Apex Skimmer Feed Timer Delay

[Kevin Finocchiaro]

In the AFS fusion output for the Skimmer configuration - What is the "Feed Timer Delay" used for, or basically what does it actually do or control ?

I know the "Defer Time" keeps the skimmer off for that amount of time, but

 

[GK3]

In the AFS fusion output for the Skimmer configuration - What is the "Feed Timer Delay" used for, or basically what does it actually do or control ?

I know the "Defer Time" keeps the skimmer off for that amount of time, but

It will keep the skimmer off for that amount of time after the feed delay ends.

so if your feed cycle is 5 minutes and that delay is 6 minutes, the skimmer will stay off for 11 minutes.

 

[Kevin Finocchiaro]

Thank you, so basically i should use the "Feed Timer Delay" to keep the skimmer turned off for X amount of time after the 5 minute feed cycle, and I should use the Defer Time to keep the skimmer off a few additional minutes, to give the return pump a chance to re-start up first before the skimmer re-starts ?

 

[SuncrestReef]

Thank you, so basically i should use the "Feed Timer Delay" to keep the skimmer turned off for X amount of time after the 5 minute feed cycle, and I should use the Defer Time to keep the skimmer off a few additional minutes, to give the return pump a chance to re-start up first before the skimmer re-starts ?

There are three timers at work here:

• Feed A's timer is defined under the Apex Misc Setup screen. This is how long the Feed A timer will count down, and the skimmer will be turned off during this countdown.
  
  
• Feed Timer Delay is how much additional time the skimmer will remain off after Feed A has counted down to zero.
  
  
• Defer Time is the amount of time to wait before turning the skimmer back on after any event that turns it off, including the Feed timer, or if you manually turned it off and back on.

If you already have the Defer timer set to let's say 5 minutes, then there's typically no need to apply an additional Feed Timer Delay. This is most commonly used to try to coordinate your return pump with the Feed cycle and the skimmer. When you click Feed A, both the return pump and the skimmer can turn off and the sump water level will rise. After the Feed timer counts down to zero, the return pump is turned on immediately, causing the sump water level to eventually return to normal. Then the skimmer's Defer timer delays the skimmer from turning on for a few minutes to wait for the sump water level to go down to normal.

See my Apex Control Types tutorial for a detailed description of every Control Type screen and the underlying code it creates:
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/apex-control-types.767/
Also read my Apex Feed Cycles tutorial for details on how to coordinate devices with the Feed timers:
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/neptune-apex-programming-tutorials-part-7-feed-cycles.715/

 

[Kevin Finocchiaro]

Thank you, im slowly understanding how the programing works.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Thank you, im slowly understanding how the programing works.

In addition to the two tutorials I posted above, I have a whole series of Apex tutorials that can help you get up to speed:
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/authors/suncrestreef.93940/

 

[Kevin Finocchiaro]

I ran in to a problem where the auto feeder would drop food as soon as the return pump and skimmer shut down, which did not take in to account the 1 minute it takes for the water to drain from the aquarium back in to the sump.

After reviewing the two tutorials above, which are excellent i might add, I was able to solve this problem by adding in line 5. ( Defer 0001:30 Then ON ) as show in the example below, this line delays the auto feeder for 1 minute 30 seconds before starting the feeding cycle A while giving the water enough time to drain back in to the sump.