Neptune Apex systems?

[Gumbies R Us]

If I had the extra money, I would 100% buy one of them

 

[hoffmeyerz]

Used Apex systems or tridents for cheaper price??? Where??

Picked up a used apex with temp and ph probe along with two eb8's off the dry goods forum here for $150. Been using it two years now with no issues and have added onto the system as well.

 

[BZOFIQ]

If I had the extra money, I would 100% buy one of them

You can snatch one @ for sale section on here. I'd recommend an orange classic with EB8 for starters if you have ethernet port close by, if not buy the A2, silver brain with either EB8 or EB832. Just make sure they don't have any rust or salt spray on the EB, ask seller for good pics.

Just the other day somebody was selling the A2 Lite for $100 for the brain. and I saw full apex with EB832 few weeks earlier for $300. At these prices, one cant go wrong.

 

[alysak6075]

ive had one for a decade "Apex Jr." very much like it. only equipment on my tank that has never malfunctioned.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

You can snatch one @ for sale section on here. I'd recommend an orange classic with EB8 for starters if you have ethernet port close by, if not buy the A2, silver brain with either EB8 or EB832. Just make sure they don't have any rust or salt spray on the EB, ask seller for good pics.

Just the other day somebody was selling the A2 Lite for $100 for the brain. and I saw full apex with EB832 few weeks earlier for $300. At these prices, one cant go wrong.

I'm going to have to check those more often, that's cheap for one of those

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Picked up a used apex with temp and ph probe along with two eb8's off the dry goods forum here for $150. Been using it two years now with no issues and have added onto the system as well.

This. Bought both apex classic w/ eb8 for 150$ each. One old apex jr for 100$.

 

[ScubaFish802]

I would like to think my apex system has paid for itself twice now with just the leak alarms or power outage alerts triggering.

The additional control, monitoring, other failsafe's, and insights into trends is all icing at this point.

 

[Jelbin]

I Have mine nearly 2 years with no issues. I think its definitely handy. Helps you notice swings and such.

neptune lucky they have no competition

 

[Shevlin77]

Worth every penny for me. I travel for work and don’t have time to manually monitor everything.

 

[BZOFIQ]

neptune lucky they have no competition

There is some but each has a wrong approach, plus the market is so saturated with apex stuff, one can buy used modules for fraction of the cost - something you couldnt do with the competition.

Is it perfect, nowhere close. Is it best amongst peers, yes.

 

[OctaviusBrine]

I love mine when it works. I’ve had trident issues and the main go out all within a few weeks. Still battle the trident sometimes when switching reagents. Oh and my dose was bad right out of the box. Like I said though when it’s all working it’s great. But it’s a hobby there’s always going to be some tinkering. The price is a bit excessive I believe for the overall quality of the equipment. They really don’t have much competition. So they can charge what they want for now and the foreseeable future.

 

[buruskeee]

Got my Apex A2 system (includes salt probe) with EB832 for $250 and added a Trident, AFS, and LDK with 3 leak probes for another $350. $600 total is not bad at all IMO for the automation it brings and the constant monitoring of all parameters.

If it only were able to test No3 and Po4 then I’d be completely hands off with my tank aside from refilling my ATO/Dosing containers and feeding frozen foods.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Are the Neptune Apex systems worth the buy? I do like the fact that I can organize my electrical with one energy bar. But the entire system with the energy bar, sensory kits, and testing systems is like 1300$. Is it worth it? What do all of the systems do? Alternatives?

To me - Yes. Very few hiccups and fantastic support from them. I'd stay away from their ATO otherwise most components reliable

 

[Panky]

Apex hands down. There is no reason to buy everything at once. In all actuality I would say buy the main unit then add to it. That way you can become more familiar with programming and monitoring. I think that’s where people have so many problems. They buy everything with no clue as to what they are even looking at. Then they become overwhelmed, and decide to bash the company.

 

[areefer01]

Are the Neptune Apex systems worth the buy? I do like the fact that I can organize my electrical with one energy bar. But the entire system with the energy bar, sensory kits, and testing systems is like 1300$. Is it worth it? What do all of the systems do? Alternatives?

Ignore brands for a quick minute and ask yourself a question. What is it you want the controller to do? Then make a list. Check it twice. Factor in display and hobbyist growth (expansion possibilities). Set a budget. Now you can go shopping.

Hobbyist are pretty funny in that we have a love hate relationship with equipment and each other. Two hobbyist can use the same piece of equipment and have yet two different experiences. Funny how that works. One thing to note is that we are talking about hobby grade equipment. Doesn't mean it shouldn't work or be cheap but it also means we are not talking about launching probes into low earth orbit via NASA.

Oh - one other thing to note. Factor in redundancy, monitoring, and failover in the cost. These are important and should be considered be it controller, pumps, heaters, power heads, and more. Part of the design.

 

[Minifoot77]

I am in the coralvue hydros family does a lot more than I need it too

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

neptune lucky they have no competition

Bwahahahahaha. They have competition, just the competitors have poor marketing (in comparison).

If GHL had a better software suite, I'd be onboard. I'm watching Hydros closely, as it will be more than likely my next controller.

 

[BZOFIQ]

Bwahahahahaha. They have competition, just the competitors have poor marketing (in comparison).

If GHL had a better software suite, I'd be onboard. I'm watching Hydros closely, as it will be more than likely my next controller.

Not sure if its the marketing or the fact that apex is already well established enjoying the benefits of the fan base - both marketing support as well as technical support. It was able to establish itself without much competition. Then there was the anti-competitive mess when Hydros arrived but that's a story for another day. Nobody knows how many times this tactic was used in the past with other up and coming controllers.

GHL's hardware while very solid has very poor and cumbersome software. I attempted to switch (even bypassing my requirement for Ethernet) but the controller would need multiple restarts while simply sitting on my workbench, loss of connectivity was always the issue. I just couldn't trust it. The UI on the web was designed around the time windows 3.1 came out.

Looked into hydros recently, looks great but somebody forgot to add enough I/O ports to make it even remotely useful - for me. I could buy 3 apexes before I'd complete a Hydros with the extreme amount of NO/NC I needed for my project.

So I stuck to APEX, bought half a dozen used brains and fragmented different parts of the system between 4 controllers. Apex or not, redundancies are a must.

I'm watching Hydros closely, as it will be more than likely my next controller.

Why?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Used Apex systems or tridents for cheaper price??? Where??

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/selling-forum-dry-goods.60/

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Not sure if its the marketing or the fact that apex is already well established enjoying the benefits of the fan base - both marketing support as well as technical support. It was able to establish itself without much competition. Then there was the anti-competitive mess when Hydros arrived but that's a story for another day. Nobody knows how many times this tactic was used in the past with other up and coming controllers.

GHL's hardware while very solid has very poor and cumbersome software. I attempted to switch (even bypassing my requirement for Ethernet) but the controller would need multiple restarts while simply sitting on my workbench, loss of connectivity was always the issue. I just couldn't trust it. The UI on the web was designed around the time windows 3.1 came out.

Looked into hydros recently, looks great but somebody forgot to add enough I/O ports to make it even remotely useful - for me. I could buy 3 apexes before I'd complete a Hydros with the extreme amount of NO/NC I needed for my project.

So I stuck to APEX, bought half a dozen used brains and fragmented different parts of the system between 4 controllers. Apex or not, redundancies are a must.




Why?

To answer the why, frankly to try something different. Been dabbling with apex since 2015 and frankly the lack of real innovation is real. The A3 left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth as it being hyped up but ultimately was a let down due to no real upgrades besides adding a fmm to the housing.

Also the closed ecosystem kind sucks in terms of hardware integration, along with the severe price hikes for what's simply rebadged product that's just modified enough to not be able to buy 'off the rack'.

Yeah I get they are the big bad gorilla in the room, but after 8 years, I'm ready to try something else. When the last apex classic croaks, then I'll assess and go from there.