Help me setup my DOS please

[MCooper]

Okay, So I have been putting off setting my DOS up because I am nervous. I am nervous I will mess up my tank somehow.
Anyone set one up and have some advice? Anything at all so that I don't mess up my water?

 

[Breadman03]

Sure. Plug it in and put both the inlet tube and the outlet tube right into your tank. Play around for a little bit and pump your tank water right back into your tank.

 

[recess62]

These are very easy to use. What are your particular worries? Are you going to use these to dose or for water changes? Even though they are easy to use any mechanical or electronic devise can fail As such you should set up some alarms and commands on your apex to turn off the DOS if there is a malfunction. For example I dose ALK. My apex is set up to turn off the DOS if the pH goes above a certain value

 

[MCooper]

Yes I am gonna use it to dose. The whole apex format is so not user friendly in my opinion I regret buying it.

 

[aaron23]

I'm not the most tech savvy, just follow their directions and when it's setup it will display on the apex fusion and you can then adjust doses there and schedule the time. I will say it's the best thing since sliced bread

 

[Waters]

A lot of the programming isn't user friendly unless you have a computer background but if you use ApexFusion, programming the Dos is as simple as using drop down boxes to select the amounts you want dosed....the program takes care of spreading it out over whatever time frame you select.

 

[tonto95]

Check the neptune systems forum if you have problems setting up your apex. They even have examples for you to use. You can even get help from neptune if you run into difficulties.

 

[nitrodude]

My only advice-dont accidently turn the switch from off or auto to "on". Had turned alk off for a day as it was a little high, went to switch it back to auto and switched it to on by mistake. Caught it quickly but i could see that wiping out a tank.

 

[Breadman03]

Are you using Fusion? That makes it pretty simple to set up the DOS.

 

[ksfulk]

Fusion makes it pretty easy, especially if you are using the wizard. Mines not dosing anything right now, but here's all you have to do.

Step 1. Open Fusion and make sure that you have your DOS tiles on your desktop. What you need to edit are the tiles that are circled below in red. Click on the gear icon to open the dosing head that you are working on.

Step 2. This is the interface you will get. Here you can click on the gear icon circled in red below to setup your dosing schedule.

Step 3. Here is where you just have to know what you are dosing and when you would like to dose it. This looks a little intimidating, but its relatively easy once you understand what it is asking you. The start/end times are the times you would like the dosing head to be active. If you want to dose calcium (for example) throughout the whole day (all 24 hours) then leave the times as set up below. If you only want to dose something during the day (from 5 am to 5 pm for example) you would set your start time to 05:00 and the end time to 17:00 (5pm military time). For action, you want the pump to ADD the material to the tank. The REMOVE command would be used for automatic water changes typically. Then you just imput the total amount of fluid you want dosed during the active time. So in the setup below, I want 40.0mL of Calcium dosed throughout the whole day. The Apex/Dos will determine the even number of dosages needed throughout the day to achieve this and will dose your fluid accordingly. After 24 hours, you will see the individual dosages on the home screen tiles, as well as broken up on this screen as well. Make sure to change the switches from OFF to AUTO on the home screen!

You can add multiple intervals and commands if necessary, as well as rename the DOS heads in there as well. A word of caution. Be sure to update your Apex firmware and calibrate the DOS before use. This ensures that the pump will accurately deliver the amount of material you want into your tank. Oh, and be sure to prime the dosing lines to the tank as well, otherwise your first several dosages wont do anything because you will be filling up the dosing tubes.

Good Luck!