Controller choice question

[Rocket]

Here's the deal. I would like more control over my heaters and I have no experience what so ever with any type of aquarium controllers. I just need the basic level for temperature.

 

I have narrowed it down between these 2. Links provided!

 

Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper Lite Controller - Level 1

 

or

 

Neptune Systems AquaController Jr with Serial Port + Temperature Probe

 

I am open to other suggestions!!! And I am not sure if I actually want to purchase a controller, they look neat. Need some help on deciding.

 

Thanks,

Rocket.

 

 

P.S. this is to control my 125 gallon tank.

[BKtomodachi]

I have the AquaController Jr. and I love it.

I am a bit of a techie type of person, which is nice with the AC Jr. It can do so much! Not only does it control temp (including heaters and chillers if you ever need one), it also controls lights (including moonlights on a real lunar cycle if you have them), pH, maximum run time for circuits (for ATO, etc).

 

All in all, its awesome. You can also just push a button to feed, and it will turn on/off whatever devices you want for a few minutes then automatically come back on.

[viinse]

I love my AC Jr. It's great at getting the temp dialed in.

Having the lights and a couple of pumps on intermittent control helped me clean up all the timer/power strip mess I had going on too.

 

I'm not sure if it's the right controller for you but its a cool little device.

[Urchinhead]

For a 125 you should look at the AC III. The bonus being that it has ethernet built in and float switch capability as well as the ability to monitor pH and ORP. ORP being somewhat ifffy in my book but a good early warning system that something is going south.

 

An alternative would be the RKE.

 

The reason I say that is because you have a large tank as well as several smaller tanks which could all be controlled by the AC III or RKE and it sounds like you are new to the controller arena as well which means that as you discover the capabilities of the units you are going to want to use more of the features.

 

Think of it like this. Odds are that you bought some light, skimmer, pump, etc that you thought would be 'All I Need'. After a while it turns out that it wasn't all you need and thus shelved/sold/traded it and bought a bigger better skimmer/pump/etc. Had you just bought that bigger 'thing' to begin with with the thought in mind that you only need it for X now but down the road you have room to grow you wouldn't be spending N dollars more to buy the expanded version plus the K dollars you spent on the original thing.

 

Back to your question...

 

The RK series is a very flexible and powerful unit with a good price point. It allows for a great amount of expansion and control of devices. For example they are coming out with a module that will monitor salinity for it and you can have multiple modules with this feature. To do that with the AC you need a Pro model and can only have one probe. I also believe that to upgrade to the Elite model all you would have to do is replace the head unit. The downsides are that it doesn't have network capabilities built in (you need a $150ish module), it is menu driven at this time and not programmable, and it is still a 1.x release of the software which means that they are still in the process of working out the bugs.

 

The AC series is also somewhat flexible and a very powerful unit with a good price point. It has a built in web server, ethernet port, and much more detailed and controllable programming language. There is also a simulator for it where you can test your code before you put it on your unit. Said simulator can be found over at reef central in the Neptune Systems forum and is written by Kengaro. It is expandable to a point via the use of the PX-1000 module. It is also a tried and true system that is stable. The down side is that to get the salinity and dissolved O2 you need to go to the Pro unit but this is most likely not going to be a big deal for you. It is also more limited in its expandability but odds are high you will not run into its upper limit even controlling the tanks you have now.

[Qwank]

I'm getting the reefkeeper lite L3. they are shipping them out friday so i should have it in either next week or the week after. its seems to be a really good system. they also have a nice support forum online too incase you have any questions or problems. and you will easily be able to upgrade to the RK elite in the future if you ever needed to.