Seneye Reef w/Par VS Neptune Apex Par meter

Royal_Reef · Jun 1, 2017

Hello fellow Reefers,

I wanted to see what the rest of you thought of these two great products. I currently have a Apex 2016 model for my system. I have some room in the budget for one of these Par readers. I love how easy my Apex has made things for me. Just looking improve my system.

I just wanted to get some feedback from those who might own them. I'm currently running 1 Radion x30 G4 Pro on my Innovative Marine 40 G Fusion. I would love to know what kind of numbers I'm working with on my coral placements.

I know the Seneye would be just another monitor but I actually like the extra benefits it offers. Aside from the Par, Lux and Kelvin meters along with the ammonia, pH and temp the last two would be for redundancy but still worth for $200.

On the other hand the Neptune Par meter can easily connect to my Apex and provide me with continuous readings while in the aquarium. I know it would be just be reading the Par in the one spot. I just like having my system all in one I've been going aquarium tech crazy so I wanted to go all out. I don't mind the $300 for the module if it works together with my Apex.

I would still like to hearing from the community on this topic. I look forward to hearing your pros and cons on these products.

brett_schn · Jun 1, 2017

I mean I would go with the seneye because it's multifunctional and cheaper.

Royal_Reef · Jun 1, 2017

I know The pros out weighs the cons. I don't have any hands on experience with either one. having an extra monitoring system isn't all bad but I would mostly like want to have the wifi feature and that's an extra $250.

I know I don't have to get it I could just connect it to my MacBook and monitor it at home but then again I could just pull out my test kits and check on them manually.

Having the apex has changed my way of Reefing so now I expect these to just work so not having a wifi option on the base unit sucks.

Pongo · Jun 1, 2017

I have the Neptune PMK.

It's very easy to set up and use.
It will give you a graph of PAR over the course of a day.
I use that graph to look at when my PAR reaches a certain level as the lights ramp up and down on the two ends of the light schedule to measure how many hours of useable PAR the tank is getting on say the sand bed vs the very highest rock.
Also to get the peak intensity dialed in.
I've got a very long ramp up in the mornings with a steeper ramp down in the evenings so this helps me make sure I'm feeding the tank the right amount of light while satisfying my own need to stare at it for countless hours.

I think one advantage of the Seneye is that you can move it to any tank and with a laptop you can get readings quickly.
Your reefing friends will appreciate this.

My only complaint about it is that it does not support Mac, my house is a no Windoze zone.

Liquid360 · Jun 1, 2017

"At present we do not produce a Mac version of the seneye connect application so you cannot connect your seneye device to your Mac and upload data to seneye.me. This is the only aspect of seneye that is not Mac compatible.

If you own a Mac and want to use a seneye device then we suggest the use of a seneye web server (SWS). This performs the task of uploading data to the seneye servers from your device. The SWS has a build in web page interface that can be used to view data locally and adjust the setting on the seneye device. This interface is fully Mac compatible, as to is the seneye.me dashboard."

Broadfield · Jun 1, 2017

I'm also a hater of Windows, but I simply run Windows on all of my Macs for instances like this. For my job, not a single tuning software or flashing software is made for Mac... so it's a must for me to run Windows on my Mac anyway. The Seneye is also more accurate if it wasn't mentioned earlier.

Royal_Reef · Jun 13, 2017

Pongo said:
I have the Neptune PMK.

It's very easy to set up and use.
It will give you a graph of PAR over the course of a day.
I use that graph to look at when my PAR reaches a certain level as the lights ramp up and down on the two ends of the light schedule to measure how many hours of useable PAR the tank is getting on say the sand bed vs the very highest rock.
Also to get the peak intensity dialed in.
I've got a very long ramp up in the mornings with a steeper ramp down in the evenings so this helps me make sure I'm feeding the tank the right amount of light while satisfying my own need to stare at it for countless hours.

I think one advantage of the Seneye is that you can move it to any tank and with a laptop you can get readings quickly.
Your reefing friends will appreciate this.
My only complaint about it is that it does not support Mac, my house is a no Windoze zone.

Thanks for the input. This is what I've been looking for hands on experience with the PMK. And I respect the no windows rule not in my house lol [emoji1364]

Royal_Reef · Jun 13, 2017

Broadfield said:
I'm also a hater of Windows, but I simply run Windows on all of my Macs for instances like this. For my job, not a single tuning software or flashing software is made for Mac... so it's a must for me to run Windows on my Mac anyway. The Seneye is also more accurate if it wasn't mentioned earlier.

I would love to know how you pulled that off ?

Royal_Reef · Jun 13, 2017

Liquid360 said:
"At present we do not produce a Mac version of the seneye connect application so you cannot connect your seneye device to your Mac and upload data to seneye.me. This is the only aspect of seneye that is not Mac compatible.

If you own a Mac and want to use a seneye device then we suggest the use of a seneye web server (SWS). This performs the task of uploading data to the seneye servers from your device. The SWS has a build in web page interface that can be used to view data locally and adjust the setting on the seneye device. This interface is fully Mac compatible, as to is the seneye.me dashboard."

I've seen so many videos on the seneye from so many reparable sites and youtubers I know the seneye offers so much more and after watching BRSTV they compared it with the LI-Cor and the readings were almost 100 % match so I'm convinced that it's a great investment. I might just get both and post a video comparing the benefits of each product. Question what kind of cables would it come with to connect the Seneye is it just USB? Could it be connected to a Amazon tablet ? I bought one for my Apex to monitor my dashboard would that work?

Royal_Reef · Jun 13, 2017

Ryan at BulkReefSupply have been making awesome videos of product reviews and so many other videos. I thought this one highlights the value of the Seneye. I'm hoping maybe they can make a video about the Par monitor from Neptune systems

Robert over at Marine Depot also makes great review videos also show casing products check out the video below

I've seen so many Videos on the seneye but I can't find much on the PMK aside from Terence over at Neptune who posted this awhile ago

Broadfield · Jun 13, 2017

Royal_Reef said:
I would love to know how you pulled that off ?

Are you referring to running Windows on a Mac?

brett_schn · Jun 13, 2017

Broadfield said:
Are you referring to running Windows on a Mac?

I think so. All you need to know how to do is put a usb stick in and push some buttons and type in ur password lol. Boot camp makes is incredibly simple

Royal_Reef · Jun 14, 2017

Broadfield said:
Are you referring to running Windows on a Mac?

Yes I'm not a Mac wiz kid I'm still learning but I didn't even know this was an option on a MacBook. Sorry if I wasn't clear before.

Broadfield · Jun 14, 2017

Royal_Reef said:
Yes I'm not a Mac wiz kid I'm still learning but I didn't even know this was an option on a MacBook. Sorry if I wasn't clear before.

Yeah, all Macs have boot camp built in, which allows you to partition the hard drive and run Windows!

Simply click on: Finder > Applications > Utilities > Boot Camp Assistant

You can then follow the instructions to install Windows. You will just need a copy of Windows, USB flash drive and a CD drive for the Windows disc. You can do it without the use of a CD drive, but it's a lot easier with one.

Royal_Reef · Jun 14, 2017

Cool I'll try this tonight I got a disc drive so that should be quick and easy thanks for the information.

Royal_Reef · Sep 15, 2017

It's been 2 months since I got the PAR meter from Apex and it's been a huge help. The additional temp probe is great for my ATO reservoir. I recommend people to do there research and make sure they understand the PAR has its limits but it's suits me for my needs.