Personally I am a bit torn on this one... There are things that are beneficial and things that are not. I believe the benefits do outweigh the drawbacks though...
1. Notifications - How many have gone on a vacation only to return to a total mess in the tank? My alerting will let me know something is up and I can make a call to another local reefer who can assist the tank sitter with the more advanced stuff.
2. Consistency - This is maintained best with gradual automation. An ATO for salinity and water levels, dosers for the rest. Whatever process used, it is better than manual dosing to maintain consistency. Still not required, but better as you always hear "Consistency is key" in this hobby.
3. Remote access, single point control and automatically tracking parameters are nice options to have...
Now the issues:
1. People rely on them too much to prevent those "newbie" mistakes. Controllers are going to do what you tell them to do. Make a mistake and the controllers don't know any better, unless YOU tell them what is a problem. Example on the older style Apex, if the temp probe died, it would read super low temps. If you didn't know this and provgram your controller to catch this, it could cook your tank. Or set the thermostat on the heater, but this isn't in the instructions...
2. I do feel they tend to disconnect the owner from their tank a bit and they may not learn some of the signs of issues in the tank, relying on the controller to tell them something is wrong...
1. Notifications - How many have gone on a vacation only to return to a total mess in the tank? My alerting will let me know something is up and I can make a call to another local reefer who can assist the tank sitter with the more advanced stuff.
2. Consistency - This is maintained best with gradual automation. An ATO for salinity and water levels, dosers for the rest. Whatever process used, it is better than manual dosing to maintain consistency. Still not required, but better as you always hear "Consistency is key" in this hobby.
3. Remote access, single point control and automatically tracking parameters are nice options to have...
Now the issues:
1. People rely on them too much to prevent those "newbie" mistakes. Controllers are going to do what you tell them to do. Make a mistake and the controllers don't know any better, unless YOU tell them what is a problem. Example on the older style Apex, if the temp probe died, it would read super low temps. If you didn't know this and provgram your controller to catch this, it could cook your tank. Or set the thermostat on the heater, but this isn't in the instructions...
2. I do feel they tend to disconnect the owner from their tank a bit and they may not learn some of the signs of issues in the tank, relying on the controller to tell them something is wrong...