I know the feeling. I bought my ACIII a year ago and had to read the manual about 3 times before I could make sense out of it. Now I've gotten it to the point where it will send me text messages if something is out of whack. Have you looked through the Neptune support forum on ReefCentral for ideas? Most of the posts on there are for the Apex now but if you go back a few months or do a key word search you should be able to find plenty of info.
I'll try my best to answer any specific questions you might have as well so fire away if you want.
If you want to access it through your computer the easiest way would be to buy their PC Serial Interface Cable
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/np...ace+Cable.html
and download Aquanotes Lite from their website.
http://www.neptunesys.com/index.php?...d=34&Itemid=40