Alternatives to Red Sea Equipment?

[Rabid]

Hi all.

I really like the way that red sea have the whole catalogue talking together.

Easily controlled in one app, and or controller.

Are there alternatives to red sea if you want your skimmer, ATO, return pump and doser to be "smart" together?
Only Red sea aquariums are easily avaliable where i come from, not equipment.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Pod_01]

Are there alternatives to red sea if you want your skimmer, ATO, return pump and doser to be "smart" together?

What are you looking for in the “smart” together?
I don’t use these particular Red Sea products, I do have Red Sea tank but the only ”smart” things about these piece is that they use same app…
From my experience there is not much “smart” things for ATO to do? It adds water when water evaporates, if it cannot do this simple task it is of no value. Just because it can talk to my return pump, skimmer or Doser it doesn’t make it better if it fails to add water.
Skimmer needs to skim, if that doesn’t happen talking to other equipment is not useful.
Return pump returns water to main display. Doser needs to dose when I say what I say. Again if it cannot do that, it is of little value.

I do get the attraction people have with “smart” devices. But, I personally like reliability in my reef tank over “smart”.

Good luck,

 

[Rusty_L_Shackleford]

What are you looking for in the “smart” together?
I don’t use these particular Red Sea products, I do have Red Sea tank but the only ”smart” things about these piece is that they use same app…
From my experience there is not much “smart” things for ATO to do? It adds water when water evaporates, if it cannot do this simple task it is of no value. Just because it can talk to my return pump, skimmer or Doser it doesn’t make it better if it fails to add water.
Skimmer needs to skim, if that doesn’t happen talking to other equipment is not useful.
Return pump returns water to main display. Doser needs to dose when I say what I say. Again if it cannot do that, it is of little value.

I do get the attraction people have with “smart” devices. But, I personally like reliability in my reef tank over “smart”.

Good luck,

For me these days, *some* smart functionality is a must. On my main tank I have a Prism ato, inkbird temp controller, light timers, and I have an autofeeder but it isn't normally installed. The temp controller is wifi enabled and controllable through an app wich gives me a a lot of peace of mind since it will notify me if the power goes out, temperature is too high/low, or if there is a water level issue (2 separate probes and I get an alert if there is a temperature difference between them (like if the water level drops exposing one). I also have a Webcam so I can monitor the tanks remotely. My tank rode out a 2 week vacation with no intervention and only lost a few frags. You can ad hoc together a lot of automation cheaply without needing everything to be smart and sync together. I think it's a great tool but definitely not a necessary one, and I definitely can't justify the hundreds of dollars for a controller system.