Pdandy
Active Member
I had a power outage a few weeks ago and ended up losing a couple of fish due to the fact that the Apex controller can not send you an alert that the power went out until AFTER it comes back on. So I went on a quest to prevent this from happening again.
The Apex has a built in power monitor and Neptune recommends to set it up a certain way. I did it a little different and it still works for me, so I thought I would share.
First of all I have power monitor shut OFF.
The back up UPS is 750va from APC (this is the reason I did not follow Neptune's recommendation, 750va is too small to run everything on my tank even while connected to wall power).
I have my Energy bar plugged into the left side of the back up. This side is surge protection only and will lose power when it goes out. The right side (battery protected) has a 12v power supply going to the base unit and the power for my Vectra L1.
#6 is what you should program your email alert to be.
This is what you get as an alert when the power goes out.
The battery keeps the base unit powered up to send you an alert of loss of power to the energy bar. The battery also keeps the return pump running (still need to test for how long.)
The one "downside" to this configuration is that the return pump is not controllable by the apex. But with the vectras control dial it is easy enough to turn off and on if needed.
PS: your networking equipment also needs to have a battery back up for this to work, otherwise it won't be able to get the alert to you.
The Apex has a built in power monitor and Neptune recommends to set it up a certain way. I did it a little different and it still works for me, so I thought I would share.
First of all I have power monitor shut OFF.
The back up UPS is 750va from APC (this is the reason I did not follow Neptune's recommendation, 750va is too small to run everything on my tank even while connected to wall power).
I have my Energy bar plugged into the left side of the back up. This side is surge protection only and will lose power when it goes out. The right side (battery protected) has a 12v power supply going to the base unit and the power for my Vectra L1.
#6 is what you should program your email alert to be.
This is what you get as an alert when the power goes out.
The battery keeps the base unit powered up to send you an alert of loss of power to the energy bar. The battery also keeps the return pump running (still need to test for how long.)
The one "downside" to this configuration is that the return pump is not controllable by the apex. But with the vectras control dial it is easy enough to turn off and on if needed.
PS: your networking equipment also needs to have a battery back up for this to work, otherwise it won't be able to get the alert to you.
