Advice needed on monitoring and controllers

[Steph72]

I have the Hydros system. So far I have not run into any limitations. I am slowly converting my system from the DA Archon to the Hydros. I started in the garage. I have it doing ATO, auto water changes, refills DI strage tank, refills fresh salt water tank from mix tank if mix tank is ready to go and refills mix tank with DI when it becomes empty. All I have to do is add the salt mix to the mix tank once it is refilled and press a button when the mix tank is ready. It also controls my return pump, skimmer, heaters and tank cooling. The only thing I have left to switch over is the lighting and leak detection. I am doing it slowly. I have a Control 4 and 2 Control 2's in the garage. I have to Control XS units at the tank. I also have 4 of the WiFi power strips. Is there something specific you want to do with one that you are concerned about.

There’s nothing specific that comes to mind about automation - my primary concern is monitoring for changes to the tank and water parameters. The most tempting part of the apex for me is the trident unit, but the reviews are all over the map on this. I do have a pretty complete arsenal of Hanna test units but it would be nice to have life simplified a bit. Lol Are you using the hydros to monitor parameters too?

 

[n2585722]

Right now it monitors only pH and temp. It can monitor ORP also. Currently you have to have a Control 4 for the pH or ORP. The sense port is versitle though. It has a digital input and an analog input along with a 5v output. So who knows what they will come up with that will interface with that port. I still have my Archon also. It only monitors temp, pH and ORP. I have not had any luck at trusting the salinity probes. Mine would always tend to give false readings due to various conditions. The Hydros can connect with the Alkatronic via wifi. They say it will with the Mastertronic when it is out. Since the Alkatronic and Mastertronic are the same company there is no reason to doubt that it will.

 

[vangvace]

The big questions are:
What do you want to monitor?
What actions do you want from the results?

Any system you go with can track your temp and pH, but do you care more about your Alkalinity or other parameters?

Controller wise, my experience is much better with GHL than Neptune. I am curious about the Hydros line, but don't have experience with the product.

 

[Ditto]

Here is a large thread showing charts and some of the differences between GHL and Apex with some nice charts of those differences:

Switching Controllers from Apex to GHL

The title of the thread says it all. I am not going to bash Neptune systems, all I am going to say mine crashed again, and the word fluke in the technical response left me going I cannot take any more chances. This was my second hard crash of the system, where both time the system came up in an...

www.reef2reef.com

Also below are tutorials on the GHL side for some of the most common tasks when using GHL.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0PPlC7m7LWXDlywYazUkrw

I still have both Apex (including the Trident) and GHL, even thou I switched to GHL to answer questions on the Apex side or to see the difference in results when testing it side by side with GHL equipment. If stability is what your looking for then GHL is the way to go.