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Thread: Programming Help with ATO and Kalk

  1. #1
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    Programming Help with ATO and Kalk

    Hi Everyone, I am new to Apex programming and need some help. I just got a Kalk Reator and tried to program it.

    I have a Tunze ATO that is programmed into Apex. The ATO pumps water into a Kalk Reactor which then sends the Kalk mix into the sump. This is triggered when the Apex sensor detects a drop in the Return section of the Sump. This is how it is programmed

    Fallback OFF
    Set ON
    If Output WaterChange = ON Then OFF
    Defer 008:00 Then ON
    If pH > 8.50 Then OFF

    Part of the programming is to turn off the Tunze when I have a nightly water change which pumps 4 gallons out of the sump and then pumps 4 gallons from a mixing tank into the sump. During this time the ATO is off. I included the last line which is to turn the ATO off if PH goes above 8.5.

    The Kalk Reactor is set to turn on four times a day which mixes the Kalk. The programming is as follows:

    Fallback OFF
    OSC 000:00/015:00/345:00 Then ON

    So if something goes haywire and the ATO pumps water into the Kalk Reactor and the Kalk Reactor pumps kalk into the sump and it does not stop then the PH will rise to 8.5 and the ATO will shut down which shuts down the Kalk Reactor and I do not have a Reef Tank crash.

    This is the first time that I have programmed the APEX since I had paid someone to do the initial programming. Can someone please look at how I programmed the areas in bold and confirm that I did it correctly.

    Thanks for your help!

  2. #2
    Frequent Contributor zombie's Avatar
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    Looks good. It's worth considering also turning it off while it is stirring, but because the Tunze primes every time it turns from OFF to ON, it may not actually help. Worth a quick test though.

    You might be an engineer if...You have no life and can prove it mathematically.

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    Quote Originally Posted by zombie View Post
    Looks good. It's worth considering also turning it off while it is stirring, but because the Tunze primes every time it turns from OFF to ON, it may not actually help. Worth a quick test though.

    You might be an engineer if...You have no life and can prove it mathematically.

    Thanks for the quick reply. I thought about turning off the ATO when the Kalk is mixed but as you mentioned, the ATO will prime each time it is turned back on. Wish there was a way around the priming.

  4. #4
    Frequent Contributor zombie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by goldhopper View Post
    Thanks for the quick reply. I thought about turning off the ATO when the Kalk is mixed but as you mentioned, the ATO will prime each time it is turned back on. Wish there was a way around the priming.
    Only way around the priming is to scrap the Tunze controller and use the apex to control the Tunze pump, but that requires floats or opticals.

    You might be an engineer if...You have no life and can prove it mathematically.

  5. #5
    Frequent Visitor rkpetersen's Avatar
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    I eventually gave up on trying to dose kalk based on my ATO evaporative sensor. There was just too much variation between each water addition (and kalk dose, and resultant change in pH) for my taste. I switched to an OSC-based dosing and top-off system, with some of the safeguards previously outlined by zombie (although not all of them; I still need to do occasional manual adjustments), and have been very happy with the results.

    Also, being very paranoid about how kalk could cause a tank crash if something awful happened, I added a Neptune solenoid into the RODI line that feeds the kalk reactor. It is programmed to the same exact parameters as the ATO pump, but does not directly reference the pump. The solenoid serves as a safeguard should the pump get stuck on. With normal operation, they turn on/open and turn off/closed within half a second of each other.

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