For SPS tank, Apex...worth it?

[Leslie88]

Ok, I’ve never much been a fan on technology. My gadgets relied, means more problems. However, I’m coming around on the idea of a controller. Especially with the auto water testers coming out like Trident.

For an SPS dominant show tank, is the Apex worth it? Thoughts, pros/cons from people using them.

Thanks!

 

[Reeferdood]

Worth it, debatable by many. I say if it is in your budget then yes and if you travel a lot than absolutely. I have one and don't regret shelling out the bucks not for a second.
Is it necessary, absolutely not. Just depends on how addicted you are to your tank and smartphone....

 

[bar|none]

I would say absolutely yes. I just got back from 10 days on vacation, the APEX alerted me that my reef lights were off. I reset then remotely and problem solved. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Auto dosing, monitoring critical params, equipment failing or starting to fail, feeding programs, etc etc. I'm only at 4 month month mark but I can't imagine not having it. If you are a person that never goes on vacation, it might be different. But even without vacations, it controls the heart of the system and these systems are complex now.

If you are afraid of technology then trying to frankenstein something is much more difficult then just getting what does the job.

 

[TX_Punisher]

Nice to know what’s going on throughout your day whether at home, the office, or on vacation.now that I have the trident it’s even nicer.

Critical components like flow aren’t on my eb832.

 

[SneakyTortuga]

It’s one of those items that you don’t know or think you need till you get one. Then you’ll never do another reef tank without one.

Now If it’s a apex, GHL, or other brand is all personal preference.

I personally think it’s worth the investment if you plan on investing your time and money into sps.

Good luck

 

[Leslie88]

I tried the GHL Dosers, and sold them! Way too complicated to even set up.

 

[Reeferdood]

I tried the GHL Dosers, and sold them! Way too complicated to even set up.

In that case, you will love programming the APEX...

 

[Reeferdood]

All joking aside, there are several brainiacs here that will be more than happy to walk you through it...

 

[Journeyman]

I like my apex. It acts as my ato, timer for my lights, control for my pumps and I have it running a dos. I like that I can control most things on one platform. I can manage my lights and timers really easily from fusion and turn my pumps on and off quickly if needed. I have my skimmer set to turn off when I feed.

I don't automate my testing. My dosing is rather simple. I do Kalk in my ato and I dose amino acids. I use the second head of my dos as an auto frozen food feeder. While I can use any doser for that, the main advantage of having it apex connected is that my skimmer can auto turn off when the feeder turns on. Also, I like that it can backflush the food out of the tube.

I really like the fusion display, which I keep up on a tablet mounted next to my tank. It gives me info about my tank at a glance and it's quick and easy to control.

 

[Journeyman]

In that case, you will love programming the APEX...

dosing with the apex is really easy to set up. You put in the time range you want to dose and how much and it automatically spreads out the dosing through your time range.

 

[James77]

I tried the GHL Dosers, and sold them! Way too complicated to even set up.

There is a learning curve on both the GHL Dosers and Apex. The Apex is a little more "plug and play" with some basic functions like heating and lighting. But some of the more detailed functions can be quite confusing.

But as said above, there are plenty of people more than willing to help. The GHL dosers are actually fairly easy once you get them. It took me a good chunk of time to understand the programming but I can do it quite easily now. All of GHLs equipment gives you such huge amounts of customization that it can be overwhelming.

 

[Reeferdood]

dosing with the apex is really easy to set up. You put in the time range you want to dose and how much and it automatically spreads out the dosing through your time range.

DOS is a breeze, have you tried writing programs to really get tricky? They can be a challenge to say the least.

 

[Journeyman]

DOS is a breeze, have you tried writing programs to really get tricky? They can be a challenge to say the least.

Honestly, I keep my apex setup fairly simple. My most complicated dosing program is the frozen food which I used the advanced interface to program, but just have it going backwards 10s, forward 120s, backwards 80s. So it's all pretty simple.

Anyway, I thought this thread was to give the op the pros and cons of the apex. I find most of my pros are mostly on the plug and play side.

I'm not planning on entering an apex programming contest. I would lose that and I'm sure something disastrous would happen with my tank. But I stay within my limitations, which I think is key to having a good experience with the apex.

 

[Reeferdood]

No contest bud, its all good my friend..

 

[jda]

I used one. It broke. Never replaced it. Never missed it. Most of the "problems" that it caught are ones that it caused - temp issue for lights not turning off, etc.

If you use it for monitoring only and less to control things, then that is a better use, IMO. Probes are unreliable, but you cannot expect anything more for the money - a true lab grade temp or pH probe is many hundreds of dollars.

For me, they just are expensive timers and can monitor things that I do not care about anyway (pH or ORP) or that I would use a more reliable instrument on (Ranco for temp).

I have used CaRx for decades, so I don't need it to dose... and I do not believe in controlling a CaRx with a pH probe and solenoid.

All in all, they are just one more diaper to change for me.

 

[slyfox29]

Ok, I’ve never much been a fan on technology. My gadgets relied, means more problems. However, I’m coming around on the idea of a controller. Especially with the auto water testers coming out like Trident.

For an SPS dominant show tank, is the Apex worth it? Thoughts, pros/cons from people using them.

Thanks!

I have the 2016 and the older classic and all I can say is they are amazing. After you start using the controller, you’ll wonder how you got along without it before! I find myself having the dashboard up on my computer at work to randomly check or even the phone app.

You also mentioned the Trident which also intrigued me. Hopefully they will be available again in the near future! Very excited to bring that home and save my time even more.

If you can afford it, I say go for it. I haven’t looked back and would not consider starting up again without a good controller.

 

[SeaDweller]

My apex bricked sometime ago, I bothered myself fixing it and Neptune couldn’t answer why it bricked, so it now sits in a box, and I don’t need it anymore after spending $100 to fix it. Ymmv, but I Prefer not to rely on them.

 

[Jettareefer223]

I have one never check it, but I do have it controlling the heater it keeps my temp stable at 77.2-77.5 year round I also have a another thermal controller as a failsafe. I have the apex control my lighting if the temp exceeds 79 it will turn off my ATI Sunpower/led bar. I got it at dealer cost I guess it’s worth it. For what I utilize the apex for a dual phase aqua logic or ranco thermal controller would basically cost a small fraction and would do the same thing. I manually unplug equipment from the plug bar going through the handheld remote takes to long lol. It’s a cool concept I just like to keep things simple, and unless I win a apex in a raffle or something I probably won’t use one again.

 

[Jon Fishman]

What I have found, in my short time in this hobby, is that once you add this fish, then these pieces of coral, and this grows, and that starts taking off, and you upgrade this part to get better results, then you add this and tweak that.....

Before you know it, you realize you have so much invested in it, you barely bat an eye at dropping another grand on a gadget......


I say “yes”. If you have a lot to lose in your tank, get it.

If you like the “tinkering” aspect of the hobby, get it.

If you like the hands-on testing, I wouldn’t get the trident

If you have mostly automated stuff like ATO and programmable lights, and Auto water changes etc. You can probably do without it....