School me on controllers

Yes, I don't have one. Yes, that might be a bit surprising.

I'm not often away from my tank more than 10 hours, so it's not something that's been a necessity. Well, it's probably time to change that so I can occasionally leave the house for a day and not panic.

I'm pretty sure I know what I need, but I'd like to make sure. Plus, convincing myself of the price tag needs a little carassing too. LOL

Sunrise/Sunset (dim) with my Meanwell ELN-60-48D's
Monitor temp & pH
Send email or text alerts
Delay my skimmer restarting upon resume of a power outage
Perhaps integrate with my vortech MP40s, but not a huge deal if not as I run the Ecotech batter backup.

Anything else I should be wanting from a controller?

And I think this means I want the full Apex; yes?

Thoughts/comments/ideas welcomed please.

 

I Love my Apex lite. I know one person really to ask is jonjon. He helped me through a bit of it. If I do recall the apex can control the vortechs and LEDs (lite cant unless I upgrade a module in the future)

 

I would start off with.... what is your budget?

There are several controllers out there that meet every criteria you have set with the exception of the Vortech control. That is only met by two controllers.

What is your technology knowledge level?
If you have trouble operating a computer, there are controllers out there that I would not suggest.

 

I have the Neptune Apex and I love it. It will do everything you want - the only thing I don't know how to do is the delay on the skimmer restart, but it does mark power outages so I'm betting you can do that.

I also use mine for conductivity, running my kalk reactor (both mixing and feeding), checking to see if my skimmer collection bucket is full and shutting off the skimmer, heaters, cooling fans, main pump and I'm sure a few other things I've forgotten.

 

You can also control your ATO with a controller. The Apex will let you really customize all of your power and usage schemes far beyond just one tank and possibly your dreams based on my research. They appear to have the best customer service of the commercial brands from my research also. They are more expensive but the most customizable.

 

I vote for Apex as well. Id say it depends on your budget, but if you can afford an M3, you should be able to go with the full Apex, no? I could barely afford Apex Lite, but I will get a VDM to control the LEDs down the road.
FYI difference chart:

 

You can do all that pretty easily with a Reefangel for half the cost. Although there is a steeper learning curve for the RA over the APEX.

 

i have had another controller (cheaper one) and you get what you pay for. after purchasing the apex i seen the difference and was sorry i didn't go that route to start. Apex is an awesome quality controller, great for those who don't know codes and for those who do there is an advanced mode. i find even advanced mode easy to use, and I'm no techie.

 

I'm curious about all this as well. Some good info in here so far.

 

Thanks Eric. And yes, I realized the lack of dimming with the lite. You can do it with the add-on, but then the price pretty much washes with the full version.

Budget? I don't really have one. Something not insanly priced considering what it needs to do; that's about it.

What other controllers do you have in mind then?

Technology level? I'm a mechanical engineer by trade. A little programming doesn't scare me. I tend to dislike it, but I can do it just fine.

Thanks for the input. I forgot you ran one on that impressive set-up of yours.

I suppose I'd also want to keep tabs on salinity; does this change any of your thoughts jonjon?

Yeah, forgot ATO in that list too. Which relates to needing a salinity probe. And that was the impression I had gotten in some basic research; top notch customization and customer service.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't buy the M3 outright though (the bulk of it yes; but I digress). I saw the comparison chart before; thanks for sharing though.

It seemed to me the big downfall of the RA is the lack of email/text alerts. Am I wrong there?

Thanks for the input.