EKORAL PRO VS APEX

[ca1ore]

I'm heavily 'invested' in apex and while it's certainly not perfect I have no plans to switch. One of the main reasons I selected apex years ago was that it was an established company with (as near as I could ascertain) healthy financials. Why should you care? I know nothing about eKoral, but I am always wary of fly-by-night operations. I already have a closet full of electronics gear that are fancy paper weights because the OEM went out of business and support dried up. Just something to consider.

 

[eKoProCS]

@eKoProCS
Can the ultrasound water level sensor be used as a stand alone sensor, or does it work only with the eKoral main unit?

Hello, it only works with the eK Core.

 

[Socalreefgal]

Recently came across this thread and wanted to share my two cents. I have the eKoral Pro and I'm very happy with it and it's extremely user friendly.
I am relatively new to reefing and liked the idea of easily keeping track of my tank wherever I may be. The eKoral was easy for me to setup and install. Took me about 45 minutes from opening the box, downloading the app, calibrating the 4 probes, assigning the outlets, changing the power cords over and putting the probes in the tank. I've had it running a little over a month and have had zero issues come up. All the readings have been spot on. The first couple of weeks I doubled checked the readings with a separate thermometer, refractometer and PH testing.

I can absolutely recommend the eKoral pro.

 

[DumpInTheSump]

Have you been using it to control other equipment? It looks promising from an ease of setup perspective, but looking at the supported gear list, it seems quite limited right now. Hopefully they start adding more pumps and lights to their list.

I'm honestly pretty surprised controllers in general have un-intuitive user interfaces and they've been around for sometime. Some of the other brands need to realize they aren't making these things for other engineers. Friendly designs that are easy to understand, navigate, and help reduce the possibility of user input errors is huge.

 

[Socalreefgal]

Have you been using it to control other equipment? It looks promising from an ease of setup perspective, but looking at the supported gear list, it seems quite limited right now. Hopefully they start adding more pumps and lights to their list.

I'm honestly pretty surprised controllers in general have un-intuitive user interfaces and they've been around for sometime. Some of the other brands need to realize they aren't making these things for other engineers. Friendly designs that are easy to understand, navigate, and help reduce the possibility of user input errors is huge.

I have all my other equipment running through the eKoral power strip. I'm running an Aqumai wave maker, Mightyjet DC return pump, Eheim heater, lights and protein skimmer. I also have my ATO on it. EKoral included an ATO with their equipment, but I already had mine set up and running so I decided to wait on changing over to theirs.

It's been running everything I have quite well. You can set up "Scenes", toggle each piece of equipment individually or grouped, do "If Then" scenarios, and of course Alerts. I run the app from my iPhone x. The navigation is extremely easy and offers help along the way if needed.

I dose my tank manually and don't have a dosing pump hooked up so I can't give an opinion on that.

One more thing, I have a small tank, 32 gallon AIO and everything fits just fine.

 

[Joe Heavy]

Hello,

Would like to give some additional information on our power strip that makes it different.
1. 6 outlets that can be controlled individually
2. 6 individual power meters
3. Independent mechanical relay for each outlet
4. Over Current Protection
5. Wireless pairing to the eK core - one controller can control multiple power strips
6. 6 outlets rated at 10A. Consume a total of 10A

We are working to add more third party devices to our eKoral Sync Progam, but we do have a dosing pump that will be coming out soon.

Thank you

I am sitting here waiting for your product to get honest reviews I am patient and love new tech. So far I am impressed mainly by the wireless power strips! I run my sump in the basement and that is a very smart and useful idea! Very innovative you all did your homework! If everything goes well for you I will be a customer! Please develop a breakout box in the future to really make me smile all the way to the bank!

 

[Sunny Goold]

I am sitting here waiting for your product to get honest reviews I am patient and love new tech. So far I am impressed mainly by the wireless power strips! I run my sump in the basement and that is a very smart and useful idea! Very innovative you all did your homework! If everything goes well for you I will be a customer! Please develop a breakout box in the future to really make me smile all the way to the bank!

Yep - breakout box is crucial I think

 

[eKoProCS]

I am sitting here waiting for your product to get honest reviews I am patient and love new tech. So far I am impressed mainly by the wireless power strips! I run my sump in the basement and that is a very smart and useful idea! Very innovative you all did your homework! If everything goes well for you I will be a customer! Please develop a breakout box in the future to really make me smile all the way to the bank!

We will definitely keep your suggestion in mind!

 

[n2585722]

@eKoProCS
Are you going to be at MACNA?

 

[eKoProCS]

@eKoProCS
Are you going to be at MACNA?

Yes, we have a booth at MACNA. Please drop by if you go.

 

[n2585722]

Yes, we have a booth at MACNA. Please drop by if you go.

I plan on going.

 

[Savoury]

Wonder if I can bring this back to life? Anyone have any updates to share?

 

[Socalreefgal]

Wonder if I can bring this back to life? Anyone have any updates to share?

I still like my ekoral Pro. Since my last post I've added their dosing pump, eK Doser. And I also have added an Apex with all the bells and whistles on my 220g tank. The eKoral is a easier for the novice to use. Everything is very straight forward. I would get frustrated when I was first learning the Apex, but I have to say Apex has a fabulous community that is right there to help out.

One thing I prefer Apex over eKoral is I can easily add my tank sitter to get alerts if anything happens while I'm out of the country. I can't do that (or found a way) with eKoral.

Is there anything in particular you have a question about?

 

[eKoProCS]

I still like my ekoral Pro. Since my last post I've added their dosing pump, eK Doser. And I also have added an Apex with all the bells and whistles on my 220g tank. The eKoral is a easier for the novice to use. Everything is very straight forward. I would get frustrated when I was first learning the Apex, but I have to say Apex has a fabulous community that is right there to help out.

One thing I prefer Apex over eKoral is I can easily add my tank sitter to get alerts if anything happens while I'm out of the country. I can't do that (or found a way) with eKoral.

Is there anything in particular you have a question about?

Hello, glad to hear that you are liking the eKoral products.

Regarding sharing your tank, yes you can easily add a tank sitter on the ekoral:

• Go to the “Tanks” page
  
  
• Click “i” on the tank you want to share
  
  
• On the “Tank Info” page, below, you will see “Share tank”. Click “Add” on the right.
  
  
• Once you are on the “Share Tank” page you can put the sitter's info, as while as how much access the sitter would have to control your tank.
  

 

[J’s reefreturn]

This is really good info, I’m curious about a couple of things before I purchase a controller for my lagoon reef.
1. With more and more moving to the calcium alkalinity controllers, is there a model or feature plans that can be used with Ek Coral? I dose kalkwasser and dose two part but testing is getting a little annoying.
2. Does the ek coral doser have any users reviews ? It looks unavailable on their site today. If not available is there a doser compatible ?

 

[n2585722]

This is really good info, I’m curious about a couple of things before I purchase a controller for my lagoon reef.
1. With more and more moving to the calcium alkalinity controllers, is there a model or feature plans that can be used with Ek Coral? I dose kalkwasser and dose two part but testing is getting a little annoying.
2. Does the ek coral doser have any users reviews ? It looks unavailable on their site today. If not available is there a doser compatible ?

This was anounced on their facebook account.

NEW UPDATE
Alkatronic and KHG Dr. Bridge are now compatible with eKoral Pro!!

 

[eKoProCS]

This is really good info, I’m curious about a couple of things before I purchase a controller for my lagoon reef.
1. With more and more moving to the calcium alkalinity controllers, is there a model or feature plans that can be used with Ek Coral? I dose kalkwasser and dose two part but testing is getting a little annoying.
2. Does the ek coral doser have any users reviews ? It looks unavailable on their site today. If not available is there a doser compatible ?

Hello,
As mentioned the Alkatronic and KHG Dr. Bridge are now compatible with eKoral Pro. And regarding the eK Doser, at the moment it is available for countries with UK plugs and in some Australian reef stores. If you are looking for US plug types they will be in stock very soon.

 

[Paul Bradford]

Bringing this back again... I have the eK Doser and absolutely love it.

 

[Jerry Ebner]

I got two apex units now so I don't see myself getting ekoral

 

[OdetteDelacroix]

Revival of this thread:

eKoral probes: are third party BNC probes compatible? I have a nice standard one that fits in theory, but would it work? @eKoProCS

I just got a great deal on an eKoral Pro and I'm going to set it up soon.