Apex Horror stories

Battlecorals · Sep 5, 2013

So I have finally joined the mid 2000's and bought an apex for my main system. Mostly for monitoring while I am away. Till now the only controller on my 800+ gallon system is an old medusa temp controller and a milwaukee ph for my reactor.

I confess I have always been a little leary of relying on a singular piece of equipment to keep everything going.

Because of the size of my system I don't plan on controlling lights or flow pumps or anything like that. I will run my chiller, a fan a large ventilation fan, heaters two return pumps and my reactor ph. maybe a couple of switches for water level alarms and such.

I really like the idea of being able to monitor and control this stuff remotely. I am just scared to death of some unforeseen systems failure that wipes out my up till now, very reliable and very low tech setup.

Let me reiterate. I am about to "fix" what ain't broken, contrary to the adage which is a rule I have followed a long time and have enjoyed a successful healthy system for years because of it.

So before i plug this thing in I would very much like to hear about some of the negative aspects of running one of these. I am not intending to have this be a bash session at all. I just bought one so I do not need to be convinced to do so or not. I know these things are great from the research I have done.

I mostly just need validation that these things are as reliable as can be and that I should trust the technology.

Thanks guys!

BBoley24 · Sep 5, 2013

Best investment i've ever made. (on the reef tank of course.) I take that back... of all time.

Reefltx · Sep 5, 2013

Love mine also. Most of the bad stories I read about them are usually user's error, not the controller. One guy over heated his tank, he was using the apex to control his heaters and somehow his temp probe got knocked out of the sump and you can imagine how the rest of the story goes. One thing for sure, don't ever set your heater on max and allow the apex to control it. :bigsmile:

Scutterborn · Sep 5, 2013

A buddy of mine had his apex stuck his chiller on and he came home to a 60 degree tank. Redundancy is key. Set your heaters to turn off at a designated temp regardless of what the apex says. Set your chiller to do the same. This way I it sticks in the on position, it'll turn itself off and not destroy your tank.

Aside from that story, best investment ever!!!

FMF0331 · Sep 5, 2013

No horror stories here, best investment i've made

Battlecorals · Sep 5, 2013

Excellent guys. Keep it coming!

specvjeff · Sep 5, 2013

I personally believe a controller is one of the single best things I've ever bought. I had a Reef Keeper Elite for a couple years and won an Apex in the raffle at MACNA. So far I like it. Was a bit difficult to set up but with a little help from Russ at reeftronics.net I was able to get it all dialed in.

o2manyfish · Sep 5, 2013

If temperature is an issue definitely put the lights on the Apex - Then you can turn them off if the temperature rises.

My return pumps are not on the Apex, and my heater is double protected by the Apex controlling the power to the Ranco and the Ranco double checking the Apex.

I use mine to monitor Salinity, pH, ORP, pH of Calc Rx, pH of Kalk Rc and temperature of 3 different tanks as well as outside temperature.

Mine has been running for 18 months and has been great at helping me stabilize the system and hasn't created any risk situations.

Dave B

Steelerfan747 · Sep 5, 2013

I Love my Apex. One of the best investments I've ever made. I have had it running for over 2 years now and have never had a single issue other than it sometimes losing it internal clock when the lights go out but it has to be an extended outage

Damon · Sep 5, 2013

As being the second controller I have had, the main thing I have learned is to think in terms of redundant and failsafe. The food thing about the apex us a ton of it is easily added. Make sure everything had a backup plan and failure fault. As much mechanical and analog I can get away from, the better.

The apex for me has been a pleasure(knock on wood) and extremely reliable. It's a very good and solid piece of equipment that will grow with you.

Also, try and conceptualize things that you want to do. Then, the best suggestion is to download, print and study the "comprehensive reference manual" prior to the arrival and attempted setup of the unit, as it helps tremendously..

From Note 2 on Tap 4

cdness · Sep 5, 2013

Since you want personal experiences here you go:

When I started my tank I had no controller and relied on timers and the thermostats in heaters. Not the smartest thing in the world but I was a newbie. I had the heater set to 78 and the fan for evap cooling was always on. This caused major evap and high electricity bills as the heater and fan were fighting each other. Then one day the heater thermostat stuck on and heated the tank to about 82 before I caught it. Lucky for me the fan was on all the time or I would have been screwed...

After that incident I bought an Neptune ACIII used off another reef site. It was like a dream having the capability to do all that control. I had the lights, fans, and returns all running off the DC8. I was still new to programming the controller but I had it all set up. One day I got an email alarm that the tank was reading extremely hot, around 130 degrees. I didn't believe it, but when I got home, the fan was running and the tank was actually at about 71. The temp probe failed and was reading way out of range causing my program to kill the heater and turn on the fan. This evaporative cooled the tank down quickly. This is when I learned about setting the out of range values in the program so if it gets out of range high or low, the controller kills the heater and cooling alerting me to check the system. After replacing the temp probe and adding the out of range programming I didn't have another issue with the ACIII. However I did make a mistake and plugged in two IC660 ballasts into one outlet of the DC8 and fried a triac in the ON position... Repairable, but I decided to upgrade instead...

I bought a used APEX full version off a local reefer. I applied the knowledge I learned from the prior controller and set it all up with backups in place. It has been running flawlessly ever since. I believe I have been on the APEX for 2 years now.

A friend of mine is setting up his new tank and bought an APEX to control that system. He ran into an issue where an EB8 had issues and killed communication in all of the connected devices rendering the APEX useless. He has sent it back to Neptune and they have been more than willing to work with him through the issues. They thought they figured it out the first time, but they missed something and he had to send it back a second time. No livestock yet so no big deal, but it has delayed his build about 3 weeks...

Here are some quick tips from my experience:
- Set your heater to kill at 65 degrees
- Set your cooler to kill at 95 degrees
- Set your email alerts to warn you of issues at multiple steps
- If dimming LEDs be sure to set up the midday cycle so you don't have the ramp time when recovering from a power outage
- Set up your internet modem and routers, along with a backup power supply for the APEX, on UPS backups to notify you of power outages
- Consider buying a second head unit for your APEX as well as a spare EB8. If these things fail and you are dependent on the controller, it is less headache to have a swappable spare than to deal with RMA and replacement...
- Backup your program often so you can restore to a replacement if needed

All in all it is the best investment I have ever made and I will NEVER have a tank without one. I do need to add that the Reef Angel is a very close competitor to the APEX and if I didn't get such a good deal on mine, I may have went that route instead. It has lots of features and is quicker to develop new add-ons than the APEX and other controllers.

1mbrews8 · Sep 6, 2013

what router/internet do u guys have? I have at&t with the stupid "2wire" and it sux... anyone have at&t anything?????

Eienna · Sep 6, 2013

I want an Apex....that's gonna take a while, though.

I think I'll save up for it before I get my anthias.

Jay6363 · Sep 6, 2013

One of my best investments as well!!!

pam0630 · Sep 6, 2013

i would like a controller also, but not at this time..no mollla....just starting new job tues....maybe at a later time..or if i can find a used one for a good price

Johmanda · Sep 6, 2013

After listening to the talk at MACNA about controllers, I decided to forego some other purchases and bought an APEX - full version but with no additional add-ons (except the 'free' leak detector that wasn't really free). I haven't had time to hook it up yet - project for the weekend - but I love hearing that everyone is very happy with theirs.

Dowtish · Sep 6, 2013

I have been very pleased with my apex so far.(1 year) It has made me have peace of mind when I travel, and I love that I can get texts and emails when something goes out of whack like temp, ph, power outtage etc. The only complaint I had was setting everything up when I first got it. I thought I was somewhat capable until I tried and then began to feel stupid...LOL

I have plenty of IT friends that helped me set it up, but after MACNA this year this wont be an issue as they are going to "the cloud". Set up will be a breeze and the other new options look amazing as well. Check it out!

[video=youtube;Q955hJjekQE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q955hJjekQE[/video]