Why do I need an Apex (controller)?

[slipknotgrrl83]

I just bought an apex jr for 200 bucks after I had a heater fail and almost cook my tank. It was 90 when I caught it. Now having the apex I have that failsafe and have fans turn on/ lights off if it hits certain temp. Can't afford a chiller. This is the best 200 I spent for peace of mind especially with text alerts,emails, alarms etc

 

[llutin]

I think it is worth every penny invested , in my case has become indispensable because although this away , let me know if there are problems and only with have told me that water was coming alone already paid . Still APEX has things I do not like and I think the team can do but it depends on the house programmers that makes it. I really like this equipment and could not imagine my life without this system at this hobbie .
There are several aspects for which it has become important to this equipment in my aquarium , for example for me I'm newbie in this has helped me understand the acceptable parameters , to control equipment such as reactor of calcium to me very difficult before . And especially to prevent disasters . My radion , my vortech , I control everything from the Apex and other important aspect is that I have the actual figure of how much energy the whole team.

 

[AndrewJ]

My main reason for buying an apex was due to the large majority of heaters being untrustworthy, if any of them are at all. Having the apex control the heater has brought a tighter temp stabilization to my tank. If that was the only reason though, I wouldn't have made the investment.
I like having the ability to hit a feed button and automatically shut off the return pump, media reactor, and skimmer in my sump for a preset period. Then, when that period is over, spacing the time said equipment comes back on appropriately is nice, as well changing the MP to nutrient transportation to help move out any waste and give the fish another chance at the food as well. Zero overflowing skimmer is a positive. I also agree that having warnings sent to me via text or email is nice in the event of temperature and pH irregularities that I have defined, and in the case of power outages.
I also like that so many different things can currently be controlled with the apex. Therefore I can run a tunze powerhead and an MP under the same controller, for example.
I am planning on acquiring the breakout box soon and working on some projects with it to control radions, under Cabinet lights, etc.
Additionally, dosing with the Apex is easy, and one can find a dosing calculator on line to quickly produce the needed code.
Another factor for me is that I am not the only one on the house who maintains the tank. Therefore, automating as much as possible helps to eliminate duplications that could cause issues.
I believe one can find other solutions to all of these points. I had some.of them in place previously with the use of wemos. But when I sat down and priced out the cost of a pH monitor, a temp probe, a good power outlet, timers up to the job of controlling doses or other controllable doses, etc, the Apex was the least expensive solution.
Finally, I had thought to avoid the Apex if I was happy with reef link. WhIle the programming of automated day to day events with the MPs, Central, and radions was spot in, it failed to work on demand so many times that I grew frustrated with it. I constantly had to reboot the reef link or refresh my equipment within the android app, or both. I did contact ecotech and I was told that was the nature of it, and at minimum from.time to time I would have to refresh devices within the app. I have never had to do that with the apex fusion on my android. This leads me to one disappointment in that I can't directly control the speed of the Central through the Apex, I have to continue to use the reef link on the fly. I do use the Apex to turn it off and on now, but wishe Apex and Ecotech would figure out a way to let the Vectra be Apex controllable. Honestly, it makes me want to look into the Cor when it does hit shelves. Don't get me wrong, the Vectra is a great pump, and I am extremely happy with it. I just wish I could automate it through apex.

 

[DurocShark]

The best reason ever to have an Apex:

Freaking the wife out by messing with the lights while you're at work.

 

[3Twinklets]

Steve's thread has me thinking about purchasing some type of controller. I enjoy the "techy" side of the hobby but I am also thrifty,...I really need to justify this amount.

After the initial set-up and cycle I only test Alk., Cal., Mag. regularly, I test salinity, nitrates, and Phosphates if there is a concern. I have never tested or monitored PH.

It is my understanding no controller can monitor/test any of the mentioned parameters? I don't see the benefit but I have to be missing something because they are popular and everyone that owns one loves it!

Explain why I need a controller, I really want something else to play with! [emoji16]

Well, I feel the same wY as both of you.
On one hand I thought I needed a nice controller and it is just great, sitting in the box I am more old school and do not trust controllers as much as I thought[emoji51]

 

[DMan]

Don't know how much you already have invested in your tank. I know how much mine costs. And I'm not willing to risk that investment because a pump failed or my ato failed and dumped a bunch of kalk into the tank. Or a heater sticks on and fries every thing in the tank. A controller (a good one anyways) will send me emails about all of the above and more. A controller like the apex is a lot of money. But the relief from the stress of worrying is worth it on its own. Good news though with the release of the new apex a lot of used ones should be popping up. And if you don't want a full blown controller a monitor can useful to. Like the Seneye. It can monitor temp, ph, and ammonia and send emails if they are out of whack. Plus it doubles as a Par meter. For 200 bucks that's pretty good. Downside is you have to replace the ph and ammonia tabs monthly. But still worth it for piece of mind.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

if you have the spare money to spend go for it. I don't currently have one as I am not in a position to drop over a grand at once. Yes over grand after you add a second power bar and have a second ph control for calcium reactor

 

[Marquiseo]

Well he doesn't need an "Apex" controller but a controller in general is needed. There are several controllers available that can get the job done the same as an Apex. With all the examples of needed one such as heater failure, parameter monitoring, and so on can be achieved on even the basic controllers such as the Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper which is fractional of the cost. With more controllers coming out soon, take time and choose the functions you want in a controller and proceed.

 

[Dom274]

I work in IT, and just like any other IT person, I can totally get into automation/gadgets. Despite this, I have absolutely no intention of buying a controller. Why you ask? Prepare for hot take:







HAVE YOU SEEN THE PRICES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVEN MARTIN SHKRELI IS JEALOUS OF THAT LEVEL OF PRICE GOUGING!!!!!!!!!



I apologize for that, but I really needed to get that off my chest. Seriously though, you are looking at $100 (If that, IMO I bet it's more like $50) for the actual cost of the hardware. There's nothing even close to "high tech" about it, the technology used is at least 20 years old. What about the software you say? I bet any college student off craig's list doing part time software development could take care of it. Now that we have covered hardware and software, you guessed it, on to probes. The problem with the probes is that, to it bluntly, it's completely wrong. As you go up the product line, you simply get a better probe. That's just dumb, really dumb. A slight increase in the % accuracy of a probe has saved someone's tank absolutely never. You know what can kill a tank though real quick? The inevitable probe failure (aka to engineers, MTBF, Mean Time Before Failue). Instead of getting a better probe in the higher end models, you should just get more probes for redundancy. With only one probe, you wouldn't know it went bad till it was too late. With 2 probes, you would know that one is off, but unfortunately you don't know which. Must have 3, when the controller sees the discrepancy between probes, it simply ignores the weird one and alerts you to possible probe failure.

Basically, my issue is that the cost to features/capabilities ratio makes absolutely no sense! Not to mention I think they give you a false sense of security due to the critical points of failure I can see with the setup. You only have the illusion of control, why? Given enough time, Murphy's law always wins.

Enough ranting, because credit should be given where credit is due. The temp monitoring and auto-heater shut-off appears solid. I doubt I could improve on that design. With a $700 budget though, I know I could make something with so many more features (To clarify, by features I mean utility based items. The lightning storm my LED's can do is not a feature, that's a gimmick) that it would blow the apex out of the water (Pun intended ). For example, I could integrate a webcam for live viewing relatively easy and for less than $30 using this. Just matching features though, I don't know how much cheaper I could DIY one. Tough to beat the economies of scale a company has when buying in bulk.

I can't be the only one with these thoughts... I'm sure someone else has explored this route as well, so if you have any good links, toss them my way. I would like to help the cause!

 

[Dom274]

Enough ranting, because credit should be given where credit is due. The temp monitoring and auto-heater shut-off appears solid. I doubt I could improve on that design.

I apologize, looks like I might be wrong on this. Can anyone find any reason that this would not work just as well as as the low end Reefkeeper Lite Basic for temp controlled outlet shutoff for 1/3 of the price?

 

[reefwiser]

It could work I have seen people use similar brands. I use Ranco industrial controllers for heater control.
http://www.amazon.com/RANCO-ETC-111000-Digital-Temperature-Control/dp/B0015NV5BE

 

[427HISS]

I apologize, looks like I might be wrong on this. Can anyone find any reason that this would not work just as well as as the low end Reefkeeper Lite Basic for temp controlled outlet shutoff for 1/3 of the price?

I'm trying to make up my mind on buying the Reef Keeper Lite Salinty Package, or not. It's the BRS version on their website for $259 but with their coupon it's $159. If you want the salinity probe, it's $115. BUMMER !

The Apex system is too expensive for me.

Here's the BRS link-

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reefk...ackage-digital-aquatics.html#tab-full-details

 

[427HISS]

Is their any system that warn's that the heater is not plugged in/not working or too cold ?

 

[slipknotgrrl83]

Yes apex will let you set Temps so say it gets under 75 in the tank it will alert you something is wrong

 

[slipknotgrrl83]

If it's not plugged in then no

 

[427HISS]

Does the Reef Keeper also let you know of cold temp and high ?
If so, I'll buy it today !

 

[shoelaceike]

I don't think the RK can send alerts.....just the Apex Jr. Its only $80 more.

 

[Dom274]

Does the Reef Keeper also let you know of cold temp and high ?
If so, I'll buy it today !

I guess I just don't see the value in the alerts. Knowing up to the min status doesn't do anything to fix the issue if I'm not there. If the tank getting too cold is a serious issue, I would just simply add a backup heater. If one fails, the other will maintain tank temp until the failed one can be replaced. Heaters are actually fairly cheap, so I wouldn't consider 3 total to be a bad idea either. Now, if the main, backup and the backup backup all happen to fail - you are obviously cursed and I would start with an exorcism or something haha.

 

[reeferman0767]

Is there a sub group that gets together and group buys things like these? Do you guys think that we would get a better pricepoint if 15 of us got together and placed an order?

 

[Dom274]

Is there a sub group that gets together and group buys things like these? Do you guys think that we would get a better pricepoint if 15 of us got together and placed an order?

You could DIY the alerts for $40 roughly. The "controller" part of the system is simply an SBC (Single Board Computer), running some front end software that is your menu and options. SBC's have been around for decades for things just like this - Basically, there is nothing "unique" about a manufacture's controller that you can't purchase or obtain yourself.

Rasberry pi is the go-to SBC these days - https://www.adafruit.com/products/3055

And a google search lead me to a couple other reefers who already have some software to use:
https://github.com/joshuasiler/reeftank

My google search results:
https://www.google.com/webhp?source...TF-8#q=setup+raspberry+pi+for+aquarium+alerts