jakesweep

Honestly, that's probably about where I'm at haha

Oh for sure. I'm a long way out from adding anything too crazy, but I'm still learning about all the different coral farms/vendors/shops out there these days. I have a lot to figure out before throwing a bunch of expensive sticks in my water though. I am getting impatient waiting for the tank to cycle though...

Glad I stumbled upon this! My tank is cycling and my patience is wearing thin! Gonna go look at battle boxes now...

Thanks for the offer, but don't worry about that. I'll update my build thread over there this weekend and it should get me close to the 20 posts. Not in a huge hurry.

Cool thanks for the feedback. Not in a huge hurry to sell it. I'm still too new at R2R to sell it there though.

Not sure if I'm asking a bit too much on this. Feel free to make an offer!

Just putting this out there to see if there is any interest. I have a pretty much brand-new Apex controller with a DOS. I kind of bought it on a whim, and can't return it now that it has been opened. I have it set up, so it has seen water, but only for a week or 2. I'll probably get some sort of controller in the near future, but this isn't really what I want/need at the moment. I'd sell the Apex to a Buckeye Reefer for $750 (with a Neptune Probe Rack). I'd let the DOS go for $250. I'll ship, but we might have to split the cost or something. Local pickup is preferred though. Any takers out there? Edit: I'm in NE Ohio close to Akron

Hello. I'm new here too and also getting back into the reefing game. You've found a great group. Your tank looks like it's off to a great start!

Yeah, good idea. I haven't brewed for awhile, and never really got into the community there. I found it by googling though, albeit after the fact. Maybe a Reddit post would help.

Following this experiment. It will be cool to see where this goes...

Well. Potential disaster averted. I'm draining out a bunch of saltwater and exchanging it for fresh RO. I'm on my 4th 5 gallon bucket. My refractometer is from another hobby of mine, Homebrewing. I didn't realize that refractometers for different applications were calibrated differently. 1.025 SG in beer wort is completely different than 1.025 SG in saltwater. The actual SG in the tank was about 1.037. Good thing the worst thing to come of this was a bit of wasted salt. I wouldn't have known this until things were dying off if it weren't for the Apex I guess. I was getting some crazy readings from the salinity probe. I cross-checked it with a hydrometer I found hanging around, so i definitely know the refractometer reading was off. I ordered a new one off Amazon, so hopefully it all checks out after I get the salinity down.

Messy wires drive me freakin' crazy. Organizing them is frustrating, and I can never get them the way I want them. It's one of those constant battles in life haha.

Good call. That would be useful to hook up to the Apex.

Beautiful fish! Glad to hear they did well.

Got things pretty much set up and running over the weekend. Electronics were moved in and mounted in the right-side cabinet. There is still a mess of wires, but it will do for now. I got the Apex up and running. I'm really starting to wish I went with the GHL controller, but I can't return the Apex. Something about the company just rubs me wrong the more I look into it. The hardware seems kind of flimsy and toy-ish, and it takes up a LOT of unnecessary room. I installed the ATO after getting the water station set up in the garage (which is conveniently just on the other side of the wall. I'm not sure what I'll do in the winter, but we'll cross that bridge later. I have 3 lines of RO tubing and the wires for the ATO going through the wall out to various containers. One for RO, one for fresh saltwater, and one for old saltwater. This allows for the DOS to to auto water changes (which I still need to configure). The Tunze ATO draws RO from a 5 gallon container that I will fill manually every few days (by simply turning a valve). I do this to make sure my sump can't overfill if the ATO goes haywire for some reason. I also put sand in the tank. Too much at first, but removed some this morning and played around with the scape. Still not 100% happy with the rock work. I added a couple cubes of frozen Mysis that I had hanging around along with some Dr. Tim's in hopes it will kick off the cycle. I've been running my protein skimmer in order to break it in, just leaving the plug out so the water in the cup drains back into the sump. Here are some pics: