Apex and hooking up the heater?

MCooper · Jul 22, 2016

Okay so I admit I am clueless with this thing. I have ZERO idea how to use it, even after reading up on it. I can't even figure out how to check the salinity when I have the salinity probe already in the tank and hooked up.
Anyone have any simple tips/advice on how to hook up the heater so that it gets shut off if goes above a certain temp as this is the main reason I got the Apex (lost a tank to a bad heater).

Sorry for the stupid post, but I need some serious Apex help!

ksfulk · Jul 22, 2016

Its pretty easy if you are using Apex Fusion.

Plug your heater into an outlet on the power bar. Open up Apex Fusion and find that outlet. Click on the little gear icon next to the outlet name, that will let you edit the configuration of that outlet.

Once there, you will have a screen like the one below - Here you can rename the outlet (I named mine Heater_800w). More importantly, if you go to Control Type, you can select heater, and it will bring up some automated windows for you (see below). You want to be sure that you are using the Temp probe to control the outlet. Then you just type in what temperature you want the heater to turn off and on at and you just have to make sure that the FALLBACK is turned off (that way if you lose connectivity, the heater doesnt stay ON). Once you have that done, you just click the orange upload button at the top right of the screen, wait for it to upload, and then you are all set!

jeremy.gosnell · Jul 22, 2016

DrCooper said:
Okay so I admit I am clueless with this thing. I have ZERO idea how to use it, even after reading up on it. I can't even figure out how to check the salinity when I have the salinity probe already in the tank and hooked up.
Anyone have any simple tips/advice on how to hook up the heater so that it gets shut off if goes above a certain temp as this is the main reason I got the Apex (lost a tank to a bad heater).

Sorry for the stupid post, but I need some serious Apex help!

I think the Apex displays salinity as the output reading of the conductivity probe by default. This is a display of your water's salinity in ppt (parts per thousand). To get a figure you may better understand (which is likely specific gravity) you will need to use a conversion calculator like this one. For example, if your tank's salinity reading off the conductivity probe is 35, under a normal temperature of 77-79, your specific gravity is 1.026.

jeremy.gosnell · Jul 22, 2016

Another thing, once you determine your tank's specific gravity based on the salinity reading, it's not necessary to constantly rush over to a conversion calculator and determine the exact specific gravity. What you're looking for is stability and ensuring your salinity doesn't change by more than .1 .2 or less from time to time. If you notice a major fluctuation, I would recommend checking it with a refractometer also.

MCooper · Jul 22, 2016

ksfulk said:
Its pretty easy if you are using Apex Fusion.

Plug your heater into an outlet on the power bar. Open up Apex Fusion and find that outlet. Click on the little gear icon next to the outlet name, that will let you edit the configuration of that outlet.

Once there, you will have a screen like the one below - Here you can rename the outlet (I named mine Heater_800w). More importantly, if you go to Control Type, you can select heater, and it will bring up some automated windows for you (see below). You want to be sure that you are using the Temp probe to control the outlet. Then you just type in what temperature you want the heater to turn off and on at and you just have to make sure that the FALLBACK is turned off (that way if you lose connectivity, the heater doesnt stay ON). Once you have that done, you just click the orange upload button at the top right of the screen, wait for it to upload, and then you are all set!

I plugged into outlet number 1 but how do you find that on apex fusion? I saw an outlet named heater_3_5 but unsure if that is it ?

MCooper · Jul 22, 2016

Wait, may have figured it out. Clicked on "plug" icon and changed the one named outlet 1 to to the thermometer and set it to on at 76 and off at 79. Does this sound correct?

ksfulk · Jul 22, 2016

DrCooper said:
Wait, may have figured it out. Clicked on "plug" icon and changed the one named outlet 1 to to the thermometer and set it to on at 76 and off at 79. Does this sound correct?

Possibly - hard to tell without looking at your screen, but it sounds like you are on the right track. The "Name" is an editable field, so it can be called "Elephant" and that be your heater outlet. What you want to look for to associate outlet #s is the "Device" field. On my Apex, I have two EB8 powerbars. These are listed as "3" or "5" respectively. My heater is plugged into power bar "3" outlet #5. If you look below, you can see that under "Device" it is listed as "3_5" which corresponds to powerbar 3, outlet 5. These are not editable fields, so you can always figure out which outlet belongs to which configuration regardless of the names the outlet is given.

MCooper · Jul 22, 2016

ksfulk · Jul 22, 2016

Looks set up right, but Im assuming your temperature probe isnt hooked up yet - looks like its reading 23.5 - which means that outlet should kick on until TMPX5 reads 79.0, per your programming

MCooper · Jul 22, 2016

No my temp probe is in tank. Oh boy, no clue like I said Hahahahah

ksfulk · Jul 22, 2016

DrCooper said:
No my temp probe is in tank. Oh boy, no clue like I said Hahahahah

Hmmm.... Do you have more than one temp probe then? Or was there an expansion module on this Apex before (PM1 I think?) Assuming your tank isnt 23F, you'll want to figure out why your temperature probe is reading so low before hooking the outlet up to it - otherwise you'll cook your livestock.

Check you connections and such. Make sure that your temp probe is connected to the Apex, calibrate the probe so that the Apex probe is reporting what temperature the water actually is (either pick up a calibrated thermometer, or a couple of "regular" thermometers to get a consensus reading) and only then use the probe to control your outlet. Might be worth checking out the Neptune forums for some more specific help, or even giving the guys at Neptune a call. They can usually log into your Apex and tell you whats going on there within a few minutes.

Good luck - its a steep learning curve but once you get there, its all cake!

MCooper · Jul 22, 2016

Not sure why fusion saying that cause the apex display is reading 76.6 degrees?

MCooper · Jul 22, 2016

This is the bottom screen of fusion so now I'm confused

MCooper · Jul 22, 2016

ksfulk said:
Hmmm.... Do you have more than one temp probe then? Or was there an expansion module on this Apex before (PM1 I think?) Assuming your tank isnt 23F, you'll want to figure out why your temperature probe is reading so low before hooking the outlet up to it - otherwise you'll cook your livestock. Check you connections and such. Make sure that your temp probe is connected to the Apex, calibrate the probe so that the Apex probe is reporting what temperature the water actually is (either pick up a calibrated thermometer, or a couple of "regular" thermometers to get a consensus reading) and only then use the probe to control your outlet. Might be worth checking out the Neptune forums for some more specific help, or even giving the guys at Neptune a call. They can usually log into your Apex and tell you whats going on there within a few minutes.

Good luck - its a steep learning curve but once you get there, its all cake!

I do have a PM1

jaws789832 · Jul 22, 2016

you have 2 temperature ports on that apex. Go back into your heater and change probe name to temp, not tmpx5. Somewhere on your apex you can hook up another temp probe. I have 2 on mine, I put the 1 labeled temp in my sump where the heaters are, and the other in the DT. I then use them as another backup for the heater plug. When the temperature in the sump goes up to 78 the heater shuts off. if for somereason that temperature probe in my sump goes out of whack I set the heater to shut off when the temperature probe in the DT goes up to 78.5. Just a bit of a backup. But you need to make sure your plug is going on and off by the correct temperature probe (since you only have 1 otherwise your tank is going to fry

jaws789832 · Jul 22, 2016

I actually have 3 ports for temp probes on mine but I only have 2 temp probes so the third one I just keep it in the storage so it isn't on my fusion screen. Click on the little lock on the upper right corner and drag the tmp-5 to the box up top until you get another probe so you don't have to see it and get confused on what the temp of your tank is.

jaws789832 · Jul 22, 2016

Also (not sure which apex you have) but on the classic energy bars, when you are looking at the energy bar with the reading right side up the plugs are 1,2,3,4, on the top row and 5,6,7,8 on the bottom row. So according to what you have posted above. your Heater should be plugged into the first plug on the top row. If its not then you don't have it programmed correctly. When I name the plugs I try to leave the plug number with the name. for example I would name it HEATER_1. That way I always know which plug on that energy bar is what. So the plug that you plug in next to the heater might be your light. I would name that Light_2 so you know the second plug on the top row is you light. Just makes it a bit easier for when you have to do maintenance you know what is plugged into where without following cords

MCooper · Jul 22, 2016

Think I got it

jaws789832 · Jul 22, 2016

You can also drag all those switches up. They wont do anything unless you have a breakout box with your apex. then you can hook up switches but until then they just make your fusion messy. Basically anything that you aren't using (including plugs) drag up. then as you hook things up you can drag them back down and put them where you want