I have a breakout box and I bought one of the magnetic float switches for my ato
For my automatic water changes I planned on doing it on a time schedule. Meaning I have 1 pump in sump to drain 5 gallons of water Monday-Friday. Then I have a pump in saltwater bin to pump 5 gallons into sump. I would have to shut off skimmer and return pump until display tank drains which takes 10 minutes. Takes 4 minutes for sump to drain the 5 gallons. Then it takes 4 minutes and 30 seconds to fill sump with pump from saltwater bucket.
My display tank is 240 gallons. My sump is 125 gallons and my fuge is 75 gallons. Total water volume approxiametley 300-320 gallons
Easy as pie with Apex.
I'll break this up into two messages, one for the auto water change, one for the single switch ato
I'll do the waterchange one first, as it is actually simplier.
First you will need to create a "virtual outlet" to control when automatic water changes (awc) takes place, and to control the other equipment.
Virtual outlets are the ones named "Cntl_A1", Cntl_A2" etc.
My virtual outlet is named "WaterChange" (inventive, I know)
This is my code with the Day Of Week command added for you;
WaterChange
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 07:00 to 07:30 Then ON
If DoW S-----S Then OFF
If SmpHi OPEN Then OFF
Fallback OFF, Set OFF are self explanatory
If Time, is when you would like the awc to take place. In my case, it starts at 7:00am......you can set it for whatever time you want it to happen.
The DoW command is s, followed by 5 dashes, followed by an s. This means if it is a Sunday or a Saturday, it will not run, only doing the water changes Monday to Friday each week.
Now add the line "If outlet WaterChange = On Then Off" to your return pump code, and your skimmer code. Preferably one of the last statements in each of their codes (just make sure there isn't a "Then On" statement after your "If Outlet WaterChange" statement in each of them). This will turn your return pump and skimmer off when the water change is taking place.
The "If SmpHi" statement in my code, is for a sump high level switch, which shuts off all kinds of stuff if it detects a high level in the sump. If you don't have something like that, then just don't add the line.
Next is pumping the water out. These are real outlets, one for the old salt water out, and one for the new salt water in.
Start with pumping the old water out. I named that outlet OSWout
OSWout
Fallback OFF
OSC 010:00/004:00/046:00 Then ON
If Outlet WaterChange = OFF Then OFF
So this tells the pump to wait 10 minutes from the top of the hour before doing anything. It then runs for 4 minutes. It then waits another 46 minutes, to complete a 60 minute cycle. The 10 minute wait is how long you told me it takes for your return to drain down. If you need a different amount of time, we can change that. The Line "If Outlet WaterChange =OFF Then OFF" is important, and makes sure this only runs when the virtual outlet WaterChange is ON....otherwise it would repeat at the top of every hour, non stop. Outlet WaterChange is only on Monday to Friday from 7am to 7:30 am, so this is the only time it will run.
Now we can pump the new water in. I named that outlet NSWin
NSWin
Fallback OFF
OSC 0:15/004:30/040:30 Then ON
If Outlet WaterChange = OFF Then OFF
Same idea, except the new water in pump waits 15 minutes before doing anything. This allows your drains to finish (10 min), plus the old water out pump to run (4 min). It then pumps for 4 min, 30 seconds, then sits around and does nothing for 40 min and 30 seconds. By then, outlet WaterChange will have switched to OFF, so we are done.
Let me know if you have any questions
