Apex DOS Ca overdose/glitch

[Wilsoni]

I was recently viewing my Apex dashboard and found that pump 02 on my DOS dumped 43.8 mL of Seachem Reef Fusion (Part 1) in my Nuvo Fusion 20, less than an hour ago. My normal daily dose is 3.5 mL per day.

Based on my calculations, 43.8 mL raised my calcium by approximately 57 ppm over the course of an hour or less. (I do know that you can safely increase your Ca by 50 ppm per day)

My question is, will 57 ppm in such a short period of time cause any detrimental effects?


I'm still baffled as to what caused this. My log is completely steady and my formulas are correct. I've since disabled my DOS until I can make it home from work to investigate this.

My parameters as of 1/27

KH - 9.9
Ca - 400
Mg - 1350

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This is no concern from a tank perspective, but making sure it doesn't keep happening is.

 

[Wilsoni]

This is no concern from a tank perspective, but making sure it doesn't keep happening is.

Thank you for the quick response Randy!

I do have some extended family staying over currently. My theory is that this had to have been done manually. I'll have to warn them to keep away from the tank as big brother is always watching

If only there were a way to lock the buttons on the DOS...

 

[KingTriton]

If only there were a way to lock the buttons on the DOS...

That sure would be nice.

 

[miamijaaz]

There have been issues with the rollers on some earlier models of the DOS, which would essentially lead to a free flow situation when the DOS was mounted below the waterline or the source liquid above the aquarium. The DOS uses only two rollers, unlike say the Litermeter which uses III. I understand Neptune will replace the rollers if you have an earlier version of the DOS. Go here:

https://www.neptunesystems.com/dos-roller-assembly-replacement-program/

 

[Wilsoni]

There have been issues with the rollers on some earlier models of the DOS, which would essentially lead to a free flow situation when the DOS was mounted below the waterline or the source liquid above the aquarium. The DOS uses only two rollers, unlike say the Litermeter which uses III. I understand Neptune will replace the rollers if you have an earlier version of the DOS. Go here:

https://www.neptunesystems.com/dos-roller-assembly-replacement-program/

Thanks for the tip! I do believe mine was an early model. I'll have to confirm this, this evening.

 

[jent]

Wilsoni, I suspect that pushing the button was likely the cause, because the case I am about to describe I don't think leaves a record in the system that anything was dosed. That said, and to further information about the issue.

I did recently discover a bug in the DOS software, where from in the apex fusion or web interface you flip the dos switch to "on" then back to "auto" the pump may continue to operate at a very slow speed. This can obviously result in a large, unexpected dose over time.

I let neptune know about this defect, and they were apparently already aware. In fact their current beta version has this defect fixed (which is what I am now running, and have confirmed it fixed my system). They said they expect to have this new version released within a few more days.

Long story short, update your apex's firmware to beta version 4.40_CC15, and then once you have that go into the web interface and update the software of the dos module (must be done as a separate independent step after the firmware update of the apex). That will at least make sure you can't be impacted by this very dangerous bug.

 

[Wilsoni]

Wilsoni, I suspect that pushing the button was likely the cause, because the case I am about to describe I don't think leaves a record in the system that anything was dosed. That said, and to further information about the issue.

I did recently discover a bug in the DOS software, where from in the apex fusion or web interface you flip the dos switch to "on" then back to "auto" the pump may continue to operate at a very slow speed. This can obviously result in a large, unexpected dose over time.

I let neptune know about this defect, and they were apparently already aware. In fact their current beta version has this defect fixed (which is what I am now running, and have confirmed it fixed my system). They said they expect to have this new version released within a few more days.

Long story short, update your apex's firmware to beta version 4.40_CC15, and then once you have that go into the web interface and update the software of the dos module (must be done as a separate independent step after the firmware update of the apex). That will at least make sure you can't be impacted by this very dangerous bug.

I actually really appreciate you shedding light on this. I have in the past toggled the pump on from the web interface and noticed a much larger dosing than expected for the short period of time I had it left on for. I will be sure to update my system as soon as I get a chance. My only problem is that my main computer is a 15" Macbook Pro with a Retina display, lacking an ethernet port. So I've had to ask a friend to come over and update it from an older Mac or PC.

Do you know of any stable way to update it without having my Macbook connected to an ethernet port?

 

[Sabellafella]

I currently have 2 dos systems and service almost 10 more, only issues ive seen were sometimes the fusion dashboard would display a lesser dosage(glitch) and daylight savings times double dosing. Look into your log to see where the extra ml came from it should tell you if it dosed all at once. Follow the trend, if equal dosing through your interval time led to 48.3 then i would open a claim with apex