Hydros Quad Strip Issues

[DatReefGuy]

Alright guys. I’m leaning on you hard for this one.

I’m sure everyone that has a Quad Strip has probably experienced this. The app says the strip is not responding. After lots of research and contacting support, everything points to the same thing. Doesn’t work with a mesh network blah blah blah. You need an access point blah blah blah. Short story long, I separated the mesh network into 2.4gHz and 5.0gHz. Also, did end up flipping the bill for an access point which was recommended to try from Coralvue. They even sent me a new WiFi strip to try. I can’t figure this out and it’s really frustrating. I’ve spent hours on this. Restarting routers, access points and controller. It’s quite annoying. Does anyone have any insight on this? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[rtparty]

I fought with it for more than a year. Always the same excuse from CV: it’s your WiFi system. I had the dedicated access point within 10 feet of them with perfect line of sight.

CV did warranty 4 of my 5 after I called them out on their FB page. I sold the whole system shortly after.

 

[DatReefGuy]

I fought with it for more than a year. Always the same excuse from CV: it’s your WiFi system. I had the dedicated access point within 10 feet of them with perfect line of sight.

CV did warranty 4 of my 5 after I called them out on their FB page. I sold the whole system shortly after.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the controller. Just fighting and fighting with the wifi strip. This is my first controller but not a good way to start out.

 

[n2585722]

Don’t get me wrong, I love the controller. Just fighting and fighting with the wifi strip. This is my first controller but not a good way to start out.

Do you have the access point set to a different name and hardwired into your main router? Also the controllers have to be on the same channel as the wifi strips since they do communicate with each other on that channel so if you putting the wifi strips on the access point channel the controllers have to be on that channel also. Also the device with the app installed you are using to pair also has to be on the same channel you want the wifi strip paired to.

 

[braaap]

Unfortunately because coralvue just rebranded and reboxed everything the WiFi strips aren’t reliable. Coralvue is a distributor pretending to be a controller manufacturer. They obviously operate over WiFi and not a direct communication between the controller like they should. Networks have so many variables it becomes a nightmare.

Best thing I’ve found with them is to put them on a dedicated 2.4 network band along with all of your controllers. You can also change wifi priority on your controllers and sometimes the WiFi strip comes back. For some reason mine wasn’t happy talking with the XP8. I swapped priority to a Launch and it hasn’t had an issue.

 

[Brisk]

Alright guys. I’m leaning on you hard for this one.

I’m sure everyone that has a Quad Strip has probably experienced this. The app says the strip is not responding. After lots of research and contacting support, everything points to the same thing. Doesn’t work with a mesh network blah blah blah. You need an access point blah blah blah. Short story long, I separated the mesh network into 2.4gHz and 5.0gHz. Also, did end up flipping the bill for an access point which was recommended to try from Coralvue. They even sent me a new WiFi strip to try. I can’t figure this out and it’s really frustrating. I’ve spent hours on this. Restarting routers, access points and controller. It’s quite annoying. Does anyone have any insight on this? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Try switching to a different channel.

 

[Twocorns]

There's a reason they were like $30 at launch. I use a wifi strip on my qt tank, and thats it. Dont trust it for anything else.

 

[jmcdona6]

Honestly...put non essential items on it and buy an XP8 for everything else.

I've struggled with it as well and nothing worked. Hell, even the Hydros system itself will sometimes drop wifi connection and require a hard restart to fix. But at least then it still works flawlessly in the background. Inconvenient but not a huge concern.

Only complaint with Hydros right now. I know it's not practical with how it's currently engineered, but I'd pay $$$ for a wired connection.

 

[n2585722]

Honestly...put non essential items on it and buy an XP8 for everything else.

I've struggled with it as well and nothing worked. Hell, even the Hydros system itself will sometimes drop wifi connection and require a hard restart to fix. But at least then it still works flawlessly in the background. Inconvenient but not a huge concern.

Only complaint with Hydros right now. I know it's not practical with how it's currently engineered, but I'd pay $$$ for a wired connection.

The wired connection is the command bus between the controllers that are in a collective together. You can go into emergency mode and communicate with the collective via bluetooth if you have it setup to do that. So you can still put it in different modes and override the outputs if needed. You can also check on the inputs. Wifi is not my issue though. I loose internet several times a day sometimes multiple times in an hour. Even then you will still need to use emergency mode and bluetooth to communicate since there is no connection to the server which is how the app normally communicates with the controllers. I have been without internet for 5 days straight before and the system continued to function without any issues. I did have to communicate via bluetooth during that time though.

 

[Joe's Coral Reef]

I tried but gave up. Those wifi strips are unreliable. If I wanted that pain in my life I would have kept using the ghl ion director.

 

[n2585722]

I tried but gave up. Those wifi strips are unreliable. If I wanted that pain in my life I would have kept using the ghl ion director.

I had issues with the 4 wifi strips dropping connection 3 or 4 times a week. I tried switching different controllers as the wifi master but that did not help. I could reboot my router and all would reconnect after I did that. When it did happen it was all the wifi devices that would drop at the same time. So that ruled out a single wifi strip as the issue and switching the controllers as wifi master ruled out one of those as an issue. The only other common thing was the router. I eventually replaced my router back in December of 2023 and have not had any wifi strip issues since then. So do not rule out the router as the cause. I also do not use them for ATO, AWC or dosing control. Anything that critical is either drive ports or AC outlets on one of the controllers. I now have X10's and a Minnow for dosing pumps and those are built into a controller.

 

[DatReefGuy]

Do you have the access point set to a different name and hardwired into your main router? Also the controllers have to be on the same channel as the wifi strips since they do communicate with each other on that channel so if you putting the wifi strips on the access point channel the controllers have to be on that channel also. Also the device with the app installed you are using to pair also has to be on the same channel you want the wifi strip paired to.

Yes it is hardwired and they are all on the same channel. The name of the access point is different. Controller, phone and wifi strip are all on the same SSID access point.

 

[DatReefGuy]

The only thing I haven't done yet is bring back the mesh network on the router and still use the wired Access Point running off it. I don't think it will make a difference but it's worth a shot.

 

[n2585722]

Yes it is hardwired and they are all on the same channel. The name of the access point is different. Controller, phone and wifi strip are all on the same SSID access point.

Is the name of the access point access different from your regular channel? If not then they can connect to the regular channel instead of the access point since they are named the same. That would not work since both the controllers and wifi strips need to be on the same access point.

 

[jmcdona6]

The wired connection is the command bus between the controllers that are in a collective together. You can go into emergency mode and communicate with the collective via bluetooth if you have it setup to do that. So you can still put it in different modes and override the outputs if needed. You can also check on the inputs. Wifi is not my issue though. I loose internet several times a day sometimes multiple times in an hour. Even then you will still need to use emergency mode and bluetooth to communicate since there is no connection to the server which is how the app normally communicates with the controllers. I have been without internet for 5 days straight before and the system continued to function without any issues. I did have to communicate via bluetooth during that time though.

Not this again...the bluetooth emergency mode doesn't work when you are traveling for work or on vacation. If I am close enough to use the bluetooth emergency mode I would just reset the device and get the wifi working again.

Don't get me wrong, the bluetooth emergency mode is a great feature and helps in situations where your wifi is unavailable. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about reliability of the wifi connection while you are away from the system. And it is Hydros, not my wifi. I have had the Hydros wifi connection go dark several times while every other device, including other 2.4 only devices, be working perfectly. It always takes a hard reset of my collective to get it to reconnect.

 

[n2585722]

Not this again...the bluetooth emergency mode doesn't work when you are traveling for work or on vacation. If I am close enough to use the bluetooth emergency mode I would just reset the device and get the wifi working again.

Don't get me wrong, the bluetooth emergency mode is a great feature and helps in situations where your wifi is unavailable. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about reliability of the wifi connection while you are away from the system. And it is Hydros, not my wifi. I have had the Hydros wifi connection go dark several times while every other device, including over 2.4 only devices, be working perfectly. It always takes a hard reset of my collective to get it to reconnect.

On mine a reset of the router would fix mine. I did not have to reboot the collective. Also I would try the router first and see if that gets them going again. If not just reboot you wifi master and not the complete collective to see if that gets it back. I used the preferred wifi master setting to set a different controller as the wifi master when I was troubleshooting my issue. The last straw for me was when I got a new car that had wifi access that I setup and my wife said every time I came home it would crash the internet. It was actually crashing the wifi but to her she lost internet access. I was able to remotely reboot my router to fix the issue when I had it.

 

[DatReefGuy]

Is the name of the access point access different from your regular channel? If not then they can connect to the regular channel instead of the access point since they are named the same. That would not work since both the controllers and wifi strips need to be on the same access point.

Between the router and the access point? Yes.

 

[jackson6745]

They’re garbage. Don’t waste your time.

 

[DatReefGuy]

They’re garbage. Don’t waste your time.

I'm assuming other wifi strips will hook pair with the controller?

 

[n2585722]

They’re garbage. Don’t waste your time.

I have 4 wifi strips and a wifi feeder and have had no issues with them in well over a year since I replaced my router back in December 2023. You think if they were that bad I would not be able to go that long without any issues. On my old router I had them dropping out about three times a week if not more often. I did not have issues with anything else until I added a new car to the wifi and then it would crash every time I got home in the car. So that was the main reason for getting a new router but it also fixed the issue with the wifi strips dropping out. I still would not use a wifi strip outlet for ATO, AWC or dosing since if there ever were a communication issue with one of those on it would remain on until communications is restored.