Are controllers worth the expense?

Just started adding Corals and I understand stability is key to being successful. With that being said, How is a controller better than just staying on top of your aquarium?

Currently running a 125G aquarium drilled with two overflows. 55G sump/refugium. In the sump a Reef Octopus Diablo xs200 with Sicce pump. Reef Flo dart,snapper pump running the returns, chiller and DIY reactor. In the aquarium two Tunze 6105's with a Tunze 7092 controller. The chiller is a 1/4h aquanetics on a Ranco controller. No heaters needed in Fl. Lighting is inexpensive, cheap, Reef Evolution 72" 3w lights x 2 Lighting specs listed. Also Odessey 48 T5 fixture with actinics. Had two one burned up. Planning on upgrading all lights soon I hope. JBJ ATO attached to the Sump and a 35G reservoir that I use for fresh water RODI and when Mixing salt I use the same barrel. Just wash it out when done with water changes. Lights are non-dimmable. Night lights are regular LED light bulbs that are very dim. I have 4 timers running the lights.




Fixture Size: 70.50" x 5.00" x 1.00" (Add 0.65" in height with bracket installed)LEDs Count: 52
7020 Lumens
Super energy efficient 3 watt high output LEDs
40x 10,000K LED
12x Actinic 460nm LED
Use 156 watts

 

You can set the controller to run your dosers for CA and Alk far more often than you can if you work and would like if you don't work. This allows you to keep a much more stable level of the macro nutrients.

 

In my opinion, they are very worth it.

Lets take your example.

1. you have 4 timers. Unless they are digital, there is a time variance between them. they are large and occupy a lot of plug space. they also wear out (at least mine did). with a controller, this is all programmed. On my RKE, this would consolidate them into a single power bar that plugs into your main surge protection (or wall). I have 6 lighting circuits plus a fuge in my setup. precision...

2. Your Chilling Circuit. the Controller would replace the Ranco. plug the chiller into the power bar instead. not very thrilling here as I used to use a Medusa for heat and cool. but having it on my controller lets me monitor it from anywhere and even see how long it is running.

3.Your ATO. Same as Point #2. Plus I have a fail-safe timer that if the float sticks open it wont fill my tank with fresh water. or if my drains clog, same thing.

5. Realtime monitoring of PH, Salinity and temperature complete with Graphing. Allows you to see trends.




And before anyone says anything. the RKE measures salinity in Conductivity or mS/cm, but reports it on the web interface as PPT. In my tank, this equates currently to about 1.0244 specific gravity or 33.37 PPT

 

How do you like the salinity probe? I've heard/read that they aren't reliable enough aka needs calibrating often to be accurate.

 

Zesty,

on my old tank, it was the biggest Piece of junk. it would not hold at all. would just slowly drop down to like 14 and stay. id put it in the cal solution, and it would be accurate. I basically forgot about it since I got it at christmas. However, when I put it on the new system, I didnt even look at the reading. But my net module was down so I forgot. when I got my net back up, I noticed it was reading correctly. now that I did that conversion on my salinity, I really need to check it against the refractometer, but it seems to have help perfectly steady. I tried everything in the old tank to get it to work, but this new one seems happy. too high flow will mess with it. I have it in my return section now where it cant get any microbubbles as they mess with it. it is in an area of fairly low flow.

 

Not needed, at least in my opinion.

 

I had one, but I never set it up. I recently sold it. It's a fun toy though.

It can help provide more checks and balances when it comes to dosing, temperature and top off.

 

So from what I've been reading on them I see you have great control of LED lighting allowing for a realistic dusk till dawn effect. You can control heating and cooling equipment. With the Tunze 6105 you can recreate different types of waves and water flow etc. Monitor some of the chemistry and create reports to follow. Set feeding times and delay skimmer start to avoid overflowing of the skimmer cup, you can add cameras that you can view from anywhere. I've also read that it helps with ATO's and keeping the pumps from running to long or going dry. Interesting stuff. The amount of tech has definitely increased ALOT in the past few years.

 

There are some very practical and healthful uses you may have missed. I use mine to control my dosing pumps, to time my zeovit reactor, and to control my calcium reactor. They also keep lights coming on and off at a consistent time where the light doesn't have internal control, can alert you in emergencies, and can watch for leaks. Since constancy is king in a reef, controllers are damn near indispensable for long term sps health in my world.

 

Here is what I use my controller for:

- Dosing from my kalk reactor
- Mixing my kalk reactor
- Turning on cooling fans if the temp gets a little high
- A heat fail-safe that shuts down power to the JBJ True Temp if temp gets high
- A fail-safe for my Bubbleking overflowing - I have a kill switch on the collection bucket - this gets used quite a bit as the BK is a little touchy
- Alarms if the temp gets hot or too cold - I get an email
- I used to have a fail-safe for auto top-off - kill switch, but haven't hooked it up
- Shut down main pump, skimmer, circ pumps, etc. remotely through the web interface
- I used to use it to cycle the UV sterilizer on and off every 3 hours, but I haven't hooked the UV up again
- Dosing using non-controlled (e.g. inexpensive) dosing pumps
- Remote access to temp, PH, salinity, ORP