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 hard on 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.