Would like to get members and guests input on what kind of topics you would like to hear talk/discussion on at our meetings. We've kind of gotten away from doing that but education is a part of our mission statement. Some ideas : 1) Testing, what kits are you using and why? 2)Nutrient control.... This could be broken up in to NO3 and PO4 and then in to the different methods...ATS, skimmer, carbon dosing, refugia,etc. 3) Talks on different species/genus of fish....we have people that like certain types. 4)Cycling a new tank....what's the best way? 5) Dosing nuts and bolts....how do you get it right? 6) What are the optimal parameters..NO3, PO4, Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, trace elements. What are some topics you want to hear about. Not just the above, submit some others if you will.
What do you do with new fish? Maybe go over the pros and cons of the different types of methods like Quarantine, TTM, Drip Acclimate or just float the bag for 45 minutes and introduce them to the tank
I'd be interested in learning about how people automate their tanks (or choose not to). Mostly the things that people actually use the most, not the fluff included in to sell controllers and such. Ya know, the shiny bell that you use twice and never both with again.
I'd say most people who automate use controllers because in the long run they save money. But I agree that this would be a great topic.
Im curious of everyones nutrient control. I personally am having a bit of issues with gha, red turf and bubble algae. Would like to see what everyone else is doing. I overfeed extremely and dont want to quit. I enjoy feeding my tank often.
I will say that I have a ReefKeeper Lite Plus and I absolutely love it. My favorite thing is the peace of mind knowing that my heater will turn on at 77.9* and off at 78.1*. Heater's break all the time and will cook your tank if not caught early. John
Im waiting for a controller thatll monitor cal, alk, mag, ph, orp, salinity and temp. I only use a controller for my heater. I couldnt justify the cost of an apex or rk just for a heater. I dont see the benefits of chasing ph salinity or orp. I keep hearing of a controller thatll monitor everything is coming but yet to see one hit the market.
Ive been meaning to pick your brain for awhile on your reef keeper. What all do you actually use it for?
Top bar runs both dosing pumps (runs x minutes on/ y minutes off/ z times per day staring at ? time), heater (turns on at 77.9, turns off at 78.1 monitored by a probe), and return pump. Bottom bar runs my lights, 2 T5 plugs, LED strip (moonlights), and fuge light all set to turn on and off at their respective times. My powerheads and Skimmer all have their own controllers. Everything listed can be done with timers except the heater but timers add up and programming each one can be a pain in the butt. As for the heater, knowing that power is killed to it when the temp gets above 78.1 feels great. I had a heater's thermostat go out when we lived in Florida. I put my hand in the tank and it was warm to the touch, like high 80's low 90's. Heater failure is one of the leading causes of tank crashes. John
I have the reefkeeper plus net. I do not dose with mine yet. I'm waiting for the dosing topic meeting. I use mine for the heater control, lights, returns and powerboats. I like the net module because it sends email alerts and allows me to turn things off or on remotely. I think of mine as insurance. I don't chase pH but it is setup to turn ato off if pH is below 7.8.
There's almost an infinite number of things you can do with a controller. A lot of it is redundancy and safety. As John said one of the most important things is to protect against a failed heater. The most common heater failure is to stick in the ON position, frying your tank. Being able to set a program to turn the heater off when it get's to a certain temp and notify you is great! I do it differently I adjust the thermostats on my heaters to get the temp I want and set them to go off if the temp climbs more than a degree than where they are set. I run my dosing with my Apex. Easy to set and spread your dosing evenly through out the day. I dose alkalinity on the hour and calcium at the bottom of the hour. I have one of my heaters in my overflow. I also have not glued my standpipes to the bulkheads. This means if my return pump goes out the overflow box will eventually drain. I set a program that if the temp (temp probe is in the overflow too) falls below 74 degrees...which means it's exposed to the air....it not only turns the heater off to keep it from exploding but notifies me and I know the return pump is out. You mentioned pH and it is very wise not to chase it. However that's another way to monitor what's going on in your tank. If my ATO were to go out and the water level drops more than a couple of inches in the middle chamber of the sump it will expose the pH probe to air causing it to immediately read 7.0 or something very near that. Bingo, I know the water level in the sump is low. This had actually saved me several times when I turn the ATO off to do some maintanence and forget to turn it back on. I get a text telling me the pH is below the setting I designated and I can remotely turn the ATO back on. Actually did this from Peru this past summer. Salinity can also be used to identify a similar failure of the ATO pump not going off.....even though I wouldn't trust the salinity probe to measure my salinity it could identify a drop that tells me the ATO is running non stop and send me a text.
Back to subject....keep 'em coming! We'll choose a few from the list in a week or so and run a poll to decide which one to do first.
