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Dahas

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At 54 watts per bulb in an 8 bulb system your amperage is 3.68 amps
 

K7BMG

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At 54 watts per bulb in an 8 bulb system your amperage is 3.68 amps

Yes on paper.
I have not found this to be accurate in the field. Always off by 5-10% more than, due to
Location, temperature, conditions period.

Even so, less than the rating of the EB832 outlet so should be good there.
 

Dahas

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Yes on paper.
I have not found this to be accurate in the field. Always off by 5-10% more than, due to
Location, temperature, conditions period.

Even so, less than the rating of the EB832 outlet so should be good there.
With the lights not plugged in the voltage drop no longer exists which is why im leaning towards something being defective on the internals of the lighting fixture
 

Brew12

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With the lights not plugged in the voltage drop no longer exists which is why im leaning towards something being defective on the internals of the lighting fixture
Are the loads you are having problems with using AC pumps, DC pumps, or a combination?

Most faults in a light fixture will cause that fixture to pull too much current. That doesn't seem to be the case here. With a ballast issue, you could be getting harmonic feedback. It shouldn't impact AC pumps very much but it can cause some odd issues with DC pumps. And input voltage has almost no impact on a DC pump's performance.
 

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At 54 watts per bulb in an 8 bulb system your amperage is 3.68 amps
Yes on paper.
I have not found this to be accurate in the field. Always off by 5-10% more than, due to
Location, temperature, conditions period.

Even so, less than the rating of the EB832 outlet so should be good there.
yes on paper the bulbs themselves draw 3.6 amps, but this doesn't take into account any inefficiencies of the ballast which also has to use some power, not much but some.
 
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RMS18

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I plugged the ATI system into a different circuit and voltage on the energy bars has stayed strong at 116-118. I will try plugging the ATI system into the same circuit at the energy bars but bypassing the apex.

User Dahas is my cousin who did the dedicated circuit. I promise you he can spell lol, he's been replying while working.


ATI replied with this response:

Screenshot_20200803-132629_Email.jpg
 
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RMS18

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Previous dips in volts compared to today's dip since having the lights on a separate circuit - pic attached

I think it's crazy that I may have to run the lights on the dedicated circuit we just ran to keep the tank equipment steady with voltage.

GPH on the return pump stayed steady today. Same with UV pump. I believe I saw more flow in the tank and lastly I turned off the skimmer and back on and it was able to start up! Normally if the lights were on the skimmer couldn't kick on hard enough to create a suction on the air line, but once lights were off skimmer has no problem.

Screenshot_20200803-210154_Apex Fusion.jpg
 

MD84

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Previous dips in volts compared to today's dip since having the lights on a separate circuit - pic attached

I think it's crazy that I may have to run the lights on the dedicated circuit we just ran to keep the tank equipment steady with voltage.

GPH on the return pump stayed steady today. Same with UV pump. I believe I saw more flow in the tank and lastly I turned off the skimmer and back on and it was able to start up! Normally if the lights were on the skimmer couldn't kick on hard enough to create a suction on the air line, but once lights were off skimmer has no problem.

Screenshot_20200803-210154_Apex Fusion.jpg
The apex system is very cool. Have you tried all of the loads on the new dedicated circuit? If the problem goes away you can narrow it down to a problem with the original circuit.
 

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Did you, by any chance, check the circuit that the light is currently plugged into to see if that circuits voltage is dropping? It is possible that the ballast is causing more than normal resistance. Does the light hesitate longer than normal to come on or flicker when coming on? I agree with @Dahas , it may be worth while to look at the light and check all connections(ballast wiring, socket wiring, corrosion, etc.). If you find nothing there, it may be worth it to just replace ballast.
 

K7BMG

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Just my .02. I would take the neptune power strip out the equation and see what happens with a normal power strip. Maybe it is bad. I always like to start with the easy things first.

On a side note, I had a problem I found this past weekend that could have burned my house down.

I was having problems with electronics that were plugged into outlets on the same circuit not working right. Low power draw items workes but higher draw items didn't. I was also told it was a bad circuit breaker so I changed it and an outlet in the circuit that wouldn't hold a plug in it any more. I used my outlet tester on the new outlet and got a indication of ground and hot being swapped. I checked a few of the other outlets and all the ones before it checked fine and the ones after it were the same bad indication.

What I found after I realized I forgot about one outlet I misses when testing that was behind some furniture is what you see in the picture. There was nothing plugged into it and it wasn't wet. It had somehow shorted to ground in the past month or so.

20200731_171452.jpg


Please check and double check everything. This could have been much worse

That looks more like a loose neutral screw and subsequent dammage due to overcurrent beating.
Its hard to tell but it also looks like the ground wire was in contact with the neutral (white wire) side not the hot side.
This is why I do not use receps as pass through.
I always pig tale the conductors.
 

K7BMG

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Previous dips in volts compared to today's dip since having the lights on a separate circuit - pic attached

I think it's crazy that I may have to run the lights on the dedicated circuit we just ran to keep the tank equipment steady with voltage.

GPH on the return pump stayed steady today. Same with UV pump. I believe I saw more flow in the tank and lastly I turned off the skimmer and back on and it was able to start up! Normally if the lights were on the skimmer couldn't kick on hard enough to create a suction on the air line, but once lights were off skimmer has no problem.

Screenshot_20200803-210154_Apex Fusion.jpg

I feel there is still something a bit suspect here.
The light fixture could be putting out harmonics as Brew states that could easily effect the electronics of the Apex and the additional equipment attached to the Apex EB832.

So according to your last post and to be clear.
The light is plugged into the new 20A dedicated circuit all by itself.

The Apex is plugged into the original 15A shared circuit, is how your making it sound.
So the two are separated so to speak from one another.

Or are you using the new circuit for both, but just not plugging the light into the Apex unit now.

How are you determining the voltage by the Apex software alone or the Klein voltage meter or both?

I know I am asking lots of questions but as I can't be there to see how it is set up and test accordingly, so the fault is harder to determine.

Or maybe you don't care now as the problem seems to be resolved. (Though it may not be)
 
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RMS18

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Did you, by any chance, check the circuit that the light is currently plugged into to see if that circuits voltage is dropping? It is possible that the ballast is causing more than normal resistance. Does the light hesitate longer than normal to come on or flicker when coming on? I agree with @Dahas , it may be worth while to look at the light and check all connections(ballast wiring, socket wiring, corrosion, etc.). If you find nothing there, it may be worth it to just replace ballast.


I did not check the volts on the circuit the light was currently plugged into, no way for me to check it. I do not have that tool.

Lights are currently plugged into the same outlet on same circuit as the apex, but not directly into the apex energy bar. Currently showing 117, history shows at this time in normally at 114-115. This may have been a apex energy bar problem not being able to handle the light system. I will report back later when lights are on full power.
 
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RMS18

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We found the problem.

It's the apex energy bars, cannot handle the 8bulb 54w t5 system. The lights are now plugged into the same wall outlet as the apex bars. This circuit is the new dedicated circuit we installed this past weekend. The lights are on full power and volts are holding at 116 per apex. GPH on return pump are holding strong and no longer dipping 30gph less during day, same with UV pump and skimmer can self syphon after a restart. Powerheads also seems to be more powerful as water noise seems louder.

At the end of the day the tank is now on a dedicated circuit, so I'll take that as a win.
 

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Nice. I have my 8 bulb T5 on my apex as well and notice the voltage dips sometimes as well. That maybe the issue with mine as well.

I haven't noticed problems with my skimmers or anything else but I wasn't watching for them either.
 

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I'm in the process of my first build. I'm going with an ADJ SRP8 and a custom controller. Each of the 7 controlled outlets are rated for 15A with a total capacity of 15A. I opened it up and each outlet is controlled by a 30A relay. I didn't see any diodes or otherwise protecting the relay coils, but overall it looked like a simple and robust design.

I'm glad you got this sorted out.
 

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I suggest to find the big company that provides the full range of electrical services from private home or commercial property. Usually the have the big experience of different kind of work like grounding the house, changing outlets, and increasing amperage and may be they will find out how to resolve your issue. Recently I worked with this company Bates Electric Minneapolis and their electricians were highly trained and completely licensed.
 

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