Apex and dosing

Munch

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#1
Anyone using an Apex controller and dosing as well? I'm considering adding some dosing pumps, and am wondering if simple BRS dosing pumps are better so the Apex can controll them, or an external dosing pump controller (Bubble Magnus, Aqua Medic, Marine Magic etc) would be better.
 

Smiley

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
Re: Apex and dosing

I like the bubble magus because of one reason......I can put in 200ml for 24 doses and change it easily by With apex and dosing pump, you have to calculate and program each dose. If you want to change dosage, you have to recalculate and reprogram.


Stupid headphone and its autocorrect

sent from my bag phone
 

Munch

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#3
Makes sense, but with the magnus, you need to know how much to dose, correct? And check on a semi regular basis what you are actually consuming.

I'm thinking with the Apex, it'll dose when my active measurement drops, so when PH
 

Smiley

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#4
well... for starters, i would think that you would need to know how much you need to dose before you actually do so... and as far as ph goes, dosing alkalinity goes 2 ways... sodium carbonate doesnt mess with ph, but sodium bicarbonate raises ph. So dosing according to ph would be a bad idea....
 

09bumblebee

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#5
So anyone using a brs 1.1ml/min pump on their apex? Post your code I'm confused from what I looked up online.
 

FishTV

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#6
Those are two seperate outlets, one for Ca, and one for alk. Fallback off: tells the outlet to rest in the off state if no other command is controlling the outlet. The OSC command is an on off timer with 4 parts (usefull for various reasons), but the way this one is set up, an easy way to think about it is: off/on/off Then on. This is a very comon way to use OSC, but you could reverse it with "Then Off" whitch would turn it into on/off/on Then Off. The way your post program is set up, they are dosing for 6min 30sec at the top of every hour between the hours of 7pm - 5am for the alk. that would dose 7.15ml every hour for 9 hours = 64.35ml day. The Ca program is similar, but running for a longer period, and during the daytime hours. There is a overide shut off where the alk wont dose if the ph is above 8.2 ( If pH > 8.2 Then OFF). I run a similar program to the alk, but for Kalk. Let me know if you need more help, or I confused you more...
 

09bumblebee

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#7
No that makes sense so I guess let me tell you what I'm trying to do. I want to dose kalk at night 5ml every hour for 8 hrs totaling 40ml and off if ph is above 8.30
 

FishTV

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#8
The fist program is mine with a 50ml brs doser. I also have a float switch shut off that is in the program. The second is what you requested. At such a low amount I changed it to once an hour. I will just start it at 8pm, you can alter all the numbers to increase or decrease times, but be carefull with syntax, and the order that the comands fall. Its very easy to get an outcome thats not what you want if you put things in the wrong order. Apex acts on the first line, then the second overides that, etc...

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Switch1 CLOSED Then ON
OSC 000:00/001:10/028:50 Then ON
If Switch1 OPEN Then OFF
If Time 08:35 to 14:55 Then OFF
If pH > 08.30 Then OFF

Yours:

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
OSC 000:00/001:00/059:00 Then ON
If Time 04:01 to 19:59 Then OFF
If pH > 08.30 Then OFF

Someone can check this for me, but I think its right for what you want to do.
 

FishTV

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#9
thats a little more than what you asked for @ 5.5ml an hour and 44ml day, but that really seems like a low amount to me.. you can change it by a couple seconds, but im not sure how accurate a 1.1 doser actually is. I like keeping the math simple if I can. The program code is a little tricky sometimes, but I love my Apex..
 

09bumblebee

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#10
No that's prefect. It's my frag tank that's why such a low amount it's only 40-50 gal I'm starting out low and will work up as needed.

So if I want it at 11:00 pm it will look like
07:01 - 22:59

I just don't understand how we're getting 5.5 ml with the 1 and 59 part
 

andyrm66

Butterfly Fish
#11
With the program Fishtv posted, I think youll end up with 9 hours of "on" time. Each hour has 1 min of dosing and 59 mins off time so 9*1.1+9.9ML dosed per night. I have the same pumps and went through and calibrated them, figured out how much much dkh I needed per day, converted this to pump run time and it was very very close. Not saying you need to do that, though I would calibrate your pumps and see what they really flow. If you want to dose 5.5 ml just make the program run for 5 hours so 4:01-22:59, leaves 5 hours of on time. I wanted mine simple, so here it is Fallback OFF
OSC 015:00/001:48/058:12 Then ON
 

FishTV

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#12
Wow, it was late last nite.. Good catch Andy. I must have been thinking to run it for 5min at a time, and missed the extra hour. Im wondering a couple things about your OSC line Andy, why the 15 minute delay? And although yours is simple, it will dose all day. If he does only want to run at nite (prob not needed with such low doses, I dont think it would help with a ph drop) he would need the other time settings.
 

09bumblebee

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#13
Well I input the code last night and according to my history it ran every hr for 5 min after I changed it to this lol
 

FishTV

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#14
That looks almost like what I meant to tell you.. Curious though, why the Temp line? Thought you wanted ph control. Also, if you want the 7am dose, its only going to be for 1 minute.
 

09bumblebee

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#15
FishTV;241987 said:
That looks almost like what I meant to tell you.. Curious though, why the Temp line? Thought you wanted ph control. Also, if you want the 7am dose, its only going to be for 1 minute.
Lol I just noticed that I dunno wth happened its supposed to be ph

It's fixed good catch.
 

andyrm66

Butterfly Fish
#17
FishTV;241972 said:
Wow, it was late last nite.. Good catch Andy. I must have been thinking to run it for 5min at a time, and missed the extra hour. Im wondering a couple things about your OSC line Andy, why the 15 minute delay? And although yours is simple, it will dose all day. If he does only want to run at nite (prob not needed with such low doses, I dont think it would help with a ph drop) he would need the other time settings.
I wanted mine all day, as for the delay, that's so my alk and Ca don't dose at the same time. 15 delay for this one, none on the other one.
 
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