Apex freaking out

[djkms]

Well the wife called me today and said why didn't the lights come on over the tank. So I logged in to the Apex from my work and saw that we "lost power". So I asked the wife if we have had any electrical outages and she said everything has been fine all day. So staying on my Neptune page and refreshing it was losing power on every refresh I made. Well I called back the wife and told her to unplug the EB8's for 2 minutes and then plug them back in. Everything seems to be ok so far.

Now I have more modules listed. It says I have 2 VDM's (which I don't) and it also states I have 2 display units which I don't. What gives?

With all the probes, unit, EB8's modules etc I have almost $1,000 invested in this system. I'm sorry but spending this kind of coin on something is basically the heart of the system I would expect it to work properly. I know that I should be emailing Neptune about this but I did want to make other users aware that Neptune is not without its flaws.

What if the system went haywire and my wife was not home? This could have potentially cost thousands of dollars in damage. What if the "fallback" command failed? With it constantly "losing" power what if it kept turning on or off my pumps? This could have fried a lot of equipment. Hopefully it was just the display losing power and not some bug somewhere else.

Guess I will just have to assess the damage if any when I get home.

 

[aquamanic]

Now I have more modules listed. It says I have 2 VDM's (which I don't) and it also states I have 2 display units which I don't. What gives?

I don't know if you have current firmware or not. If the controller during its boot process sees a module it doesn't know about, it will assign it the next number on the bus. It also stores that information including its own S/N in the module so the next time the module and the controller are both aware of each other.

Sometimes, the memory in one or the other becomes corrupted. When that happens, the controller thinks it has new modules and...well you see what happens. Some older firmware versions had some problems in this area that magnified the problem.

No technology is fail-safe or without risk of breaking including the Apex. If you were expecting that, then you probably made a mistake buying it. The good news is this is not fatal and can be fixed.

 

[djkms]

OK WOW. I was sitting and watching a movie when I got a alarm. I have a alarm set to send me a text and email if my ph2 goes below 6.60. This is for my CA Reactor. I quickly checked my status page and the page showed that the regulator for my reactor was off (like it is supposed to - If pH2 < 06.80 Then OFF) yet my regulator was still pumping in CO2!!! Thought maybe it was my solenoid so I unplugged it. Yep, shut off. Apex showed that the outlet was off in the status page so I plugged it back in, guess what, started pumping CO2 again. Latest firmware BTW.

Now what if I never set that alarm, my regulator would have just kept pumping in CO2 and more and more until I woke up the next morning to a crashed tank.

Sure you say that no technology is failsafe and I understand but this is unacceptable. Its a good thing I have redundancy with my system otherwise this would have been disastrous!

Here is my code, if its wrong please let me know.

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If pH2 > 07.00 Then ON
If pH2 < 06.80 Then OFF
If pH < 07.90 Then OFF

I really really want to have faith in Neptune and when it works, it works great. When it doesn't I am afraid one day something will go wrong and crash my system. Guess its time to start looking at Reefkeeper.

Edit: Ok so after unplugging everything, letting it cycle, reinstalling modules, etc. Now my Regulator just shut down at 06.85 even though its set to 06.80 - Guess its time to shutoff the regulator for the night and send Neptune a email tomorrow. What a joke..

 

[RussM]

Is the solenoid plugged into outlet 1-3 or 5-7 on an EB8? If so, move it to 4 or 8.

 

[djkms]

Its on 8

Now the saga continues. Noticed my sump was really low after waking up this morning. Low and behold The Neptune status page doesnt show a outlet for 3_3 which happens to be my tunze topoff outlet!!!!!!!!!!!!! Checked the outlet page and its completely missing.

$1000 piece of junk - so you tell me, is this acceptable???

 

[djkms]

Yet another issue!!

So I unplugged everything hoping to somehow reset the Neptune so it shows my outlet 3_3 to get my top off going again. No go. Instead it decided to somehow lose communication with my MP40's - They are both listed ON in the outlet and the virtual outlets say Lagoon and Sync however next to the outlets it says "battery ok". Yep, MP40's are in battery mode.

Just look at my issue. Look at all the issues listed here on the forums. I know there are a few Neptune die hards here but this is just silly.

I'm sorry, just venting, I really want this to work but this system is putting my whole tank at risk. I am going to try to get a refund this is just not right.

 

[maxicurls]

I have been having similar problems the last 2 days. It went completely haywire out of the blue. Now, It doesn't recognize 2 of the EnergyBars, and can't decide if 2 of the other 3 are experiencing a power failure or not. The one that it recognizes consistently, it won't control. Lights & pumps seem to be switching on & off at random.

I have updated the firmware & rebooted everything to the best of my abilities. I'm calling in the morning.

I find this very disconcerting.

 

[ToLearn]

You having fun with the issues and waiting to see all the different ways it could fail? Obviously no piece of machinery made by human is perfect. Actually on planet earth nothing is flawless at all.

You say you are going to try to get a refund, but have you even attempted to let Neptune fix the problem? You stated in your first whiny post that you just wanted to bad mouth Neptune and realized what you should be doing is contacting them. Really if that is all you are hear to do and aren't going to even try to work with them then the mods should lock this thread because you are being unreasonable.

Both of you if you are having major issues and are concerned with your products and your tanks safety should pick up the phone or if it is after hours send an e-mail and if they haven't responded by morning give them a call as well.

 

[djkms]

You having fun with the issues and waiting to see all the different ways it could fail? Obviously no piece of machinery made by human is perfect. Actually on planet earth nothing is flawless at all.

You say you are going to try to get a refund, but have you even attempted to let Neptune fix the problem? You stated in your first whiny post that you just wanted to bad mouth Neptune and realized what you should be doing is contacting them. Really if that is all you are hear to do and aren't going to even try to work with them then the mods should lock this thread because you are being unreasonable.

Both of you if you are having major issues and are concerned with your products and your tanks safety should pick up the phone or if it is after hours send an e-mail and if they haven't responded by morning give them a call as well.

First of all who the heck are you and what horse did you ride in on? I have checked out other posts from you and all you do is bash other members here on the forums. If anyone should be looked into its yourself.

Second of all did you even bother to look at the date of this thread? I have since spoken with Neptune and everything is in working order for the time being.

Third of all this is a public forum where we share ideas, reviews, troubles and everything inbetween. I do not expect anything to be perfect but I do expect a product to perform up to its price tag, plain and simple.

Fourth of all your right, call it whining, call it complaining, call it what you want but the general public has a right to know how a product performs and it is up to us users to post our experiences so others can make informed decisions on what we purchase for our tanks.

I did my research on the Neptune and knew that it was buggy and had its issues but at the time for me it was which is system is going to work out best for what I wanted with the least amount of issues. The RKE had many more known problems and bugs so I went with Neptune.

Like I previously said; when it works it works great and I love it, however when there are some serious problems with Neptune which needs to be addressed (which I have brought this to the attention of Neptune as well).

 

[Bebo77]

i have an aquatronica and same thing... its a POS... all i can say is call the Mfg and try to work it out... but never 100% trust a controller to do everything...

 

[djkms]

Sorry for dragging up a old thread of mine but I wanted to post a update.

It appears that a majority of my problems were due to a blown voltage regulator with my Apex. I sent my unit in last week and Curt fixed it right away (still under warranty) and I received my unit back last night. Curt was very nice and helpful the whole way.

I know I posted pretty angry in this thread and was probably out of line in some of what I said. At the end of the day we are all human and no one or nothing is perfect. Curt did take care of me and has helped restore my faith in Neptune.

I did state in another thread that Neptune doesn't seem to care about their customers and I want to publicly apologize for that statement because i was wrong, Curt helped me from beginning to end.

Thanks

 

[aquamanic]

I applaud you Kris. Lot's of people get upset and post rants. Very few ever come back to post what the problem was and even fewer offer amends like you did. Well done.

 

[tjw00]

I applaud you Kris. Lot's of people get upset and post rants. Very few ever come back to post what the problem was and even fewer offer amends like you did. Well done.

+1 and big kudos to the op.

 

[seesick]

It Takes A Big Man To Admit When He's Made A Mistake………. It Takes An Even better Man To Apologize. The world would be a better place if more peeps out there would revisit some of the mistakes they made in the past….