Well, Gerwin & Roger stopped by the house last night to try to figure out what was going on in the abomanation that I call a Saltwater tank. I was on the verge of taking down the tank and starting over, every coral I put in the tank for the most part was dead within a few weeks, algae was running rampant on my live rock. To say that I was at my wits end with my tank would be an understatement. With in 5 min. of looking at the tank, they had figured it out, heat, I had a heat problem in my tank and lots of it. The water in my tank when they got to the house was at 91 degrees. I have been for the most part, cooking all of the corals that went into my tank, between the LED lighting and the hot water, I had algae growing farm going on in my system. So, what kind of record ineptness had I risen to when it comes to my tank that had caused all of these problem, cost me, who knows how many $$$ in nice corals that I had put into the tank, and maybe a fish or two. Disclaimer: I may get some of this wrong, but for the most part I think I am right. I have a Apex Controller set up on my tank, not much on it, just the return pump from the sump to the tank, the pump that feeds my manifold system and my heater. The heater was set up on one the Apex power outlets, it was set up to turn the heater on at a set temperature and set to go off if the temperature rises to high. This system works really good as long as you have the, here it comes, wait for it, wait for it
you have the heater plugged into that power outlet. Let's say that you have another power outlet on your Apex that has power to that outlet 27/7 that never shuts off, and lets say you some how while moving things around, you plug your heater probe into that outlet instead of the outlet that had been set up to control your heater, you would have a heater probe set up on your system, that would never shut off
This is the wife's I told you so moment
she really took me to the wood shed for this
She had felt the water in the tank before and told me it was to hot, I never thought much about it because the Apex was showing the temperature in the tank at 87, but it was really at 90 + So, what does all of this mean for me and my tank, Gerwin & Roger have my heater set up right and I shouldn't be cooking anymore corals, they recommended getting a couple of Urchins to take care of the Algae problem that is going on in the tank, which will be bought today. The bottom line is, I have lost a years worth of SPS coral growing time in my tank that I will never get back, because of cooking my corals, a year that, at my age, I can't spare
but hopefully we are on the right track now and things can only get better. Anyone want to buy a used Apex
To Gerwin & Roger,,, many thanks for coming over to the house last night after you had put in a full day at work and solving my tank problems, can't express how much I appreciate you both taking the time to do this.
Dang Pete!
I just need to learn how to use the thing.