Preventing (fool Proofing) A Future Incident +apex Help

hark

hark

Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2014
Location
Wellesley, Ontario
so I dodged a bullet sort of recently. I had a sea hare in my sump to keep him fed given I was algae less in my main tank. I had him in a spot I was confident he wouldn't be able to make it to the pump and get chewed up in because I had it blocked off with egg crate....well didn't I move the egg crate to check on a pinpoint monitor and forgot to move it back so sure enough a week later he found the opening and into the pump he went.

I lost one fish not because of the sea hare being chewed up (he really wasn't), but because I went 16 hours without noticing my main pump wasn't circulating water back into the tank. I lost a Naso tang, the largest fish in my tank but everything else survived.

My apex never went off because according to it, the pump was on and running albeit not pushing water through it. my temperature never dropped to alarm on that either, ecotech pumps in the tank were also fine they were pushing water around although it was slowly deprived of o2 is my belief.

so anyway got me thinking, is there a way to guage the GPH through the pump with the apex, a fitting or something I can buy to periodically check water is flowing as expected? I run the wave line DC10000 as my main pump. I was thinking some form of valve that measures water throughput would be handy to alarm off of if something like this was to happen again, or the pump loses the impeller or something.

thoughts?
 
Pistol

Pistol

Super Active Member
Donor
Joined
Aug 16, 2012
Location
Corunna
I use a float sw, if my return slows drastically or stops my water level rises in my sump and activates the float sw and apex emails me an alarm.
 
TORX

TORX

Administrator
Staff member
Website Admin
Joined
Nov 27, 2010
Location
Blenheim, Ontario
Website
www.thefragtank.ca
Neptune Apex has a new module coming (eventually...) called the FMM (Fluid Monitoring Module) that would be exactly what you are looking for. It can be used to monitor the flow through your pipes or out of your return etc. Read more about it below.

https://reefbuilders.com/2015/09/04/neptune-systems-fluid-monitoring-module/

But, seeing that they announced it over a year ago and, to my knowledge, it still has not been released to beta users yet, I suggest that you look for something else in the mean time. A great suggestion is using the break out box with float switches on them as mentioned. You can have the alarm delays so that it does not go off unless the water level has raised for x amount of time. That would be your safest bet at this point. You can DIY one for a few dollars. The one I did cost about $10 http://thefragtank.ca/community/threads/diy-10-apex-break-out-box.10716/ or you can by one for approx $53.93.
 
N

Nighthawk26

Active Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2015
Location
Waterloo
Not that it helps, but this exact product should have been out by now by APEX before they rushed the new one out. Was once again at MACNA this year for the second year in a row with claims that it is coming this year. We shall see.
 
TORX

TORX

Administrator
Staff member
Website Admin
Joined
Nov 27, 2010
Location
Blenheim, Ontario
Website
www.thefragtank.ca
I would imagine there is a way to rig up what you are looking for, but that will probably come into some expenses. Plus you will still need a BOB as the only way an Apex could interact in the manner you are looking for is through a signal sent to the BOB. You can get some decent float switches for a few dollars, even use more then one for redundancy if you want.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top