Apex DOS thoughts

[Jfaiii]

Hello all.

I have just accepted a job that will require me to travel a good bit (5 days a week 2 weeks a month). Because of this and the fact that my wife knows almost nothing about how to care for a reef tank I am thinking of how I can automate it as mush as possible while ensuring nothing will ever overflow. So I am thinking about using a couple DOS systems to do this and wanted your thoughts on whether or not this will work.

1st DOS used to dose 2 part alk and calcium (thoughts on going about this? I have only ever manually dosed my tank)

2nd DOS used in conjunction with 2 float switches in the tank and a salinity probe and would act as a glorified ATO. For example (if salinity is >1.026 then add fresh water until float 1 is activated
else if salinity

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

I can offer advice for your proposed 1st Dos. That's how I run mine, and I love it. It couldn't be any simpler, put 2 containers of solution and set the Dos to dose when you like. It is very precise after you calibrate it. I dose 8.2 mL of Calcium in the morning and 8.2 in the evening. I don't know why I chose 8.2 and not 8 or 8.5, probably just because I could!

I really like the Dos unit, mine is in the basement by my sump so I never hear it. But for this purpose, of dosing 2 part, it works great! One could spread out the doses even further or increase the frequency to your desired dose.

The other Dos possibilities you mentioned are above my pay grade, someone else will have to chime in on those.

 

[Jfaiii]

I can offer advice for your proposed 1st Dos. That's how I run mine, and I love it. It couldn't be any simpler, put 2 containers of solution and set the Dos to dose when you like. It is very precise after you calibrate it. I dose 8.2 mL of Calcium in the morning and 8.2 in the evening. I don't know why I chose 8.2 and not 8 or 8.5, probably just because I could!

I really like the Dos unit, mine is in the basement by my sump so I never hear it. But for this purpose, of dosing 2 part, it works great! One could spread out the doses even further or increase the frequency to your desired dose.

The other Dos possibilities you mentioned are above my pay grade, someone else will have to chime in on those.

Ok thank you for the input! You mentioned not hearing it since it is in your basement. Are they loud?

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

On this thread: http://www.marinecolorado.org/forums/showthread.php?28669-Neptune-DOS-Recall!! which concerns a Dos recall, a couple of guys mention noise being an issue.

When I manually press the motor buttons on the Dos you can hear the motors run, and a few times I have been testing water parameters when the Dos kicked on and it took me a minute to figure out what the heck that sound was coming from....but mine only run for a few seconds at a time so it's not a huge deal. This video seems to be pretty consistent with the sounds mine makes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KFHX7tdSQU

 

[Jfaiii]

Ok cool! I had seen them complain that they were loud but if that video is what they are like that isn't too bad. Especially since they will probably go into my stand.

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

FYI - Neptune's web page says a breakout box can control 6 switches:

– Float Switches for sump alerts or ATO (Auto Top-Off)
– Push Buttons for special modes (Feed, Cleaning, etc.)
– Leak Detectors
– Magnetic switches on cabinets for intrusion detection
– Many other creative uses

I use the breakout box to control 3 float switches in my sump. One is High water mark (Shut off ATO pump), one is low water make (turn ATO pump on), and one is emergency main pump off (This would kick on if ATO wasn't functioning and sump was going to run dry....don't want my return pump running dry). My ATO pulls RODI from a 35 gallon reservoir, I've never had a problem with salinity swings. I usually only check salinity when I do a WC and adjust accordingly.

I say all of that because your Dos #2 seems to be a lot of cash invested in an ATO. I have no doubts that it would work fine, but would it work $300 better than a Breakout Box with a few float switches? I’m not sure, but the again as I said I don’t have a ton of salinity swing that I detect when I check it once a week.

 

[bathomassr]

I run my Dos as an automatic water change. 700 ml per 30 min cycle 6 times a day. You can definitely hear the dos run but when I was asking it to change 4000 ml over a 24 hr period, it was very quiet.

 

[bathomassr]

I also select Saltwater or rodi water for topoff, based on salinity reading if the Apex. This has worked very well for me for a year or so. I've read several cautions AGAINST doing this because the salinity probe can give false readings for several reasons (dirty, electrical interference, etc) so I check my salinity with a stand alone meter once a week.

 

[19TheSaint75]

On the switches each breakout box allows six, as said before. You can add additional breakout boxes by adding additional modules with I/O ports.

 

[SkyShark]

I would get a good quality ATO instead of using a DOS. I've been very happy with the Tunze 3155. I dose 2 part with my DoS and couldn't be happier with it. It is a bit loud, but I really only run mine in the evening and at night (and it's located in my furnace room).
I recently went on vacation for 2 weeks and had everything automated aside from emptying the skimmer cup, water changes, and refilling the ATO bucket (but I could have used a larger container). I rigged up a mount and float for my auto feeder. The floating feed ring kept the pellets from going down the overflow.

 

[Balz3352]

I second the ato... Also second the 3155 I love mine... Made my biocube so much more stable

 

[Jfaiii]

I also select Saltwater or rodi water for topoff, based on salinity reading if the Apex. This has worked very well for me for a year or so. I've read several cautions AGAINST doing this because the salinity probe can give false readings for several reasons (dirty, electrical interference, etc) so I check my salinity with a stand alone meter once a week.

I appreciate this information. I really like the sounds of using it for the self water change. Is there a reason you do 700 ml over 30 min instead of running it all day? Also I would check the salinity every weekend, I am just concerned about the salinity swing when I am not there and my skimmer is running for a week straight.

 

[Jfaiii]

On the switches each breakout box allows six, as said before. You can add additional breakout boxes by adding additional modules with I/O ports.

Ok that is what I thought but I read some where that the number of switches it supports depends on which module with the IO port you have it hooked up to

 

[Jfaiii]

I second the ato... Also second the 3155 I love mine... Made my biocube so much more stable

Ya I am currently using the hydra ATO and have never had a problem with it. I just do not want my skimmer pulling out stuff all week and lowering my salinity too much. I only have a IM 40 gallon so am just a little concerned about that.

 

[Balz3352]

Theoretically if you have an ato the salinity shouldn't change. Skimmer doesn't pull salt out to my knowledge. Maybe some saltwater if it's super wet but I can't imagine your salinity fluctuating noticeably with the ato

 

[bathomassr]

Is there a reason you do 700 ml over 30 min instead of running it all day?

It's just because i don't want things like water changes happening overnight, lol.

I also have my skimmer output going into a small 2 qt container with a float switch to turn off the skimmer when the bucket gets full. This is because my skimmer has overflowed before and caused a mess. This is the occasion where auto-selecting the ATO source helped.

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

I like the idea of a Dos doing water changes for me, but what do you do about detritus that usually gets siphoned during water changes? Would I still have to do a smaller WC to get that out?

 

[Balz3352]

I like the idea of a Dos doing water changes for me, but what do you do about detritus that usually gets siphoned during water changes? Would I still have to do a smaller WC to get that out?

I think so. Personally when I'm in a hurry all I do is drain and fill. I don't really do a great job on sucking detritus but I think you can get away from it for a bit then periodically do a good detritus suck up.