COR20 Apex Control

[jmatt]

Suddenly over a period of days, my tank started looking bad. Half the zoas wouldn't open, my torch and hammer were much smaller, the green hair algae issue (tank is only 3 months old) was suddenly brown . I tested and tested and tested, Red Sea, Hannah, the LCS with Salifert. Everything seemed usual.

Then I started getting lots of brown buildup on the glass. So, as I'm scrubbing the tank I suddenly notice that nothing is coming out of the main return. This was masked by the fact that I have two return pumps (so the water was turning over a little) and powerheads, so there's lots of surface action even without the main return.

Now, Apex gave me no indication anything was wrong. The lights on the return controller were all normal. Fusion looked perfectly normal, even showing my supposed flow rate. There was no outward appearance of an issue in any way.

But the main pump had not been on for almost four days. Yikes.

So here's the status:

If I set the pump to On in Fusion, it flows at 100% and cannot be adjusted at the controller.
If I set it to Auto, it doesn't flow but appears like it is in Fusion as well as on the controller.
If I reboot the controller and don't connect it to the Apex, it flows and I can adjust it.

So, it works just fine if it's not attached to the Apex. (The secondary COR20 works fine if it is attached to the Apex.)

But as soon as I attach it to the Apex, it stops working. The Fallback status is marked as ON. The unit's IQ-Level internal failsafe settings are Min 5% Max 30%.... they did nothing. I thought that was supposed to kick in if Apex stopped controlling the unit.

The unit's Advanced Configuration in Fusion is nothing more than a single line to turn it off during Feed Mode A.

What the heck is going on? Anyone have an idea? The unit works perfectly fine... unless I plug it into the Apex A3 Pro. All equipment is new.

 

[areefer01]

In fusion what is the schedule set to? You mentioned when you set the slider to on it is running at 100%. Click on the gear icon and what is the schedule set to? Take a screen shot and post?

The fact that you said you can slide it to on and it is running at 100% means it is working. Auto needs to have a percentage if using the wizard/graph. If you are running the advanced then it should look something like below. It sounds like you do not have anything set for it to run that is why when in Auto nothing.

Wizard example:

Code example:
Fallback ON
tdata 00:00:00,0,0,60,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
tdata 23:59:00,0,0,60,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
If FeedD 000 Then 5

 

[jmatt]

I was running the two COR units opposite each other, so that when one went up the other went down, to try to create more random flow. This isn't a problem, is it? I've been running it this way for over a month.

 

[jmatt]

I can't tell you how nuts I was in checking everything. You could not tell it wasn't running unless you put your hand in front of the nozzle.

 

[jmatt]

Here's the Basic Config

 

[areefer01]

Have you tried changing it and uploading it? The configuration has nothing in it even through the UI / wizard does.

 

[jmatt]

Output log on Monday. I think this is when the trouble started.

 

[jmatt]

Have you tried changing it and uploading it? The configuration has nothing in it even through the UI / wizard does.

Just tried it again. Adjusted the schedule, uploaded it and re-attached to the Apex. Fusion looks normal but nothing is coming out of the nozzle even though it shows 14%.

 

[jmatt]

If it matters, neither of the pumps is attached to the EB832. Each is powered by a dedicated GFCI outlet.

Also, I had an Apex tech on the system some weeks back. He went through everything for a different issue, but set up the feed mode and looked at the pump config, etc. He was quite helpful.

 

[areefer01]

If it matters, neither of the pumps is attached to the EB832. Each is powered by a dedicated GFCI outlet.

That is the correct way to do it, or recommended. I have mine also outside the apex. Is the configuration still showing only the feed mode? I'm wondering if you can add something like a single line item with a value.

I've not seen or experienced that issue before.

 

[jmatt]

Here's the config for the UV (secondary) pump. It has no values and works just fine. I dunno what to make of it.

Btw, I have rebooted the Apex via Fusion. Perhaps I should try a hard reset by disconnecting it's power...

 

[jmatt]

In the output... what does TBL stand for?

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

TBL = Table data. Let you know its programmed to do something.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

The pump you are having heartburn with, is it going through the UV plumbing? Any check valves?

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

In fusion what is the schedule set to? You mentioned when you set the slider to on it is running at 100%. Click on the gear icon and what is the schedule set to? Take a screen shot and post?

The fact that you said you can slide it to on and it is running at 100% means it is working. Auto needs to have a percentage if using the wizard/graph. If you are running the advanced then it should look something like below. It sounds like you do not have anything set for it to run that is why when in Auto nothing.

Wizard example:

Code example:
Fallback ON
tdata 00:00:00,0,0,60,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
tdata 23:59:00,0,0,60,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
If FeedD 000 Then 5

This. There is something in the coding somewhere that's afoul. Try running both pumps independent of each other and see what happens.

 

[jmatt]

The pump you are having heartburn with, is it going through the UV plumbing? Any check valves?

No, the UV plumbing is the unit that is working with the Apex. And I don't have any check valves.

 

[jmatt]

This. There is something in the coding somewhere that's afoul. Try running both pumps independent of each other and see what happens.

Yeah, that what I'm thinking too. There are no tdata records in either of my configs, not really sure if there should be though. I mean, it's been running fine without them for more than a month.

Perhaps I'll delete all of the flow change points and see what happens.

But I'd also like to know why the IQ internal programming in the pump didn't kick in. I mean, that's supposed to be the failsafe, right?