How are you liking your APEX?
It is my first controller. I ran my FOWLR and reef tank for 8-10 years without one. Then I was looking at getting a new heater with a controller (Inkbird or similar) and ended up with an Apex EL.
I think the main difference between the full blown Apex and the Apex EL is that the Apex EL has probes to monitor temperature and pH and the full blown Apex has those but also adds an ORP probe and a salinity probe. At first I was hesitant to plunk down $800 for something I didn't know how much value I would get from, and I read online that the salinity probes were troublesome and hard to get and keep calibrated. Because of this, I decided for the EL figuring that I could add the ORP probe later (after I figured out what ORP meant).
So, I got the ApexEL and started setting it up. At first I wasn't really that impressed. I'm in the tech industry myself, so I'm used to Apple products and nice user interfaces and well documented products. I don't think the Apex EL is quite there yet, but in hindsight I guess I wouldn't expect it to be. It's such a niche product.
Anyways, the setup and use of the basic features is pretty straightforward. Here are the main benefits IMO:
- Constant temperature and PH monitoring - You can look at nice charts, see the ph swing cycle throughout the day.
- Alarms based on the above (and more) - For example: email me if ph goes above a certain number, or beep if the temperature is below a certain number, or beep and text me if the temperature passes a certain threshold.
- Take actions based upon the above: For example: turn a heater on or off if the temperature crosses a certain threshold, turn a fan on or off if the temperature crosses a certain threshold.
- Remote control of all of the outlets - this is nicer than it sounds at first. But if my wife calls me and tells me one of the powerbeads had its safety guard knocked off, I can just pull out my iPhone at the bar and swipe to turn it off. Similarly for tank maintenance, if you ever want to turn a single component off, just pull out your phone where you've got everything nicely labelled and turn it off. You can also set up feed and maintenance modes which turn several pieces of equipment off or on in unison.
- Power usage alarms are pretty nice. After running for a while, each outlet learns a baseline of how much current it is drawing. If you want to, you can set alarms based on these baselines. Sometimes this can indicate that a component has failed, is about to fail, or needs to be cleaned. The alarm basically says something is unusual with a specific component and you can then take a look.
I think that the above is most of what I'll be using my Apex EL for (unless I decide to hook up my reef octopus). There is a lot more you can do with them, but a lot of it requires additional purchases and nothing in the Apex family is cheap!! Add-ons include ATO, leak detection kits, the Neptune Triton for automated testing, and the DoS system for automated dosing.
To summarize, I'm definitely more on the frugal end of the reefing community, but now that I've had the ApexEL for a while I don't think I'd run a reef without having one or a similar product. Just the basic features above make things so much easier, more enjoyable, and catch a lot of things you may not notice (like unexpected temperature or ph swings).
