No dosing offset option?

[TheHarold]

Hello,

I just set up three apex DOS units. They seem great- calibration was a breeze- until I ran into a big issue. I dose a triton 4 part into my refugium, and it cannot be dosed at the time time. It will precipitate. Yet when I set up the 20ml daily in the wizard, there is no option to offset the doses (between pumps) from each-other.

With my cheap jebao DP4, it had an "offset" time- so I could set it so one pump would dose at the hour, the other 15 minutes after the hour, the other 30 minutes after, and the last 45 minutes after. Is there no similar option for the Apex DOS? The programming options seem to be lacking.

I know it is dosing small amounts and that there may not be a lot of precipitation, but as my dosing amounts grow (Its a 300 gallon tank) there will definitely be a problem. @Terence, is there anything in the works?

In addition, it would be nice to have a "virtual" reservoir so I could know when I am almost out of solution. Like where it adds up daily doses, and turns red (or texts me when I approach my reservoir's capacity.



I’m a fanboy, just doesn’t make sense to me that it would have so few programming features!

 

[themcfreak]

Upvote a million times for the "Virtual" Reservoir option. Would love that!

As for offsetting time, I just went in and split up my dosing.. It takes a bit of time, but my Alk doses from 12am-1:45AM, then calcium from 2am-3:45am, then alk from 4am-5:45am, and so on and so forth (not Triton, but would work the same). Then I take my total MLs needed throughout the day, and divide evenly by the number of doses per supplement. So technically, I am not continually dosing both, but it is even enough for me.

 

[TheHarold]

Upvote a million times for the "Virtual" Reservoir option. Would love that!

As for offsetting time, I just went in and split up my dosing.. It takes a bit of time, but my Alk doses from 12am-1:45AM, then calcium from 2am-3:45am, then alk from 4am-5:45am, and so on and so forth (not Triton, but would work the same). Then I take my total MLs needed throughout the day, and divide evenly by the number of doses per supplement. So technically, I am not continually dosing both, but it is even enough for me.

You see after spending $$$$ on a dosing setup that is so accurate, splitting up dosing into big blocks like that seems like a disappointing option. If I wanted hourly dosing, I would have to set up 24 dosing times for each dosing head, LOL!

My jebao DP4- a $60 chinesium doser- had hourly offset options. Surely that would not be too hard to integrate into apex.

 

[themcfreak]

You see after spending $$$$ on a dosing setup that is so accurate, splitting up dosing into big blocks like that seems like a disappointing option. If I wanted hourly dosing, I would have to set up 24 dosing times for each dosing head, LOL!

My jebao DP4- a $60 chinesium doser- had hourly offset options. Surely that would not be too hard to integrate into apex.

I don't disagree, by any means. It does suck a lot when I need to change how much I am dosing. Lots of clicks and adjustments, rather than just 1.

 

[TheHarold]

@RussM - any idea if an offset is in the works?

 

[TheHarold]

Resolved this by changing the "start time" in between doses to 2 minutes. I tried this initially, but I put 5 minutes. That meant that the total offset added up to 20 minutes, which is greater than the dosing interval (14 minutes). So it would not be a reliable time in between doses- and it could sync up occasionally.

 

[TeotheCoral]

Har

Hello,

I just set up three apex DOS units. They seem great- calibration was a breeze- until I ran into a big issue. I dose a triton 4 part into my refugium, and it cannot be dosed at the time time. It will precipitate. Yet when I set up the 20ml daily in the wizard, there is no option to offset the doses (between pumps) from each-other.

With my cheap jebao DP4, it had an "offset" time- so I could set it so one pump would dose at the hour, the other 15 minutes after the hour, the other 30 minutes after, and the last 45 minutes after. Is there no similar option for the Apex DOS? The programming options seem to be lacking.

I know it is dosing small amounts and that there may not be a lot of precipitation, but as my dosing amounts grow (Its a 300 gallon tank) there will definitely be a problem. @Terence, is there anything in the works?

In addition, it would be nice to have a "virtual" reservoir so I could know when I am almost out of solution. Like where it adds up daily doses, and turns red (or texts me when I approach my reservoir's capacity.



I’m a fanboy, just doesn’t make sense to me that it would have so few programming features!

Hello,

I just set up three apex DOS units. They seem great- calibration was a breeze- until I ran into a big issue. I dose a triton 4 part into my refugium, and it cannot be dosed at the time time. It will precipitate. Yet when I set up the 20ml daily in the wizard, there is no option to offset the doses (between pumps) from each-other.

With my cheap jebao DP4, it had an "offset" time- so I could set it so one pump would dose at the hour, the other 15 minutes after the hour, the other 30 minutes after, and the last 45 minutes after. Is there no similar option for the Apex DOS? The programming options seem to be lacking.

I know it is dosing small amounts and that there may not be a lot of precipitation, but as my dosing amounts grow (Its a 300 gallon tank) there will definitely be a problem. @Terence, is there anything in the works?

In addition, it would be nice to have a "virtual" reservoir so I could know when I am almost out of solution. Like where it adds up daily doses, and turns red (or texts me when I approach my reservoir's capacity.



I’m a fanboy, just doesn’t make sense to me that it would have so few programming features!

Harold my fish brother!

Why do you buy so many DOS? You have a tank filled with $$$$. Why not just get a four head doser and sell me one of the DOS?


Thanks

teo The Coral

 

[TheHarold]

Har




Harold my fish brother!

Why do you buy so many DOS? You have a tank filled with $$$$. Why not just get a four head doser and sell me one of the DOS?


Thanks

teo The Coral

I bought three DOS- so 6 head doser .

I was going to go with another brand at first that had a single unit with 4 heads, GHL, but I wanted integration with the upcoming apex trident. One control system is better than two

 

[TeotheCoral]

I bought three DOS- so 6 head doser .

I was going to go with another brand at first that had a single unit with 4 heads, GHL, but I wanted integration with the upcoming apex trident. One control system is better than two

My fish brother,

It is not good to put all your fish eggs in one basket! You want to be controlled by Apex? You like their “wonderful” customer service and their low quality plastic?

You should go with tried and true Ghl. You’ll also save space.

Just a l thought from your friend the coral

 

[TheHarold]

My fish brother,

It is not good to put all your fish eggs in one basket! You want to be controlled by Apex? You like their “wonderful” customer service and their low quality plastic?

You should go with tried and true Ghl. You’ll also save space.

Just a l thought from your friend the coral

You also have an apex, no? I saw you were shopping for WXM. Why did you buy it? Just to look at the plastic and giggle?

At this point, apex is definitely also "tried and true"

 

[Fritzhamer]

I will say this is the only shortcoming of the DOS. Don’t get me wrong, I just sold my GHL doser and replaced it with a DOS/DDR combo, but the software on the GHL was far superior.

The GHL software starts with you stating the total volume of the liquid to be dosed. It then keeps track and send you an alert when you’ve reached the set “low point”. It’s also just about silent and pretty small compared to the DOS. Offset dosing is really easy to setup as well.

A firmware update for the DOS that did these things (surely the 2016 apex head is capable of processing these items) would be awesome.

 

[TheHarold]

I will say this is the only shortcoming of the DOS. Don’t get me wrong, I just sold my GHL doser and replaced it with a DOS/DDR combo, but the software on the GHL was far superior.

The GHL software starts with you stating the total volume of the liquid to be dosed. It then keeps track and send you an alert when you’ve reached the set “low point”. It’s also just about silent and pretty small compared to the DOS. Offset dosing is really easy to setup as well.

A firmware update for the DOS that did these things (surely the 2016 apex head is capable of processing these items) would be awesome.

Agree that the DOS needs an update, that provides both more programming options and enables the fluid monitoring feature- like plugging in a DDR does. Right now you have to DIY a connection between pin 4 and 6 on the DOS to get the DDR container to appear, thats kind of annoying. It works, I now get a fluid remaining countdown, but shouldnt need to have the DDR to get that.