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Today on BRStv, we have episode fifteen of the Neptune Apex series and we are going to
go over control type pump in Apex Fusion.
Hi, I'm Ryan, host of BRStv where each week we go over a new topic related to reefing.
This week we are going to go over the control type pump also known as the oscillation function
from the outlet step menu in Apex Fusion. There are four basic types of pumps you would
instinctively want to use this on; your return pump, pumps that feed equipment like media
reactors or skimmers, powerheads and dosing pumps.
It starts off pretty simple with the fallback option which is the state you want the outlet
to be in if it ever gets disconnected from the apex base unit. Most flow and return pumps
you probably want to set this to on. I'd wager most equipment feed pumps as well. However
dosing pumps you likely want the fallback option set to off.
The next option is 'Initial Off Time' time, then 'On Time', then 'Off Time'. If you are
like most other people on the planet you are saying "what the hell does that mean" and
"why is it relevant to my return pump or equipment feed pumps." answer is this really is not
that relevant to return or equipment pumps, it is designed more for oscillating pumps,
like ones you would have on a wave maker. Hopefully sometime in the future they will
make an additional control type for return or equipment pumps to make it a bit clearer.
However you can still use this function for these if you want. Just set the 'Initial Off
Time' time to zero, the On to on to basically anything, I'll use 10 minutes and the off
to zero. To try and make sense of this it means the pump will come on immediately, stay
on for ten minutes and then never turn off.
Another option for return and equipment feed pumps is to not select the pump option and
select advanced instead. Within advance write Fallback ON in the first line and Set ON in
the second line. This will make sure the return or media reactor pump stays on if it gets
disconnected from the base unit and the set line will just tell the outlet to always be
on when it is connected.
Some of you may want to turn one or more of these pumps off when you feed. All you need
to do is add a line that says If FeedA 000 Then OFF which will turn off the pump off
when a feed mode A is triggered.
Ok time to discuss what this pump or oscillating function is really used for. I'll be honest
this is somewhat confusing and one of the more frustrating control types until you really
understand how it works. We are going to spell it out completely and hopefully in an understandable
language anyone can understand. For this demo, I am also going to connect my Kessil lights
to the same outlets as the AC tunze powerheads so you can get a more visual representation
of what is happening.
Let's start with the 'Initial Off Time' setting. This is the initial period of time you would
want the pump to be off. This 'Initial Off Time' period is what will allow you to stagger
the times each pumps turn on and create the varied flow patterns the oscillating or wave
maker function we are trying to achieve. For instance if I enter zero here the pump will
turn on immediately if I select five minutes it will start the cycle by being off for five
minutes and then turn on if we have an 'On Time'.
There is one component to this that is not obvious and needs to be understood before
we can move forward. The 'Initial Off Time' is not from the moment you hit the send button.
What we are doing is creating a cycle that will start at the beginning of the day which
is midnight, cycle through the three on off cycles here and repeat itself throughout the
entire day. So if I set the 'Initial Off Time' to zero and the 'On Time' to basically anything
the pump would come on at midnight and stay on forever because there are no off commands.
If I set the 'Initial Off Time' to five minutes and the 'On Time' to basically anything the
cycle would start at midnight with the pump off from midnight to twelve o'five, at which
time the pump will turn on.
So the 'On Time' is how long you want to pump to be on during a cycle and probably the easiest
to understand. If I enter ten minutes here when the pump cycles on it will stay on for
ten minutes. Only exception to this is if you enter zero for both 'Initial Off Time'
and off the pump will turn on for ten minutes and stay on forever because there are no off
commands.
So the next option is 'Off Time' which is the time you want to be off during the cycle.
So let's say I wanted the pump to start immediately when the cycle starts at midnight then turn
on for ten minutes, off for five minutes and continue this cycle for the entire day. I
would enter zero for 'Initial Off Time' time, ten for 'On Time' and five for 'Off Time'
which would achieve this.
The goal of this feature is to have multiple pumps oscillating and off at different times.
So let's set up a demo to show you how to set up a simple oscillating wave maker function
using two pumps. My goal will be for the right pump to be on for ten minutes , both pumps
for ten minutes, the left pump for ten minutes and cycle back through right, both and left
all day long.
On the right powerhead we will enter zero in the 'Initial Off Time' time, twenty minutes
for 'On Time' and 10 minutes for 'Off Time'. This will cycle this pump on for twenty minutes,
off for ten and repeat.
On the left powerhead we will enter ten minutes in the 'Initial Off Time' time. Twenty minutes
in the 'On Time' and zero minutes for the 'Off Time'. This is where a lot of people
get lost because it isn't obvious that the 'Initial Off Time' time is not only going
to be the initial period that the pump is off but it is also going to be part of the
cycle for the entire day. So 'Initial Off Time' ten, 'On Time' twenty and zero in the
'Off Time' will result in the desired ten minutes off, twenty minutes off and repeat
of this cycle for the entire day.
This is probably the most commonly misunderstood portion of this because the way it is displayed
here would apply that a ten minute 'Initial Off Time' time. Twenty minute on time and
ten minute off time would result in ten minutes off initially, then twenty minutes and ten
minutes off but what really ends up happening is ten minutes off, twenty on, ten off and
then it cycles back to the beginning with another ten off before it turns back on for
twenty. Net result is twenty minute on and off cycles rather than twenty and ten.
Ok so let's get back to the proper programing for our right , both then left oscillating
goal which is right pump configured to 'Initial Off Time', zero, 'On Time' twenty, 'Off Time'
ten. The left pump configured to 'Initial Off Time' ten, 'On Time' twenty and 'Off Time'
zero.
You can watch this quick time demo to see exactly how it will work starting at midnight.
Hopefully this all makes sense now so it is time to throw in one more monkey wrench to
the whole thing. Since this all works on a twenty four hour period starting at midnight
the cycles need to fit into a twenty four hour period if you want them to repeat properly.
For instance let's say it was eleven fifty pm and your twenty minute cycle just started
that means it will end at twelve ten rather than midnight and so that day all the cycles
will start at twelve ten.
The on and off cycles will all remain the same length but the first one will have started
slightly later in the day. For most people this is meaningless but if you are having
trouble getting the right timing or doing something pretty advanced this is an important
point to know.
Luckily getting the cycles to fit correctly in a twenty four hour period is pretty easy.
If the on off cycles are relatively small you just make sure they fit evenly in to an
hour or sixty minutes. To do that, add up your 'Initial Off Time', 'On Time' and 'Off
Time' to get the total time for a single cycle. In the case of our twenty minutes off and
ten minutes off the total cycle time is thirty minutes thirty minutes fits into an hour exactly
twice so we are good. If you are using longer cycle times you will make to make sure that
the total minutes in a day which is fourteen hundred and forty is divisible by the cycle
time of your oscillating program.
So the last type of pump is a dosing pump. While you could dose all of a single solution
at once it is pretty common to use the osculating feature to break the dose up over the day.
For instance if you had a pump that does one milliliter a minute and you needed to dose
twenty four milliliters a day all you would need to do is turn the pump once an hour for
a single minute every hour of the day. Programing for that would be 'Initial Off Time' zero,
'On time' would be one minute and 'Off Time' fifty nine minutes. This will turn on the
pump for one minute an hour all day and night which will dose 24 milliliters a day with
a pump that doses one milliliter a day.
One you upload the new code to your apex hit the advanced control drop down and you can
check out the oscillation code the configuration tool created for you. If you want you can
add some additional controls like set a time when it starts to dose certain elements like
alkalinity overnight and even a line which can turn the pump off based on PH to protect
the tank.
One additional note related to the wave marker and ac powerheads. While todays are built
to stand up to the on/off better now than they used to be it is still *** the pump.
The way I programed it was only twice an hour that the pump turns on and off. Which is still
over seventeen thousand times a year. If you reduced it to thirty second intervals that's
over a million times a year the pump turns on and off, you will burn through pumps and
cash doing that so find a happy medium.
Sicce makes some nice high flow power heads called voyager two three and four that use
an impeller design rather than prop which can start in either direction and will last
a lot longer on wave makers. They also make the voyager HP seven, through ten which uses
a prop to move water but designed the pumps electronics to start in the right direction
each time so it will also stand up to wave makers much better than all of the other AC
prop power heads out there. if you have any questions , advice or unique advanced code
related to pumps tell us about it in the comments area below, if this is your first time with
us hit that subscribe button because we do this every week.