BIG AND LOUD CONTROLLER COMPARISON THREAD

[Daniel@R2R]

Ok! Let's talk controllers! Throw 'em into the ring and have 'em keep swinging until only 1 is still getting back up! Just kidding (well about that last bit anyway )...but I do want to see some comparisons of different controller options! Tell us why you like yours.

RULE for this thread: PLEASE be sure to include some comparison statements in your post! So you should tell us why you like yours MORE or maybe why X controller is ALSO a good option, etc. I'm hoping to see pros and cons.

The controllers I can think of right off that could be compared are the following:

• Neptune Apex
• Digital Aquatics Reef Keeper
• Digital Aquatics Archon
• GHL Profilux
• Vertex Cerebra
• Puratek Insight 24/7
• Reef Angel

Feel free to point out if I'm forgetting some that should be included.

 

[DarkSky]

Vertex Cerebra

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Vertex Cerebra

Why? Remember there has to be comparison in the post.

 

[DarkSky]

Oh, I was just listing one since you forgot it.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Oh, I was just listing one since you forgot it.

DOH! How did I forget that one!? Adding now! That's actually one of the 2 I'm thinking about buying right now! Thanks for pointing it out!

 

[ebushrow]

Waiting for my new ghl to arrive ... hopefully it will ship soon...then I'll be able to update you.

 

[DarkSky]

Well, I guess I'll start.

I have a Cerebra. This was the first controller I've had, so I can't offer comparisons between one device and another; but I can offer my opinions about the device.

I currently have a pH and temperature probe hooked up to it, I plan to get a salinity probe once they're available.

This is how I have my head unit setup. Since it is so large, bulky, and sharp (?!) I keep it in the cabinet next to my tank. I have the screen timeout and sleep after a period of inactivity since it is in the cabinet and not on display. I'm hoping the'll eventually have a way to export the parameters from the unit so you can display them in a more sleek way (like a tablet or stand alone screen).

Programming was very simple. I bounced back and forth between an Apex and the Cerebra when I was considering purchasing a controller, I was trying to find a local used Apex but when that fell through and the "beta" pricing for the Cerebras was announced I jumped on board. I'm a software developer by day so I wasn't worried about programming the rules for the Apex, but it is nice to be able to simply check a few boxes in order to program an outlet.

The power bars are huge. You can see the size of them here - each of the six outlets has a corresponding LED that lights up when the outlet is in use or not. I just rewired the cabinet so things are not mounted yet, but I'm planning to have the bars mounted on the back panel of the cabinet so I can see the LEDs more clearly when I have the door open. The probes and 1-10v ports are on the left "multibar". The bar on the right is a standard power bar. Both connect to the head unit via USB. You can program "fallback" states into each outlet so if they lose connection to the had unit for any reason, they'll resort to either ON/OFF depending on what you choose.

This is my dashboard. I keep it clean, two buttons - one for clean mode which shuts off pretty much everything in the tank so I can do water changes or whatever maintenance I need to do. I have it programmed to end after 2 hours - if for whatever reason that gets pressed accidentally and I don't realize it'll kick everything back on. Thankfully none of my maintenance tasks have taken longer than that yet, I'll probably resort to unplugging it if that happens.

For each of the probe buttons, you can click and configure alerts for each of the ranges - when my temperature dips below 77 or above 80 it flashes orange. pH is the same - below 8 and above 8.5.
The temperature probe drives my two heaters, I have a rule set up to kill them once the tank reaches 79F. The temperatures are set for 80F on the heaters, so the Cerebra controls them. I plan to configure my pH probe to control my alk and calcium dosing - if it dips above or below the limits I want to kill the dosing and alert me.

This screen is a swipe down from the one above. I keep all of the plugs on a separate screen - you can click any of them to configure rules, default states or statuses. The Left MP40 is flashing because its power usage is above what I set for an alert- the motor unit is starting to make a grinding noise and the bearings will need to be replaced soon. The Cerebra is telling me that it is using more power than it should so if I wasn't able to hear it so clearly I'd know something is up.

Same goes for the heaters - if they're supposed to be on and aren't using any power or they're on and are using an abnormally large amount of power I'll get an alert.

This is the screen that shows after you click an outlet. I'm checking out my alk doser - you can see where I set up the fallback state (off if it can't connect to the head unit) - power usage alerts, and rules. There is some more set up stuff above this, like naming and a few other options I can't think of off the top of my head.

Here's the time based rules I have set up for my dosers. Every three hours (8 times a day) I dose for 2 1/2 minutes of alk. I'm running a fairly new SPS tank so my needs aren't that high yet. As my dosing demands increase I can simply increase the amount of time these windows will run for.

Setting this all up was fairly easy. If I didn't know how to write code or didn't know the first thing about setting up a controller, this would be an easy unit to learn.

My gripes? I have a few.

The design - sharp plastic corners, the head unit is huge and bulky for no real reason (the back of the unit is recessed, I'm guessing they just used the same stuff that they made the power bars out of).

Android 2.3.*. It using a really old version of Android, and the unit depends on having super user access to the operating system to work. There are a bunch of security flaws in this operating system that have since been patched, but I'm not sure if this unit will ever see an update to the OS.

The hardware running the unit is dog slow. I'm not sure what variant of CPU/GPU they're using, but it reacts very slowly. Might be the operating system, might be the very slow SD card that the OS is installed on. Many people suggest reflashing a new SD card and getting one of the fastest ones possible to make the thing feel more snappy.

The screen. They say they went with a resistive touch screen instead of a capacitive screen like our smartphones have so you can use it with wet fingers - I'm not sure I really believe that too much. Resistive screens are much cheaper because frankly they suck to use. My phone has a capacitive screen, it's waterproof, and I have no issue using it when I'm sitting in a pool.

Lack of updates on the forums. There is supposed to be an announcement about fixes coming for a lot of common issues sometime this month. I know they said it is a 'beta' program, but at times this feels like an alpha, not a beta.

Overall? I'm still happy with my decision. I hope they decide to shrink the unit down, it doesn't need to be so large. Do away with the danged sharp edges - how'd this make it out of the R&D phase? Make OS updates a priority. Put some decent hardware in the head unit so it doesn't feel like I'm using grandma's PC.

Would I recommend it? Sure. Just make sure you have room for it and a willingness to look over the occasional annoyance.

Now for the comparison.

I said this was the first controller I've owned - and that's true. I have however set up an Apex for a friend - programming is the only thing that he can't do and relied on me to do it. Anytime he makes a change (and he's a tinkerer so it happens a lot) he needs me to help write rules for him. If he had a Cerebra, he could do it himself. I've tried teaching him how to write his own rules, showing him places to get help, but as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

The Apex is a lot more stable and mature. I like new tech and being on the bleeding edge, he is the opposite and wants everything to just work without hassle.

I hope that small comparison helps.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Well, I guess I'll start.

I have a Cerebra. This was the first controller I've had, so I can't offer comparisons between one device and another; but I can offer my opinions about the device.

I currently have a pH and temperature probe hooked up to it, I plan to get a salinity probe once they're available.

This is how I have my head unit setup. Since it is so large, bulky, and sharp (?!) I keep it in the cabinet next to my tank. I have the screen timeout and sleep after a period of inactivity since it is in the cabinet and not on display. I'm hoping the'll eventually have a way to export the parameters from the unit so you can display them in a more sleek way (like a tablet or stand alone screen).

Programming was very simple. I bounced back and forth between an Apex and the Cerebra when I was considering purchasing a controller, I was trying to find a local used Apex but when that fell through and the "beta" pricing for the Cerebras was announced I jumped on board. I'm a software developer by day so I wasn't worried about programming the rules for the Apex, but it is nice to be able to simply check a few boxes in order to program an outlet.

The power bars are huge. You can see the size of them here - each of the six outlets has a corresponding LED that lights up when the outlet is in use or not. I just rewired the cabinet so things are not mounted yet, but I'm planning to have the bars mounted on the back panel of the cabinet so I can see the LEDs more clearly when I have the door open. The probes and 1-10v ports are on the left "multibar". The bar on the right is a standard power bar. Both connect to the head unit via USB. You can program "fallback" states into each outlet so if they lose connection to the had unit for any reason, they'll resort to either ON/OFF depending on what you choose.

This is my dashboard. I keep it clean, two buttons - one for clean mode which shuts off pretty much everything in the tank so I can do water changes or whatever maintenance I need to do. I have it programmed to end after 2 hours - if for whatever reason that gets pressed accidentally and I don't realize it'll kick everything back on. Thankfully none of my maintenance tasks have taken longer than that yet, I'll probably resort to unplugging it if that happens.

For each of the probe buttons, you can click and configure alerts for each of the ranges - when my temperature dips below 77 or above 80 it flashes orange. pH is the same - below 8 and above 8.5.
The temperature probe drives my two heaters, I have a rule set up to kill them once the tank reaches 79F. The temperatures are set for 80F on the heaters, so the Cerebra controls them. I plan to configure my pH probe to control my alk and calcium dosing - if it dips above or below the limits I want to kill the dosing and alert me.

This screen is a swipe down from the one above. I keep all of the plugs on a separate screen - you can click any of them to configure rules, default states or statuses. The Left MP40 is flashing because its power usage is above what I set for an alert- the motor unit is starting to make a grinding noise and the bearings will need to be replaced soon. The Cerebra is telling me that it is using more power than it should so if I wasn't able to hear it so clearly I'd know something is up.

Same goes for the heaters - if they're supposed to be on and aren't using any power or they're on and are using an abnormally large amount of power I'll get an alert.

This is the screen that shows after you click an outlet. I'm checking out my alk doser - you can see where I set up the fallback state (off if it can't connect to the head unit) - power usage alerts, and rules. There is some more set up stuff above this, like naming and a few other options I can't think of off the top of my head.

Here's the time based rules I have set up for my dosers. Every three hours (8 times a day) I dose for 2 1/2 minutes of alk. I'm running a fairly new SPS tank so my needs aren't that high yet. As my dosing demands increase I can simply increase the amount of time these windows will run for.

Setting this all up was fairly easy. If I didn't know how to write code or didn't know the first thing about setting up a controller, this would be an easy unit to learn.

My gripes? I have a few.

The design - sharp plastic corners, the head unit is huge and bulky for no real reason (the back of the unit is recessed, I'm guessing they just used the same stuff that they made the power bars out of).

Android 2.3.*. It using a really old version of Android, and the unit depends on having super user access to the operating system to work. There are a bunch of security flaws in this operating system that have since been patched, but I'm not sure if this unit will ever see an update to the OS.

The hardware running the unit is dog slow. I'm not sure what variant of CPU/GPU they're using, but it reacts very slowly. Might be the operating system, might be the very slow SD card that the OS is installed on. Many people suggest reflashing a new SD card and getting one of the fastest ones possible to make the thing feel more snappy.

The screen. They say they went with a resistive touch screen instead of a capacitive screen like our smartphones have so you can use it with wet fingers - I'm not sure I really believe that too much. Resistive screens are much cheaper because frankly they suck to use. My phone has a capacitive screen, it's waterproof, and I have no issue using it when I'm sitting in a pool.

Lack of updates on the forums. There is supposed to be an announcement about fixes coming for a lot of common issues sometime this month. I know they said it is a 'beta' program, but at times this feels like an alpha, not a beta.

Overall? I'm still happy with my decision. I hope they decide to shrink the unit down, it doesn't need to be so large. Do away with the danged sharp edges - how'd this make it out of the R&D phase? Make OS updates a priority. Put some decent hardware in the head unit so it doesn't feel like I'm using grandma's PC.

Would I recommend it? Sure. Just make sure you have room for it and a willingness to look over the occasional annoyance.

Now for the comparison.

I said this was the first controller I've owned - and that's true. I have however set up an Apex for a friend - programming is the only thing that he can't do and relied on me to do it. Anytime he makes a change (and he's a tinkerer so it happens a lot) he needs me to help write rules for him. If he had a Cerebra, he could do it himself. I've tried teaching him how to write his own rules, showing him places to get help, but as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

The Apex is a lot more stable and mature. I like new tech and being on the bleeding edge, he is the opposite and wants everything to just work without hassle.

I hope that small comparison helps.

Awesome post!!!!!

 

[TbyZ]

When will the winner be announced?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

When will the winner be announced?

When the losers stop moving?

 

[jenreefer]

Ok! Let's talk controllers! Throw 'em into the ring and have 'em keep swinging until only 1 is still getting back up! Just kidding (well about that last bit anyway )...but I do want to see some comparisons of different controller options! Tell us why you like yours.

RULE for this thread: PLEASE be sure to include some comparison statements in your post! So you should tell us why you like yours MORE or maybe why X controller is ALSO a good option, etc. I'm hoping to see pros and cons.

The controllers I can think of right off that could be compared are the following:

• Neptune Apex
• Digital Aquatics Reef Keeper
• Digital Aquatics Archon
• GHL Profilux
• Vertex Cerebra
• Puratek Insight 24/7
• Reef Angel

Feel free to point out if I'm forgetting some that should be included.

following. controller will be my next big purchase.

 

[joekool]

As I have not owned any other devices but I have looked at many. The Neptune APEX is the one I went with. Especially after being able to see one in use. To bad more shops don't have them setup for show. I do like the APEX the most for ease of use. Don't let it fool you on the easy part this is a very well thought out controller and all the products are high quality. I have seen a few that don't seem to be on par with APEX.
Neptune APEX is what I use. Very easy to program and control from anywhere you can get a internet connection around the world.
Solid products. Expand to control as many tanks or things you want. DOS is awesome so easy to control dosing. I could go on and on. I'll make a video.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Neptune APEX is what I use. Very easy to program and control from anywhere you can get a internet connection around the world.
Solid products. Expand to control as many tanks or things you want. DOS is awesome so easy to control dosing. I could go on and on. I'll make a video.

Awesome! So what led you to Apex over some of the other controller options?

 

[joekool]

Quality. Customer service @Terence is awesome. They don't just release a product without thoroughly testing it. Never had a hiccup with any device.
Control from anywhere in the world (where there is internet of course). Although my system is the previous model because they just came out with a new system It's perfect. The new system is even better mainly because the power strip includes a lot of the power connections for the new devices like wave or the DOS I highly recommend people checking out the new Neptune Apex. Although I have to use the network cable on mine they worked very hard to make the Wi-Fi on the new device work perfectly.

Just very well thought out.

 

[Terence]

@mdbannister - what might be helpful here might be to list off things the people see as critical features in an aquarium controller of today. Things that actually exist - not promised. Here are some things I know that people love about the Apex and see as critical: cloud based access of your aquarium on any device, easy to set up alerts by email, text, or iOS alert, smart accessories and products, the slew of pre-certified 3rd party Apex Ready devices, individual outlet power monitoring (watts) with alerts and function control based on it, tens of thousands of fellow Apex users to share information with, and Heartbeat (now in beta, set to release this week) - a way for you to know, when you are away from home, that your Apex has gone offline for any reason. Put some of these key features side by side with screenshots. It would be very helpful.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

@mdbannister - what might be helpful here might be to list off things the people see as critical features in an aquarium controller of today. Things that actually exist - not promised. Here are some things I know that people love about the Apex and see as critical: cloud based access of your aquarium on any device, easy to set up alerts by email, text, or iOS alert, smart accessories and products, the slew of pre-certified 3rd party Apex Ready devices, individual outlet power monitoring (watts) with alerts and function control based on it, tens of thousands of fellow Apex users to share information with, and Heartbeat (now in beta, set to release this week) - a way for you to know, when you are away from home, that your Apex has gone offline for any reason. Put some of these key features side by side with screenshots. It would be very helpful.

Absolutely!! Thanks @Terence. This is basically what I'm going for with this thread (though I think maybe you said it better than I did). I'm hoping we can see some statements about favorite features along controller users and what tipped the scale in favor of the controller they bought (or the one they wish they had bought). I appreciate your input in the thread very much! It's very helpful to know what you've seen are the favorite functions among Apex users.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I would actually love to see a comparison chart that shows features available on different controller options, etc. Maybe I'll make one at some point after I've done quite a bit more research.

 

[d2mini]

I wouldn't go near Cerebra for years.
No way I'm entrusting thousands of dollars worth of livestock to a brand new controller... and in beta. But maybe that's just me.

It would be kinda hard to compare features since most of the big ones can do more than you'd ever need or think of.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I wouldn't go near Cerebra for years.
No way I'm entrusting thousands of dollars worth of livestock to a brand new controller... and in beta. But maybe that's just me.

It would be kinda hard to compare features since most of the big ones can do more than you'd ever need or think of.

Maybe compare most popular features then? For example, look at expandability (not just can it be done, but what's involved), programming, available accessories, interfacing options, etc.

 

[Terence]

I think if you want something useful, and to keep it real, you should limit information to what is shipping, not what is promised. By Neptune or any other brand.