There are basic foundations of the Apex system - like network connectivity, which has problems. Neptune support accepts it themselves. There are pages after pages of complaints on Neptune forums on very basic things.
On top of these basic flaws, there are design flaws... first off there is no way to check Ammonia, Nitrates and Phosphates (Amm onia and Nitrates can be checked by competing products). No one to my knowledge can check phosphates via a probe.
Then for every thermomter probe you connect, you need to buy a sepearate PM2 module. And that module may or may not have other ports that have run out of.
As a very real example - i control my ReefBrite XHO lights thorough Apex. I ran out of ports on the Fusion, and had to buy a VM module for $100.
I also grow rotifers and need to control temperature in that tank. However neither the VM module nor the Fusion have provisions for a second thermometer probe for which I had to buy a a PM2 module for $100 bucks inclusive of shipping. And no, the PM2 module did not have the ports that I was using the VM module for. Like dude what the heck?? Who designed your systems??
The coding for Neptune is frankly very, very basic. But I understand why it may feel wonderful. There are plenty of alternatives - with more arriving feels like every couple of months now. Thank God for small blessings.
Ohh and i forgot, their optical sensors and ATO systems also have huge complaints from users. It is not a sign of good company when you are releasing products after products that have serious bugs.
Oh totally, I am on Wi-Fi, but I hard wire everything. So I ran a specific Ethernet cord just for my Apex. The wifi controlling of peripherals, has been discuss often as a pain point. However, I understand the logic of hardwiring using aquabus. I come from an industry where we have people requesting to make measurement instruments Wi-Fi, but there’s a lot of trouble that comes along with that for the customer and the company. So knowing where I come professionally, I hard wire everything because I know 99.999% it works without fail.
Not sure if you can call that a “flaw”. I agree that they should make a “””Tident NPK (nitrate, phosphate, potassium)””” but that’s going to have to be a while. I’d consider getting a Mastertronic if they don’t. Ion specific probes are very expensive (~$600), and if the average hobbyist has trouble with a pH probe or salinity probe, there’s no chance it will be a consumer level solution. It would be great if they could use Hanna’s reagent based measurement technology for at least phosphate measurement.
Temperature and probes and ports — I think that’s an issue about with any system. Even with Coral
Hydros you still have to buy additional control 4 systems to do monitoring. I don’t disagree the Apex 2016 brain needs to have at least one more temperature port. Ideally another pH port. Some folks don’t need all that so they can go to an Apex EL. Like eventually, if you are doing custom stuff like you are, you are going to run out ports. I’d love to grow to rotifers one day, that’s not typical to most reefers.
You are right, the coding is very basic, so why do so many people have trouble writing simplified if-than statements? Then the complier tells you if you did something wrong and on what line?
I haven’t had any trouble with my optical sensors. They are not the best quality granted, but I do clean mine every other month. There’s not many consumer level optical sensors out there. Only in the past few years have we seen affordable sensors.
