Shopping for: Tank Controller.

[caferacermike]

I finally have my new tank here in ATX. It is a 380g acrylic, used to be Z28's tank. The plan is to have about 800g of total water volume between sump, fuge, tank, and skimmer (holds about 20g itself). I still have some major purchases ahead.


Today I'm shopping for: AQUARIUM TANK CONTROLLER

With so many different makes and models out there it's hard to decide what will be right for me. From what I can tell it's like going to college. It's so hard to decide what path to take because you never really know how things will be in 4 years. It seems like it would be easier to set the tank up and then buy the controller I need after set up. I fear buying one now and then set up the tank only to find out my controller is incompatible or not complete enough.


1. My demands are pretty low. Skimmer on all the time. Sump/fuge pumps 24 hours. Closed loop to provide large current, maybe an Ocean Motion sea squirt to create random flow. Probably a Tunze WaveBox but they use their own controllers.

Large calcium reactor (Thanks GMako) and electronic controller, temp probes for large chiller (Thanks Seamonkey), PH probe for CA reactor and for status of water, light timers (4 halide, 6 VHO bulbs, and some sort of lunar be it a 4' T12 actinic or a string of LED's). I can't really think of anything else to control with it except possibly an ORP meter if I do get an ozone generator. Do they read things like CA, Trite, Trate, Phos and or Ammo?

2. I'm unsure if I want one I need to interface to a PC. I'd probably get the PC all buggy surfing pron while loading the software. I'd hate to hear that my tank crashed while I was out because of an HD crash or something entirely not the controllers fault. Oh and I only know how to use PC's for MAAST, Ebay, and pron so that's a limiting factor as well.

3. Brands. What do you use and why? Why is it the best? I'm currently leaning towards the ReefKeeper II from Digital Aquatics. Kingfish has them in stock and on a running tank which means I can play with it. It seems easy to set up and looks to do most anything I ask of it. It appears to be very user friendly as well. My only concern is that down the road I might end up wishing it did something that I may have overlooked.


Thanks for reading and replying. These are kind of expensive and I'd like to try and get it right the first time.

[LoneStar]

I'm looking at the Neptune Systems Aqua Controller Jr. for my new tank. I also do not have a high demand to controll. Just lights, pH, chiller, and heater. The Tunzes will be on their own, and the return pump will be on a seperate circuit. From what I see they are very flexible for programming. If you get the bundle with the DC8, you do not have to run x10 controllers (for that peace of mind). But you can also run the DC8 and x10's. Or you can daisy chain up to 4 (?) DC8's together.

If your looking to monitor ORP, then the Aqua Controller 3 would be the next unit up, but a larger price difference.

Personally I have used the Premium Aquatics Lighthouse Controller. Only sold through Premium Aquatics. It can do pH, ORP, light controlls, heater or chiller controll, and does graphing through its built in webserver. It even controlls the power strip through a hard wired system, rather than x10. The only issue I had is that each outlet is preset to the device it needs to controll. So lets say you want to or 3 seperate outlets to controll 3 sets of lights (turning on/off at different times), you can't change them with this device. ;) But its a good basic controller.

[caferacermike]

I'm looking at the Neptune Systems Aqua Controller Jr.......

Personally I have used the Premium Aquatics Lighthouse Controller. It even controlls the power strip through a hard wired system, rather than x10. The only issue I had is that each outlet is preset to the device it needs to controll. So lets say you want to or 3 seperate outlets to controll 3 sets of lights (turning on/off at different times), you can't change them with this device. ;) But its a good basic controller.


That's a good point and I'm glad you brought that up. I hadn't thought about that. The ReefKeeper sounds similar in that it has it's own power strip and radio frequency to each outlet. That could limit the timing abilities for lighting. I'm thinking that would eat up about 3 of the outlets right there. I think I can get another power strip but more strips, more money.

Do the other controllers come with the X10 units or do you have to buy them separately? I've also seen people run some sort of sine wave cancellation device on their X10's is this helpful?

[LoneStar]

I don't know for sure if other controllers utilize the x10 technology.

Jose did show me some neat x10 stuff at his house when we moved your tank. They sell x10 controlled wall outlets. So instead of plugging in a x10 device into an outlet, its already built in. I don't want to knock it too much but I have just heard them not turning on or off sometimes. Bill even said he has had his lights turn on in the middle of the night! (haha)

If you limit the x10's to their own circuit, you might prevent any other electrical noise in your house from interferring with them.

The DC8's are a little pricey, but if you go with the Jr. you can get the Jr w/ serial port + DC8 for under $300. All you would need to buy is a pH probe. The DC8 runs ~ $170. They also sell DC4's too.

[Texreefer]

Mike i will be getting the Aquacontroller JR with serial port,DC8 and ph prob in about 3-4 days.. you are welcome to come by and check it out,, i will basically be running lights, chiller, heater, two pumps.. it will be hooked to computer

[caferacermike]

Well I jumped the gun and got a ReefKeeperII, PH probe, and extra Expansion socket today from Kingfish. Partly because John and Brian are extra nice to deal with, partly because I could see it in operation and see how easy it was to program, and of course 95% of the decision was because of the cool blue screen LCD display and blue LED's as GreenMako pointed out to me. The decision would have been a lot more difficult had it not been for the blue screen.