So...I pulled the APEX trigger

[Madonia]

I purchased the Apex El yesterday from BRS. It comes tomorrow. I read a ‘tank crash’ story on here yesterday and that put things into perspective for me which allowed me to pull the trigger.

does anybody have any useful installation tips for tomorrow? Gonna be an exciting day.

also- what are everyone’s most favorite functions of the apex? Tomorrow is gonna be a big learning day for me and I’d like to do as much configuring work as I can tomorrow so it’s done and I have a head start towards automation city!!!!

Thanks

 

[Biglew11]

Just start slow. Add programing as you deside what you want it to do and monitor.
Important things to do first would be the heater. Return pump, and probably timer for lights. It's a great piece of equipment and could be overwhelming if you try to do too much at one time.

High recomend you read the comprehensive manual.
And the setup guides by @SuncrestReef

 

[WIReefer]

You’ll never want to run another tank without one that’s all I know. Congrats on the purchase!

 

[Smarkow]

Nothing specific, but just know that ALL conductivity probes for purposes of salinity monitoring are prone to MANY errors and you should never trust any one probe’s reading. I encourage you to “trust but verify.”

That being said it is a great product and I will never run a tank without one.

 

[Madonia]

Nothing specific, but just know that ALL conductivity probes for purposes of salinity monitoring are prone to MANY errors and you should never trust any one probe’s reading. I encourage you to “trust but verify.”

That being said it is a great product and I will never run a tank without one.

 

[Madonia]

I feel like the ph probe maybe giving higher than normal readings. I don’t have anything to compare aside from a very cheap ph probe I bought to roughly test the ph. It was reading about 8.0. My apex right now is approximately 8.4. I didn’t realize my ph was so high (which I am happy about). I do have a co2 scrubber and the window is open today. But even with the window closed it was about 8.3.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Here’s a link to my Apex programming tutorials:

Articles by SuncrestReef

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Biglew11]

I feel like the ph probe maybe giving higher than normal readings. I don’t have anything to compare aside from a very cheap ph probe I bought to roughly test the ph. It was reading about 8.0. My apex right now is approximately 8.4. I didn’t realize my ph was so high (which I am happy about). I do have a co2 scrubber and the window is open today. But even with the window closed it was about 8.3.

In my experience it took a few days for the ph probe to stabilize, At which point would be a good time to calibrate it.

 

[Ksull72487]

BRS has done a crap load of videos on apex lol. Literally in the last week! I think for the bigger tank a must. But they need to reinvent apex jr for us guys in the Nano world. Things change fast in a cheap Nano tank. So I see the use for the controller on small tanks. But it’s hard to justify spending more than the tanks worth.

I think their great investments. Hardwood floors you want to know if theirs a leak? But the Nano world needs a cheap simple solution.

 

[LegendaryCG]

Apex with accessories is good. (Dos, trident, etc). apex by itself is kinda meh in my opinion. A Kasa smart powerbar almost does the same thing. The only probe that seems to be accurate is the temperature one.