Sunday, September 30, 2012

Going Live!

Yesterday was a big day for the tank.  I added the Apex Jr. controller, sand and live rock.  Now I'm just waiting for it to clear up again for pictures.  Nothing's ever easy with this thing though.

Thursday night I went out to get a bridge for the Apex.  It's just not close enough to a computer to run cable.  The bridge that they sold me was by D-Link, and was terrible.  I was reminded that I should never buy this product again.  I couldn't even get it to the log in screen.  This was my second D-Link product, and neither of them have worked.  Saturday I went out and exchanged the D-Link for a Linksys.  I paid more, but I had it hooked up in 2 minutes.  The Apex hooked up with it easily and now I have the lights and heater on a timer and the pump on one-touch command.  I may have to look into expanding into an EB8 to get a power head in there and I need the module for a Ph probe.

Looks great with the lights.  Maybe a little nosier than I wanted but it's not that bad.

The live rock was a challenge.  I probably bought a little more than I needed but some of the pieces looked so cool I didn't want to trade for something smaller.  I ended up with 29lbs in a 30gal so I'm on the suggested target.  I like the aquascape I eventually came up with.  I would have liked a bit more open space in the front but I'm happy with it.

The sand... Well, I thought I'd rinsed it thoroughly but my cloudy was apparently still pretty milky when I put it in there.  It's been about 15 hours now and I can almost see everything.  I'll have to go in with my pump and just kind of spray excess sand off the rocks.  I used a bit more that I needed to (still have some in a bucket to bag up again) but I just wanted to make sure I have good coverage.  It's not a deep sand bed, but it's a good 2-3 inches.

I've even seen a few hitchhikers: a mini-brittle star and a snail.  I hope the snail is a good one.

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