(*&$(&*APEX!!!!

So, yesterday I did a bunch of work on my tank.  I turned the metal halides off manually through the web browser so I wouldn't get fried while I was working.
Now, the apex will not turn the MH on again.  No programming is changed, its set to auto....it just won't do what it did yesterday.
This thing is a *()&%*()&% piece of junk.

 

It gets better! I turns out that all 8 outlets on my dc8 were stuck on! Pumps, heaters, the whole works. I unplugged it, and plugged it back in......and all 8 outlets are now dead.

I'm watching my tank die because of the incredibly low quality of this piece of ****.

I strongly advise other members not to get one. It is buggy, cheaply constructed and utterly unreliable.

 

While true JB, there are plenty of other folks on the reef central neptune board that are having the same problems I am. You should see the guy that got one with everything cross threaded.

There are just too many reliable sources saying the thing doesn't work reliably. Yeah, yours might....


......but I'm on my soapbox to say mine does *not*.

The switch break out module had pieces floating around in its box (new). The clips on it are so weak they can not hold wire. All the switch ports need to go to one common ground.......and that clip will hold *one* wire.

The manual is worthless. If you try to set it up without the unofficial users guide, you will not be successful.

And 'come on! A whole strip stuck on? I'm not even the only member of our club to have that happen! Read through Reef Central....this thing should not have gone to market yet.

 

Oh, and as far as tank life is going, I plugged enough stuff into a spare power strip that they *should* do OK. Circulation is way down; the Apex controls my tunzes, and the main pumps....ordinarily alternating them, so I'm going to switch plugs every 6 hours. Skimmer, Ca reactor, shrimp reactor...all down. The apex controlled my heaters, which don't have a dial to set on them....they were intended to work with a controller. I'm watching the temp and plugging one in every so often.

Man, am I glad I was home. Temp was passing 80 (it should have been 75.6), but I'm crossing my fingers.

Oh yeah. The logs say that everything got switched on.....at midnight last night. The Apex said it was still running the outlets, but right at midnight the apex turned all 8 outlets on, and left them that way, but continued to report them as operating normally. That's just something that isn't acceptable.

 

Heh, sorry about that fmsill /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif.

But yeah, in between rants I'm digging out timers. Some of my stuff will just be a lump until I can get this fixed, and right smack after I added a whole bunch of cool corals too >.

 

I'm working with Curt now...thankfully I set up the internet bit of it and knew how to forward the ports he wanted open. News as it develops.

The way I found it was during my daily tank tasks. I was cleaning the stand when I noticed the sump light was on. Then I realized my MH were off; and they should have been on. I figured that I had forgotten to turn it back to auto after I cleaned the tank the other day. Then I noticed both returns were on at the same time....they usually alternate. While I was checking those, I realized a huge wave of humidity coming out of the sump....it doesn't usually. When I got to the controller page tho....it said the sump light was off, only one return pump was running. So I double checked, and realized every outlet on the dc8 was on, regardless of what the apex said.

I hadn't set up a temperature alarm, because I figured the two 75 watt heaters I had on a 300 gallon tank wouldn't be able to overheat it. I forgot that 1" 1/2 acrylic is one hell of an insulator. I did set the MH to turn off if the temp got up there; they were plugged into an EB8 on the wall and were actually doing what I told them to. (not that it will tell you *why* it turned the outlet off, you only get to know that it did).

I *do* have alarms set up for the ph, low sump, high sump, and a few others....but the dc8's can't tell you amperage...an alarm on which I have finished programming for my other eb8's. Now, if one starts to draw more amperage than usual, I'll get an alarm. However.....how do you plan for all stuck on? I can see planning for failure of one entire strip, but all stuck on? You are getting into some serious paranoia if you programmed that possibility /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/wink.gif.

And yeah, I wanted it to do some weird things programatically...but it was 500 bucks! The thing I wanted it to do that it could not was *divide by 2*. Seriously? Programing but basic math isn't include in its instruction set?

And then theres the manual, and the broken switch clips, and the etc etc etc. This isn't isolated to just one incident.

And take another look at the reef central forum. It *does* have hundreds of people saying theres isn't working as its supposed to be, or something broke, or it came broken in the box....It gets about 40 posts a day.

I'm not trying to say your faith in the Apex isn't justified in your experience...but when one guys likes it out of every ten that have one, I feel pretty good about warning people away from it.


Oh yeah: take from my tale this moral: check your tank daily! I could see things wrong and different because I do those maintenance tasks daily. If I had been a normal person at work today, I would have come home to a bunch of floating fish and dead coral. I got lucky.

And, I fear I don't have a choice to switch out controllers. I would need to replace 4 eb8's worth of outlets, and I paid for this one out of a lump of cash I got. I can't drop another grand or so replacing it.....but the idea of ripping it out and just doing everything on individual timers is starting to look like a better choice than having a controller that can do this. The point of having one of these gizmos is that it automates boring tasks and helps prevent surprises in your tank. I am saying flat out that the Apex *causes* those surprises rather than alerting me to them. As such, it is not capable of preforming the task it was designed to do.

OMG. How much of a fish nerd am I? I am having a flame war with the president of the club over a controller. Maybe I should get out more......but then I wouldn't have noticed the problem with my tank.

I guess I'll just have to be happy knowing AJ is wrong /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/wink.gif. (and btw, that orange digi frag you gave me fluoresces pink under actinic....thanks! /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif )

The great controller war of 2011 has begun. 'Putcher head down youngster and put your asbestos underpants on; yer gonna get schooled. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/wink.gif Anybody using a controller they *like* want to chime in? Other than AJ, any apex users who thought it was a breeze to set up and never had a problem with it?

It's a discussion board, let's discuss /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif.