WTF: DOS ran out of control

[brucelan]

I set up my brand new DOS according to the instructions.

I calibrated it.

I went to BRS for the recommended dose to get my ALK from 7.6 to 8.5. For my tank (220 gallons) it said I needed to dose 140ml of their BRS alkalinity solution.

I set the DOS to run for about eight hours and to deliver 120mL. I checked the interval summary and it said that it was going to deliver about 4mL every ten minutes.

About 30 minutes later I checked the log and it says it did two doses of 200mL each time. More than DOUBLE the TOTAL it was supposed to deliver. If I hadn't checked I assume it would have emptied the whole bottle and my Alkalinity would be about 25 dKH. As it is, my Alkalinity is 11.4.

Has anyone else seen this type issue? I am now very leery of trusting the DOS.

I am doing a water change to hopefully get my ALK down.

Comments, opinions, guidance appreciated.

bruce

[RussM]

It sounds like you put the DOS tile sliders in the ON position, not the AUTO position. On the tile sliders, ON and OFF are manual overrides. Programming is only executed when the slider is in AUTO.

[brucelan]

Russ:

I think you are correct. I thought the ON position still would honor the programming. IMHO, I think there needs to be a warning dialog box (sort of a "are you sure you want to override the programmed run intervals?"). The DOS documentation in http://neptunesystems.com/getstarted does not make this clear at all.

bruce

[tastyfish]

The other gotcha (in this case a false alarm) is that the dose counter includes any amount that you have primed or calibrated. So if you prime again to get rid of air bubbles (story of my life at the moment), then don't scare yourself when you look at the amount dosed.

The general rule with the Apex is to set everything to auto and use a program unless you are performing maintenance (I use "On" for the sump light when working under the tank). This way, you can also use the FALLBACK command to specify the outlet's state should the Apex fail. This is very useful for pumps, skimmer etc.*


*Be careful switching an Apex controlled flow pump to "ON" though... It defaults to 100%. The resulting tidal wave from one of my cross flow pumps almost drowned a £3k iMac

[Frogfish]

Russ:

I think you are correct. I thought the ON position still would honor the programming. IMHO, I think there needs to be a warning dialog box (sort of a "are you sure you want to override the programmed run intervals?"). The DOS documentation in http://neptunesystems.com/getstarted does not make this clear at all.

bruce

I woulnt expect an explanation of Fusion and how it works in the DOS manual. The apex get started guide however, does state that on and off bypasses the configuration.