APEX FEED CYCLES HELP!

[TangoTang]

Hello so I've been finicking with the feed cycles for over a week and for the life of me cannot get anything to turn on or off

Im somewhat familiar with code but not at a programming level and would appreciate it if someone would kindly walk me through the steps of setting up my feed cycles in advanced mode

so here are my ideas for Feed A, Feed B, Feed C

Feed A

This will be for feeding frozen foods so I don't need it to be that long

I would like of everything off for 5 min (return, skimmer, gyre), then have the return come on with the gyre and defer the skimmer to 5 minutes for the sump level to level out

Return OFF - 5 min
Gyre OFF - 5 min
Skimmer OFF - 10 min

Feed B

This will be for feeding corals so I think it'll be the most complicated to explain

Ill be feeding polyp booster in the beginning so ill want to have the return off for 10 minutes, the skimmer off as well and have the gyre running for 10 minutes

Then have the gyre turn off for 10 minutes so I can target feed and have everything turn on after that with the skimmer coming on 5 min after everything as well.

Return OFF - 20min
Skimmer OFF - 25min
Gyre ON - 10min (polyp booster)
Gyre OFF - 10min (Reef Roids)

Feed C

This will just be for simple pellet feedings

Return ON
Skimmer ON
Gyre OFF - 10min


Hope I explained myself well and someone could help me out.
I have apex fusion and aqua controller ready and open and am willing to obviously cooperate and respond with feedback as soon as possible.

Yoel

 

[fabutahoun]

First you need to go to "Misc Setup" page and change FeedB time to 10 minutes
Then Add this Code

Gyre:
Set ON
If FeedA 005 Then OFF
If FeedB 010 Then OFF
If FeedB 000 Them ON
If FeedC 010 Then OFF

Return :
Set ON
If FeedA 005 Then OFF
If FeedB 020 Then OFF

Skimmer:
Set ON
If FeedA 005 Then OFF
If FeedB 020 Then OFF
Defer 005:00 Then ON

-- The Defer will keep the skimmer off after all scenarios

 

[TangoTang]

First you need to go to "Misc Setup" page and change FeedB time to 10 minutes
Then Add this Code

Gyre:
Set ON
If FeedA 005 Then OFF
If FeedB 010 Then OFF
If FeedB 000 Them ON
If FeedC 010 Then OFF

Return :
Set ON
If FeedA 005 Then OFF
If FeedB 020 Then OFF

Skimmer:
Set ON
If FeedA 005 Then OFF
If FeedB 020 Then OFF
Defer 005:00 Then ON

-- The Defer will keep the skimmer off after all scenarios

wow!!! thank you for that! I just set up three virtual outlets and im gonna try it out right now

this is my first apex so im not familiar with anything really but should I have the outlets on auto or on?
might sound dumb but idk

going to run the feed modes now and will let you know in a few

thanks again

 

[fabutahoun]

wow!!! thank you for that! I just set up three virtual outlets and im gonna try it out right now

this is my first apex so im not familiar with anything really but should I have the outlets on auto or on?
might sound dumb but idk

going to run the feed modes now and will let you know in a few

thanks again

You are welcome, Happy to help.
You need to keep the outlets on Auto, toggling the outlet to On will make it override the program and keep it on all the time.

In your case I don't see a need for a virtual outlet, I use the virtual outlet to trigger the Apex Auto feeder for FeedA only. other feed cycles I feed manually.

Give it a try and update us on how it goes.

 

[TangoTang]

You are welcome, Happy to help.
You need to keep the outlets on Auto, toggling the outlet to On will make it override the program and keep it on all the time.

In your case I don't see a need for a virtual outlet, I use the virtual outlet to trigger the Apex Auto feeder for FeedA only. other feed cycles I feed manually.

Give it a try and update us on how it goes.

so on my "Misc Setup" page I have all the feed modes to be 10 min

is this correct even though feed B is longer than 10 minutes?
I ask this because im testing feed A and both the gyre and return have been off for the whole 10 min... is it possible to just be off for 5 min and the other 5 min to be for the skimmer to wait for the water level to stabilize...

sorry if this doesn't make a lot of sense im just trying to wrap my head around how you just made everything work!! again thank you so much fabutahoun!!!!!

 

[TangoTang]

ok so I just finished the FEED A and nothing turned back on..... all the outlets are on auto...

 

[TangoTang]

help me out here, the clock ran out and things weren't turning on.... I clicked cancel and I heard a click in the apex as if things where turning back on yet the skimmer still took 5 min to start up again which was awesome

did I screw up the whole thing by clicking cancel or was it suppose to take a while after the clock zeroed out?

 

[fabutahoun]

on your"Misc Setup" make it 10 minutes for FeedB only, For other feed modes just change them back to the Original value or 0

 

[homer1475]

Let me explain the coding for you so you might understand whats going on here....

If feeda 000 then off

Ok so this line means that when the apex enters feeda turn this outlet OFF until the feed cycle times out, or it is cancelled. The numbers represent in minutes how long after the feed cycle you want the outlet to remain off.

If feeda 005 then off - (your skimmer programming)

basically means that when the apex enters feed mode, it will turn the skimmer outlet off, and remain off for an additional 5 minutes after the feed cycle times out. Now if you manually cancel a feed cycle, it cancels any programming.

Now for what you want to do(off for 5 minutes during the 10 minute feed cycle, then on for the remaining 5 minutes), you will need 2 virtual outlets. Then in your gyre or whatever outlet, you reference the virtual outlet and not the feed mode directly. I do this with my PH's.

Virtual outlet = PH_Feed
if feedA 000 then on

Virtual outlet = Nutrient_Export
if feeda 010 then on

Then in my PH outlets I reference the virtual outlets and not the feed mode directly.
PH outlet
if output Nutrient_Export = on then Nutrient - profile name
if output PH_Feed = on then off

basically this tells the outlet to turn off in feeda, but turn to nutrient mode for 10 minutes after feeda shuts off. Remember the apex reads programming from the top down, so the order in which you program is also important. The last line opf programming is what it will listen to if no other line of program is met first.

Of course I have a profile setup for my PH's to run at 100% in the Nutrient profile.

 

[TangoTang]

on your"Misc Setup" make it 10 minutes for FeedB only, For other feed modes just change them back to the Original value or 0

it won't work if I put it the value at 0 so I just left them at
Feed A: 5
Feed B: 10
Feed C: 5

if im understanding this correctly... "If FeedA 005 Then OFF" means that that instead of 5 minutes of being turned off it means 10 min?

NOTE: everything did obviously kick back on automatically after the 10 minutes and the skimmer as well so awesome job just wanted to clarify that if I were to change the "If FeedA 005 Then OFF" to "If FeedA 000 Then OFF" then the gyre and return will come back after 5 minutes not 10 correct?

 

[fabutahoun]

it won't work if I put it the value at 0 so I just left them at
Feed A: 5
Feed B: 10
Feed C: 5

if im understanding this correctly... "If FeedA 005 Then OFF" means that that instead of 5 minutes of being turned off it means 10 min?

NOTE: everything did obviously kick back on automatically after the 10 minutes and the skimmer as well so awesome job just wanted to clarify that if I were to change the "If FeedA 005 Then OFF" to "If FeedA 000 Then OFF" then the gyre and return will come back after 5 minutes not 10 correct?

I will check this for you once I am back home. If you put in misc setup 5 minutes, then you added if feeda 005, this will add another 5 minutes and the total will be 0, if you change to feed 000 this will add 0 minutes and the total will remain 5

 

[Hipertec]

What is a "virtual outlet"?

 

[homer1475]

What is a "virtual outlet"?

An outlet in which there is no physical outlet for. For example, for my ATO jug's float switch to tell me its low:
Outlet name:
ATO_ALARM

Programing:
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Sw3 OPEN Then ON

Then in my email alarm I reference the virtual outlet instead of the switch, so in my emails I know exactly why an alarm is going off. I get:
Status: ON
Statement: If Output ATO_ALARM ON Then ON

Instead of:
Status: ON
Statement: If Sw3 OPEN Then ON

Without the virtual outlet I would have to stop and think what Sw3 is. With the virtual outlet I know right away that it's my ATO float, and I need to fill the jug. I do this for any float switch in which I want to be alerted for.

 

[TangoTang]

thank you to everybody for all for feedback and help!

im slowly getting the hang of this whole apex and I love every new feature I discover along the way
like for example, I was setting the lighting schedule for my fuge light and noticed the "shutdown probe" what an awesome feature thats something that before you would just always hoped it wouldn't heat up your water but this is a priceless feature as well as hooking up my heater to the apex, today I've had a steady 77* all day!!!!

btw picked up an energy bar 8 and really loving it!

again thanks to everyone so much!

Yoel