Apex Neptune Worth It?

[mike550]

Hello! Newbie question here.

I’m about six months into a new 120G reef tank. Nothing too complicated - lights, skimmer, powerhead, heater, return pump. I’ll use a Tunze ATO when I’m out of town, and AWC isn’t feasible.

I like the idea of an Apex for fault monitoring (bad heater, bad pump, power outage (?)) and to monitor tank parameters. But wondering if it’s really worth it if my system isn’t overly complicated. Are there other systems I should consider?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bigwrasse]

its very much worth it if your going to keep sps. If you are going mostly softies than probably not necessary. I have a full blown Apex with Trident and Auto water change and I have a 50 Gallon AIO that I control with smart surge protectors with Alexa. They both work but obviously my expensive corals are in my Apex controlled tank

 

[Hemmdog]

I personally have yet to find a need for one.

 

[Dempsey941]

I have one and it is fantastic. The ability to record your test results and have them charted lets me know if my 2 part dosing needs to be adjusted. I can also turn off the items i need for wc and feedings. 100% recommended . And once you have one you will be set for when you upgrade in the future.

 

[Dave1993]

If you have the cash to get it yea if you don't then its not worth worrying about

 

[SPR1968]

You don’t ’need’ to have one but it’s very useful to have one, and I certainly wouldn’t be without it now.

The peace of mind and monitoring it provides is priceless especially when your away.

There are other controllers as well, so it’s all personal preference, but I just find Apex very simple to use and set up.

 

[Mr4000]

I wouldn't have a reef tank with out one and i've had tanks for 30 years and before i got the apex which was many years ago, i wondered how i got along without it. It will monitor everything in the tank and if anything goes wrong you can get alerted. I use to work out of state and being able to see what my reef was doing at all times was priceless. And now having the trident its a game changer in reef keeping!

 

[Bruce60]

My answer is...it depends.

As you state, your system is relatively simple. I certainly ran many, many reef and other tanks over the decades long before there was an Apex, or even home computers. You can run a simple tank like yours without an Apex or other controller, no problem. My current tank is the first one in which I decided to try and Apex, and here are some of my observations, in no particular order:

1. The Apex is not inexpensive, and you will likely want or require additional modules, at additional cost. And not just an ATO module, but if you want Apex to control your lights or pumps, you likely need an additional module.
2. It is very nice to have the probes to measure pH, salinity and temperature. I still am not sure I get the need for ORP. It took me a bit of effort to finally get the probes correctly calibrated, and you still need to recalibrate the probes on a regular basis (I do it monthly). You get to watch the tank "breathe" over the course of a day and see trends occurring in real time.
3. Apex makes it relatively easy to simply program your equipment...turn on heater at 77, off at 78...lights on and off at certain times but turn lights off if tank temp is too high...etc. However, the more complex programming requires you to either trust what others have posted, or to take a few hours to read through and really learn the programming language. Once you do that, there is tremendous potential to control your system.
4. The ability to monitor and set alarms can be very useful. The only alarms I have seen in my 6-7 months are for power outages, so how useful it is depends on your situation. IF you are home every day and are paying attention to your system, maybe not so much. If you travel a lot (like I am doing), it is nice to be able to automatically (and manually) monitor the system and make changes from anywhere. Combine this with some advanced programming and a deep understanding of your system and you can, for example, turn off the main pump if a leak is detected...etc.
5. I have found it to be stable and helpful, but at a high cost. I am glad that I purchased and am using the Apex. But I appreciate it more because of the decades of doing it "manually," which makes me more tolerant of the little quirks of using the Apex. Some others have had issues with theirs, I can't comment on their experiences, but encourage you to search and read these as well.

Best of luck!

 

[dhof]

I’ve used a Neptune apex all along and can’t really imagine running a reef tank without it. Aside from the initial controller expense, I added basically all the modules slowly over time. As you start looking at adding each module, my experience is that I’m comparing a high quality piece of equipment from another vendor which doesn’t have the apex integration to a Neptune module with integration. The Neptune module is always high quality comparable and usually only slightly more expensive, but the integration is the winner. Aside from the DOS pumps, I perceive everything Neptune is high quality and well worth the slightly higher expense for the integration and error reporting.

 

[Mical]

All of the above replies are excellent & valid. I was on the fence also then made the jump on Black Friday and personally it has saved my butt on numerous occasions.

I run 2 tanks off one controller. It handles return pumps, skimmers, lights, powerheads, heaters and monitors temps & Ph. I can monitor my tanks health at a glance on any of my computers, phone or Ipads. On one occasion I was out of town and had a skimmer warning and was able to shut skimmer down from 1200 miles away. To me, it's worth every penny.

 

[Joedubyk]

I personally have yet to find a need for one.

Except when your tank crashes because of a faulty heater and you don't find out until it's too late. OR you accidentaly fill your ATO with saltwater and you don't find out until everything is dead.

Main reason why people give up on the hobby is normally a crash that could've been preventable. It sucks having a year or more worth of work and thousands of dollars go up in smoke because of a mistake or equipment failure.

For 800 bucks, you get a great insurance policy. That said, if you just have a few fish and a nem, I can see why it's not justified. Some folks have THOUSANDS and countless hours invested , so it makes much more sense.

 

[Hemmdog]

Except when your tank crashes because of a faulty heater and you don't find out until it's too late. OR you accidentaly fill your ATO with saltwater and you don't find out until everything is dead.

Main reason why people give up on the hobby is normally a crash that could've been preventable. It sucks having a year or more worth of work and thousands of dollars go up in smoke because of a mistake or equipment failure.

For 800 bucks, you get a great insurance policy. That said, if you just have a few fish and a nem, I can see why it's not justified. Some folks have THOUSANDS and countless hours invested , so it makes much more sense.

I have well over 10k into my systems and probably 5000 hours of time spent on them. I use stand alone systems like Ranco for temperature control. Industrial grade that will outlive any apex. I test salinity every few days with a refractometer, it takes 3 seconds. I have Wyze cameras on my tank and on my sump, I have a controllable powerbar made for servers that I can control from my phone anywhere in the world and write programs for with a lot more flexibility than Neptune systems gives. I don’t see what the draw to Neptune specifically is. My powerbar, WiFi cameras, temp controller, etc., all together cost me less than $200.

 

[TheOne]

If you have time to check everything everyday then you could get by without it. If you are out of town 2-3 weeks at a time then I would highly recommend the entire Neptune Ecosystem. Ran my tank for the majority of last year while being away from home.

 

[Bigbadfishy]

It’s already been said but it’s depends on what’s in your tank. I have a apex on my tank and I like having it but if your trying to be cheep you have a lot of different options that would be cheaper.

 

[robbyg]

If you have time to check everything everyday then you could get by without it. If you are out of town 2-3 weeks at a time then I would highly recommend the entire Neptune Ecosystem. Ran my tank for the majority of last year while being away from home.

Yep my Aquatronica ran my tank for two years after it had crashed due to a Cleaning lady using pesticides next to it. After that I had zero interest in the Tank as 80% of the life in it had died. If it was not for the controller the tank would have died completely and would have been drained and scrapped. The controller kept everything running. Sometimes a month would pass between me even taking a look at any of the equipment readings. Most weeks I would just drop some pellets in for the remaining fish and that was it.


I would say that controllers are not for people who are new to the hobby. They can seriously hobble your learning experience. I think every reefer needs to be hands on for a few years so that they know exactly how to manage their tank manually.

 

[mike550]

Thank you all for your replies! I really like the idea that it can monitor and provide me way more data than I’m used to. So I can learn more about my tank but also trigger alarms if I’m out of town, etc. I also don‘t want to use this as a crutch and will continue to do my own testing etc. The programming aspect seems like it could be fun too.

I think this becomes a ”nice to have” but not a “must have” for me right now. I was lured in by the sale price.

 

[SicZ06]

I was surprised to read the Apex BRS reviews...more 1 star comments then I would have expected.

 

[Reefman71]

Except when your tank crashes because of a faulty heater and you don't find out until it's too late. OR you accidentaly fill your ATO with saltwater and you don't find out until everything is dead.

Main reason why people give up on the hobby is normally a crash that could've been preventable. It sucks having a year or more worth of work and thousands of dollars go up in smoke because of a mistake or equipment failure.

For 800 bucks, you get a great insurance policy. That said, if you just have a few fish and a nem, I can see why it's not justified. Some folks have THOUSANDS and countless hours invested , so it makes much more sense.

Fill your ATO with saltwater? I’ve never heard of someone doing that? I’m in the middle still on getting one

 

[Reefman71]

I like what it does it’s just so expensive. I’m on the fence. $800 to tell me a heater broke or my salinity is off is steep. I dip the $60 Hannah tester in and get temp and salinity

 

[Blitheran]

Yes!! You can easily buy the older models for cheap and have a fully functional controller