Apex and why you need one

The Apex controller by Neptune and why it’s a must have for any aquarist. I’m sure you have herd of a apex before you might have even priced them out and got sticker shock. Yes they can be a bit much and you could ask yourself why do I need this? Well I’m going to tell you what happened to me this past year. Family vacation with wife and two kids has its own sort of stress and add leaving you tank in the hands of a family member might put you at ease unless they know tanks and in particular yours, you could be in big trouble. I got a phone call at 9 at night saying the tanks pumps and lights were off, at this point i want to go home and fix this but 6hr drive now is not posable. So going on the info I had I explained in great detail how to check circuit breaker and the gfi outlet that only my tank is on. Once this all failed I had them run an extension cord to power the pump to hold till morning. I was able to get ahold of a friend who went over and took a look for me, at this point my skimmer has overflowed and filled my tank stand draining my rodi reserve and diluting the conductivity of the tank. I know what you’re thinking wholly catastrophic failure batman, you couldn’t be more right it turns out my iwaki pumps bearings have gone drawing more juice than it should and tripping the gfi. Now that the pump was on the extension cord it shut the pump down but the rest of the equipment including the skimmer (now that the sump is at its max) produced over skimming. So you might be asking yourself were dose an Apex fit into all this. Well if I had that apex set up i would have known when the pump was drawing to much. Also as soon as i had power failure I would have gotten a text and an email. When the conductivity went below a level I set I could have known. Water leaking on the floor yup they got a alarm for that too. Now I’m not saying that having this would have prevented this but I am saying I could have known more information and shut down that pump keeping power heads on lights on all sorts of good stuff just from my phone. The apex is your information center, control center and peace of mind. Outlets can be set up to turn on and off with floats in case of emergency, the skimmer can be turned on after a set time frame after the main pump turns on. Preventing any chance of over skimming due to water level in the sump. The control options are down right amazing and can be a bit confusing at first but if I can do it anyone can lol. So in short the price might scare you or you might think eh that couldn’t happen with my tank. Trust me it can and when you least expect it you could be at work and come home to an empty tank from a seam leak. The peace of mind control and insurance the Apex gives you is worth the investment hands down it should be on the list of things needed for a tank right next to pumps and lights. Theirs stores that even put the major stuff all in a nice package so you wont need to buy it all separate. I know next time I’m away I won’t have to worry is my tank ok because i can just look and see . . . Can you?