Got and APEX....Now what (1 Viewer)

[cobraden]

Got an APEX....Now what

Starting to think I made a bit of an impulse buy for no reason.

I bought an apex for myself as an early Christmas present. It's still sitting in the closet...

I have the Aqua-Life lighting system that has its own timer control. I don't turn my pumps off to feed. So, far all I can think of is to use it to read my temp, read the PH in my sump and use the other probe to run my Calcium reactor. Somehow an apex seems a bit expensive just for those functions.

What else are you guys using your APEX for.

Let me know before I end up trading this thing for another aquarium I probably don't need.

 

[Loverboy19]

I bought apex because I went to California for vacation. I've used it for read my temp and ph and switching all the pumps on and off while my tank keeper came to feed the fish...but my apex life ended when my return pump leak.

Well, if you decided to say good bye to your system, I may be interested....

 

[NarnyTheGreat]

I feel the same way, I havent even taken mine out of the box yet.

 

[BlackSS]

I use mine (reef keeper) for:
Controlling DIY leds
running dosing pumps
auto shutdown of pumps if leak detector tripped
auto shutdown of ATO and kalk reactor if ph too high or floor leak sensor tripped
Control heater with additional temp sensor for extra shutdown
various alarms, and have the capability to control ozone generator if I ever decide to run one.

mostly used as fancy timers, and insurance to prevent disaster when something fails (and it will).
I would not consider running a reef tank without one.

 

[d2mini]

Mine (profilux) does the following at the moment...

Measures ph, temp and salinity
Controls two heaters utililzing the above temp sensor and will cut the power to either if they were to fail. And send me an alarm via email.
Controls my ATO via a level sensor and will send me an email if there is a problem
Controls my daily Auto Water Changes
Controls my Vortech powerheads... more control than the vortechs even come with
Controls my main system pump, turning it off during feeding time
Controls my skimmer, turning it off during feeding time
Controls my skimmer's neck cleaner, running it several times per day

Plans for the future...
Leak detection, with alarms and system shut down
Flow meter, with alarms and system shut down

 

[NarnyTheGreat]

Mine (profilux) does the following at the moment...

Measures ph, temp and salinity
Controls two heaters utililzing the above temp sensor and will cut the power to either if they were to fail. And send me an alarm via email.
Controls my ATO via a level sensor and will send me an email if there is a problem
Controls my daily Auto Water Changes
Controls my Vortech powerheads... more control than the vortechs even come with
Controls my main system pump, turning it off during feeding time
Controls my skimmer, turning it off during feeding time
Controls my skimmer's neck cleaner, running it several times per day

Plans for the future...
Leak detection, with alarms and system shut down
Flow meter, with alarms and system shut down

You need to come to my house and help me set mine up! Holy smokes you have quite the hook up there.

 

[Diesel]

I have a APEX and this is what it does for me on the moment.........


Measures ph, temp and salinity
Controls two heaters utilizing the above temp sensor and will cut the power to either if they were to fail. And send me an alarm via email.
Controls my ATO via a level sensor and will send me an email if there is a problem
Controls my Vortech powerheads... different reef modes. And send me a email if my backup power supply come on.
Controls my main system pump, turning it off during feeding time and if something goes wrong it shuts it down.
Controls my skimmer, turning it off during feeding time
Controls my Tunze sump fan, if temps reach at 80 degrees it turns it on.
Controls my ZEOvit reactor
Controls my leak detection, and send me a email if detect a leak.
Controls my two part dosing system ALK, CAL, MAG.


Plans for the future...
Auto fragging system, WC setup, auto feeder (German design)
Skimmer neck cleaner and my wine cooler (temp control in fish room)

Thanks to Mark L for setting this all up for me.

 

[Mark L.]

Starting to think I made a bit of an impulse buy for no reason.

I bought an apex for myself as an early Christmas present. It's still sitting in the closet...

I have the Aqua-Life lighting system that has its own timer control. I don't turn my pumps off to feed. So, far all I can think of is to use it to read my temp, read the PH in my sump and use the other probe to run my Calcium reactor. Somehow an apex seems a bit expensive just for those functions.

What else are you guys using your APEX for.

Let me know before I end up trading this thing for another aquarium I probably don't need.

Instead of thinking it's expensive just to control those few items, look at it as cheap insurance knowing your tank is running fine and there's no issues with anything.....

1. have it monitor your temps - To cold, turn heaters on. Still to cold send you a warning email that heaters aren't working. To hot, shut heaters off, turn fans on. Still to hot turn lights off, still too hot send you warning email.
2. leak detection - send email if it detects a leak. Turn pumps off, reactors, etc.
3. have it monitor your pH. - Ph to low have it turn on fans to circulate air, Ph to high have it turn off your calcium reactor to stop Alk from being added.
4. have it monitor your power - Lose power send email, Lose power have it offset skimmer startup so when power is returned skimmer stays off for 1 minute to let water level in sump stabilize before skimmer starts back up to avoid skimmer overflow.

All of these things can potentially nuke your tank if you don't know its happening and you can't control the outcome. You most likely have hundreds of dollars in livestock. Keep it safe and alive with your APEX.

Wanna really get crazy with it? Look into some X10 modules and start controlling things around the house like lights, room fans, garage door open for more than an house so it closes itself, TV on after a certain hour it turns off, turn christmas lights on and off, christmas tree on and off, outdoor lighting, etc. The list is endless with an imagination.

 

[Mark L.]

Starting to think I made a bit of an impulse buy for no reason.

I bought an apex for myself as an early Christmas present. It's still sitting in the closet...

I have the Aqua-Life lighting system that has its own timer control. I don't turn my pumps off to feed. So, far all I can think of is to use it to read my temp, read the PH in my sump and use the other probe to run my Calcium reactor. Somehow an apex seems a bit expensive just for those functions.

What else are you guys using your APEX for.

Let me know before I end up trading this thing for another aquarium I probably don't need.

Instead of thinking it's expensive just to control those few items, look at it as cheap insurance knowing your tank is running fine and there's no issues with anything.....

1. have it monitor your temps - To cold, turn heaters on. Still to cold send you a warning email that heaters aren't working. To hot, shut heaters off, turn fans on. Still to hot turn lights off, still too hot send you warning email.
2. leak detection - send email if it detects a leak. Turn pumps off, reactors, etc.
3. have it monitor your pH. - Ph to low have it turn on fans to circulate air, Ph to high have it turn off your calcium reactor to stop Alk from being added.
4. have it monitor your power - Lose power send email, Lose power have it offset skimmer startup so when power is returned skimmer stays off for 1 minute to let water level in sump stabilize before skimmer starts back up to avoid skimmer overflow.

All of these things can potentially nuke your tank if you don't know its happening and you can't control the outcome. You most likely have hundreds of dollars in livestock. Keep it safe and alive with your APEX.

Wanna really get crazy with it? Look into some X10 modules and start controlling things around the house like lights, room fans, garage door open for more than an hour so it closes itself, TV on after a certain hour it turns off, turn christmas lights on and off, christmas tree on and off, outdoor lighting, etc. The list is endless with an imagination.

 

[cobraden]

Ahhhhh, better wine cooler control. Maybe not such a bad purchase after all.

 

[d2mini]

Yeah, well put Mark. It's convenience AND disaster preventative.

You need to come to my house and help me set mine up! Holy smokes you have quite the hook up there.

GHL Profilux I could help with. For Apex you'll have to talk to Mark.

 

[reefanatik]

I will deff be buying one soon. I'm tired of big timers. I have a chiller which I needed but now I would rather it just turn on if needed. (electrical cost) deff would like it to turn pumps off and send email if leak detected.... I could go on but won't.... now I have to figure out which is best for my system.

 

[reefanatik]

Does anyone know of a local store which sells the apex lite?

 

[steveb]

LOL all of them sell it. You need to call or PM them like I said in your other post to see if they have one in stock.

 

[jlord1]

I too got one for Xmas. After the inital frustration of networking.........its sweet.you need to check out this forum if you have any questions, thge guys over there are very helpful and quick to answer. http://forum.neptunesystems.com/forum.php

 

[Diesel]

I too got one for Xmas. After the inital frustration of networking.........its sweet.you need to check out this forum if you have any questions, thge guys over there are very helpful and quick to answer. http://forum.neptunesystems.com/forum.php

How did you setup your networking?

 

[emixa]

i bought one as well some time ago. i was living in a house where the temperature was not very well maintained. picture this, scicilly...sorry wrong story. as houston weather does so graciously, the temp dropped and the single heater i had could not keep up. so it alarmed my apex which sent me an email. i lived in the north side of houston and it was early. at the time i was in sugarland and had no way of getting to my house any time soon. after some brain wrecking, i realized that all i had to do is turn my halides on and it should heat up the tank, which i did and slowly watched my temp rasie back up to a safe point. enough for me to get to a store to buy another heater and have it set up.

the toughest thing was to set-up outside access using the uverse 2wire modems. after that, i am able to see and control everything when i am away from the house. its well worth it. also, there is so many things you can do with it. Super Ray and cat's Hubby (Brandon) were looking to have the apex run smoke detectors and all sorts of other things. man...so many things you can use it for.

 

[jlord1]

How did you setup your networking?

It wasnt that bad with the help of the neptune forum . a ran cat 5 cable to it from router. then you can access in house. then port forward in the router. after that i got stuck, but i started a thread at neptune with screen shots of everything and they helped me through, and they were quick to help. just have to reset admin and password as soon as youve done that. dont want someonelse coming in and jacking with it....

 

[Bigfishy]

Single best purchase I have made.
I use the Apex Controller to do a number of things.
Dose my Calcium, ALK and Magnesium
I use the PH probe to help with my ALK dosing (i.e. if PH is below 8.1 the doser runs until it gets above 8.1, if PH is above 8.1 it runs 1 minute every hour from midnight until 5 am, if PH is too high my doser does not turn on)
WXM module - use it to control my Vortech pumps -the apex allows me to have different wave mode runs at different times of the day
Control EcoTech Radions
Use for Feed mode (shuts off protein skimmer, turns off return pumps, and slow down the Vorech MPs
ATO
Control Heater and Chiller
Notifies if I have a water leak or problem with tank
Next project will be to have it run my protein skimmer neck clear
Shutoff proteing skimmer when external collection container is full.