- Today, we're mastering your Neptune Apex
to save your UV sterilizer from becoming
a giant waste of money,
by solving the number one issue that potentially
renders your UV useless from the get-go,
getting the flow rate right.
Because if you get it wrong, your UV just won't work.
Not only that, but these things have a lot
of seals where leaks could potentially happen.
So we'll solve those as well.
And I've got some extra Apex tips
to help you protect the bulb when your pump is off.
And protect your eyes,
when you get that reminder alert
that it's time to swap it out, or clean the court's sleeve.
So first things first, let's get that easiest setup task
out of the way, which is hooking up your UV and pump,
either return pump closed loop feed pump,
to your Apex, and here's how easy it is.
Plug your pump into your Apex.
Find the return pump task function,
choose your pump outlet, rename it, return pump or UV pump.
Choose a feed cycle to turn the pump off during feeding
hit send, and you're done.
So I do have an entire master your Apex episode,
on the return pump only that dives into
a bunch of other tips.
Specifically, we set up a maintenance mode
so that we can shut the pump off,
for longer deep cleaning maintenance.
If you wanna do the same for your closed loop,
UV pump or UV feed pump.
Here's how you do it.
Just click on the pumps gear icon,
Add a line that says, If FeedD 000 Then OFF,
we set up FeedD as a maintenance mode,
for a bunch of other gear in other episodes as well.
But now your UV pump will turn off along with them,
And automatically back on,
when the time is up or you hit cancel.
Now let's set up the UV sterilizer itself.
And this one is even easier than the pump.
All we need to do is plug it in,
find the outlet, hit the gear icon,
rename it, something like UV sterilize,
choose advanced for the control type
and put your fallback off and set on.
Now there's only one line that we need to add
in this case it's, If Outlet Return_pump OFF Then OFF
and hit send.
So what this thing does is anytime
your return or UV pumps off,
your UV sterilizer bulb will also be off automatically,
meaning you won't have to think about it
when it comes time to pull the bulb and swap it out.
Or clean the sleeve or that the UV is still on,
when water's not flowing through it.
All right, so up next is setting the right flow rate
which is the most crucial part of optimal UV performance.
We're getting it wrong,
means it's just not going to work the way you hoped.
Yes, you can do a bucket test method to measure the flow
and time how long it takes to fill a gallon sized container
from your UV output or your overflows.
But the real answer is by measuring the precise flow rate
in real time, with a flow meter.
For example, this 18 Watt Pentair UV has two very specific
flow rate recommendations,
for targeting algae and bacteria sterilization
at 219 to 356 gallons per hour.
While for fish disease in pest control
the flow rates 37 to 60 gallons per hour.
And I don't know about you,
but I personally know that I don't have the patience,
or timing skills to confidently calculate the flow rate
inside those very specific ranges
let alone do it multiple times to dial it in just right.
But since I have an Apex,
and there's a flow sensor tool
specifically designed for this purpose,
I'm going to choose it 10 times out of 10
to get it right.
With that after you've plumbed in your flow sensor
on your UV sterilizer,
either before the input or after the output,
keeping in mind that it is in a spot
that makes it easy to remove
for regular cleaning and maintenance.
All you need to do
is plug in the flow sensor into an FMM Module,
and the FMM into your Apex, and you're ready to go.
Before we get into the flow
sensor tasks function to set up alerts,
let's pull down the new flow graph that showed up
in the unused tiles bin.
And use the real-time flow rate to adjust your DC pump speed
or the ball valve until you hit that UV manufacturer
recommended rate for the job you wanted to do.
For me that's going to be 50 gallons per hour
for controlling fish parasites, passing disease
from my Pentair's 18 Watt UV recommendation.
When you've got your set
you can set up alerts and phone notifications.
If your UV flow falls outside
of those recommended ranges
using the flow sensor task function,
just choose the task, choose your FMM,
choose sensor port, and sensor size
and then set the min and max ranges accordingly,
like I did with 35 gallons per hour for the minimum
and 63 gallons per hour for the maximum, and then push send.
Not only will this help ensure
that your UV stays within those recommended flow ranges,
but the flow alerts will actually be an indicator
for things gone wrong with your pump.
Like it's completely died.
It's been turned down,
it's gotten clogged or gummed up,
or something might've bumped your valve,
all which, you'll know the instant it happens.
I've mentioned before in multiple episodes,
that the most important part of creating
a tank that's safer for your home and pets,
are those types of immediate notifications
which leads to the next thing we'll set up
for your UV sterilizer, power draw notifications
for both the pump and the UV bulb.
For your bulb, a power draw alarm
can give you an indication of bulb life.
Tell you when it's burned out
or that one of your seals may have been compromised
and water got inside the tube.
All of which, are important to catch early.
Setting up power monitoring
is another extremely easy task function to do
where you find the power usage alarm task,
choose your UV sterilize outlet,
enter your min and max wattage draw and hit send.
You can repeat the same process
for your UV pump or return pump to monitor
its maintenance needs and ID failures as well.
But it's always best to let your pump
or UV run for a few days first,
so that your Apex can refine those
min and max ranges for you.
Let's talk about leaks next,
because there are so many potential leak points
on a UV sterilizer plumbing that it's inevitable to happen.
Even Ryan's 360 has had a leaky UV sterilizer union
that we didn't know about
until there was a small puddle on the floor,
which is why I'm a huge advocate
for installing leak sensors, no matter what.
So with that, let's set up an LDK Leak Detection Kit.
So you're notified the second
that water's not where it's supposed to be
starting by placing the sensors around your stand
or under your UV,
then plug them into port one and two on your LDK FMM Module.
Plug the FMM into your Apex,
find the LDK task function,
choose your FMM, select your sensors and hit send.
I also like to rename my sensors,
Leak 1 and Leak 2 to make them easier to find.
Which you can do by finding the new FMM switches
in the unused dashboard tiles.
And then pull them down,
click on their gear icon for each and renamed them.
Now let's move on to making your UV sterilizer
setup easier to maintain.
There's a handful of maintenance tasks
to keep track of throughout the year.
I highly suggest that you schedule these maintenance tasks
in your Apex calendar.
The first and probably most important task to remember
is changing the UV bulb every nine to 12 months.
Because if your bulb isn't old
it's not sterilizing anymore.
I split the difference in set mine to every 10 months,
by clicking on the calendar icon in the fusion dashboard,
adding a new event that says, Change UV Bulb
and setting it to reoccur every 10 months
then hitting send.
I also created a reminder to clean my UV quartz sleeve
every six months, which you might need to do more often,
If you see a bunch of precipitate
or build up on your UV sleeve.
While at the same time, I'm also going to pull off
my UV flow sensor and clean it out as well.
So I added it to the notes, for my biannual maintenance.
More and more, I'm finding so many uses
for these calendar reminders
especially when it comes to scheduling
an entire year's worth of maintenance,
but even more so for little things
like remembering to refill the automatic feeder,
which forgetting to do has burned me in the past before
on the ULM tanks.
There's a handful of other feeding tips
outside of just calendar reminders
that I share in this episode over here
for you to check out.
Or if you just wanna see how many other uses
I've found for things like counter reminders,
email and text alerts, sensors, cylinoid
and a whole lot more,
you can find them in the entire master
your Apex series right here.