It’s funny this popped up as I just received a survey from Apex this morning. I’ve been a Neptune fan from the early black box days. I had decided to upgrade in early 2017 as I was doing a massive rebuild of my filtration. Trident was still a big question at the time and was in beta testing, so I wanted to be prepared.
I went all in on the new Apex system and the modules. Dos&DDR x2, Flow meter, leak detector s, ATK, WAVx6, float valves, and anything that was needed for redundancy. My plan was to make the filtration as much of a display as the main tank. Colored PVC (schedule 80 BRS) , cable tracks for clean runs and gate valves everywhere.
My first issue was the Flo metering system. I was running a Ecotech L1 for a return at 90%. As it was a straight shot up to the return, I had hoped for in between 2000-3000 gph. I registered 400gph. Okay, hours of forum and web searches led me to believe that maybe the meter was to close to the pump. Order more PVC, rebuild all of the plumbing with more pipe needed than to go from A2B but to accommodate what was stated by Apex. The most I was able to register after two more rebuilds and tons of wasted PVC was 831gph. And it was a visually noticeable drop in flow in a shorter more direct path to the return. Pulled the sensor and then it was running back up to speed. Fine, one item didn’t work so well, and I had swapped the sensor also to be sure.
next inline to fail was the ATK. It was running fine for a couple of months, but then the pump started getting loud. I would clean the pump with no change in volume, so planned on replacing the pump. Before I got to the replacement, the ATK decided to dump a full 20-25gallons into my system. This helped me discover that the leak detection module and sensors were faulty. Not sure what happened, but found the feed line had blown out of the float valve in my sump. My only indication that something was wrong was that my optical sensor in my ATO reservoir told me the level was low, after filling it the day before. Lost most of my Acros at that point.
I had the Wav system for an afternoon, purchasing 4 heads and the module. 3 of the 4 sounded like a train, so I returned to the shop and swapped those out, 2 of the 3 had the same issue. Horrible customer service call again. Telling me that the shop should not have swapped the pumps and that it was never stated that the pumps were quiet. I calmly told them that if I spend money on a product to work, and I’m back in the shop within 3 hrs of purchase with 75% of the purchase not working properly, the shop is going to swap them out as I averaged spending close to $1000 a month in coral purchases with them. Why would I buy something to get home and send off to repair right away? This is where it really started going down hill for me and Apex. DOS and DDR were the next issue. By this time I wrote a post on here about my disappointment with Apex. It got quite a response up to the point that they reached out to me privately. The rep did send a few bits to try and fix the situation, nothing lasted. And just recently the EB832 gave up the ghost. Luckily my Older EB8’s from the old system (10 years old and been in constant use)are still kicking and I had the forethought to keep the essentials plugged into them, not the EB832.
I’m not sure what the situation is like anymore, but programming was at times a bit of a nightmare to find instructions as there was no manual. It was hours spent on the forum looking for someone that had figured out how to accomplish what you were looking for. And even then it was sometimes iffy. I haven’t opened fusion in at least 8 months. I would get random alarms with no heading. At one point I had so many alarms dinging that my phone was a continuous ring. 25 alerts in 1 minute, had to turn fusion off from my phone.
So my review was a solid 2 out of 10. I wish I had had the luck of so many people with the Apex. And if you do purchase one, I hope that you get your money’s worth and you have a solid system. I unfortunately spent way to much money (over$3000 in hardware)to have basically power strips that don’t monitor or do a thing. The whole reason I had purchased was my job keeps me away from home sometimes up to 12 weeks. This was to allow me to monitor my system and help trouble shoot if things went wrong. Each time the system was put to the test it failed.
