Neptune apex. How do you use it?

[theclownshow]

I’m building a 120 gallon mixed reef.

I’m going to be using a Neptune apex when I eventually get my tank built. I want to learn more about the specifics of how people are setting up and running their apex.

From what I’ve gathered you can use it anywhere from basic monitoring of simple parameters up to fully monitoring and controlling everything imaginable. Some things people seem to prefer running outside of the apex system. I plan on being somewhere on the lower end of the spectrum with monitoring most parameter and having some controls.

Please post a list of what you monitor and control with your apex and some specifics on how you have it set up. Thanks!

 

[Tangdora]

I abuse mine lol.

Monitor
Ph both tank and CaRa
Temp
Orp
Salinity
Leaks
Sock chamber water level
Final chamber water level. Top off reminder
Voltage - All equipment plugged in into the EBs

Control
Heaters
Lights schedule MXM -blades and radion
CaRa dosing
Dosers
Feed cycles. Pair Alexa for voice control
Pump speed during feed cycle (MXM)
Pump speed for UV
Cooling Fans
Controls my custom built AFS
Use it to turn on and off my jabeo power head
Turf scrubber lighting
Siren during and alarm. The factor is to quite

Other
1 Use a lot of virtual outlets to shut a bunch of stuff off during routines like cleaning

2 Also plug in an independent Eb that powers my QT when ever I do that monitors temp and controls those heaters.


Upcoming additions I will be adding and or experimenting with

1 Setting up an ATO, easy and straight forward
2 for fun experimenting, I want to start playing around with an ASM module and see what that has to offer. The two biggest items I’m curious to potentially add are house co2 level monitoring and see if I can get it to read scale to see if I can get it to monitor the weight of my co2 tank to alert when it’s getting low.

 

[theclownshow]

I abuse mine lol.

Monitor
Ph both tank and CaRa
Temp
Orp
Salinity
Leaks
Sock chamber water level
Final chamber water level. Top off reminder
Voltage - All equipment plugged in into the EBs

Control
Heaters
Lights schedule MXM -blades and radion
CaRa dosing
Dosers
Feed cycles. Pair Alexa for voice control
Pump speed during feed cycle (MXM)
Pump speed for UV
Cooling Fans
Controls my custom built AFS
Use it to turn on and off my jabeo power head
Turf scrubber lighting
Siren during and alarm. The factor is to quite

Other
1 Use a lot of virtual outlets to shut a bunch of stuff off during routines like cleaning

2 Also plug in an independent Eb that powers my QT when ever I do that monitors temp and controls those heaters.


Upcoming additions I will be adding and or experimenting with

1 Setting up an ATO, easy and straight forward
2 for fun experimenting, I want to start playing around with an ASM module and see what that has to offer. The two biggest items I’m curious to potentially add are house co2 level monitoring and see if I can get it to read scale to see if I can get it to monitor the weight of my co2 tank to alert when it’s getting low.

Good lord!!

 

[Fury808]

I use mine to control the heaters and circulation pumps in my mixing station reservoirs and more importantly to do my Auto Water Changes on 3 reef tanks and 2 freshwater tanks.

 

[Sdbuehler1]

With Apex you’re only limited by your imagination and wallet

I do quite a bit with mine as well. In addition to most what @Tangdora does I also do the following:

Auto water changes with DOS and mix tank sensors that shut off AWC when they get low

Trident testing and controlled dosing for Alk and Calcium

Control solenoid valve for auto refilling RO/DI tanks

ATO with alarms if the high sensor is on for too long or if it hasn’t run in a while

Secondary shutoff for heater if temp gets out of range set on ink bird controller

Variable speed control for Octopus skimmer for fine tuning.

Iota connection for controlling Kessil lights schedule

 

[Project1004]

I use Apex jr shared btw two tank. But do use 3 each eb8 power bar which is 24plugs.

I use programs for feeding, return,wave maker etc. Most are constantly on. I keep spare apex jr and eb8 in case I need to replace it due to failure one day.

 

[Fury808]

With Apex you’re only limited by your imagination and wallet

I do quite a bit with mine as well. In addition to most what @Tangdora does I also do the following:

Auto water changes with DOS and mix tank sensors that shut off AWC when they get low

Trident testing and controlled dosing for Alk and Calcium

Control solenoid valve for auto refilling RO/DI tanks

ATO with alarms if the high sensor is on for too long or if it hasn’t run in a while

Secondary shutoff for heater if temp gets out of range set on ink bird controller

Variable speed control for Octopus skimmer for fine tuning.

Iota connection for controlling Kessil lights schedule

I'd like to upgrade my mixing station by
adding sensors that shut off AWC gets low.

Would you plesse share how you did it?

 

[Sdbuehler1]

I'd like to upgrade my mixing station by
adding sensors that shut off AWC gets low.

Would you plesse share how you did it?

Just to be clear I am using an Apex DOS pump to do water changes. You would probably need to use power bar outlet switching if you are using another brand pump for the AWC.

My apex controller is in my tank cabinet and my mixing station is in the basement. I had to get another FMM controller and a link extension cable to reach the FMM controller which is located in the basement with the mixing station and has the optical sensor connected for monitoring the water level. I then have a virtual outlet called MixTankLow with the formula below where MixTnk is the optical sensor name:

Set OFF
If MixTnk OPEN Then ON
Defer 020:00 Then ON

The defer statement is necessary because the optical sensor will flip on and off a lot when the water level approaches the sensor height and makes it more stable.

On the add and remove DOS pumps I have the following formula (under advanced)

If Output MixTankLow = ON Then OFF

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I should've invested more time into mine, but I had it to where it would monitor my tank when I was away from home.

 

[Reef Jedi]

Mine like everyone above does literally everything and I personally have it set up for intense automation. The list is just like everyone above so in all honesty it’s easier to name what it doesn’t do than what it does.

I would think about how you want to use it and ask how to make it possible and I bet we can all help you get there.

My favorite is having a solenoid on my rodi that goes to my ATO, with two level sensors to tell it when to open and close to fill up the ato. The. The ATK keeps the sump full. In 2.5 years I’ve never lifted a bucket to fill my ATO and it runs dry in 4 days if I didn’t have this automation. I also have a LLS in the ato and 3 leak detectors to shut the solenoid off incase it were to over flow. Never had that happen but I have run mock drills to see that it actually works.

The possibilities are endless!

 

[get-salty]

I have my skimmer programmed working with the return pump.

On my weekly maintenance, turning the return pump OFF will automatically turn off the skimmer.
Turning the return back on, i have the skimmer wait for 1:15min then turn ON - this prevents the skimmer from overflow if i have the return and skimmer come ON at the same time.
One button, easy..

Now i just realized that i may need to incorporate the ATO in as well bc i do turn that off too during my maintenance.