Apex with dosing pump

[mike007]

How hard or easy is it to set up a dosing pump on the apex?

 

[saltfishguy18]

tagging along. curious to know how people set it up on their apex's too

 

[Budman's Corals]

tagging along. curious to know how people set it up on their apex's too

Bump

 

[Greenstreet.1]

There's a calculator that makes it a 100% easier. Give me a sec I will try to find it for you hope I won't get in trouble for posting it.

 

[strange33w]

it's pretty easy as long as you hook it up to your computer and use the interface there. Below is mine for ALK, It doesn't stay on very long as this is a nano tank so I do not have to dose much. The first row is what it does if it loses connection to the controller. The second row is its initial start mode which is off. The third row is the schedule (or how long it runs during the on time). Here i only want mine to be on for 1 minute 15 seconds, as that's all my tank needs to stay stable on ALK. The last row is the on off time, I wanted mine to dose at night so it turns on at 2100 (9PM) and goes back off at 2200 (10PM). So you would have to adjust the schedule to your tank but this should help get you started. It is the same concept for other dosing such as Calc or Mag.

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
OSC 058:45/001:15/000:00 Then ON
If Time 22:01 to 20:59 Then OFF

 

[Budman's Corals]

it's pretty easy as long as you hook it up to your computer and use the interface there. Below is mine for ALK, It doesn't stay on very long as this is a nano tank so I do not have to dose much. The first row is what it does if it loses connection to the controller. The second row is its initial start mode which is off. The third row is the schedule (or how long it runs during the on time). Here i only want mine to be on for 1 minute 15 seconds, as that's all my tank needs to stay stable on ALK. The last row is the on off time, I wanted mine to dose at night so it turns on at 2100 (9PM) and goes back off at 2200 (10PM). So you would have to adjust the schedule to your tank but this should help get you started. It is the same concept for other dosing such as Calc or Mag.

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
OSC 058:45/001:15/000:00 Then ON
If Time 22:01 to 20:59 Then OFF

What is OSC ?

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Apex_OSC_Calculator-1.xlsx

 

[Budman's Corals]

Apex_OSC_Calculator-1.xlsx

OK so my BRS dosing pump (ALK)is in the number 2 spot of my energy bar

Could i just go to the outlet setup on the computer interface and paste this in and adjust my time

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
OSC 058:45/001:15/000:00 Then ON
If Time 22:01 to 20:59 Then OFF

 

[Greenstreet.1]

This is it just put in how much you want to dose how Lind and so on then it will give you the program for you apex

www.reeftronics.net]Reeftronics OSC Calculator[/URL

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Your dosing pumps have to be on # 4&8 on the energy bar

 

[Budman's Corals]

This is it just put in how much you want to dose how Lind and so on then it will give you the program for you apex

www.reeftronics.net]Reeftronics OSC Calculator[/URL

oh so this excel spreadsheet ..

Thanks for that info ,I see

 

[Greenstreet.1]

No problem Russ sent that to me when I was setting up my dosing pumps it works great.

 

[Budman's Corals]

Your dosing pumps have to be on # 4&8 on the energy bar

oh so not 1 and 2

well i read in the manual the heater neeed to be on 4 or 8
Is that true

heres what i got
1-Cal Doser
2 Alk Doser
3- Blues
4 main pump
5 powerheads
6 skimmer
7 daylights
8 heater

any suggestions would be great ,I been setting up since last night

 

[strange33w]

yes, go to that interface and under control type select advanced, then paste below. This is for my 30 Gallon nano so you if your tank is smaller I would shorten the time. If it is larger you can leave it as is and start testing. When I first set this up I tested everyday to see where my levels were. I started out at with out using the pumps tp get as base line. Test your tank then wait 3 days and test again, You will see how much your perams change. I used the dosing calculator on the Bulk reef supply web site to see how much solution I needed to add. So lets say the cal says I need to dose 3ML to get my Alk back to the first days levels. That would make it 3ML over 3 days so 1ML a day. So I would run my dosing pump for 1 minute daily, so my OSC would look like this OSC 059:00/001:00/000:00 Then ON. This OSC means that the pump runs off for 59 mins then on for one min then off again. When you start dosing always start lower than you think then adjust your times to get your sedired perams.

 

[Greenstreet.1]

4&8 or made for the dosing pumps I forget the reason off the top of my head but that's the only two that will control the dosing pumps the correct way.

 

[Budman's Corals]

yes, go to that interface and under control type select advanced, then paste below. This is for my 30 Gallon nano so you if your tank is smaller I would shorten the time. If it is larger you can leave it as is and start testing. When I first set this up I tested everyday to see where my levels were. I started out at with out using the pumps tp get as base line. Test your tank then wait 3 days and test again, You will see how much your perams change. I used the dosing calculator on the Bulk reef supply web site to see how much solution I needed to add. So lets say the cal says I need to dose 3ML to get my Alk back to the first days levels. That would make it 3ML over 3 days so 1ML a day. So I would run my dosing pump for 1 minute daily, so my OSC would look like this OSC 059:00/001:00/000:00 Then ON. This OSC means that the pump runs off for 59 mins then on for one min then off again. When you start dosing always start lower than you think then adjust your times to get your sedired perams.

Makes very good sense..I know what alk i use per week but never spread it out all week i use 36ml per week so i guess i could dose 5 mills a day so run 4 minutes a day to start with

OSC 056:00/004:00/000:00

would this be correct

 

[Budman's Corals]

4&8 or made for the dosing pumps I forget the reason off the top of my head but that's the only two that will control the dosing pumps the correct way.

i thought they were for heavier load outlets though,I know they say there the ones with relay maybe casue there turned on off so much,but in my case only be on off 1 time per day

but i can see over a year it would wear out the regular non relay socket

 

[Greenstreet.1]

And you also run the chance of the other ports not turning off the pump and overdosing your tank so they say use 4&8 it's in the manual also.

 

[Budman's Corals]

Im thinking that excel chart is spreading out the dose throughout the day, but if im just dosing only 5ml per day I can have it dose all in 4 minuts,I can see if i had to dose 100ml a day,i would want to spread it out over 5 hour period

Im I understanding this correctly

 

[Budman's Corals]

And you also run the chance of the other ports not turning off the pump and overdosing your tank so they say use 4&8 it's in the manual also.

Well im moving them to 4 and 8

I should bought doser with a timer and wouldnt take up 2 spots on the energy bar also