I am slightly taxing my new ATK in a different way. This is not breaking new ground nor is it very exciting. I am posting this just to show some of the diversity of application available with the Apex system. In this application, the ATK has to correct for evaporation in the sump while ignoring water withdrawals for other purposes.

Right now I have the ATK in the remote sump that is located in the garage. I have 6” diameter acrylic tubes that are 6 feet tall. These vessels are where I plan to grow zooplankton while using water from the main display tank in a closed loop. Initial test runs of 4 months had no crashes and required no maintenance aside from feeding which will now be automated using the Apex. The water flow has to be calibrated to match the growth rate in the tower. In addition to air, water is pumped into the tower from the sump and the live plankton returns to the display using gravity so it’s not killed by pumps.

My first code tests are using the OSC function. I turn an industrial peristaltic pump on for 20 seconds every 5 minutes throughout the day and night. This way the ATK does not see a big dip in the water level that it needs to address. Instead it can correct for evaporation as it was intended. I am testing for additional duty cycles prior to the addition of more plankton towers, a large refugium and other growth vessels. I will try to use PMUPS as well. The trick is to keep the water extraction smooth and predictable using the Apex.

With the first tower starting the cycle at midnight, the second could start and 3 after. As I add more vessels, I may need to change to other cycle lengths like 6 minutes, as long as it is evenly divisible into the 1440 minutes in the day. Above that, more than one cycle can share a minute and perhaps overlap.

These are only the first tests but I am surprised at how rock stable my water level is in the display tank. This is despite having a closed loop system that is plumped through walls with so many tanks, tubes and containers, scattered over 75 feet and two rooms.