Aquatronica vs. Profilux vs. Aquacontroller III

[Fishmeister]

Hello all:

I'm new to this bulletin board, but thought I'd post the question that is driving me nuts at the moment.

I've had tanks for years, with two main tanks, both about 300 gals., at the moment - one is a reef tank at home, and the other a "predator" tank in my office.

I've never used electronics before. Now I travel more and would prefer to have something that will at least monitor the tank, and preferably handle things like top offs, adjusting ph, calcium, etc. levels, at least when I'm away.

Money isn't the real issue - obviously I want good value, but I'm more concerned with the best solution because over the many years it will be in place, the small differences in price will be long forgotten.

I've ruled out the low end and the high end because the middle range seemed to offer most of the functionality I think I need.

As an aside, I'd prefer to have the same system on both tanks so I don't have to have two different sets of probes, programming methods, etc.

With my analysis, that lead to the Aquatronica, Profilux, and Aquacontroller III units. So, you are the experts. What do you think? Which one? Or should it be a fourth choice I didn't consider?

Best regards, Mike.

[RonPeter]

I'll tag along on this one.

[untamed]

You need to find someone who has had experience with all of them, and I doubt you'll find that person.

I have an Aquatronica. I certainly had some problems with my first unit. When it finally failed for good, it was replaced quickly under warranty. My replacement unit has worked perfectly. At the time I made the decision, the Profilux wasn't yet available.

Aquatronica has upgraded the unit firmware (bringing improvements and new capabilities) about 5 times in the 2 years I've owned it. That's a nice feature which is also shared by the Profilux.

If you intend to leave a computer connected to the controller at all times, Aquatronica has some issues that they have not yet resolved.

As for which is better....I simply don't know because I've never owned the Profilux or Aquacontroller III.

[mseepman]

If you are looking in that mid-range, you might want to explore the new Reefkeeper Elite that is coming out shortly. Appears to be good value with great expandability. Price is good too. People seem very happy with the RK2 except for maybe the amount of amps the Powerbar takes. I think they bumped it on the RK Elite.

Just a thought though as I don't have one to test out.

[fkshiu]

Anybody looking at a controller must have a look at this site and "The Chart":

http://www.aquariumcontrollers.com/

RobbyG, a regular RC poster and a bit of a controller nutter it seems, somehow put this together on his own free time.

[Tom R]

I do not know the pros and cons of each of the controllers. I did not do a lot of research when deciding on the ProfiLux. I have 4 friends that have purchased ProfiLux and are very happy with it. I have 1 friend that has an Aquatronica and he is very happy with it.

I got my ProfiLux Plus II Controller for Christmas and it is fantastic. I did not buy their package, I had them build it exactly to my specs (this saves money by not paying for modules that I would not use). You can always add them at a later date. I wanted 2 x PH, 1 x temp and 2 x power bars. I also used Aqua-Digitals $19 PH probes rater than the $80 ProfilLux probes (they work just fine). I was able to sell my Medusa temp. controller, my PH controller and if I attach my Tunze's I will be able to sell the Tunze controllers. My net cost without the frills is about $300. This will increase as time goes on as I see more and more uses to completely automate the day to day control and care of my tanks. Things such as automatic water change.

I know that ProfiLux looks expensive but do you really need control of Salinity, Redox, Humidity, Oxygen or Air Temperature. If you do you can add them later.

ProfiLux just had an introductory offer of $499 that would have got you up and running with about 80% of your tank controlled
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