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Jeff's Upgrade to DSA 105

Looks nice.
You might want to seal it more from the skimmer/sump section.
The humidity and fine salt spray kills electronics fast.
 
Her will be a piece of plywood closing off the electronics from sump area. Need to run cable raceways and they’re no painted red yet.


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Cable raceways, fire tablet holder and Ethernet cables.
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Apex Savior story: Today, while my wife was walking the dogs, I decided to view Fusion and found out my tank was as 74 degrees. I looked at my Cobalt heater and there were two yellow flashing lights. With the help of @jccaclimber diagnosing my tank via Apex, my heater crapped out around noon today and the temp steadily fell. Fortunately I have two (undersized) heaters here so I was able to start warming up the tank. I would not have known this was happening without Apex. We live in SF and don't heat the house at night, so I would have had a very chilly reef by morning, and doubtful I would have noticed it then. Saved my reef and my animals.

Super lucky!

Thanks @xcaret
 
Set up the email notifications (it will send a text also) for stuff like temperature and oh at least. You can also set notifications for power use out of normal range on things like pumps and heaters so you know something is wrong before Temps even start to drop.
 
Set up the email notifications (it will send a text also) for stuff like temperature and oh at least. You can also set notifications for power use out of normal range on things like pumps and heaters so you know something is wrong before Temps even start to drop.

Notifications were on (and are now narrower). Jeff noticed the temp just before it hit the alarm point.
 
If you set up power use notifications, it wouldn't have even gotten that low before you get alerted. It would have sent you an alert when the heaters were turned on by Apex and they did not draw the power they should be using.
 
been dosing 17 ml, 9 am 8 pm and my Kh is consistent at 8.4. all other parameters are good. Looking at possibly adding a clam. Would like a couple more fish as well. Really like the copper band butterfly, but was warned about nipping at corals. Thoughts? Maybe add an emperor angel or rabbitfish
 
been dosing 17 ml, 9 am 8 pm and my Kh is consistent at 8.4. all other parameters are good. Looking at possibly adding a clam. Would like a couple more fish as well. Really like the copper band butterfly, but was warned about nipping at corals. Thoughts? Maybe add an emperor angel or rabbitfish
Man, all those are risky. The copper band has a likelihood of dying. They are just hard to get to eat. The emperor is known to eat lps and the clam would be a target too. They get pretty big too o don’t think a 105 would work past their juvenile phase. I’m not as familiar with the rabbit but thought they were a “with caution” reef fish.
 
been dosing 17 ml, 9 am 8 pm and my Kh is consistent at 8.4. all other parameters are good. Looking at possibly adding a clam. Would like a couple more fish as well. Really like the copper band butterfly, but was warned about nipping at corals. Thoughts? Maybe add an emperor angel or rabbitfish
If you have SPS doing well then a clam is a possibility, just be sure your dosing system is solid.
CBBs are hard to get eating. If you can find one that is vigorously eating frozen food like mysis at the LFS, and I don’t mean just nibbling, then I’d say you have a 50% chance of success. Not vigorously eating and I’d say 5%. Mild risk of LPS nipping as well, and the will clear all of the feather dusters from your tank.
Emperors get big and often eat coral, I wouldn’t risk it personally. Better odds if you feed heavy and never miss a day, but not without risk.
Rabbits can be reef safe depending on the species. Mine, siganus virgatus has been a model citizen. The last guy I knew with one was the same, even ate from his hands, but it also got to be an 8-10” fish in just a few years.
 
If you have SPS doing well then a clam is a possibility, just be sure your dosing system is solid.
CBBs are hard to get eating. If you can find one that is vigorously eating frozen food like mysis at the LFS, and I don’t mean just nibbling, then I’d say you have a 50% chance of success. Not vigorously eating and I’d say 5%. Mild risk of LPS nipping as well, and the will clear all of the feather dusters from your tank.
Emperors get big and often eat coral, I wouldn’t risk it personally. Better odds if you feed heavy and never miss a day, but not without risk.
Rabbits can be reef safe depending on the species. Mine, siganus virgatus has been a model citizen. The last guy I knew with one was the same, even ate from his hands, but it also got to be an 8-10” fish in just a few years.

I had what I thought was called a fox face wrasse, but many here said it was a rabbit fish? Yellow with a snout and black dot on the back. I really liked him. Came home one day and he had died and was stuck against my MP-40. This was right after I added four fish from AC in Hayward. Three of those died as well, after a QT of a month. One survived.

Good advice Danny
 
I forgot about fox faces. Those might be reasonable and I’ve known people with them. Never had one myself, so I’d have to do a bit more research. Don’t touch the spines.
 
Your tank is nowhere near big enough for an emperor, and they aren’t reef safe.
Copper bands are difficult to keep and not reef safe. Don’t do it.
Please stop saying fox face wrasse even though you know it was a rabbit fish, you’re just confusing things further.
 
Adding to the above for future reference I should note my CBB experience.
1) He picks at my welso and I suspect he picks at the scolys.
2) When I said vigorously eating I meant it. That alone disqualifies 90% of the specimens that are imported.
3) Even with this the first one I brought home ate well for 1-2 weeks in his own space then woke up dead the one morning.
4) After several months of testing the feeding response of every CBB my LFS got in I found another one that ate mysis like a pig. I brought him home and let him fatten up in my 125 gallon prop system. Not only did I never see him eat prepared food again, he cleared out hundreds if not thousands of feather dusters in a matter of days. Now in the display he picks at the rocks. He’s been alive a year and is fatter, but still takes no prepared food. I’m convinced the only reason he is alive is the huge amount of grazing area and absence of other heavy pod consumers. In a smaller tank I think he would be dead.

So in short, out of probably 50-100 specimens I tried to feed at the LFS two were worth a chance. One died anyways, and the other would have died in most systems, plus he picks at some of my coral.
 
Jeff,
If you’re looking for something colorful you don’t see every day what about a half dozen anthias? You’ll need to be on top of frequent feeding, but they are beautiful fish IMO.
A dozen or two anthias are part of my long term fish list, although given my current housing outlook over the next 1-2 years they might stay there a while. That and I’d probably have to get around to finishing my auto fresh food feeder given my travel schedule and their feeding needs.
 
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