GHL ProfiLux Controller (4/4e) – Quick Tutorial – How to Configure Feed Pause for Your Skimmer

Ditto · May 22, 2019

It is that time another #GHL quick video tutorial

I have a few advanced ones are on the way to explain program Logic, and Vortech Control. If you have certain things you would like to see covered please let me know

ChrisW · May 22, 2019

Ditto said:
It is that time another #GHL quick video tutorial

I have a few advanced ones are on the way to explain program Logic, and Vortech Control. If you have certain things you would like to see covered please let me know

Thanks @Ditto, you and @Ohashimz have absolutely confirmed what I was already thinking about GHL v. Apex. I've purchased a few Apex pieces already but bought them all on the second hand market so I havent invested too much into it, so switching wont hurt too much financially. Reading about @Ohashimz 's vast pile of incompatible, outdated, no-longer-supported Apex parts is just proof that their focus and business strategy is not where it should be. I'm sure hes not the only one out there w/ controllers and modules that have been regulated to the bin in the garage. Thanks for spotlighting GHL and educating myself and hopefully others of the other options out there, I was initially not aware of when I started this hobby

tdhnry · May 22, 2019

Great vid. Very helpful. Quick question, most people prefer to stagger their skimmers restart time from their main pump (5-10mins) after their main pumps resumes. How would you do that?

vhuang168 · May 22, 2019

ChrisW said:
Reading about @Ohashimz 's vast pile of incompatible, outdated, no-longer-supported Apex parts is just proof that their focus and business strategy is not where it should be. I'm sure hes not the only one out there w/ controllers and modules that have been regulated to the bin in the garage.

Just wanted to point out that not every thing in his pile is incompatible, outdated or no-longer-supported. The ONLY thing that even remotely can be considered outdated or incompatible is the Apex base unit he has. It is not compatible with the new EB832 or the Trident. The Apex Classic is still being supported, and is compatible with everything else other than the 2 fore-mentioned pieces of equipment. Everything else in his 'pile' is compatible, current and fully supported in the Apex ecosystem.

road_runner · May 22, 2019

vhuang168 said:
Just wanted to point out that not every thing in his pile is incompatible, outdated or no-longer-supported. The ONLY thing that even remotely can be considered outdated or incompatible is the Apex base unit he has. It is not compatible with the new EB832 or the Trident. The Apex Classic is still being supported, and is compatible with everything else other than the 2 fore-mentioned pieces of equipment. Everything else in his 'pile' is compatible, current and fully supported in the Apex ecosystem.

Agreed,
I described couple of things that made me switch. Not only incompatibility.
Keep in mind this was in my case..others might be ok or feel better about some of the problems I described.

I described:
1- throwing away modules, probs and products due to reliability or work quality. Like the atk, fmm, flow meters, probs..these were not reliable or not working properly. I broke the cycle and did not buy dos or wave which both had their fair share of reported issues either at the early days as in dos, or later as in wav.

2- throwing away modules for being obsolete like the leak detection after the release of the 1link, the 1link after release of the atk. The atk after release of fmm. To me Neptune road map seemed to be confusing and around boosting module sales than integration to reduce complexity.... another example is the dos..I never understood why it's only 2 heads...I have to buy 2 dos to get similar function of most dosers...

3- throwing away base units for the lack of support... old apex jr for apex then apex classic..etc... I broke the cycle and did not buy the 2016 apex required to support trident.
If I compare to GHL as an example, when they released the kh director. They offered it as a stand alone or in conjunction of their P4 controller. This way users were able to add kh director even if they did not want to buy the conteoller or upgrade it.
Another example in their doser. You can operate ghl doser stand alone even if you do not have their controller or do not want to upgrade the conteoller...for me this showed trend of inclusion from GHL...

4- was tired of programing and coding. Ghl for me was better out of box, no more coding.

5- probs reading stability, that was a big deal for me. Apex probs were just not accurate. Salinity and ph keep drifting, no matter what I did, it will never be safe source of accurate reading. GHL probs were reported to be solid and so far this seems to be the case.

6- with apex I had many wires many modules. With ghl, one box replaced all the modules and the wires. So it was much cleaner solution for me.
Another example the doser in apex is just ridiculous. So big. Only 2 heads... while GHL doser much better design and 4 heads.

7- finally road map. While Neptune just launched trident which is yet to be seen how accurate, how cost effective and how reliable it is. While they forced user on daily testing for parameters that we really do not need to test even monthly... GHL is launching ION based probs and testing. This looked for me more future proof and worth the investment. It just looked to me the future of testing..

These were my decision practicsl factors...without talking about other factors not so objective factors...

vhuang168 · May 22, 2019

I'll respond to this but this is not the post to hash this out. Feel free to pm me or in a new post.

Ohashimz said:
Agreed,
I described couple of things that made me switch. Not only incompatibility.
Keep in mind this was in my case..others might be ok or feel better about some of the problems I described.

I described:
1- throwing away modules, probs and products due to reliability or work quality. Like the atk, fmm, flow meters, probs..these were not reliable or not working properly. I broke the cycle and did not buy dos or wave which both had their fair share of reported issues either at the early days as in dos, or later as in wav.

2- throwing away modules for being obsolete like the leak detection after the release of the 1link, the 1link after release of the atk. The atk after release of fmm. To me Neptune road map seemed to be confusing and around boosting module sales than integration to reduce complexity.... another example is the dos..I never understood why it's only 2 heads...I have to buy 2 dos to get similar function of most dosers...

3- throwing away base units for the lack of support... old apex jr for apex then apex classic..etc... I broke the cycle and did not buy the 2016 apex required to support trident.
If I compare to GHL as an example, when they released the kh director. They offered it as a stand alone or in conjunction of their P4 controller. This way users were able to add kh director even if they did not want to buy the conteoller or upgrade it.
Another example in their doser. You can operate ghl doser stand alone even if you do not have their controller or do not want to upgrade the conteoller...for me this showed trend of inclusion from GHL...

4- was tired of programing and coding. Ghl for me was better out of box, no more coding.

5- probs reading stability, that was a big deal for me. Apex probs were just not accurate. Salinity and ph keep drifting, no matter what I did, it will never be safe source of accurate reading. GHL probs were reported to be solid and so far this seems to be the case.

6- with apex I had many wires many modules. With ghl, one box replaced all the modules and the wires. So it was much cleaner solution for me.
Another example the doser in apex is just ridiculous. So big. Only 2 heads... while GHL doser much better design and 4 heads.

1. We offered to replace the flow sensors, you declined. That was the only ticket I saw. I would be happy to look up the rest.

2. The 1Link does not replace the ALD. The 1Link provides 1Link ports for the WAV, DOS and now Trident. Has nothing to do with the ALD. The ATK uses the FMM. 1 does not replace the other. The DOS is 2 heads because ALK and CA are what is commonly dosed frequently. MAG can be dosed in bolus so you can do it manually every time you do a water change or during your regular maintenance routine. There is also the size of the motors, the DOS uses huge stepper motors vs small DC motors in other dosers.

3. The Apex Classic does not replace the Apex Jr. The Apex Jr. is a lower cost option with certain limitations. Just like the current Apex and Apex EL. Similar to other electronic devices, upgrades are necessary when the hardware has reached its limits and to move on, you have to improve the internal components.

4. Current Tasks, takes the bulk of basic programming and uses menus to help you write what you need. Advanced requirments will require more advanced programming. Yes, there is a learning curve.

5. I am sure you are aware that we don't make the probes. They are similar to other probes in the industry. pH will always drift up and down during the day. Salinity or rather conductivity is prone to interference because it measure conductivity. Stray voltage, EMI, bubbles etc All can contribute to fluctuations in the readings.

6. Yes, there are wires. Wire management is an art.

Again, this is not the place to discuss this. PM me and I would be happy to carry on the discussion.

road_runner · May 22, 2019

vhuang168 said:
I'll respond to this but this is not the post to hash this out. Feel free to pm me or in a new post.

1. We offered to replace the flow sensors, you declined. That was the only ticket I saw. I would be happy to look up the rest.

2. The 1Link does not replace the ALD. The 1Link provides 1Link ports for the WAV, DOS and now Trident. Has nothing to do with the ALD. The ATK uses the FMM. 1 does not replace the other. The DOS is 2 heads because ALK and CA are what is commonly dosed frequently. MAG can be dosed in bolus so you can do it manually every time you do a water change or during your regular maintenance routine. There is also the size of the motors, the DOS uses huge stepper motors vs small DC motors in other dosers.

3. The Apex Classic does not replace the Apex Jr. The Apex Jr. is a lower cost option with certain limitations. Just like the current Apex and Apex EL. Similar to other electronic devices, upgrades are necessary when the hardware has reached its limits and to move on, you have to improve the internal components.

4. Current Tasks, takes the bulk of basic programming and uses menus to help you write what you need. Advanced requirments will require more advanced programming. Yes, there is a learning curve.

5. I am sure you are aware that we don't make the probes. They are similar to other probes in the industry. pH will always drift up and down during the day. Salinity or rather conductivity is prone to interference because it measure conductivity. Stray voltage, EMI, bubbles etc All can contribute to fluctuations in the readings.

6. Yes, there are wires. Wire management is an art.

Again, this is not the place to discuss this. PM me and I would be happy to carry on the discussion.

100% credit is due. You guys offered to replace the flowmeter. Only problem is, flow.keter is plumbed in my setup. It was not worth it to change it given we do not know for sure if the new one will work or not. At least on my end it was not really clear.

As for probs I agree with you. It's a matter of which prob each company is buying I guess..that said, for end customer, it do not matter thu..right?...what matters is the quality customer is seeing.

Agreed on most of your other points. As I said earlier, my factors might or might not be relevant to others...

Thanks for your reply.

Ditto · May 22, 2019

tdhnry said:
Great vid. Very helpful. Quick question, most people prefer to stagger their skimmers restart time from their main pump (5-10mins) after their main pumps resumes. How would you do that?

This requires the use of advance program logic, which is all done through drop down menu's no coding required. I am about to release a few videos specific to program logic, but I did ask was there something you would like covered

So this video is for you enjoy!!

GHL ProfiLux Controller (4/4e) – Quick Tutorial – Advance Program Logic Delayed On

Ditto · May 22, 2019

ChrisW said:
Thanks @Ditto, you and @Ohashimz have absolutely confirmed what I was already thinking about GHL v. Apex. I've purchased a few Apex pieces already but bought them all on the second hand market so I havent invested too much into it, so switching wont hurt too much financially. Reading about @Ohashimz 's vast pile of incompatible, outdated, no-longer-supported Apex parts is just proof that their focus and business strategy is not where it should be. I'm sure hes not the only one out there w/ controllers and modules that have been regulated to the bin in the garage. Thanks for spotlighting GHL and educating myself and hopefully others of the other options out there, I was initially not aware of when I started this hobby

Thank you for the kind words. I hope these videos and this thread https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/switching-controllers-from-apex-to-ghl.316106/ provide some additional insight, along with other posting found throughout these forums. I am approaching two years in July since my switch out, no regrets, and no looking back and it the best decision I ever made in doing it.