Rcunning8
Premium member
Well as some of you know I sold my old apex gold and got the brand new apex with two new EB832's. Well lemme just put this out there in the open, if you have an old apex and are thinking about "upgrading" DONT.
I have had issues with this thing since day one and last night was the last straw before I just had to write this review to warn all my friends here on chicago reefs. The whole reason why I bought this thing was to keep it connected to the internet via the wifi apparatus that is inside of the apex brain and although it connects to the internet, my apex fusion falls off the wifi at least twice a week. Let me assure you it is not because it isn't close to the router, the router is only 20 feet away and is completely unobstructed from my apex. All other devices in that area like iPads iPhones MacBooks etc all work perfectly fine connected to the internet, THE APEX JUST BLOWS AT PICKING UP WIFI SIGNAL. This requires my roommates to reset the apex every other day in order to get it to reconnect while i am away. currently I am in new york and have been here for a month so this has been extremely annoying. THIS ALONE MAKES ME WANT TO RETURN THIS THING, sad thing is I sold my old apex so that ship has sailed.
Other issue is the ph reading on this new apex. The ph is just flat out wrong. I have checked with other tests and even checked with my old apex before I sold it, switched out probes etc etc, I have tried everything known to man and the PH on my apex is just not right. The ph varies during the day and night, as it should but now on my new apex the ph changes from 7.5-7.9 where on my old apex the ph read 8.0-8.3 depending on time of day. This ph reading on my old apex matched up with my other ph tests and both probes on the new and old are lab grade therefore they are the exact same probe as the old apex got a new ph probe right before i decided to pull the trigger on this new apex. Now I have seen many people posting about this very problem on the forums, it is most likely not the probes that are defective it is the apex itself. Now I know what you are going to say. It doesn't matter what the number says as long as it is stable and as long as it behaves the same way on a daily basis. Well I agree and thats why I have somewhat gotten over this flaw. However, I dropped 1200 total on this thing and I would appreciate a completely accurate reading on the parameter/number that I consider to be the most important (right behind temperature)
The conductivity probe on this apex, even after isolation from electromagnetic interference from other wires is completed, is all over the freaking place. I had the conductivity probe and pm2 module on my old apex and this did not happen prior, so thats annoying because my ATO is constantly turning on and off since my ATO turns off if conductivity is less than 33.6.
FINALLY WHAT TIPPED ME OVER THE EDGE DO YOU ASK? Here is my email from today to neptune below...
Hello Neptune,
I am currently away from my tank and have been for the past three weeks. I have the newest version of the apex. Last night on the evening of 10/12 all the way through the afternoon of 10/13 I lost connection to my apex over the wifi and could not view my fusion. I thought this was ok because sometimes my Apex falls off the internet and sometimes pops back on one or two days later. Well today when it popped back on I looked at the graphs to check my numbers to see how it was behaving over the past 18 hours and what I saw was shocking.
Temp dropped down to 75 degrees at 5am today and the heater never turned on, remained off until 1:20pm today and heated back up
Salinity dropped down to 32.8 and my auto top off (which is supposed to turn off at less than 33.6) remained on until 1:20pm today.
Whats weird is that when I look at my graphs and overlap them it appears that at 1:20pm today 10/13 my heater turned on and brought my tank temp up to 78 and my auto top off turned off until conductivity rose to 33.6. In other words at 1:20PM my apex started abiding by the rules that are programmed into it where before it seemed to not be working at all. This has never happened to me because usually my apex works with the code that is programmed into it regardless of whether or not it is connected to fusion. Which brings me to my question. Was there an automatic update sent out to my apex over the internet last night that took approximately 18 hours to update and finish before the thing came back online and started abiding by the rules of the code I have in there?
I really can't figure out why the apex was disobeying its code all last night and decided to start obeying it randomly at 120pm today. What irks me the most is if this is the case and the apex was being updated and offline for whatever reason without me knowing why didn't anyone tell me about it? the tank was below 76 for a total of 10 hours without me even knowing it and now Im worried about my corals and fish and I am 700 miles away from it!!!!
Sincerely,
Ryan Cunningham
Now we all know that neptune has possibly the greatest freaking customer support department known to mankind, I don't think anyone can argue that. Here is my problem. Yes they always get back to me within the hour. Yes they are always super helpful or try to be. But since I got this new apex its like they never have answers to my questions. They told me my ph was the right number and that all my other tests were wrong. They blamed the wifi issue on my wifi when all other devices in that exact area act fine and again it is only 20 unobstructed feet away from the router, any closer and I would just hardwire the whole thing. And now for this issue they need to have a phone conference when I get back in a week to fix the problem or evaluate the issue over the phone. It used to be if I had a problem they had the exact answer with my old apex, now it just seems like they are making stuff up as they go along because this new excessively expensive version just clearly has a ton of problems.
Anyways thats it, Im pissed but more sad. I hope my corals are ok and I think they are as my roommates say everything looks ok but honestly I would rather not spend time worrying about it and I would rather not spend time writing about it here. You know what I would rather happen? I would rather have the damn 1200 dollar device just f****** work. I loved my old Apex and it made things so easy for me. This new piece of plastic has just caused more heartache and anxiety than relief in my ability to monitor my tank while away from home.
Sincerely,
A guy who still has faith Neptune will make this right
I have had issues with this thing since day one and last night was the last straw before I just had to write this review to warn all my friends here on chicago reefs. The whole reason why I bought this thing was to keep it connected to the internet via the wifi apparatus that is inside of the apex brain and although it connects to the internet, my apex fusion falls off the wifi at least twice a week. Let me assure you it is not because it isn't close to the router, the router is only 20 feet away and is completely unobstructed from my apex. All other devices in that area like iPads iPhones MacBooks etc all work perfectly fine connected to the internet, THE APEX JUST BLOWS AT PICKING UP WIFI SIGNAL. This requires my roommates to reset the apex every other day in order to get it to reconnect while i am away. currently I am in new york and have been here for a month so this has been extremely annoying. THIS ALONE MAKES ME WANT TO RETURN THIS THING, sad thing is I sold my old apex so that ship has sailed.
Other issue is the ph reading on this new apex. The ph is just flat out wrong. I have checked with other tests and even checked with my old apex before I sold it, switched out probes etc etc, I have tried everything known to man and the PH on my apex is just not right. The ph varies during the day and night, as it should but now on my new apex the ph changes from 7.5-7.9 where on my old apex the ph read 8.0-8.3 depending on time of day. This ph reading on my old apex matched up with my other ph tests and both probes on the new and old are lab grade therefore they are the exact same probe as the old apex got a new ph probe right before i decided to pull the trigger on this new apex. Now I have seen many people posting about this very problem on the forums, it is most likely not the probes that are defective it is the apex itself. Now I know what you are going to say. It doesn't matter what the number says as long as it is stable and as long as it behaves the same way on a daily basis. Well I agree and thats why I have somewhat gotten over this flaw. However, I dropped 1200 total on this thing and I would appreciate a completely accurate reading on the parameter/number that I consider to be the most important (right behind temperature)
The conductivity probe on this apex, even after isolation from electromagnetic interference from other wires is completed, is all over the freaking place. I had the conductivity probe and pm2 module on my old apex and this did not happen prior, so thats annoying because my ATO is constantly turning on and off since my ATO turns off if conductivity is less than 33.6.
FINALLY WHAT TIPPED ME OVER THE EDGE DO YOU ASK? Here is my email from today to neptune below...
Hello Neptune,
I am currently away from my tank and have been for the past three weeks. I have the newest version of the apex. Last night on the evening of 10/12 all the way through the afternoon of 10/13 I lost connection to my apex over the wifi and could not view my fusion. I thought this was ok because sometimes my Apex falls off the internet and sometimes pops back on one or two days later. Well today when it popped back on I looked at the graphs to check my numbers to see how it was behaving over the past 18 hours and what I saw was shocking.
Temp dropped down to 75 degrees at 5am today and the heater never turned on, remained off until 1:20pm today and heated back up
Salinity dropped down to 32.8 and my auto top off (which is supposed to turn off at less than 33.6) remained on until 1:20pm today.
Whats weird is that when I look at my graphs and overlap them it appears that at 1:20pm today 10/13 my heater turned on and brought my tank temp up to 78 and my auto top off turned off until conductivity rose to 33.6. In other words at 1:20PM my apex started abiding by the rules that are programmed into it where before it seemed to not be working at all. This has never happened to me because usually my apex works with the code that is programmed into it regardless of whether or not it is connected to fusion. Which brings me to my question. Was there an automatic update sent out to my apex over the internet last night that took approximately 18 hours to update and finish before the thing came back online and started abiding by the rules of the code I have in there?
I really can't figure out why the apex was disobeying its code all last night and decided to start obeying it randomly at 120pm today. What irks me the most is if this is the case and the apex was being updated and offline for whatever reason without me knowing why didn't anyone tell me about it? the tank was below 76 for a total of 10 hours without me even knowing it and now Im worried about my corals and fish and I am 700 miles away from it!!!!
Sincerely,
Ryan Cunningham
Now we all know that neptune has possibly the greatest freaking customer support department known to mankind, I don't think anyone can argue that. Here is my problem. Yes they always get back to me within the hour. Yes they are always super helpful or try to be. But since I got this new apex its like they never have answers to my questions. They told me my ph was the right number and that all my other tests were wrong. They blamed the wifi issue on my wifi when all other devices in that exact area act fine and again it is only 20 unobstructed feet away from the router, any closer and I would just hardwire the whole thing. And now for this issue they need to have a phone conference when I get back in a week to fix the problem or evaluate the issue over the phone. It used to be if I had a problem they had the exact answer with my old apex, now it just seems like they are making stuff up as they go along because this new excessively expensive version just clearly has a ton of problems.
Anyways thats it, Im pissed but more sad. I hope my corals are ok and I think they are as my roommates say everything looks ok but honestly I would rather not spend time worrying about it and I would rather not spend time writing about it here. You know what I would rather happen? I would rather have the damn 1200 dollar device just f****** work. I loved my old Apex and it made things so easy for me. This new piece of plastic has just caused more heartache and anxiety than relief in my ability to monitor my tank while away from home.
Sincerely,
A guy who still has faith Neptune will make this right
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