apex a3 pro vs hydros x10 set up

[BTDBunch]

Hey I want to hear everyone's thoughts on the hydros vs apex current debate. After 2 used tank splits and my friend losing several torches when he left for the weekend, I'm looking for some redundancy and safety measures.

I am running on rather limited space (1 bedroom apartment with fiancé) and have a IM NUVO ext 75. I work in the medical field and will shortly within the next year or so be at the point where I can't rely solely on myself for tank maintenance and safety. This includes traveling, on call shifts, and unknown hours. I have fallen in love with reefing (long time freshwater guy) in almost all regards, even dealing with the parameters of an isolated environment, and honestly setbacks have only caused me to enjoy the hobby more because I get thrown into a forced mindset of learning.

That being said: hydros vs apex, or more specifically, apex a3 pro set up or hydros x10 (IV and maven whenever it comes out)?

Key factors are: trends of parameter monitoring (alk, pH, salinity, temp), redundancy, and away from home peace of mind, especially with sump water level monitoring and ability to act if leaks occur.

Bonuses are: auto feeding, phosphate monitoring, and price

My current set up involves all plugs connected to smart outlets I have connected to google home, weekly all parameters check with hannas ans water changes and almost daily checking with alkalinity + all for reef dosing.

If you have anything help you value or key differences you notice I'd also love to hear them.

 

[n2585722]

Hey I want to hear everyone's thoughts on the hydros vs apex current debate. After 2 used tank splits and my friend losing several torches when he left for the weekend, I'm looking for some redundancy and safety measures.

I am running on rather limited space (1 bedroom apartment with fiancé) and have a IM NUVO ext 75. I work in the medical field and will shortly within the next year or so be at the point where I can't rely solely on myself for tank maintenance and safety. This includes traveling, on call shifts, and unknown hours. I have fallen in love with reefing (long time freshwater guy) in almost all regards, even dealing with the parameters of an isolated environment, and honestly setbacks have only caused me to enjoy the hobby more because I get thrown into a forced mindset of learning.

That being said: hydros vs apex, or more specifically, apex a3 pro set up or hydros x10 (IV and maven whenever it comes out)?

Key factors are: trends of parameter monitoring (alk, pH, salinity, temp), redundancy, and away from home peace of mind, especially with sump water level monitoring and ability to act if leaks occur.

Bonuses are: auto feeding, phosphate monitoring, and price

My current set up involves all plugs connected to smart outlets I have connected to google home, weekly all parameters check with hannas ans water changes and almost daily checking with alkalinity + all for reef dosing.

If you have anything help you value or key differences you notice I'd also love to hear them.

I have a couple of X10's. I did have one setup stand alone for a while and used it with a iV. I also used a simple doser with it for the drain doser so I could use two of the dosers for dosing All For Reef and a KH buffer. The other 2 I used with the iV for the fill pump and the reagent pump. The X10 does not have AC outlets so if you need those then the XP8, Start or Launch would be a good addition to it. On the Hydros you can create a collective with more than one controller. A collective acts like one large controller that is the sum of all member controllers. They share input and output data over the command bus with each other so you can use inputs or outputs from other controllers to control and output. So when need more of an input or output just get the controller that beat suits your needs and a command bus cable. If this is the first controller you are adding you will need to get a couple of terminators also but 2 terminators is all you will need per collective. Hope this info helps.

 

[Redemptioner]

Hey I want to hear everyone's thoughts on the hydros vs apex current debate. After 2 used tank splits and my friend losing several torches when he left for the weekend, I'm looking for some redundancy and safety measures.

I am running on rather limited space (1 bedroom apartment with fiancé) and have a IM NUVO ext 75. I work in the medical field and will shortly within the next year or so be at the point where I can't rely solely on myself for tank maintenance and safety. This includes traveling, on call shifts, and unknown hours. I have fallen in love with reefing (long time freshwater guy) in almost all regards, even dealing with the parameters of an isolated environment, and honestly setbacks have only caused me to enjoy the hobby more because I get thrown into a forced mindset of learning.

That being said: hydros vs apex, or more specifically, apex a3 pro set up or hydros x10 (IV and maven whenever it comes out)?

Key factors are: trends of parameter monitoring (alk, pH, salinity, temp), redundancy, and away from home peace of mind, especially with sump water level monitoring and ability to act if leaks occur.

Bonuses are: auto feeding, phosphate monitoring, and price

My current set up involves all plugs connected to smart outlets I have connected to google home, weekly all parameters check with hannas ans water changes and almost daily checking with alkalinity + all for reef dosing.

If you have anything help you value or key differences you notice I'd also love to hear them.

Comes down to what you put as higher priorities such as:

Live dashboards - Apex (Hydros times out after a minute or so and then displays static non info)
Custom Dashboards - Apex hands down beats Hydros (Hydros not even in the same league)
Additional Displays - Apex (a number of commercial options)
Custom triggers/if/then/when/timers/%/maths etc - Apex (mostly not possible on Hydros)
Custom Analogue inputs - Hydros (but still very limited on both)
Custom Digital Inputs - Apex (only because you can "code" the use of other non-brand devices)
Available Branded Devices - Hydros (recently swung to Hydros and seems the gap is increasing)
Simplicity to do basic setup - Much the same
Integration with Pumps - Apex (mostly due to wireless control and better scheduling and flow patterns, more options with hydros though)
Quality of Products - Hydros (although slow out of the gate with many design errors and DOA's, the newer devices have been learning from some of these mistakes and DOA's have fallen off)
Parts and Availability - Apex (they just been around for a long time and in every country)
Support Groups & Service - Apex (don't mention "the war" around hydros)
Warranty - Both are same, depending on your country and who you are dealing with can play a lot into that factor (who has the better reputation for warranties, BRS or CoralVue?)
Complete Ecosystem - Still sits with Apex, not only is there a full spectrum of integrated devices across a number of brands, you can pretty much script any outcome you desire control wise, but this can come with a pretty steep learning curve initially.


At first I though you said you were running everything off home asset, in which case don't go near any of these hobby aquarium controllers and take yourself shopping at Atlas Scientific. After taking another look I see it was google home, so I can see why you are looking.

Based on your post, and assuming you are not using any pumps with either controllers associated/integrated products or Ecotech/AI products, you are probably better off with a Hydros Launch and possible and XS for some extra sensors (or an X4 for an additional pH & ORP probe, you should always use dual pH probes for continuously immersed pH readings). The IV is a waste of time as the "engineers" don't understand the difference between electronic isolation and ground isolation, so grab the Alkatronic for the Alk testing (as it integrates wirelessly via cloud) or wait for the Maven (if it ever comes out, a theme with hydros product releases).

You didn't mention any dosing so the X10 is not worth getting if that is the case. If you need to dose later on however, then use the minno or blenny as it makes little sense to pay the expense of the X10 for stepper motors unless you plan to use it on a tiny tank (to deliver 0.1ml doses) or on your spicy tomato hydroponics grow (where the dose heads run continuously triggered on and off by pH and salinity).

 

[n2585722]

Comes down to what you put as higher priorities such as:

Live dashboards - Apex (Hydros times out after a minute or so and then displays static non info)
Custom Dashboards - Apex hands down beats Hydros (Hydros not even in the same league)
Additional Displays - Apex (a number of commercial options)
Custom triggers/if/then/when/timers/%/maths etc - Apex (mostly not possible on Hydros)
Custom Analogue inputs - Hydros (but still very limited on both)
Custom Digital Inputs - Apex (only because you can "code" the use of other non-brand devices)
Available Branded Devices - Hydros (recently swung to Hydros and seems the gap is increasing)
Simplicity to do basic setup - Much the same
Integration with Pumps - Apex (mostly due to wireless control and better scheduling and flow patterns, more options with hydros though)
Quality of Products - Hydros (although slow out of the gate with many design errors and DOA's, the newer devices have been learning from some of these mistakes and DOA's have fallen off)
Parts and Availability - Apex (they just been around for a long time and in every country)
Support Groups & Service - Apex (don't mention "the war" around hydros)
Warranty - Both are same, depending on your country and who you are dealing with can play a lot into that factor (who has the better reputation for warranties, BRS or CoralVue?)
Complete Ecosystem - Still sits with Apex, not only is there a full spectrum of integrated devices across a number of brands, you can pretty much script any outcome you desire control wise, but this can come with a pretty steep learning curve initially.


At first I though you said you were running everything off home asset, in which case don't go near any of these hobby aquarium controllers and take yourself shopping at Atlas Scientific. After taking another look I see it was google home, so I can see why you are looking.

Based on your post, and assuming you are not using any pumps with either controllers associated/integrated products or Ecotech/AI products, you are probably better off with a Hydros Launch and possible and XS for some extra sensors (or an X4 for an additional pH & ORP probe, you should always use dual pH probes for continuously immersed pH readings). The IV is a waste of time as the "engineers" don't understand the difference between electronic isolation and ground isolation, so grab the Alkatronic for the Alk testing (as it integrates wirelessly via cloud) or wait for the Maven (if it ever comes out, a theme with hydros product releases).

You didn't mention any dosing so the X10 is not worth getting if that is the case. If you need to dose later on however, then use the minno or blenny as it makes little sense to pay the expense of the X10 for stepper motors unless you plan to use it on a tiny tank (to deliver 0.1ml doses) or on your spicy tomato hydroponics grow (where the dose heads run continuously triggered on and off by pH and salinity).

I have 3 water level sensors connected to my X4 that use NXP pressure sensors Those are not Hydros and that was the original reason I got the Hydros is for the 0-10v inputs on it. I also have button boxes I built on the remaining 0-10f input on my X4. I also have 10 float switches on the sense port and those are not Hydros either. I had those connected to my Archon when I was using it as a controller. I did have to get the connectors used on the Hydros controllers and install them on the float switches. I also control three of the Apex Pmups for dispensing DI or fresh salt water to containers as needed and also for transferring the contents of my mix tank to the fresh saltwater reservoir when it goes low. Those are powered off a Kraken 24v output. So you can do a lot of DIY with the inputs and outputs on the Hydros. Below is a screenshot of the inputs in the garage where my mixing station is at. The second screenshot is the input setup for one of the water level inputs. This is the one for the DI water level. The levels are in percentage of full the containers are at. The setup for the other 2 are very similar. The third screenshot is for the DI dispense push button input. That push button applies 1volt on that input when pressed. The other push buttons are attached to the same input but apply a different voltage to the input.