Reef Controller

[victoly]

The thing about the reef angel is that you need to be able to straight up program. It's probably got the highest level of tweak ability, but that is at the expense of difficulty.

Same thing with DIY arduino. I can program, I just don't trust myself to not make a mistake in it that could seriously impact my tank. In the long run in this hobby, 100 bucks is a drop in the bucket.

That is not true. Actually the RA comes preset and can be used as plug and play. The other option for lamers (like me) is to use friendly Wizard and set all the parameters to your liking. If you know coding then you can write your own program and upload it to your RA. Additionally on the RA forum other users share their programs.

Right. And then when you want to deviate from that preloaded program (excepting changing hours or something simple you can do from the RA interface), you have to get into using the Arduino IDE. Which is fine if you're into that sort of thing, it's

Just a higher difficulty level than the apex.

[Clark]

You pay a high premium once you decide you want to monitor ph, or get emails.

If you just want digital temp control and ATO you can get units dedicated to do those jobs for a combined total well under $200. Regarding PH, I've heard from several very successful reefers say they no longer monitor PH once they've got their tank on a routine and learn how to read their corals. Real time PH monitoring is very far in the other direction, with test kits being the commonplace middle ground.

On the other hand, you didn't mention wave pump controls which is a commonly desired feature. A programmable controller is the most flexible way (but not the only way) to do pump patterns.

Wish you well however you decide.

[+brian.srock]

Thanks for the Info Clark. I already have dual Jabeo pumps that do waves.

The reason I want to monitor pH is from something I read about if Alkalinity and pH here http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/5/chemistry

If there was an alkalinity probe then i'd do that. Just trying to make sure I keep my tank as stable as possible and without testing I have no clue how much swings I am having when I dose.

[madsalt]

Now that Fusion for Apex is in open beta, it just makes sense to get one. I have to say Fusion is pretty nice.

[jolt]

I am also a Reef Angel user. I've had mine about 4 months now and I don;t regret it so far. As mentioned above you don't need to buy the ph expansion or ph probe. The Head unit has a port for ph probe and a probe comes with it. I am controlling a Kessil a360we light and am pretty pleased with that. You really don't have to program much at all to get basic functionality going, the wizard takes care of most any common situation in a pretty straightforward fashion. But you can also open up the hood and do whatever you like. I also have the wifi unit and it is nice, but has been a little flaky. Could be my router, not 100% sure. Tech support on the reef angel forum has been excellent. Documentation is not good. The thing I like the least about it is all the wires coming out of the head unit. It's not as clean as I would hope for. But there is a ton of flexibility so I guess that is the tradeoff. Also, the iPhone apps are not very good for the reef angel. The web-based interface and logging are pretty good.