help me choose a controller acjr. rkl, rke vs profliux

[andrewkw]

I've done lots of reading and I'm pretty aware what most of these guys do. I'm still having trouble deciding. I guess the biggest thing for me is justifying the cost of the more expensive RKE w/ NET or Profliux with LAN for something I might not really need.

What I do need is a temp controller. I set june 1st as my deadline since before I put a high powered fan on my sump my tank reached 83 degrees, it now slowly rises from 76ish to 78-79 Which is pretty good however I have to remember to turn the fan off at night or it gets down to 76 or lower which imo is a little too low and depending on the temp I have to manually adjust the fan setting.

I also plan on using the controller to turn pumps off. Just for target feeding no more then once a day usually once every 2-3 days. It's a pain to manually unplug and replug in. Don't want to use them on a wavemaker but want to be able to do this without physically unplugging them.

Dose 2 part- pretty straight foward 2 dosing pumps on timers.

Control lighting - my 6$ timers do this job fine right now but if i have the extra outlets..

I love the idea of being able to monitor everything online but I'm just not sure its worth the price. I don't like with the aquacontroller jr you have to pay an extra $100 for the software and it's not even able to send email alerts ect. I don't like the idea of playing with the controller and would much rather do so using a pc interface.

The RKL seems like the best deal I could just get the RKL1 use the temp controller and plug in a heater, fan and my lights or dosing pumps and then upgrade as need be.

I'm starting to lean away from proflux do to the cost, not just for the base unit but all the accessories seem to be priced higher then RKE. ACJR seems decent but its old technology, paying for the software sucks, i'll need an old pc with a serial cable, but unlike the reef keeper I can get this locally.

Basically I just want to hear from people who either bought the RKL or ACJR and are happy and have no regrets not spending the extra for all the "cool but not needed" features, or those who have the RKE + NET or profliux and think it was a worthwhile investment in the additional technology compared to the entry level controllers.

thanks hopefully I'll buy one of these units soon.

 

[Reefer08]

I currently own a RKL and im happy with it. The only problem with it is the limited amount of outlets it has.
It has 16 outlet capability if you have 4 PC4's.

But the cost of each PC4 makes me realize that I don't need the RKE and the RKL 4 module capability is enough.

But if you add one SL1 (Monitors PH and ORP Probes) now your down to 12 outlets capable.

It all depends on how many things you want to control. Digital Aquactics is coming out with the SL2 (which works with the RKL)which monitors Salinity and PH so im excited for that.


The RKL Level 1 looks like enough for your tank though.
The standby feature is very nice, you can tell it to turn off whichever outlets for however long while you do your feedings or waterchanges or whatever.

 

[luisagos]

This has been debated already.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1621061&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

 

[DaveMorris]

It sounds like your biggest question comes down to the computer interface part. For me, I want the system to email me if there is a problem and I want to be able to log into my system from far away and see what is going on. I travel a lot for work and I need to see the tank stats. If you don't have a similar scenario, then it probably isn't worth the money for you. The beauty of several of these systems is that you can add the connectivity later if you want it. That is the way the Digital Aquatics stuff is designed, you buy only the parts that you need, as you need them. Currently the DA controllers can not be remotely controlled. The Profilux and Neptune stuff can be remotely controlled. All of them have a way for you to monitor parameters.