Program your Pump Outlet & OSC Function EP 15: Apex Aquarium Controllers from Neptune Systems

http://brs.li/neptuneapex There are four basic types of pumps you would want to program on your Apex; return pump, pumps that feed equipment (like media reactors or skimmers), powerheads and dosing pumps.

Let's walk through the options:

Option: Fallback
This option is the state you want the outlet in if it ever gets disconnected from the Apex base unit. For most flow, return and feed pumps you will set this to 'on'. For dosing pumps, you'll likely want this set to 'off'.

Option: Initial Off Time
The amount of time, in minutes, your pump will remain off at the beginning of the cycle.

Option: On Time
The amount of time, in minutes, your pump will turn on, and remain on.

Option: Off Time
The amount of time your pump will turn off at the end of the cycle, before restarting at 'Initial Off Time'.

This means if you set your initial off time to 5 minutes, on time to 10 minutes, and your off time for 5 minutes - your pump actually initially be off 5 minutes, then on 10 minutes, then off 10 minutes and continue with the 10 on/10 off pattern. The initial off time is what would allow you to program oscillating pumps.

So how is this relevant to your return pump or equipment feed pumps? The answer is it probably isn't. It's really designed for oscillating pumps, like the ones you would have on a wavemaker.

You can still use this function for return and equipment pumps, here's what that might look like:

Option: Initial Off Time
Set this to zero.

Option: On Time:
Set this to 10 minutes.

Option: Off Time
Set this to zero.

Since only the 'on time' is set, the above program will turn your pump on immediately, stay on for ten minutes, and never turn off.

You could also not select the pump option for return and equipment pumps and select advanced instead. Within advance, type in "Fallback ON" in the first line, "Set ON" in the second line, it will look like this:

Fallback ON
Set ON

'Fallback ON' will ensure the return or equipment pump remains on if it gets disconnected from the base unit. 'Set ON' tells the outlet to always be on when connected.

If you'd like to set a pump to turn off during feed mode, add another line that says 'If FeedA 000 Then OFF'. This will turn the pump off when feed mode A is triggered.

Something to keep in mind when using initial off time is that all of this works on a 24 hour period, so you'll want to be sure your program fits within that period to repeat properly. If your on/off cycles are small, it may be easier to think of 60 minutes, and make sure your program fits within that.

For example, if you have your 'Initial Off' set to 10, 'On' set to 10, and 'Off' set you 10 you have a total of 30 minutes which fits into 60 minutes.

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