Reef Angel Setup/Programming Question

JakeK · Sep 8, 2015

Hi Everyone,
I've been looking at the Apex and the Reef Angel for a controller on my new 93 gallon tank. I want to be able to control (at home and remotely) my lights, pump, powerhead, heaters, temp, pH and eventually salinity. Just on/off for all my equipment except for LEDs when i eventually get them.

Right now I'm leaning towards the Reef Angel primarily due to cost. With wifi a reef angel plus is ~$400. The Apex is ~$525. Could be cheaper with discounts or bought used, but really don't want to go the used route.

So my question....

How easy is it to set up/program the Reef Angel if you do not have any programming skills? I hear it has a programming wizard, but do I still need to know how to write code? That could be a deal breaker for me.

Thanks.

jolt · Sep 9, 2015

I have had a reef angel for over a year. If you are wanting to do what the wizard supports then it is a breeze. If not, then you really need to understand C programming to get very far into customization. There are a ton of examples on the reef angel forum, and plenty of folks who can answer your questions. I do not regret having purchased the reef angel. However, I really don't customize it much at all. 99% of my code is wizard code with a few tweaks to support float switches I added for safety.

Having said that, I am switching to Apex for my next build. The main reason is that I discovered I really don't need to program the reef angel much (and I prefer to program C if I am doing custom code), and I think the support for wiring together things in reef angel (physically) is a little less aesthetic than apex (wires coming off the head unit everywhere and tiny connectors that do not lock). That plus I really like apex fusion.

TheEngineer · Sep 9, 2015

I've had a reef angel for 5 years. I'm pretty happy with it. Roberto makes modules pretty regularly to keep up with new things out there. Some things feel DIY, but mine has been reliable and easy to use.

jolt · Sep 9, 2015

icecool2 said:
I've had a reef angel for 5 years. I'm pretty happy with it. Roberto makes modules pretty regularly to keep up with new things out there. Some things feel DIY, but mine has been reliable and easy to use.

I agree, my reef angel has been quite reliable and Roberto is great!

jolt · Sep 9, 2015

Also, Reef Radiance just started a thread about reef angel sale tomorrow ...

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/k...h-if-you-want-some-really-unbelieable.197744/

JakeK · Sep 10, 2015

Great info everyone. Thank you.

Im assuming turning on lights, powerheads, skimmer and heater are all basic functions the wizard can do?

jolt · Sep 10, 2015

Yes. I use the standard dimming to control my Kessil A360WE, and I have my powerheads, skimmer, gfo pump, BRS dosing pumps, and heater all controled by the reef angel. The wizard allows you to easily turn off the heater when it goes above a set temperature, and back on when it falls sufficiently. And the wizard supports programming a feeding mode as well. I programmed all of the above with the wizard. The only thing I manually coded was reading a couple of float switches to power off my tunze 3155 ato. I have one float switch in the ato reservoir that powers off the tunze if water is too low in the reservoir, and I have one float switch in the sump that powers off the tunze if water level gets too high.

JakeK · Sep 10, 2015

Ok PWM vs. Analog....

If I want to eventually hook up either Reef Brites or BML strips to my ATI sunpower for supplemental lighting, and want to do dimming, which version of the Reef Angel is best?

I tried registering on the Reef Angel site but it would not let me register (not sure why) so posting here.

Thanks.

jolt · Sep 10, 2015

That really depends on the driver for the lights. The Kessil has 0-10v analog inputs so analog was the way to go for me.

JakeK · Sep 10, 2015

Jolt - Thank you.

Looks like analog would be better option but only if I want to dim the LEDs. the PWM would work just fine if I don't want to dim. At least that is what I have gathered from a google search.