Who switch from apex and to what?

[Ssteve]

Thinking of making a switch from my apex and wanted to hear from those of you that have switched, what you went to and how are you liking it compared to your old apex.

I know many use apex and love it, I see no need for anyone to chime in and convince me of how great it is and point out the drawbacks of other systems. I am mostly looking for what benefits people have experienced over the apex.

 

[FirstContact]

The intro discount on the Vertex Cerebra is over. For the full price you may as well wait until it is out of beta. Plus I'm not sure that they are shipping any more units until the product is out of beta. I went this route because I had the opportunity to switch to a more modern, more feature rich, brand new controller at no cost to me by selling my six or seven year old Apex classic. Also, I've always wanted to try the Cerebra. The manufacturing of the product is high end and the display unit is awesome. All the outlets are relay outlets. And it comes with a lot of extras that on the Apex you need to purchase separate modules. Lastly, I didn't like the plastic look or feel of the new Apex and I had a bunch of probes and didn't need to pay for new ones. All of that being said, Neptune Sytems probably has the most resources available to offer in terms of customer service, the largest customer base, the most advanced customer forums, the most additional products to offer, and the best on line controller interface. But, I also think Vertex will catch up.

No experience with RKE or any of the other smaller companies that offer feature rich controllers.

The only other controller I would consider besides Neptune Systems Apex and Vertex Cerebra would be the GHL Profilux.

 

[gotfrogs]

Why?

 

[FirstContact]

Because GHL is an extremely high end quality product that has a ridiculous amount of ports compared to anything else on the market. And because my perception over the years based on past products offered by Digital Aquatics were never as good or robust for me as Neptune Systems.

 

[zoolan70]

Switched from Apex to Cerebra. Worst mistake of my life.

 

[FirstContact]

For me, I'm really happy I made the switch to Cerebra.

 

[ElCamino]

I've got one basic apex and one reef angel. I really just use them for light timers , temp, and to measure PH. Both work great. I don't care about all the wifi type stuff and my halides just have an on and off button not fancy enough to ramp up and down lighting. I use liter meters for my ATO and dosing , i trust them more than any controller pump combo. the reef angel has more potential features than the basic apex , a web board that can help, and programming options if you are technically inclined and need every possible feature I would recommend going that route.