Thinking about a controller pt 2

OK, I had a thread up a while back thinking about a controller, but I decided to get wavemaker pumps first. Found some and have them on the tank now, so the next purchase will be the controller. I'm still trying to figure out whch controller best fits my needs. Help me out a little?


Here's what I have on my tank so far:


What I want to control/monitor:

Algae Scrubber lights
heaters
return pump
skimmer
Temp
pH


Other stuff on the tank:
3 AI Sols with controller
Coralife 5800 Wavemaker that has it's own controller
Eshopps gravity fed ATO


Potential add-ons to tank:


?


Ideally I'd like to hook the wavemakers up too, but I don't think that's possible since the have their own brain and settings with no way to tap in. It's not important to me to control the lights since I have the AI controller and it's doing fine. What am I missing? What else might I add to my tank later on that I'm not thinking of now?


Here's what I'm considering so far:


Apex Jr. w/out the display.

By far the cheapest option at $150. I like that it offers web, but I think I could live without it. This would control the basic minimum of stuff I have now.


Apex

This, of course, is the gold standard, but at $500 a big expense for some additional functionality I might never use. I don't think I'll be running more than this one tank anytime soon. It has web and email/text alerts and that's attractive, but seeing how so much on the tank is already controlled otherwise, is it overkill?


Reef Angel

At $219, this is the real wild card. It offers a ton of functionality straight out of the box. I like that I can use the float switches in my ATO and in my water change reservoir. The downside is that there's no web capability out of the box. You can get wifi with a $110 box. And there are mixed reports of how user friendly it is. But from what I've heard, the Apex isn't all that great in terms of user-friendliness either, so...


Here's what the Reef Angel can do out of the box:







What can I do?





Monitor Temperature

Monitor pH



Control Heater

Control Lights



Wavemakers

Auto Top Off






Control Chiller

Control Fans




LED Dimming

Delayed Start



Increase/Decrease Speed on Controllable Fans

Increase/Decrease Flow on Controllable Tunzes



Check Low Water Level (RO/DI container)

Check High Water Level (Display/Sump Overflow)



Control Powerheads

Control Skimmer



Control Return Pump

Control Calcium Reactors



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Control Media Reactors

Control Kalk Reactors





















Package Contents

[*]Head Unit (32K memory)
[*]Relay Box
[*]HDDB15 Communication Cable
[*]PH Probe
Waterproof Temperature Probe
2x Float Switch
2x Float Switch Connectors
USB-TTL converter cable
[/list]





So I'm stumped. I've pretty much decided against the various ReefKeepers because I've heard so many tales of woe online.


Any thoughts on any of this would be welcome. Here's a poll to offer a vote.

 

I have most of that stuff set up as you suggest now except the temp stuff which I just monitor with a cheap digital read out. I'm just not real happy with the setup and don't have a ton of confidence in it. Things get challenging when I go out of town and someone else has to watch the stuff, for one thing. And it'd be nice to have more flexibility in what I set up and how, not to mention the fact that the one thing I screw up most often is turning off my RO when I'm filling my reservoirs. It'd be great to have that controlled and monitored.


It seems like these controllers, particularly the Apex and the Reef Angel could really bee a boon to my set up and peace of mind. But maybe I'm wrong. I only know what I know now.

 

That's one thing that is kinda cool about the Reef Angel. It comes with 2 float switches.


I have to admit that I'm kind of a gadget geek too and all this stuff is kinda sexy to me. The Reef Angel seems to be the most feature rich for the least money.


I hear what you guys are saying, though.

 

Quick contextual question: Waverz and mthomp, do you guys run controllers on your systems?

 

One thing that really concerns me is that most folks who have posted on various forums about the Apex usually say something like "When I have contacted customer service..." That makes me nervous. Usually folks have had to be in touch with them multiple times. It's great that the Neptune provides quick service, but still, for $500 it seems like there shouldn't be as much contact with customer service. Most of my experience with this kind of stuff somes from the world of professional audio and if you had to contact the company about a piece of gear as much as it seems folks have to with the Apex, people would stop buying that gear. You had trouble out of the box with a piece of your system, right Kyle? How many times have you had to contact the company since you got it? With the Reef Angel, at least everything is open source and modular. Seems like it'd be easier to service. And their forum is really active, as well, so help could be minutes away.


The thing that sucks about this particular purchase. I'm with you, I do understand all the stuff the Apex can do. I've been reading and watching videos and all that for about 2 months, but really until I have something in my hands and running on my tank there's no way to know if I'm going to like it or fully understand what it can do.


That's why I'm reluctant to drop $500 on this thing and am considering the Reef Angel over it. Also, the Reef Angel offers a cable that will control the AIs for $15. Then I could sell the cruddy AI controller and the only think I wouldn't have hooked up to the controller would be my wavemakers.