Over the last few weeks I’ve been busy doing a few upgrades with my system.
I decided it was time to connect the JBL UV-C ‘Rocket Launcher of death’ into Apex. So I plugged it all in only to find that it wasn’t working anymore. It had been working, so maybe I blew something like the bulb. I took it to pieces and it wasn’t looking that clean and had lots of salt creep.
Typically it was the only piece of equipment I had purchased from my LFS rather than online, and I’d lost the receipt so the 2 year warranty is not much use. Online I have it stored on computer.
In view of the state of it and the cost of a new bulb I thought I might as well just get a new one, and after doing a lot of research I went for the DD 20w UVC. This not only fits in the sump rather than outside, you can also see when it’s working from the glowing lights. I would have got the 39w but it was just to big and the 20w is rated for 500-1000 litre tanks in any case.
This picture shows the hose output of the UVC so I can see that the pump is working
I have the water flowing through at a rate of about 350-400 lph. Having read the DD recommendations and actual power, and with a view to killing such things as ich, bacteria etc., I need to achieve a power of around 72000 microwatts/sec.
At 1000 lph flow it generates 30000 microwatts. 72000 dividend by 30000 = 2.4. So to get the correct power i divide 1000 by 2.4 = 416 lph.
So my flow is just under this but within a margin of error as it was measured using a 1 litre jug and stopwatch but I’ve gone for a bit slower just to be sure. It’s not the ideal 1 x turnover of water per hour but...
So with the new UVC installed I’ve hooked it up to Apex and installed a Leak Protection program as below. This is just in case a hose comes out or something. The skimmer has the same protection program mainly for the outlet drain hose.
I’m currently dosing NoPox at 18ml per day to control Nitrate levels and may go a bit higher. My Nitrates are around 12-16ppm and although the corals are ‘glowing’ with life, I like to keep things under my control.
The increased dose has caused a few bacterial blooms in the sump, mainly in the return chamber, so I’ve installed a small circulation pump to disturb the water surface and it works a treat. No more slime.
The main reason for my concern with the slime build up was if it started to affect the Tunze ATO optical sensor which is in the same location
One of my main concerns with the U.K. Apex was that it doesn’t have the new power bar, so you can tell, for example, if you have main pump power failure.
Well I now can. I’ve installed a float switch into the left hand side of the sump. For non Max S Series users, if the main pump is off, the sump fills up, and will then trigger the float and send me an alarm to tell me
I’ve also installed a float switch into my large 100 litre ATO reservoir to alert me if it’s running low
I made the float switches myself, forgive the jagged acrylic as my cutting/snapping skills are not that good!!
Finally whilst doing all this, things like the skimmer, UVC are now plugged into separate extension leads which I have Velcro’d to the rear of the tank so I can unplug them easily without having to wrestle them from the tangle in the power centre.
The only equipment remaining directly in the power centre are the main return pump and 4 rear circulation pumps.
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