GHL here. Have been running it since 2012 I believe. Although there may be some advantages to some of the other options, you can't really beat their build quality and reliability.
Automation and controller
- Thread starter vetteguy53081
- Start date
I gave up on optical sensors back when I had the Tunze ATO, any film or debris would disable it, constant maintenance. To be fair, I've never tried the Apex ones, maybe they are better. I find basic float switches work for years and years with very little attention.
Apex.
Tried to make the salinity probe work a couple of times, then thought why do we need it? Ato takes care of tank. Refractometer for mixing saltwater. Salinity probe useless even if it did work. If you need to verify tank salinity more than once a week you are doing it wrong.
Controller is labor saving, no need to dose manually, feed modes. Ability to manually turn things on/off for maintenace vs unplugging. Monitor tank temp pump flow, ph. All on your phone.
Tried to make the salinity probe work a couple of times, then thought why do we need it? Ato takes care of tank. Refractometer for mixing saltwater. Salinity probe useless even if it did work. If you need to verify tank salinity more than once a week you are doing it wrong.
Controller is labor saving, no need to dose manually, feed modes. Ability to manually turn things on/off for maintenace vs unplugging. Monitor tank temp pump flow, ph. All on your phone.
I didn't think I would care about conductivity probe... but
Skimmer
KH director
Daily dip of water for thawing food (I don't bother with RO/DI)
etc.
Dosing pump makes up estimated amount of SW daily and ato takes care of evap. But automated salinity monitoring is a sanity check for me.
I forgot to mention, If you have a Echo/Alexa, you can link apex fusion through the smart things app.
You can "ask apex fusion for a status report" to hear probe readings
You can "ask apex fusion to turn on/off skimmer" or "run feed mode 1" or "turn lights on"
This is EXTREMELY USEFUL. Its faster than opening my phone and wet-hands free.
You can "ask apex fusion for a status report" to hear probe readings
You can "ask apex fusion to turn on/off skimmer" or "run feed mode 1" or "turn lights on"
This is EXTREMELY USEFUL. Its faster than opening my phone and wet-hands free.
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I use the KH Carer by Kamoer for alkalinity testing. The results are imported by my Hydros and I use the results to control dynamic dosing from my Hydros. The KH Carer can be used stand alone also since it does have a built in dosing pump for dosing a KH buffer solution to maintain the alkalinity.
It appears to be consistent. I have not really checked it against anything but the red sea pro kit I have... and they don't match (2.0 dKh difference). No clue which is correct. KH says 10 and Red Sea 8
One day I will sort it out. I figure it is somewhere in that range and the coral are happy so...
One day I will sort it out. I figure it is somewhere in that range and the coral are happy so...
I experimented with Hydros, apex and GHL when I was figuring out how to manage my systems since im generally traveling 2-3 weeks a month.
Hydros- didnt provide enough automation and control. relying on wifi for connectivity to the head unit from the powerbar was a terrible design consideration, the inputs are very prone to corrosion even without direct water.
GHL- This thing is CLUNKY, it feels like a 10 yr old piece of software that sometimes just doesnt load. The software has a steep learning curve which wasnt much of an issue for me but I cant imagine most people would give up on it. I was hopeful about the ION director but ya.......I liked the KH director but got rid of it as soon as I got an alkatronic, its FAR superior.
Apex- build quality is flimsy but is by far the most configurable with the most sensoring and automation options. The software and app is excellent. Decent learning curve for advanced functionality but a quick google will return excellent results due to the large community (honestly you can just lookup suncrest's posts). I have upgraded 12v supplies in all my eb832's but I still hate they are such a large failure point. I have my critical life support systems spread across 2 eb832's on each system. The longer I have my trident the less I pay attention to it, if you dont calibrate at every alk reagent swap (once a month) it might go out by .5dkh or more (w/ factory and ABC reagents) and ive noticed repeated inconsistencies in alk results in combined vs alk only tests. I dont believe they are flushing the vial well enough between tests. The DOS is excellent. Skip the Salinity probe, its not worth the hassle.
Red sea- not a full controller per say but i do like the individual components connecting within one app, no single point of failure. App is a bit clunky and slow, the reefmat is excellent, the other items I have are just ok. support is weak to non-existent. The new ATO looks good, I really like the performance of the titanium sensors on the
Reef factory- same story as red Sea, not a full controller. KH keeper plus is pretty good but not as good as the alkatronic, it is much quieter and smaller though which will be important for some. I've found reef factories support to be horrendous.
If I was to advise someone one what to get I would say buy a Neptune Apex A3 (not pro, save $500 and hassles w/ Salinity probe) and a Focustronic Alkatronic, then build out with Neptune models that suit your needs. PH based alk testers are the only automated systems I would spend my money on at this point.
Hydros- didnt provide enough automation and control. relying on wifi for connectivity to the head unit from the powerbar was a terrible design consideration, the inputs are very prone to corrosion even without direct water.
GHL- This thing is CLUNKY, it feels like a 10 yr old piece of software that sometimes just doesnt load. The software has a steep learning curve which wasnt much of an issue for me but I cant imagine most people would give up on it. I was hopeful about the ION director but ya.......I liked the KH director but got rid of it as soon as I got an alkatronic, its FAR superior.
Apex- build quality is flimsy but is by far the most configurable with the most sensoring and automation options. The software and app is excellent. Decent learning curve for advanced functionality but a quick google will return excellent results due to the large community (honestly you can just lookup suncrest's posts). I have upgraded 12v supplies in all my eb832's but I still hate they are such a large failure point. I have my critical life support systems spread across 2 eb832's on each system. The longer I have my trident the less I pay attention to it, if you dont calibrate at every alk reagent swap (once a month) it might go out by .5dkh or more (w/ factory and ABC reagents) and ive noticed repeated inconsistencies in alk results in combined vs alk only tests. I dont believe they are flushing the vial well enough between tests. The DOS is excellent. Skip the Salinity probe, its not worth the hassle.
Red sea- not a full controller per say but i do like the individual components connecting within one app, no single point of failure. App is a bit clunky and slow, the reefmat is excellent, the other items I have are just ok. support is weak to non-existent. The new ATO looks good, I really like the performance of the titanium sensors on the
Reef factory- same story as red Sea, not a full controller. KH keeper plus is pretty good but not as good as the alkatronic, it is much quieter and smaller though which will be important for some. I've found reef factories support to be horrendous.
If I was to advise someone one what to get I would say buy a Neptune Apex A3 (not pro, save $500 and hassles w/ Salinity probe) and a Focustronic Alkatronic, then build out with Neptune models that suit your needs. PH based alk testers are the only automated systems I would spend my money on at this point.
I have to clean my tunze 3155 optical sensor 1-2 times a week due to heavy kalk dosing and thus have to have a separate rodi line plumbed to my tank I can top up with when it craps out when im traveling. Last week I put an extra MP10 I had in the return chamber to hopefully mix the kalk better to prevent precipitation on the optical eye, so far its been working, but my return chamber is a washing machine lol.
I'm looking at the new red sea ato. I really like the titanium conductivity sensors on my reefmat.
The dashboard is slow - but I would not call the programming interface clunky by any means. The interface is what you would expect for something with so many options and settings. People confuse pretty graphics with functionality. The hardware is solid, well thought out and easily connected.
I have read nothing be complaints about alktronic failures, wear parts (pinch valves) cleaning, etc.
I wish they would integrate google.
LoL - I don't google or any other web service or AI integrated with or listening to me or my aquarium.
You will one day
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I have not had any issue getting my Hydros to do everything I want it to do. It controls my heaters, skimmer, return pump, All For Reef Dosing, KH buffer dosing, MP10's, LED lighting, ATO, AWC, RODI and mixing station. It also monitors for leaks at the tank, RODI and mixing station. I use my XP8's and drive ports for critical things and the wifi stirps for less critical things. On the wifi strips just keep in mind the fallback when communication is lost is to stay in whatever state they are in when communication is lost. I don't use them for ATO, AWC or dosing and use drive ports for that. the RODI and mixing station the DI storage for ATO and various other uses is automatically refilled from the RODI when it goes low. The fresh saltwater storage for AWC is automatically refilled from the mixing tank if it goes low provided the mixing tank contents is ready to use. Once the contents of the mixing tank has transferred to the fresh saltwater tank the mix tank is automatically refilled from the RODI. All I have to do is add the salt mix once it has been refilled and press a button when it is ready for use. The Hydros does it all. There is a mixing pump in the mix tank that is automatically turned off if the level goes below 60% . It will turn back on when it get back above 60%. I also have a pump in each storage tank the one in the mix tank is used to transfer from mix tank to fresh saltwater tank. The others are used to transfer form the tank they are in to containers as needed. I just open the manual valve and press an hold a button. Once I get the amount I want i close the valve and release the button. So I can dispense fresh saltwater or DI water into containers as needed. This is all controlled with my Hydros. I even have it doing some non aquarium related things also. One is it turns on the RODI for 15 minutes every 4 hours to refill the RO bladder if needed for the ice maker on the fridge. I also use it to remotely charge the battery on the camera that monitors the driveway. It also monitors for a leak under my central air conditioner. So I think it does a lot. I have not had an issue with my connectors and have had some of the controllers for over two years. I have info on how I did these things in by build thread here on R2R. Just click on my build thread contributor banner in one of my post and go to page 7 post #119 for the start of the Hydros. I was using an Archon before switching to the Hydros. I did slowly switch things over. So while doing this I had to get signals to and form the Archon and Hydros. I used relay's to get the signals back and forth between the controllers. Now I have the Archon only controlling a couple of channels of lighting and nothing else.
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