Any nice person want to write my dosing schedule for Apex?

[curtismaximus]

I am going to start dosing tomorrow and want to make sure I have my programing correct.
I will be dosing 40mL a day of both Cal and Alk.
I want my Cal to start at 12 pm (lights on) (outlet 4)
I want my Alk to start at 12 am (lights off) (outlet 8)
I want to make sure the alk (maybe both?) to shut off if pH rises above 8.4
Am I missing anything?

I would be very appreciative if someone with Apex experience help me out!

 

[hiimsean]

1.1ml pumps? I assume you don't want it all to dose at once.

 

[hiimsean]

Here's a spreadsheet that will help.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=22418830&postcount=5">http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=22418830&postcount=5</a>
Just add this code to the programming:
If ph &gt; 8.4 then off


Here's the basic coding you will use
00:00/00:00/00:00 then on
If time 00:00 to 00:00 then off

If I understand correctly, the first 00:00 is the time you want it to start dosing. The second is minutes and seconds you want the dosing to run for during a 60minute period. The last time is the minutes and seconds it will be off in that 60minute period. Then you program the time it will be off

 

[curtismaximus]

Yes they are 1.1 mL
I think I would like them to dose for 1 min evenly throughout the 12hr time period.
Im not 100% on that though. If there is a better way to do it let me know.

 

[curtismaximus]

Thanks that helps.
I have a few questions about the spreadsheet.
What do these mean:
How frequently to dose?
Offset after top of the hour?
Dosing margin of error? (why would I want this to be anything but 0%)

 

[curtismaximus]

Ok so I decide to up it to 50mL a day. This is closer to what I need to dose and I don't like even numbers.

This is what I got from the programming spreadsheet.

Fallback OFF
OSC 00:00/00:57/14:03 Then ON
If Time 0:00 to 11:59 Then OFF
I will add this (If ph &gt; 8.4 then off)

What this means to me/what I hope!
The doser will turn on for 00:57 and turn off for 14:03 every 15 minutes.
This will dose 1.045mL every 15 minutes. This will be 4.18mL every hour. This is 50.16mL every 12 hour period.

Am I correct on this?

 

[curtismaximus]

This is what I got:

Cal 3_4
Fallback OFF
OSC 000:00/000:57/014:03 Then ON
If Time 23:00 to 10:59 Then OFF


Alk 3_8
Fallback OFF
OSC 000:00/000:57/014:03 Then ON
If Time 11:00 to 22:59 Then OFF

If pH &gt; 08.40 Then OFF

See any problems or anything I should add/change?

 

[hiimsean]

I would test it. have the pumps recirculate the CA and ALK back into their containers but hang out around your tank for an hour to make sure it does come on every 15minutes. Everything I saw was for a 60 minute period not a 15 minute period.

 

[curtismaximus]

What does this mean? (Everything I saw was for a 60 minute period not a 15 minute period.)
Are you saying this cycle will only happen once every 60 mins? I want it to happen ever 15 mins.
I will def test this out before I leave it in the tank.

 

[hiimsean]

Are you saying this cycle will only happen once every 60 mins? I want it to happen ever 15 mins.

That's what I'm not sure about. I've never dosed or coded for it but when I was researching on Neptune's subforum on RC all the help posts showed their dosing schedule was for X amount of time once an hour.

You might want to check out page 62 and 63 of the unofficial guide. It does some explaining but is a little confusing still.


EDIT: Actually looking at the guide you're code appears like it will work. I'd go ahead and run a test with that.

 

[curtismaximus]

OK thanks for the help! I'll test it tonight.

 

[dawgface]

Update and set up Fusion it makes your programming so easy it's ridiculous.

Here's a step by step BRS video on how to set dosing pumps up via Fusion. It will help explain things the old way as well so watch either way.

 

[dawgface]

Curtismaximus;951986 wrote: Ok so I decide to up it to 50mL a day. This is closer to what I need to dose and I don't like even numbers.

This is what I got from the programming spreadsheet.

Fallback OFF
OSC 00:00/00:57/14:03 Then ON
If Time 0:00 to 11:59 Then OFF
I will add this (If ph &gt; 8.4 then off)

What this means to me/what I hope!
<u>The doser will turn on for 00:57 and turn off for 14:03 every 15 minutes. </u>
This will dose 1.045mL every 15 minutes. This will be 4.18mL every hour. This is 50.16mL every 12 hour period.

Am I correct on this?

Yes

 

[dawgface]

Curtismaximus;951995 wrote: This is what I got:

Cal 3_4
Fallback OFF
OSC 000:00/000:57/014:03 Then ON
If Time 23:00 to 10:59 Then OFF


Alk 3_8
Fallback OFF
OSC 000:00/000:57/014:03 Then ON
If Time 11:00 to 22:59 Then OFF

If pH &gt; 08.40 Then OFF

See any problems or anything I should add/change?

You need to stagger these otherwise you will be dumping both in at the same exact time.

 

[dawgface]

Cal 3_4
Fallback OFF
OSC 000:00/000:57/014:03 Then ON
If Time 23:00 to 10:59 Then OFF


Alk 3_8
Fallback OFF
OSC 005:00/000:57/009:03 Then ON
If Time 11:00 to 22:59 Then OFF

I think that would be a 5 min difference for the same effect.

 

[curtismaximus]

I forgot to update.

I have everything setup and running smoothly. Thanks for the help Sean and Jesse