Neptune Apex

[jetaero]

I was looking at controllers for a new location... I have a ~2 year old aquatronica system now which works really well, but I was wondering if anyone has used the Neptune Systems Apex controller yet. All input would be appreciated!

-Josh

 

[Xtremedave67]

Ive seen a couple systems with the Apex.....I plan on the Apex for my build.

 

[NC2WA]

Dave,

Why Apex and not a RKE Elite??

Does Apex offer a Salinity probe??

 

[Xtremedave67]

Well, my decision isnt in Stone yet, LOL, its what Ive been exposed to and like what I saw so far, as with anything with me, when I do start to gear up to make that purchase. Ill look into it more and weigh the pros n cons.
So that said, I am not well versed on the other contollers to make a good decision yet

 

[NWDiver]

I have the Apex. I really like it. It is easy to reach when I'm away, and the history graphs are fantastic.

 

[NC2WA]

NWDiver,

Was a RKE ever a consideration? If not, why?

 

[jetaero]

I just looked online the Apex does have a conductivity probe you can attach for salinity, although I've never had much luck with the accuracy on any salinity measurement as they need calibration fairly often.

I hadn't even looked at the RKE, does anyone have that?

 

[NWDiver]

NC2WA,
I looked hard at them both.
The Apex has an iPhone app so I can keep an eye on things.
The graph function shows trends so even I can understand
I got more for the money (at the time) the base unit had more features
Added modules were less expensive (at the time)
I was able to add another control\info head in my fishroom

The RKE had some advantages as well:
Local company (this alone ALMOST made me buy the RKE)
RKE had the salinity probes and the Apex didn't (at the time), but after a bunch of reading I found that very few people had good luck with salinity on ANY system.
I like the "look" of the RKE better.

I think both systems are very good.

-Todd

 

[NWDiver]

Jetaero,
You should do a side by side of these two systems, things have almost certainly changed since I purchased the Apex.
I have been very happy with the Apex for the last 7-8 months.

-Todd

 

[mike_dani]

My experience with RK's

I have had both the RKL and the RKE, I liked the fact that they were from a place of computing brain power. The RKL ran my 110 and work flawlessly for 7 months then I upgraded to my 300 and used the RKE. I really like it, however I have had nothing but issues with my RKE since I purchased it and had to get really crapy with one of the owners to get any resolution.

I am getting ready to switch over to the APEX as soon as I get a replacement display unit form the OEM, this week mine failed and turned on all channels. I was lucky with the fact that I have a redundant heater controller and didn't boil the tank. Where I ran into issues is with my dosing pumps, my wife and I went on vacation so new gallon jugs of 3 part were added to the tank and when it failed it dosed a gallon of ALK and Cal. My buddy came over to check on the tank and the ALK was 15 and the tank was white, I lost nothing so far and when I called the OEM they said it was a power surge. I know this is impossible because I have the whole tank on a backup Gen and Surge protection system.

In no way am I trying to keep you from buying a local product, and I think they are great. One thing you need to keep in mind is all electronics can and will fail when placed near saltwater. I have had to many issues from complete system failures to salinity probes that I have been waiting for a replacement on for 9 months to a Net module that wont work with no OEM support. I often think keeping with standard timers is the best way and if one fails its only one........

 

[NC2WA]

mike,

thanks for the reply...good information..

I have a 375g and have a pH and wireless temp Pinpoint monitors..they do the job for what i need. the only reason I would switch to RKE or Apex is for the graphing functionality (but is it worth all the money just for this one feature). This is the decision I need to make.

 

[jrgilles]

I have an apex and love it. You're welcome to come check it out.

I am going to have to add on an extra bank of outlets though, but you can add up to 3000 controllable outlets on the apex in series and it can control them.

Anyway, does a great job. Have to calibrate the pH probe every couple of months, but thats expected.

Never felt the need for a salinity probe, as my tank salinity doesn't shift. I just check the water change water with a refractometer. Maybe once or twice a year I make my water change water slightly saltier to account for water loss to the protein skimmer, feeding, etc, but never really been an issue.

The web interface is great though. Unfortunately qwest kind of sucks, so haven't got remote access working, but as soon as some other provider gets into the central district market, I'll get that set up, and it will be awesome to be able to monitor remotely, especially in the summertime.

 

[NC2WA]

able to monitor remotely

Does the RKE or any brand of RK have the ability to monitor remotely via a Web Server ?

 

[jrgilles]

as far as I know, the apex is the only one that can function as a web server

 

[NWDiver]

As Rob says, it has a built in web server, and you can reach it with any web capable device. The iPhone has an app that is nice, but any web phone\computer will work.

Rob: you should be able to host, I'm not aware that Qwest is blocking all incomming traffic. If you want to try sorting it out, let me know. Typically it is a NAT issue on the house side, or you need to use a higher port.

 

[NWDiver]

This is what a graph looks like:
You can see that I recalibrated the pH probe last night.

[/IMG]

 

[kenargo]

You may find that Quest is blocking inbound port 80 only and you may be able to use a different inbound port and get access just fine. I've never seen an ISP block all ports as that would cause many issues but it is somewhat common to block ports to keep you from running a webserver (e.g., 80, 8080, 443).

 

[kenargo]

They just released a new beta with a slightly different graph system; you can now overlay many graphs.

 

[jrgilles]

My trouble could be with my modem also, not sure. Its stealing the ip address, and assigning a local to my router. Makes it so I can't access from outside. It needs to pipe the address through to my router, then it will work.

It was working when I first started using it (router had outside ip) but then I messed with it for awhile trying to get it all set up, and now it doesn't work (cuz the router is on a local ip (192.168.0.1)

Anyway, got to complicated and was afraid of breaking it again, so I gave up.

 

[jrgilles]

They just released a new beta with a slightly different graph system; you can now overlay many graphs.

Anyone using the beta? Looks nice.