Here's my story of my first 12 hours with my APEX.

My Apex has made me want to rip my hair out (if my head wasn't shaved) more than once. Getting it set up, getting it wireless, getting it accessible outside my home network, getting text and email alerts setup......all of those things have a steep learning curve. I grew up building computers and networks so by no means was I oblivious to the task. It's just the nature of the beast. The one thing I will say is that once you get it up and running, I almost never have to change anything and it runs solid with no complaints. I love being able to "check" my tank when I'm away from home and I love that little extra security that my tank will alert me if it has an issue.

There are people before you that have something similar to your setup and they got it to work and there will be people after you. It might not be a "plug and play" type of thing but, then again, almost nothing in this hobby EVER is. Reefkeeping is a difficult and demanding mistress sometimes. Suck it up, find someone local who has experience with the Apex, invite them over to help you and then pay them in brews and pizza...that's what I'd do.

Just to touch on a common theme, I too thought Apex should include calibration fluid with their setups/probes. The one thing I didn't consider is that the systems and probes are designed to be stored. Calibration fluid has an expiration date, if I'm not mistaken. How angry would you be if you bought a "brand new" Apex and calibrated your pH probe with expired fluid giving you a bad reading (unbeknownst to you)? I do think they should at least INFORM you but there are so many 3rd party sellers that this would be difficult to control.
 
I will give Neptune credit for a super fast response and a very solid solution.

Paul emailed me first thing this morning and spent an hour and a half working through my issues. There were several that that didn't go as he thought they would, but he quickly found a way to resolve all of them.

After seeing him go through it, I'm not surprised I had so many issues. There were a ton of things that you just needed to have done before or know the ins and outs of.

Some of my solutions:

He mentioned that their website and system relaunch was only in the last couple of weeks. They have some cleaning up to do of old guides and terminology, so I will accept that as a good reason. It does take time to transition sites and there are always some bugs to work out.

The networking issue was being caused by a bad gateway setting within the Apex. I'll take blame for that one.

He explained that they will update the instructions for the pH calibration. He said you don't need to use RODI water, but you do need to give them time to settle and it's not explained well enough.

He offered to send me some salinity control solution at no cost, which is a nice gesture.

The Radion issue was that my Radions didn't need updated. The guide I read didn't mention that Radions manufactured after 10/14 wouldn't need updated. The updated guide does state that. They then wouldn't sync, so we did a factory reset. Still no response, but he was able to get them to respond from his side. So, that was a welcome fix. He even took the time to copy my previous program over.

He said that he hopes that EcoTech will work with them on the Vectra. I hope so as well, as I'll likely sell it on eBay if they don't. It's a very nice return pump and I don't look forward to losing money on the resell.

He helped explain how to set up feeding timers.

He then helped me set up my Gyre interface from IceCap. This was going above and beyond in my mind because that would have been a massive effort if I had done it, and it's not even an Neptune product.

So, in the end, I very much appreciate the service and effort from Paul and Neptune. I really think they should offer this set-up service as an add-on or for Gold system buyers. It would be worth a lot of money to avoid the initial challenges that *can* present themselves.
 
jsbull said:
There is also apparently no longer a "Configuration tab".
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks for the answers. And glad you got your issues sorted out, jsbull - I know it was frustrating but I promise you, after you've used your Apex for a while you'll be glad you didn't return it!
 
jsbull said:
I will give Neptune credit for a super fast response and a very solid solution.

Paul emailed me first thing this morning and spent an hour and a half working through my issues. There were several that that didn't go as he thought they would, but he quickly found a way to resolve all of them.

After seeing him go through it, I'm not surprised I had so many issues. There were a ton of things that you just needed to have done before or know the ins and outs of.

Some of my solutions:

He mentioned that their website and system relaunch was only in the last couple of weeks. They have some cleaning up to do of old guides and terminology, so I will accept that as a good reason. It does take time to transition sites and there are always some bugs to work out.

The networking issue was being caused by a bad gateway setting within the Apex. I'll take blame for that one.

He explained that they will update the instructions for the pH calibration. He said you don't need to use RODI water, but you do need to give them time to settle and it's not explained well enough.

He offered to send me some salinity control solution at no cost, which is a nice gesture.

The Radion issue was that my Radions didn't need updated. The guide I read didn't mention that Radions manufactured after 10/14 wouldn't need updated. The updated guide does state that. They then wouldn't sync, so we did a factory reset. Still no response, but he was able to get them to respond from his side. So, that was a welcome fix. He even took the time to copy my previous program over.

He said that he hopes that EcoTech will work with them on the Vectra. I hope so as well, as I'll likely sell it on eBay if they don't. It's a very nice return pump and I don't look forward to losing money on the resell.

He helped explain how to set up feeding timers.

He then helped me set up my Gyre interface from IceCap. This was going above and beyond in my mind because that would have been a massive effort if I had done it, and it's not even an Neptune product.

So, in the end, I very much appreciate the service and effort from Paul and Neptune. I really think they should offer this set-up service as an add-on or for Gold system buyers. It would be worth a lot of money to avoid the initial challenges that *can* present themselves.
Click to expand...



That is outstanding customer service from Apex!
 
I recently dismantled my African Cichlid tank, and started setting up another SW tank. I figured I'd use the Apex Jr. off the Cichlid tank in the new SW tank until I got an expansion box and probes for the Profilux on my 260.

First thing I tried to do was update the firmware. That was also the last thing. Now the only thing the Apex Jr. will do is flash the status LED at me. I put a temp controller on the heater for the new tank, moved a powerbar over to it, and am running it off the Profilux now. I'm afraid to even try updating the firmware on the Apex my wife is using on her tank.
 
Apex & Vectra

Apex & Vectra

maybe this is a stupid question but can you still use the Vectra M1 independent of the Apex?
 
Neilmu,

I have a Vectra L1 I am using on my set up. It is plugged into the Apex so I can turn it on and off from the Apex but I used the Reeflink to program it and set it up. It is kinda round about but I had the reef link for my lights anyhow. My LFS told me the Reeflink was a much easier way to run the lights.

Having said that, I an new and don't even have fish in the tank yet. I am hoping I can shut the pump down during feeding without issues. I can't see why it will not work.
 
JSbull,

I had a hard time when I started out with mine. Finally someone steered me to the "native interface". Once there I used the configuration tab and fixed all my problems. It confounds me why the "fusion" interface does not allow you to configure things or tell it to update firmware. Or if it does I can't find it.
 
I'm upgrading from a 72g to a 180g. hope to have the tank in the couple couple of weeks. My previous 72 which I sold off 2+ years ago was running for 12+ years but all my equipment was run independent. I had no controllers except for the heater. For my 180 I went and bought 3 radions Xr30's, 2 MP40's, the ventra L1 and the apex lab grade. I'm no IT/computer expert and after reading this thread I'm super nervous about setting it up. Im up for the challenge but what are the best sites, forums etc to review when I do encounter problems and is the ReefLink a must have piece of equipment?
 
Last edited:
Neilmu,

Someone else would be better to answer you I think. There is a way to run the Radions and MP40's from the Apex (I have not done it). If you only run the Vectra on one speed (or manually vary it) you don't NEED the reeflink. I was just told the interface was easier and I found one used for $50.00. Based on the cost of all the other stuff $50.00 was an easy decision. Also I think you need a wireless module to add to the Apex (if you want to control the lights and powerheads) and it cost at least as much as the Reeflink.
 
Interesting as my Apex came with PH calibration fluid.

Not that I'm on Apex's website ever, but I didn't notice any difference in the fusion webpage either?

Only thing I noticed after a firmware upgrade was that with my LED's, you no longer have to use the light programming curves, then switch over to basic mode to enter your own code for feed modes and such. It all opens from the programming screen.

There has never been a "configuration" tab in fusion(least for me and I've had it nearly 7 months now). That has always had to been accessed via the web front end. Took me almost 3 weeks before I actually read the manual and found the front end from my local IP addy.

The WXM module is what you need for the radions and mp40's. They work pretty easily(plug and play), and the setup for them in fusion is super simple.
 
Neilmu said:
I'm upgrading from a 72g to a 180g. hope to have the tank in the couple couple of weeks. My previous 72 which I sold off 2+ years ago was running for 12+ years but all my equipment was run independent. I had no controllers except for the heater. For my 180 I went and bought 3 radions Xr30's, 2 MP40's, the ventra L1 and the apex lab grade. I'm no IT/computer expert and after reading this thread I'm super nervous about setting it up. Im up for the challenge but what are the best sites, forums etc to review when I do encounter problems and is the ReefLink a must have piece of equipment?
Click to expand...

I found the forums on the Apex site pretty helpful.

-Ivan
 
I had to get my electrical engineer and website software design guy to hook it up. I was in the same boat as you. Esp when he was saying how dinosaur age everything it uses is.
But now that it's up and running im happy with it.
 
E-mail their support and they will setup a SCREEN SHARE meeting with you where one of the techs will actually control your computer while its connected and TEACH YOU everything you need to know in 10 minutes.

I went through far worse of a nightmare than you and I TRIED to return mine only to be told that because I opened it - they wouldn't take it - I was told to call neptune.

So I did and they were amazing at helping me learn to use it RIGHT in front of me from my own home.

PS - The gaming adapter - Every time you unplug it and plug it into the apex - SETUP > NET SETUP > RESTART!!!!!!! It will fix the entire issue you're having there.
 
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