dependability

[builder1]

I'm a newbie to Saltwater and will eventually move from FOWLR to Fish and Reef. I very much like the idea of a digital controller/monitor but I am highly concerned with dependability.

After a basic search, I found that there really only appears to be two controllers to chose from; Neptune and DA so I made a choice for the Neptune Apex which the family is getting me one for Christmas, should be here tomorrow.

Any of these controllers though is like putting your eggs in one basket if the single controller with no backup or redundancy fails. So I decided to create this thread to try and get some feedback on what experiences folks have had with dependability, how it may have impacted you if there was a failure of whatever source, what you may have done as a fail safe to ward against future failures or any other feedback you could provide on this subject.

Hopefully this thread will provide great feedback for all.

Thanks in advance everyone!

[aquamanic]

Welcome. You made the right choice!

There's been a number of threads on fail-safe, redundancy, disaster type topics here. You'll find that most of the successful setups have recognized that any device whether electrical, mechanical or both, will fail at some point. You have to anticipate that and weigh your alternatives against the risk.

Some things for you to think about:

- battery backup and UPS for the controller, your router and modem
- multiple floats for ATO's, water changes, etc.
- multiple heaters
- liberal usage of the alarm capabilities in the controller - email, sound, text
- tank cameras (a picture is worth a thousand words)
- tested programs (you'd be surprised at how many times something bad happens to someone's tank because they didn't test their controls)

That should get you going in the right direction. Search a little and you'll find some of those other threads I referred to.