Hey everybody,
I gotta just go ahead and say it first, I am so far beyond blown away by the capabilities of this system to dial your environment in like nothing else out there. Then there are all of you folks who seem incredibly helpful and genuinely concerned about others being able to enjoy the same benefits of the system despite a possible lack of understanding.
Nuff chatting. . . I have a very unique situation on my hands, while 99% of the individuals on here are all speaking the same language related to the maintenance of an aquarium setup . . .my application for the Apex system is just slightly different lets say. I am a fairly serious hydroponics hobbyist and I recently moved towards establishing a new growing system that is outfitted with a degree of automation and precision control unlike anything ever seen before absent a 24/7 human staff.
A bit about the system and my objectives....I have the regular Apex system complete with the PM2 expansion mod and conductivity probe, my number one goal, is to be able to establish a set of parameters for several aquatic measurements which the system will then be capable of continuously monitoring and making necessary adjustments in order to maintain that "ideal" environment as defined by my specified set of measurement variables.
The basic programming I am seemingly faced with is pretty plain vanilla....If temp creeps up, a pump kicks on my wort-style chiller connected to a 1.5HP water chiller, or if the PH starts to rise then I have a peristaltic pump feeding from a tank of PH down solution and dosing it into the system. I hope to employ even a bit of fanciness by using the features that allow you to specify an exact time period during which the system will not act on whatever trigger it may encounter (allowing the dosing solutions a little time to evenly disperse throughout the ehole system and avoiding a false reading and eventual over dosing) I am 99% sure that I am going to be able to figure this out....but here is the real kicker....
In order to REALLY step it up to another level, there is an element of gradual progression in most of the controlled metrics I seek to control. For instance, lets say that instead of assuming that my programs are aimed at a perpetual environment or even a perpetually cycliclical environment, I am working with a 10 week period over which the values of each "Ideal" metric changes slightly. (ex. water temp begins week 1 at 68 and gradually falls to 64 over 9 weeks and drops to 60 for the last 4 days, or the same goes for the conductivity levels or PH of water . . .you catch my drift here? Is there a way by which I might be able to program the whole enchilada so that this kind of trend is able to be followed AND THEN STARTED OVER FROM THE TOP OF THE CYCLE without having to re-program the whole thing once a week or even once every 10 weeks? I would love to hear what the true masters of environmental control have to say on this one....to the extent that someone might be capable of walking me through what I need to do, I would be happy to compensate for the time, effort or simply remain eternally greatful!
Really sorry about the novel
Thanks!!!!
JR
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