I could only imagine what it is like trying to explain programming language and programmable logic to the general public, day in and day out. And, they are still better than the industrial automation companies that charge you $1,000 a year for programming software license and tech support.
Frankly the best skimmer I owned was a tunze. Only down side is that it's hell to dial in on the water height/ DC speed for skimming.
It took my Red Sea skimmer a bit to break in. I am still opening the water volume a bit more once a week. But I heard from a little bird they are coming out with a new version... Probably a Sicce DC model that you can control in app.
IDK why DC models gotta be so expensive and very few available.
I'm about 90% sure I'm gonna smash this red sea with a hammer and get a Tunze or some dc model. All I did was a tank transfer and its been doing this. My nitrates are 20 and phos are .15. I need this thing to work. My Tunze 9012 was dialed in in a 3-4 days.
My water level is at the little sticker on the adjuster. When I first put it in, it was going crazy. I did the old open the valve and let it run. Did that for a week and nothing. Talked to the RedSea rep at RAP and he said let it run in a five gallon bucket. Well I pretty much did that. I like you pretty much gave up. I just turned it off for a couple weeks. I decided to give it another chance and then it started working. My theory (I also did a tank transfer) is I just didn’t have enough proteins etc in my tank yet. Now like I said I am turning up the water level inside the skimmer every few days. I am getting a pretty dry skim now. Wouldn’t like a bit more wet.
To top off the cake the valve at the drain leaks. It leaked all over my floor. I emailed red sea. This is pathetic and apparently Maxspect makes these skimmers.
I have an Avast Marine Kalk stirrer. 99% of positive things to say about it. The 1% is mere annoyance factor..that I can live with.
I'm happy with $20 Eheim feeders that have worked reliably for years. Basically the same thing anyway. I have no idea why somebody would need a controllable feeder. It's a set it and forget it thing... at least until the food runs out!
OMG I so remember being a teen and doing that same **** at Sears in the early 90s. Then locking down the systems so the sales people could not fix it... Oh man I have not thought of doing that in decades, wow lol.
Oh I plan to switch form my Red Sea Skimmer and IceCap K2 for Tunex models. So like them. Just hate that the Tunez does not have drain ports.
Almost exactly my experience. Having an aquarium controller attracts control freaks, and that simply isn't going to work. Best to acknowledge the limitations of expensive, not necessarily overpriced (how much is it worth to you if it saves your tank because you received a notification), hobby-grade gear. Apex is good/adequate for certain tasks e.g; turning on outlets, giving notifications, and providing temp data. Not so good at others; "salinity probes," and a host of other accessories/add-ons that the company is making most of its profit on. Having tried out some of the other products in this space, as well as their other products (gyre pumps), I can attest to the fact that the UI is unreliable and you may not even be able to log into the app half the time (same experience as you, same product line). While they purport to provide alternatives with benefits, you only get the benefits if the product actually works and is controllable; something I haven't seen as of yet. I have a lot of Apex gear and try to stick to the stuff I consider above average and have few problems, although something does occasionally pop up. I stay away from flow monitoring, salinity monitoring, cheapo lighting, and feeders personally since I think that they either don't matter to me, or I've found a better solution. To each his own.Unfortunately I haven't found a system yet, that works as well as an android phone (yes, that was intentional.... Androids are as easy as iphone, just different.)
That said, I have the Apex Classic, that's going on 8 years old. I replaced the lab grade PH probe once in the last 8 years. Only because the original was dry for a year. It probably needs replacing. I don't really want to spend $100 on a probe and the readings are consistent. If it's off it's off, it's at least consistently telling me information. Salinity probes are crap on all systems from what I've read. Hobby grade, is not lab grade... It's does it work with some accuracy over time? Maybe?
I have the Hydros Wave Engine for my 4 gyres and initially it was easy to setup all the programs and control. After several updates, firmware updates, etc. I am no longer able to change my original programming of the gyres. I just wanted to decrease the speed at which they run during the day (right after cleaning them it was too high... lol). I am no longer able to configure them and need to reach out to support. Which I'm too lazy to do.
I can still use the feed mode, which is great, but if I ever need to reprogram them, I may have to factory reset everything and hope I can reprogram them then or I just turned the wave engine into a calm lake engine.
I'm not for or against Apex. It has worked for me but pretty much all I have it doing is turning outlets on and off. And I realized the other day I have it controlling one dosing pump, and for the most part, everything is just set to on.... The only thing it has helped me with is notifying me of power outages or disconnects from the network. Which has been incredibly useful. At the same time my $40 Wyze cams can pretty much do that for me too. So, could one get by with a few timers and power strips for $100. Probably. Can you see PH and temp anytime of day from anywhere with those? No.
I do wish alk, calcium, and mg monitoring were a lot easier and didn't require reagents. Monitoring those hourly and daily would be a huge bonus with a couple probes would then make whomever comes out with that way ahead of the game. That said, the technology isn't there yet.. While we're dreaming, I'd love an aquarium monitoring system that measured uptake - consumption of alk, calcium, and mg, hourly, to see trends in coral growth and help determine what environments are ideal for our critters. Monitoring of Nitrates and phosphates hourly would be great too.
An Aquarium analytics engine would be amazing. We have buoys in the ocean that monitor things like this, but, nothing for the hobby. I'd love to get a message on my phone that says, hey, you're aquarium water is running low on potassium, recommended dosage of your current potassium solution is 10 ml, would you like me to dose 10 ml of potassium solution?
"Why, yes, I would, please do.... "
Then, auto wait for an hour, and report back "Potassium levels have returned to normal, no further intervention needed."
Oh, yeah, that reminds me, trace element monitoring would be great as well (just for the most common ones). With out data, I feel the aquarium automation systems are severely lacking. But, it truly comes down to requirements. I need information that no aquarium system provides. So, would I by an Apex or Hydros system again? I'm honestly not sure. I may just monitor with wyze cams when I'm gone and call it good.
I'm a visionary though. I feel we should be able to do a lot more with the technology we have, but I may be thinking ahead of my lifetime as well... Some of what I'm suggesting may not be profitable...
