GHL ProfiLux4 owners

Leadfooted · Jun 9, 2019

Thanks for peaking in. Please let me know your opinion on your ProfiLux4 including probes, bower bars, app and such.

Bj’s Reef · Jun 9, 2019

I’m following, I have an Apex controller. However I have a GHL doser that I really like so I’m thinking about switching over to the GHL controller as well.

Ditto · Jun 10, 2019

Where to start about my #GHL controller :)

With an extensive thread on my switch out here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/switching-controllers-from-apex-to-ghl.316106/ I can not say enough about GHL. And then my two year anniversary since my switch https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/switching-controllers-from-apex-to-ghl.316106/page-28#post-6094228 really sums up how I feel.

We will start with the probes, I have had no issues with my probes reading ORP, salinity, Temp, PH or Oxygen. The probes are well built, and been spot on. The power bars, are heavy, well made and even before my switch out from T5 to LX7206 lights had no problems handling them swithcing them on and off each day for almost 18 months. You can tell when you get your first GHL piece of gear the quality of the construction is night and day compared to Apex.

The App has come quite far in two years. You enter the app to see the most important information about your tank and that is your probes, you can customize your dashboard, but I like seeing my tank parameters and then can easily navigate to the proper menu option. If it something I always do for example feed my fish or do maintenance on my tank on Saturday's you can add those tiles to the front end dashboard. The App continues to grow, with almost 99% of the desktop features now ported over to the App. New Features are being added, and you can see how GHL attention to detail really shows why they are where they are.

The stability and Reliability of the products is superb. It hums along doing it job, even through power outages, using the power monitoring feature it keeps the tank in check. I have learned to trust my controller again, I am not in it everyday, and no need to with every two hour tank health notifications that show me how my tank is doing. I use to be in fusion every day, almost tied to it, not because I wanted to but it always seemed like something was wrong. Salinity was way off, PH sudden drop a module issue and so forth. Not with GHL, I tell users I kick myself for not switching sooner.

Gareth elliott · Jun 10, 2019

I just got mine Saturday. So from an install perspective.
Not particularly intuitive from a software point of view. But they have some great youtube videos on on to get started. Hardware was quite simple. Was able to walk myself through installing the heater and fans to work with the controller. Shipped well protected and all of the hardware appears solid. Have not yet calibrated the ph probe. So that is not on yet. Did need to hook up to a cheap windows laptop to update the firmware. No mac support and from my current understanding this can not be done via the ghl connect app.

Scdell · Jun 10, 2019

Gave it a ten. I have never used Apex. And I don't use it to it's potential. It works! That's what it's supposed to do.

siggy · Jun 10, 2019

Too early for me so I voted a 7 . Its still in the box. I do like my doser alot and like others, spawned my purchase

Richard Ivory · Jun 10, 2019

Ditto said:
Where to start about my #GHL controller :)

With an extensive thread on my switch out here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/switching-controllers-from-apex-to-ghl.316106/ I can not say enough about GHL. And then my two year anniversary since my switch https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/switching-controllers-from-apex-to-ghl.316106/page-28#post-6094228 really sums up how I feel.

We will start with the probes, I have had no issues with my probes reading ORP, salinity, Temp, PH or Oxygen. The probes are well built, and been spot on. The power bars, are heavy, well made and even before my switch out from T5 to LX7206 lights had no problems handling them swithcing them on and off each day for almost 18 months. You can tell when you get your first GHL piece of gear the quality of the construction is night and day compared to Apex.

The App has come quite far in two years. You enter the app to see the most important information about your tank and that is your probes, you can customize your dashboard, but I like seeing my tank parameters and then can easily navigate to the proper menu option. If it something I always do for example feed my fish or do maintenance on my tank on Saturday's you can add those tiles to the front end dashboard. The App continues to grow, with almost 99% of the desktop features now ported over to the App. New Features are being added, and you can see how GHL attention to detail really shows why they are where they are.

The stability and Reliability of the products is superb. It hums along doing it job, even through power outages, using the power monitoring feature it keeps the tank in check. I have learned to trust my controller again, I am not in it everyday, and no need two with every two hour tank health notifications that show me how my tank is doing. I use to be in fusion every day, almost tied to it, not because I wanted to but it always seemed like something was wrong. Salinity was way off, PH sudden drop and so forth. Not with GHL, I tell users I kick myself for not switching sooner.

how often do you have to calibrate the probes ?

Ditto · Jun 10, 2019

On my P4 I have yet to do them once a year only because I thought they really could not still be right. (I was wrong hehe). On my Expansion box I had to do it twice both related to Firmware issues that required me to calibrate the salinity probe. Fixed in Software Release 2.04 and above.

WWIII · Jun 10, 2019

The P4 is awesome, so I gave it a 10. It works all the time, never any surprises! The app that GHL developed over the past year to year and a half really helped bridge the gap for many. Although I actually like the original GCC, the app convience makes it what I use on a daily basis to view my tank parameters and make any changes I need.

The profilux, it's probes, and the GHL dosers are so accurate/dependable I do auto waterchanges without any float switches. I use the maxi doser to take water out, and add water back. I use my profilux and its conductivity probe to make any adjustments to those dosers over time. I also double check this over time by hand. So far for over a year it has worked flawlessly.

When I needed to add on a seperate system to my p4 I was debating to just use the expansion slots inside the p4. I ended up using their expansion box because of the value there. The new system is being run by calcium reactor (2 ph probes) and the expansion box just made sense. For $300 you get a lot of value there...

4 x 1-10V-interfaces
2 x Universal ports for pH or redox probes (adjustable)
1 x Universal port for conductivity freshwater or seawater (adjustable)
1 x Port for digital temperature sensor
1 x Mitras Lightbar interface
2 x ProfiLux Aquatic Bus
2 x Level sensor input
4 x Additional expansion slots for our expansion cards

I've yet to be disappointed in any of my GHL equipment. The one issue that's come up has been the blue caps on the dosers. They are easily replaced for around $7 each, but when GHL saw there may be an issue they made new ones using a stronger material or process. The new blue caps (tiny dot melted into the bottom right so you know) are fantastic.

Some other things I like about GHL and the profilux aside from stability/dependability is how they look, the ease to expand without modules, GHL constantly coming out with new app features, GHL coming out with new gear that is what users tell them they want (new powerbar, ion director, peltier temp controller, new mitras, etc...)

I like GHL as a company because they aren't just making junk that they think will fly off the shelves. They are constantly raising the bar for cool, great looking equipment, that users actually want. Some of their products could be made cheaper and probably sell more units, but that's not how they operate. Since they are a German based company they conduct their buisness a little differently than we are used to. While they don't constantly shove their products down our throats, their products in many cases are the best on the market. The GHL user base has been increasing, especially over the past couple years! I bought my Profilux almost 2 years ago and have been extremely satisfied with how it's performed each and every day! I'm still using the same probes that came with the set. I now own 2 2.1 dosers, 2 kh directors, 2 maxi dosers, 5 powerbars, an expansion box, and a bunch of other sensors/probes. Very happy customer!

WWIII · Jun 10, 2019

Just waiting for Macna now to see how this Ion Director performs! Should be an exciting 2nd half of 2019 for GHL! They have the "new" lights coming out, more people getting the new powerbar, the peltier heating/cooling system, the ion director, some new features on the app, and maybe even one or two other surprises!

293482398 · Jun 10, 2019

I gave it a 4.

I've owned the Apex + eKoral + Profilux 4.

I was ready to quit the Profilux 4 about when Ditto purchased his, so I'm colored by that first year and six months after it was released. There were some pretty horrendous bugs in the beginning that could have easily killed my tank (except I knew better than to trust it). For example, entering 0.1ml and having the unit save 10ml. I was frustrated by customer service, GHL connect didn't exist at the time, and the answer was typically "wait for the next software version".

I often don't reply to these threads, because they seem to be like a tribe loyalty fest with people just yelling at each other. But there were a lot of really fundamentally problems (from P4 emails, inability to download their PC software on the weekends cause their servers go to sleep, the dosing issue I mentioned, and more). I felt like a beta tester and I had enough.

As someone said else said, they're all hobbyist grade items in a hostile environment. I'll add this is a niche hobby, so the players are small companies. Depending on both the person + the setup, I can see where one is better than the other.

Leadfooted · Jun 10, 2019

Lot's of good info here, thanks for chiming in and going into some details of your experiences. I'd still like to see more votes but so far 80% vote GHL's doing something right.

Here's a question, Does the ProfiLux4 offer anything different than other brands? Does the ProfiLux4 lack features other brands offer?

Silver14SS · Jun 10, 2019

HolisticBear said:
I gave it a 4.

I've owned the Apex + eKoral + Profilux 4.

As someone said else said, they're all hobbyist grade items in a hostile environment. I'll add this is a niche hobby, so the players are small companies. Depending on both the person + the setup, I can see where one is better than the other.

What would you rate the others?

siggy · Jun 10, 2019

One thing that disappoints me is that you can hookup a old tablet directly to Apex as a console but GHL you have to purchase one @ 300?

293482398 · Jun 10, 2019

Silver14SS said:
What would you rate the others?

eKoral is out. I think they had an opportunity being international and before Apex introduced the low price model. They barely updated the app in a year + water level & leak sensors are less reliable than the other two.

Some people use a controller primarily to monitor the tank rather than control the tank. I'm in the first camp. I want to be alerted to an issue and I or someone else can address it. While automation and control is cool, given the bugs I've seen in both GHL & Neptune I fear the additional control can sometimes increase tank failure risk.

In 2018, I asked a few GHL users if they had email alerts set up for temperature + low/high water levels in their sump (my top requirements for these tools). Often the answer was no, they hadn't tackled email alerts and wanted some help.

If your goal is only to monitor, I think many people can unbox a brand new Apex + water level sensors and get email alerts working in less time than people starting from a working GHL Profilux can enable the email feature for temperature (say early 2018). From skimming the GHL thread on their alkalinity monitoring, it still feels like GHL is effectively beta tests their "finished" products on consumers.

For controlling, failure rate of Apex seems higher than GHL. So if you're going down the path of full control, then you bite the bullet and go with GHL.

I have an Apex today and gave the GHL to a friend. I'll likely buy an Alkatronic for Alk monitor and bypass both GHL + Neptune. They are both just tools and if your tank crashes, it doesn't matter if it's GHL or Neptune's "fault".

I'm the guy that alerted BRS to their salinity solution was incorrect and they pulled it off the shelves. Just be a bit skeptical of all numbers + tools and exercise caution.

In general, working with both companies ruined some enjoyment I had in this hobby.

Ditto · Jun 10, 2019

siggy said:
One thing that disappoints me is that you can hookup a old tablet directly to Apex as a console but GHL you have to purchase one @ 300?

Why not install the Android or Iphone app on a tablet? Or are you saying because we still need to use the legacy software for firmware updates?

siggy · Jun 10, 2019

Not sure of the requirements, I never have tried ether. The profi touch is a direct connect i believe? and would be nice to have a tablet(I have 6 old) with the same overlay thats not dependent of a wifi internet connection.
Hey dont get me wrong I WILL be going in that direction ....but it would be NICE;)

Leadfooted · Jun 10, 2019

HolisticBear said:
eKoral is out. I think they had an opportunity being international and before Apex introduced the low price model. They barely updated the app in a year + water level & leak sensors are less reliable than the other two.

Some people use a controller primarily to monitor the tank rather than control the tank. I'm in the first camp. I want to be alerted to an issue and I or someone else can address it. While automation and control is cool, given the bugs I've seen in both GHL & Neptune I fear the additional control can sometimes increase tank failure risk.

In 2018, I asked a few GHL users if they had email alerts set up for temperature + low/high water levels in their sump (my top requirements for these tools). Often the answer was no, they hadn't tackled email alerts and wanted some help.

If your goal is only to monitor, I think many people can unbox a brand new Apex + water level sensors and get email alerts working in less time than people starting from a working GHL Profilux can enable the email feature for temperature (say early 2018). From skimming the GHL thread on their alkalinity monitoring, it still feels like GHL is effectively beta tests their "finished" products on consumers.

For controlling, failure rate of Apex seems higher than GHL. So if you're going down the path of full control, then you bite the bullet and go with GHL.

I have an Apex today and gave the GHL to a friend. I'll likely buy an Alkatronic for Alk monitor and bypass both GHL + Neptune. They are both just tools and if your tank crashes, it doesn't matter if it's GHL or Neptune's "fault".

I'm the guy that alerted BRS to their salinity solution was incorrect and they pulled it off the shelves. Just be a bit skeptical of all numbers + tools and exercise caution.

In general, working with both companies ruined some enjoyment I had in this hobby.

Reliability and consistency is key for me. I’m okay with some of the other pains. Thank you for the honest comments on all

Ditto · Jun 10, 2019

siggy said:
Not sure of the requirements, I never have tried ether. The profi touch is a direct connect i believe? and would be nice to have a tablet(I have 6 old) with the same overlay thats not dependent of a wifi internet connection.
Hey dont get me wrong I WILL be going in that direction ....but it would be NICE;)

The Profilux Touch using a PAB connection to the device. They announced the GHL Pad which is coming also but details have not been released but will be plugging into the port into the back of the unit. And we always have the P4 built in interface, but understand about having that direct connection, not relying on the network. But you also have the ability to have a Hotspot on the P4, so even if your wireless network is down, you could in-turn connect to the hotspot of the P4 also with the Connect App.

WWIII · Jun 10, 2019

Ditto said:
The Profilux Touch using a PAB connection to the device. They announced the GHL Pad which is coming also but details have not been released but will be plugging into the port into the back of the unit. And we always have the P4 built in interface, but understand about having that direct connection, not relying on the network. But you also have the ability to have a Hotspot on the P4, so even if your wireless network is down, you could in-turn connect to the hotspot of the P4 also with the Connect App.

Yeah I'm really curious as to what this "GHL Pad" is. Honestly all I know is there's a port for it. Any ideas? A better touch monitor or something else?

I saw one guy on fb hook up a giant monitor directly wired to the p4, but have no idea how he did it? Not sure if it had touch capabilities or not, but I'm thinking it did, which is why it stuck in my mind.

Honestly I never use my touch anymore, besides to turn off my skimmer when cleaning the cup. The app on my phone/tablet is just too convenient!