Looking for my first controller

[Mattgee]

Hi,

After 18 months of working from home I will be returning to travelling which has made me look at setting up my first controller. I will have someone at home who can do some things but want to be able to check and monitor my equipment from anywhere.
Looking for advice on what is best to utilise the equipment I currently have.

2 x Nero Hydra 26HD

2 x Nero AL Nero 5

Bubble Magus Curve 5

TMC Reef pump 4000Dc

Red Sea Reefdose

D-D H2Ocean P4 Dosing Pump

D-D 200w Titanium heater + D-D Dual temp controller

Hoping someone out there can point me in the right direction.

Thanks

Matt

 

[Cunning_plan]

What exactly do you want to monitor? Are you interested in it from a purely practical perspective or also from a fun tech perspective?

There is a big range of options out there now from full blown controllers to monitor everything and anything, to distributed controllers to just using smart plugs.

 

[n2585722]

What is your price range and what do you want to control with it if anything?

 

[Mattgee]

Ideally from a purely practical perspective to start with to monitor ph and be able to control lights, pumps and maybe dozers from a single application rather than multiple. Eventually adding some form of water parameter testing. The D-D doses is only accessible on a local network so can’t amend that when away.
I know these answers may seem vary vague but that is the main reason for my question to give me some guidance as to what is and isn’t possible with the equipment I currently have

thanks

 

[HBO_Reefing]

Can never go wrong with an apex. if you have the cash.

 

[elysics]

Ideally from a purely practical perspective to start with to monitor ph and be able to control lights, pumps and maybe dozers from a single application rather than multiple. Eventually adding some form of water parameter testing. The D-D doses is only accessible on a local network so can’t amend that when away.
I know these answers may seem vary vague but that is the main reason for my question to give me some guidance as to what is and isn’t possible with the equipment I currently have

thanks

Fwiw, you can still access local network devices from anywhere using vpns. Not as a permanent solution, but in the interim before you buy all new dosing pumps

 

[elysics]

Also, besides trying to scare your tank caretaker, there is really no reason to change anything about your lights while you are not standing in front of them.

The only not super rare occasion where you might change light settings is for taking pictures, and you are not doing that when you are not home

The temp controller can stay, always good to have redundancy and that way you are burning out the cheap temp controller outlet, not expensive powerbars

The pumps and skimmers you will probably only be able to turn on or off without extensive tinkering, but again, you shouldn't really play around with those while you are not there anyway

 

[n2585722]

Sounds like as far as what you want most of the controllers will do. Just make sure you have a port for pH and temp Along with a way to expand when needed. I went with the Hydros system. I was using the Archon from Digital Aquatics. I have most of the things transferred from the Archon to the Hydros now. With it they decided instead of having a central brain control and modules that each component would be a part of the brain. That way if you loose a control unit the others will continue to control and you only loose the inputs and outputs that are on that specific control. I liked this idea so that is one of the reasons I choose that system. It is still quite new so there are still several things in the works. A good source of info is their forum here https://forum.coralvuehydros.com/ . There s a good change any question you have may have already been asked on the forum.

 

[rezaktp]

even a used older model APEX will work!

 

[BostonReefer300]

even a used older model APEX will work!

+1 on the used Apex as a starter. Plenty of people have upgraded from an Apex classic to the newer Apex, so you can get a classic plus an old EB8 energy bar for cheap. They are still supported by Neptune and can connect to WiFi with some work. Great, cheap way to become accustomed to Apex—-and totally dependent!