Playing with Macros

Rowdeus · Dec 2, 2021

I'm learning to use the Reef PI (slowly...) and was thinking I could use a macro for a water changing routine. Trying to pin down a water change to 20 minutes or less this is what I came up with. Does this look right? Does anyone else use it for this function? Unfortunately I don't have the room to setup auto water changes.

Name	Reversible
Water Change	does this need to reversible?
Steps
1	Ato	auto Top Off	Turnoff	Disables float valve for water level to prevent RODI water intake
2	Ato	Skimmer	Turnoff	Disables float valve for water level to prevent skimmer overflow
3	Equipment	Skimmer	Turnoff	Turns off power to skimmer
4	Equipment	Top off	Turnoff	Turns off power to top off pump
5	Equipment	roller mat	Turnoff	Turns off power to roller mat to prevent excess filter consumption
6	Temperature	Main Temperature	Turnoff	Disables Temperature routine
7	Equipment	Heater	Turnoff	Turns off power to heater
8	Equipment	Return	Turnoff	Turns off power to return pump
9	Equipment	Stand Light	Turnon	Turns stand light on for maintenance under tank
10	Wait	1200		20 minute pause for Glass scraping, water drain, add new salt water, & Clean Skimmer
11	Equipment	Return	Turnon	Turns on the return pump
12	wait	120		Waits 2 minutes for water level to return to normal
12	Ato	Skimmer	Turnon	Turns skimmer on due to 1 sec interval check
12	wait	60		waits 1 minute for water level to return to normal
13	Ato	auto Top Off	Turnon	Turns the auto top off routine on
14	Temperature	Main Temperature	Turnon	turns temperature routine on
15	Equipment	roller mat	Turnon	turns roller mat power on
16	Equipment	Stand Light	Turnoff	turns off stand light

I figure I would run it from the macro screen. Lol I hope this is what Macros are for!

Ranjib · Dec 4, 2021

looks pretty normal to me. few things i do differently
1) my water change chores are not fixed. Sometime i spend more time in scraping glass fixing things, sometimes its quicker. So i dont wait for a fixed amount of time (20 min in your case. Instead i just run the macro reverse , manually. This makes the macro simpler, but i have to manually trigger reverse, once im done
2) i dont disable temperature controller, it is not important i think.
rest looks similar, i.e. first turn of ATO, then skimmer, then wait for 2 min and then turn of return and power heads.

Rowdeus · Dec 5, 2021

Ranjib said:
looks pretty normal to me. few things i do differently
1) my water change chores are not fixed. Sometime i spend more time in scraping glass fixing things, sometimes its quicker. So i dont wait for a fixed amount of time (20 min in your case. Instead i just run the macro reverse , manually. This makes the macro simpler, but i have to manually trigger reverse, once im done
2) i dont disable temperature controller, it is not important i think.
rest looks similar, i.e. first turn of ATO, then skimmer, then wait for 2 min and then turn of return and power heads.

That sounds good! I am turning off the heater in case I drain the sump to clean it.