I feel like I blog about calcium reactor stuff a lot. I wonder if I would do the same with 2-part dosing? lol
Last Sunday, I did a 100g water change on the reef. I pumped out all the water out of the skimmer zone, and the return zone, and then more water out of the reef aquarium itself. I refilled it with new saltwater, and went about my normal life.
The weather was in the 70's today, so I made the time to test the new generator I'd purchased a year ago. Fortunately, I haven't needed it, but you know when you do need it, the wind is howling, it's pitch dark, it's cold and wet...
I have a Versa (single head) pump that is feeding my calcium reactor. I've had it running for months. Recently, it appeared that the calcium reactor's effluent was flowing at a lesser than usual amount, and I checked for any obstructions. All was well. In theory, nothing was clogged. I didn't remove the reactor for a full cleaning, I just checked some of the obvious points.
It seems like lately most of my blogs seem to be about the Apex. I'll try to work on that and add some other things in here from time to time.
The Apex saved my home. Sorta. For the past couple of days, I was getting Power Lost alerts from Fusion, yet everything was on. The reef was normal, tv was normal, internet was normal, the only thing I was seeing was the lights in the bathrooms would flicker a little and I assumed it was brownouts.
Since I started using a calcium reactor back in 2004, I've always had 5lb aluminum or steel cylinders, and I have to refill them a few times a year. For the most part, a local liquor store would refill empty bottles for a nominal amount. A couple of years ago, the owner got a tad picky about said bottles (from others) and demanded that every sticker be removed or they would refuse service. This included the brand of the cylinder, any logos, you name it.
Since 2004, I've used a calcium reactor to maintain alkalinity and calcium in my reef tanks. It's a semi-simple setup, with a few necessary components. I have an article about how it is set up here: https://www.melevsreef.com/articles/how-set-calcium-reactor
Eight weeks ago, I installed the Trident automatic tester to my 400g reef. It is made for the Apex controller. Four times a day, the machine whirrs to life and measures alkalinity, calcium and magnesium. I tend to check the numbers constantly, and know the results are usually less than six hours old. It's allowed me to be "lazy, yet informed" and I love it.
I discovered a missing line in my Apex code tonight. It's programming is coded to have it notify me via alarm, email and push notification if the tank gets too cold. That would be for my 400g. However, I never added an extra line of code for the separate frag system. Oops! Three years later, I find this out. Wow.
