(upbeat music)
- Hey it's Thomas here,
and today we're doing a quick review
on Neptune systems Apex and Apex EL.
So not just for advanced reefers,
it was so much simpler than I expected.
If you are newer to the world
of monitoring and control systems for reef tanks,
and want a solution that is easy to set up
with an app that walks you through the basics
and already has all of the outlets preset
for the average reefer to control their lighting,
skimmer, heater, return pump and more,
while giving your tank a heartbeat,
sending push notifications to your smart device
in the event, something is wrong,
giving you an opportunity to make adjustments
from anywhere with an internet connection,
or even simply take action for you
with a wide range of supported gear
that's able to grow with you as a reefer,
capable of performing more complex custom tasks
to help solve your more complex refund conundrums,
then you've gone to check out the Apex.
I'm also going to help you decide
between the full Apex and the Apex EL,
so you can figure out which one's best for your needs.
Reef keeping is a hobby of gear
as much as it is a hobby of keeping a thriving ecosystem
of corals, fish and invertebrates.
Equipment like skimmers, way pumps, sterilizers,
and lighting help us make sure our reef tank
is an ideal environment for the inhabitants inside.
Among all of the equipment that's designed
to help us keep our tanks,
monitoring and control systems are unique
in that they help us keep track of critical parameters,
like pH, salinity and alkalinity,
provide power to and manage all of your other equipment
like lighting, pumps and filtration,
provide redundancies, fail safes
and a heartbeat for your reef
so you can be instantly notified when something is wrong,
and can even take action on your behalf
to help prevent catastrophic events.
So in other words,
it's like having a personal assistant
and a guardian just for your reef
to make sure everything is working as it should
to your standards at all times,
so that your reef and all of its inhabitants
always get everything that they need all of the time.
Neptune systems Apex is a complete monitoring
and control system for reefers of any experience level,
whether you're a novice or an advanced reefer,
with the fusion app for iOS and Android,
it is really quick and simple to set up right out of the box
with easily adjusted pre-configured outlets
and programming for all of the most common equipment.
There's also a wide range of Apex compatible gear,
anything from dosing pumps, auto top offs or flow sensors
to automatic feeders,
Apex is going to help you keep your tank running
like a fine-tuned, well-oiled machine,
that you can check in on from anywhere with a smart device.
If there's an internet connection,
you just pull out your phone on the beach of Belize,
just be like, Oh, pH is still good.
Everybody's happy.
Nice.
And as I mentioned, I'll also help you decide
if the more affordable Apex EL is what you're after,
or if you should stick with the full Apex.
Spoiler, the Apex EL can still do all of the same things
that the full Apex can do
because you can always add on those other modules
at a later date as needed.
But first let's get these out of the box.
In the full Apex box,
you'll find the Apex base unit,
the energy bar 832, a 6-foot Aquabus cable,
temperature probe, double junction pH,
and double junction ORP probes,
and a salinity probe,
as well as pH and salinity calibration solutions,
and mounting screws.
In the EL, you'll find the Apex EL base unit,
energy bar 832, 6-foot Aquabus cable,
temperature probe, double junction pH probe,
calibration solution, as well as mounting screws.
Now I'll fully admit I was expecting this
to be a lot more complicated,
but it turns out it is extremely easy to set up
through the Fusion app.
Took me no more than 10 minutes and literally zero skill.
So this is how you do it.
Plug the base unit into the EB 832
with the included Aquabus cable and plug it into power.
Download the Apex Fusion app, create your account,
and follow the prompts to pair up your Apex
with either a wifi connection or a network cable.
Get the probes attached and into the water.
You don't need to calibrate them right away.
It's going to take about seven days
for them to break in.
Next plug-in all your gear into the pre-configured outlets
on the EB 832.
Each outlet is labeled on the Fusion dashboard
so you know what piece of gear goes where,
and then you're good to go.
That's it.
When you're ready to calibrate the probes after a few days,
you click on the tasks icon,
there's a little search bar, you type in calibration,
and then all of the different pro calibrations come up,
you just click one, it walks you through it.
It is incredibly simple.
So right out of the box,
just getting your Apex linked up to Fusion
with no extra tasks or custom coding,
Apex will monitor your pH, temp, ORP and salinity,
giving you alerts like push notifications
if they fall outside of the preset ranges,
while also providing power to
and controlling your reef lighting,
refugium light, skimmer, return pump,
reactor pump, heater, and cooling fan.
The dashboard in the app is already laid out for you
with the readings from the probes with simple graphs
and all of the equipment listed
with the outlet it's associated with,
with a slider to switch it from off to on or auto.
You can also click the little gear icon
to customize the preset.
For example, changing what time the lights turn on or off,
or the minimum and maximum temporary range for your heater.
And again, really simple,
no programming and no coding required.
If you want to add a new piece of equipment,
calibrate a probe, or set up your variable speed ports
for dimming your DX18 T5 hybrid fixture,
Apex has tasks you can access
by clicking the clipboard icon,
then just search for the task you'd like to perform,
and it'll walk you through it step-by-step.
Apex also has a wide range of devices and gear
that you can add on to help cover the needs of your tank.
That includes return pumps, wave pumps, auto top offs,
dosers, smart dosing containers,
leak detection sensors, flow monitoring, automatic feeding,
automatic testing of calcium, alkalinity and magnesium.
And the list goes on.
And that doesn't even include the extra modules you can get
to expand your Apex,
for example, if you want outlets,
you can add an extra EB 832,
or if you want a second pH probe
for monitoring your calcium reactor,
you can add a PM1 module and an extra probe.
They even have a breakout box
for connecting other custom switches and gear.
So without diving down the rabbit hole,
because it's easy to do,
the long story short is the Apex is extremely customizable,
flexible, and adaptable to your specific reefing needs.
So whether you just want to add redundancy
to your heater, dose two part and have an ATO,
or all of that plus also run an ozone generator,
monitoring its ORP
and possibly also your calcium reactor,
making sure that the pH is always stable inside of it.
Let's say you have a custom switch box
and you want to be able to give Mr. Chilly a fist bump
and then shut off your skimmer, reactors,
slow down your pumps, and then auto feed your tank,
Apex can do it.
Yeah, I'm going to make it happen.
Why do you think I got this?
And like my custom Mr. Chilly button,
there are lots of Apex compatible devices
from other manufacturers like CJ's SDC line of pumps,
Reef Breeders LED lights, AI LED lights,
my Aquatic Life DX18 behind me,
which means keeping all of your most important equipment
accessible in a single app, always at your fingertips.
Okay. So I know I just spent the last little bit
explaining how easy and simple this is to use.
It is completely capable of growing with you as a reefer.
So if or when you decide
you want to become more of a control freak
and want your Apex to assist
with more complicated tasks
that might utilize some custom coding,
it is always an option you can explore.
If you have an idea,
no matter how many moving parts are involved,
your Apex is ready to help put it in motion.
Plus there is a huge community of Apex users out there
who can lend a hand on the Apex forum,
Reef2Reef and #BRSTV on Facebook.
Just reach out with your question
and you're going to get a helping hand.
Okay. So like I promised on to the big question,
should you get the full Apex
or the more affordable Apex EL?
The very simple difference
between them is the full Apex includes
ORP and salinity monitoring
as well as zero to 10 volt ports
built right into the base unit.
While the EL does not have them built in,
you can always at any time, add them on a separate modules.
Meaning even if you start with the EL,
you can always get the extra features later on.
However, if you want any two of those three extra features,
the full Apex has,
by the time you add the two extra modules and probes,
you're right up in that price range for the full unit,
so you might as well go with the full Apex
instead of the EL,
and you're just going to get that third parameter,
whichever it was, just thrown in.
The other reason I'd prefer to go for the full Apex
in that scenario is that way you don't have extra modules
that you have to mount to your board
with extra cables running to in front of them,
because it's all already built into the base unit.
So, as an example,
while I personally don't feel the need
to monitor my ORP or salinity,
I do want the zero to 10 volt ports
for dimming my DX18 T5 fixture.
And I do plan to run a calcium reactor.
So in the end, the full Apex makes more sense for me
since the ORP port can do both pH and ORP
I just have to swap over to a second pH probe
when I'm ready to set up that calcium reactor.
So Apex can monitor and control my calcium reactor for me
as well as run a ramp schedule for my DX18 T5 fixture.
And as a bonus, I get to monitor my salinity
and I don't have to use a couple extra modules
and the associated cables,
which keeps my control board a little bit less cluttered
and a little bit cleaner.
And while I might not have a lot going on
on the board right now,
I'm definitely going to be adding some extra stuff
to my Apex,
to name a few things, automatic feeder, super nifty,
automatic top off, standard,
and a leak detection kit,
because that's just peace of mind for me.
I'm looking forward to setting everything up through tasks.
It's so much easier than I expected, truthfully.
And I'm even at this point,
getting pretty curious about that custom coding.
Thankfully, we have a really great playlist
of Apex related questions, tips, answers,
everything you're looking for.
You can check it out right here.
Ryan's got a wicked series diving deeper into Apex,
all things related
and how you can get the most out of your Apex.
So, have a look.
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