I've been playing with controllers for decades, and built my own using home alarm systems 20+ years ago. For the past 5 years I've been an extreme Apex User and gotten lots of people up and running with Apex. If you take the time you can get the Apex to do just about anything you want. The problem is .when you have it do everything, you end up risking everything.
Since Terrence was good enough to show off a bunch of fancy Orange cars to justify their company color scheme, I will use an auto as an example. 1000's of Ford Mustangs drive off the lot every day. Now let's be honest, they all aren't bright orange. But the fact is behind every Ford Dealership is a Ford Service center. But for most people they get in their cars, they put in their gas and they drive happily around. And the Apex is pretty good at letting the average Joe pop open a box and start controlling and monitoring their aquarium.
But then you have the people that soup up the stereo, slam the suspension, put on the bigger tires, and throw on the turbos. If you are one of those people that has built a custom car, or owned a custom car, or has a friend that owns a custom car. You know that every time you drive it, there is something that you need to go home and work on. And if you are like me and have owned boats you know this example well.
When you start having the Apex do everything it is capable of doing the reliability factor (in my extensive experience) becomes an issue. The people that have 'fully loaded' Apex units overlook this because they love their tinkering and all their custom features. And at that point have spent so much time rebooting it and reflashing it that it less than 100% functional and/or reliable becomes the 'norm'.
And while the cloud 'functionability' and 'accessibility' is really cool - When the cloud service does an update and unbeknownst to you your heater outlet instead of being switched on/off based on your aquarium temp.... turns into an oscillating pump outlet - Guess how you discover this?
Or perhaps you set your Alkalinity to dose 15ml, and the cloud tells you it's 15ml and then you discover its actually putting in 750ml.
With any controller regardless of manufacturer, or 70's color scheme - be wary of what you let them control. All of them are just another component (built by the cheapest bidding circuit manufacturer) we add to our aquarium - and components fail ( and around salt water - much more often). I don't let controllers turn main pumps on. I will use a relay or contactor to shut the pump off. But in the event my controller 'hiccups' my water keeps circulating.
And someone is going to say -- Well my power bars are smart and I can set them to revert to an on or off state. Well that's a great feature when things are working normally. But when the skimmer mate hits the fan --- there is never a guarantee that this will work.
If you have a controller now, run this scenario.... Santa Claus comes down your chimney while you're sleeping. Santa sees your sexy Aquarium controller. Santa says I want that for Missus Clauses 120g SPS tank and grabs your controller, runs up the chimney, yells at Rudolph and away your controller goes. The following morning when you stroll downstairs, whats the status of your tank without it's all mighty controller?
Make sure that when Santa steals your controller, that your aquarium will be able to survive without it. You don't have to buy duplicates of every piece of equipment. But you should make sure that the basics - Flow and Temp - are configured to maintain your livestock - if Santa should nab your controller.
And the other thing I recommend to everyone that has a controller is, where is your spare? The brains of the controllers is pretty inexpensive compared to the entire 'controller' system. And I guarantee if you have a full controller on your aquarium, the cost of a spare brain is way less than the value of the corals on just the first 5" on the left side of your tank. Amazing customer support and tech support (no matter where it is in the world) can't fix what is broke on your tank.
All those cool outlets telling you the watts your consuming, those probes telling you your stats, those laborious lighting schedules you wrote to simulate the dusk /dawn lighting on that little island where you first met your supermodel 'second' wife in the South Pacific -- All that is useless. Think about all those things your controller is monitoring and controlling on your tank at this very minute. It's Friday night. On Saturday morning when you wake up and discover Santa jacked your controller. What's your tank going to do till Marine Depot can drop a new controller at your door step on Tues or Weds? Buy a spare brain!!!! These are little computers running our tanks - have backups just like you have for your computer. Keep your programming backed up (on the cloud perhaps) and keep your brain updated if you make major changes to your configuration.
Dave B
