I HATE VACATIONS!!

[wsoldier]

I hear so many stories of APEX failures I don’t really see the point of them given the price.

The best controller is a human. I have multiple people trained in the house on what to do, get cameras, hire an LFS if one is available, and get reefing buddies or Reef clubs to check on your tank everyday.

20-50 a day to check is nothing comparable to what many of ya’ll spent on corals [emoji848]

What type of failures? Is it just your experience or chatting with other reefers?

 

[gcrawford]

Vacations are necessary and they should be stress free! I use an Apex (old version) hard wired to network so no reboot issues in case of a power outage along with Amcrest cameras and I can see and control most items with my cell phone or ipad and of course get notifications if something goes south. My personal rule is to complete pump maintenance two weeks ahead of time, clean ATO sensor, fill ATO container and watch the system hands off for a week before leaving. Once I put a spare return pump in the sump with a temporary hose to the display just in case that could be turned on with an unused apex power port on an eb-8. Didn't have to use it though. Apex controls my lighting, heating (with backup on a seperate EB8), hood fans, Vortechs, skimmer and cal reactor. Only my chiller is not wired to or have anything to do with the controller. It runs on a seperate small pump and has its own thermostat and will kick in in case a heater somehow gets stuck "ON" or if the house air conditioning fails. Also have a sump cam.....too cool.....

 

[jtl]

Vacations are necessary and they should be stress free! I use an Apex (old version) hard wired to network so no reboot issues in case of a power outage along with Amcrest cameras and I can see and control most items with my cell phone or ipad and of course get notifications if something goes south. My personal rule is to complete pump maintenance two weeks ahead of time, clean ATO sensor, fill ATO container and watch the system hands off for a week before leaving. Once I put a spare return pump in the sump with a temporary hose to the display just in case that could be turned on with an unused apex power port on an eb-8. Didn't have to use it though. Apex controls my lighting, heating (with backup on a seperate EB8), hood fans, Vortechs, skimmer and cal reactor. Only my chiller is not wired to or have anything to do with the controller. It runs on a seperate small pump and has its own thermostat and will kick in in case a heater somehow gets stuck "ON" or if the house air conditioning fails. Also have a sump cam.....too cool.....

My biggest fear is a power outage. When Irma hit us last year we were without power for 7 days. I had everything under generator power EXCEPT the A/C . Lots of frozen water bottles were used and refrozen, but everything survived. If we had been out of town it would have been a disaster of epic proportions.

 

[gcrawford]

And that's the one thing that would certainly cause disaster in my system. I've pondered whole house generator, but am waiting until I pay off the student loans and credit cards first.

 

[jtl]

And that's the one thing that would certainly cause disaster in my system. I've pondered whole house generator, but am waiting until I pay off the student loans and credit cards first.

I would like one but one thing leads to another. Unless I want to run it on gasoline I would need to get a propane tank installed. $$$$

 

[rkpetersen]

That is my single biggest complaint about the Apex ! When my power goes out I have to physically reboot it or it says I am offline. Not easy to do thousands of miles away.

1. You might consider getting a UPS. Whole house generator if you travel a lot and get frequent prolonged power failures at your home.
2. Are you connected to the network via WiFi, with DHCP on? This can cause the problem you describe, with some routers. Changing your Apex to a static IP address might fix this.

 

[rkpetersen]

I would like one but one thing leads to another. Unless I want to run it on gasoline I would need to get a propane tank installed. $$$$

It just occurred to me that some people, particularly in the southern US, don't have access to natural gas.

 

[Randyp79]

Check with your power companies too. In Florida FPL (Florida Power & Light) has a texting service that will notify you via text if your home loses power.

 

[Kalibur2]

Just came back from weeks vacation and had stn and rtn. Tested parameters and all good. Confused on what happen. Another sps stning this morning.