Question for all of you that have or SELL controller's

[kien]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Yeah I've never seen the point in probes for all that either. Maybe if I needed ph probe for a reactor but I dose. So my Ranco could in theory replace Kien's profilux only he'd have no networking and it would look ghetto lol.

Kien if all the controller is really doing/relying on is temp probe...what can you even do over the network that's of use? Shut lights off if temp is too high? Of course you can see the current temp which is nice too but for the cost I'm not sure.

Network access has been handy to remotely monitor and control temp, lights, powerheads, doser . Also you need the net module to get email alerts which is nice. Can I live without it, yea. Of all the "needless" add ins tho that one is the most "useful".

The nice feature about my controller has nothing to do with any of the probes. My controller is used to interface with my lights (halides, actinics, moon), powerheads (programable tunzes), and doser. All of these things need to be programmed and controlled so it is nice to do all of that in one place. The alternative would be separate controller/timer for lights, dedicated tunze pump controller, stand alone doser or timers for dosing pumps. Being able to control any power socket is handy too. I can remotely cut power to any component (skimmer, return pump, reactors, etc).


I would assume the big 3 controllers can all do those things as well. Not 100% on that tho, might want to research if any of those extra controlling features are useful to you.