apex questions?

Thanks to my awesome local reef store my wife and i will be the owners of an full apex with salinity probe setup. But my questions are what can i do to prepare ahead of time and what are some common issues setting it up? I want to monitor the temp,ph and salinity/but also set up a webcam for daily snapshots. What camera to use? And has anybody used the moonlight add-on? And your thoughts on it?

On a side note i dedicated a 55 gal drum with overflow in my fish room to hold the waste water from my RO unit and it is also collects the drain form my dehumidifier . I use this for top off and water changes for my cichlid tanks.

Thanks guys

 

I've heard mixed reviews on the salinity probes. Not only are they expensive I've also heard they don't last long and are prone to electrical interference.
I have a foscam f18910 wireless camera I use with mine. It works pretty well but doesn't have the greatest resolution as its only 480p.
As for the moonlights, I also have them but am running them on my dart frog tank. The thing I don't like about them is they don't actually ramp up and down. They do follow the lunar cycle by turning off/on at specific times but not ramping.
4 Beta

 

That sucks they dont ramp up and down as they make it sound like that in the dialogue box on the description. And they told me 1 year warrenty on the salinity(conductivity probe)

we have a 1tb hp elite computer so i have tons of room to store pix for a time lapse and it hd capable. I just need to get it fixed if anybody does that for fun?

 

Moonlight module is totally superfluous, I'd rather just have a moonlight on all night, every night so I can observe my fish on my schedule instead of the moons schedule. Unless your really hoping for corals to spawn sexually (which is a disaster I might add (been there done that)) then don't bother with it.


Foscam IP cameras are great for these applications.


You will want to study the user guide before you start writing rules and outlet controls. Get an idea of what types of functions you want to perform with each channel.

 

well after 18hrs with the apex i have the dashboard and eb8 programed and functioning and now to work on the orp and salinity probes, im a visual and hands on learner and this was dificult for me to get everything going. it doesent help that in the manual theres no pictures [laugh all you want] and also the setup is not exactly in order step by step, for the price of these things there should be an interactive step by step for beginners on there website.


now to save up for a dosing and ato setup to be combined with another eb8, and i forgot to get a probe holder as well


"PS" i did sneak a few text messages to KYLE [kpotter2] so i must thank him for the reassurance on my questions