reefnjunkie Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Last night I was talking to a fellow reefer in Cali who had told me of how his temperature probe for his heater came out of the water and when he saw his tank read 73 looked into it. Well the tank was actually 88 and his heater was on (obviously) and had he not by chance glanced over and saw the reading he would have fried his whole tank. Which reminds me I need to call and see how things went, he's sending me 14 more acans-(whistle) So back to story, I asked if he had an APEX, which he does but hasn't had a chance to hook it up. We got to talking about all the cool commands and alarms you can set/program to "help" you in maintaining your tank. I figured a thread where people can add what all they use theirs for is a good idea and maybe some can glean information from it. I'll start (I wont get into the commands but keep it somewhat general and then can elaborate if needed) Controls the return pump for the main tank and frag tanks, Controls various modes (profiles) programmed for the vortechs, tunzes and even the WP's in the frag tanks Controls the lights over 5 tanks with basic on/off including moonlights Controls my DJ Power Strip and APC battery backup Controls the heaters (programmed to text me if a certain condition I created is met-like if heater has been on for more than 30 minutes) Controls the CO2 reactor (solenoid) Controls the skimmer Controls the swabbie neck cleaner fro the skimmer Monitors via a pressure swith when the Skimmate collection buck is full and when it is it shuts down the skimmer and sends me a text Monitors PH of both the effluent of the CO2 reactor and the tank Monitors via 2 leak detectors any water that may be on the floor and if tripped shuts down all return pumps, skimmer, CO2 Reactor and sends me a text Controls my APEX feeder That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. The things I like most are the safeguards I can program to let me know when a certain condition is met ie skimmer has shut down because I need to empty the collection bucket Coupled with the ability to remotely view what's going on and make changes is nice-I mean think of this, your out of town, your spouse who is afraid of the tank is watching it for you and you can turn the lights on and off, shut down the return pump, fire it back up etc- Priceless (laugh) Anyone else have anything they can add?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 One of the reasons I am looking into it is to monitor salinity since I want to out my rodi unit in my stand and drain my skimmer into a floor drain. That way if something does go bad, I won't be filling my tank with fresh water. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobtoSalt Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 One of the reasons I am looking into it is to monitor salinity since I want to out my rodi unit in my stand and drain my skimmer into a floor drain. That way if something does go bad, I won't be filling my tank with fresh water. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Had no idea there was a salinity probe out for controllers. Any ideas how accurate they are? That would have saved me a time or too I'm sure Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I monitor pH, pH in my ca reactor, temperature, amp draw and salinity. I also watch 6 different float switches. 3 in sump, 3 in ATO reservoir. Had no idea there was a salinity probe out for controllers. Any ideas how accurate they are? That would have saved me a time or too I'm sure Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Honestly? They aren't super accurate. Proper calibration makes them really accurate at the time they are calibrated... but they seem to drift over time. What they are good for is noticing large swings. So, in Kevin's example, it would work really well. I tie salinity into my ATO code. If the salinity is lower than 33ppt, it won't ATO and will alarm/email me. Works really well. The only time it's had to cut it off, it was just a dirty probe from an excessive phyto feed. Shook it off and all better. Jesse, let me know if you want to do the Salinity probe thing and I can help you out with code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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