controllers - what and why?

[jacksonpt]

thanks everyone for all the information... now I understand why everybody swears by these things.

unfortunately, all the things that people love about controllers either aren't needs of mine or aren't an option for me.

the only real appeal to me is the ability to monitor ph and salinity. are there other options out there for monitoring water parameters?

I want the probe and monitoring capabilities of a controller without the controller piece.

 

[slief]

thanks everyone for all the information... now I understand why everybody swears by these things.

unfortunately, all the things that people love about controllers either aren't needs of mine or aren't an option for me.

the only real appeal to me is the ability to monitor ph and salinity. are there other options out there for monitoring water parameters?

I want the probe and monitoring capabilities of a controller without the controller piece.

Sure, there are several companies such as Hanna that make monitors however the cost of 2 monitors is nearly that of an Apex light or similar controller. While you may not think you need or want the controller, I can pretty much guarantee that once you have one, you will wonder why you waited so long.

 

[L98-Z]

thanks everyone for all the information... now I understand why everybody swears by these things.

unfortunately, all the things that people love about controllers either aren't needs of mine or aren't an option for me.

the only real appeal to me is the ability to monitor ph and salinity. are there other options out there for monitoring water parameters?

I want the probe and monitoring capabilities of a controller without the controller piece.

Jacksonpt,

Sure there are plenty of other monitors out there, but like slief said, you can bascially buy the controller for the same price. The expensive part of the controller is the networking ones and the control boxes.

A friend of mine has a neptune jr with temp/pH for sale for $70. Granted it's used, but it gives you an idea how how affordable the lower end models are.

 

[jacksonpt]

ok... thanks everyone for the all the opinions/information.

 

[pbnj]

Listen, you can run a reef tank just some lights, powerheads, and a lot of waterchanges. But there are some pieces of equipment that just make our reefkeeping lives easier.

I started using an APEX three months ago, and I won't ever run a reef tank again without a controller.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

the only real appeal to me is the ability to monitor ph and salinity. are there other options out there for monitoring water parameters?


I would be reluctant to rely on salinity measurements from a conductivity probe that sat in the water 24/7. Any gunk that builds up between the electrodes can make the water look less saline than it is. But much worse would be a system that acted on its own to "correct' that "problem" by increasing salinity.

That said, i do like reading salinity by conductivity and i check my ph meter nearly every day just by glancing over at it, since it does read continuously.

However, neither is a controller.

The only controllers I use are for temperature. One for most or all of my heaters, and one for cooling water in the summer. They are very useful as a failsafe for heaters, and my cooling system couldn't work without a controller. Two of the same model, made by Dynasense, although I do not know if they still make my thermistor type model.

 

[Digitalelectric]

Im waiting for them to feasibly invent a probe to measure Calcium, Mag, Alk, Ph, Salinity, and etc. Then Id be game.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You'll be a waiting a long time, especially for alkalinity.

 

[Broncos]

If I had owned a controller with the first reef I had, I'm pretty sure I'd still have it today. It's not failsafe, but a great insurance policy and means to stabilize parameters. It prevents sloppy mistakes that costs big money, demoralizes and can slowly degrade water quality.

 

[Ricardo_Jorge]

Hello Slief,

so you think that Apex is more powerfull than RK series?

 

[cilyjr]

i use the apex and the piece of mind i get from it is great. not to mention all the benefits mentioned by others in this thread, if some parameter you have set goes wrong it can send an email to you. in my case to my iphone then i can check the tank via the aquanotes app and often make an adjustment from where ever i am.

 

[pbnj]

I think being able to avoid the frustration of explaining/leaving a "To-Do" list for the wife (spouse) when traveling and not having to worry about things actually being done while away from home is, in and of itself, worth the expense in my book.