power to it with programming. Would you agree with that?

Ah the power blocks on the left are for the radion lights. Interestingly, right after I ready your response, my power went off (only for about 10 seconds). When I checked on the lights the power was already back on, but they were on. I think i might be sort of protected because the Mobius app controls the schedule, so as long as those can connect to wifi, they must be able to turn back on? Am I thinking wrong?

I am sorry that it took me a bit to get back to you... Uh, one of my post had captured most of my attention. With the Apex, you have several integrated fail-safes what comes with the system you have an lower sensor a upper sensor and a mechanical sensor so without any programing you have the upper sensor and the mechanical one and runtime that you can adjust by opening the FMM module. Also you have two open ports in the module for a leak sensor and another water sensor.
But when you add it to your Apex it is pretty much unlimited with what you can do. esp with the new ruler thing. With the Tunze you are confined by what the factory settings are. With the Apex, You can tell it what to do and when. You can literally start your coffee maker in the morning while it turns off the pumps for morning feeding.
With the Apex ATO hooked up to your Apex, you can make it so you know how much water is in your res. have an extra failsafes in your sump both upper and lower levels, etc. This is what sold me on the Apex ATO. Yes ,Hook it up to one of the EB8 plugs.
As far as the reviews... Grain of salt... most of it is usually operator error. over bad manufacturing.
As per your other ? With the radions, once you program the light settings they remember after a power cycle and you do not need WiFi for them to come back on. I think the power light will blink until it reconnects, but it will turn back on with its last known settings. Meaning if your power goes out at 2pm and doesn’t turn back on till 5pm it will still think its 2pm until it attaches to the interwebs again.