Neptune Systems has announced a new generation of Apex aquarium controller which completely overhauls the aquarium hobby’s most popular controlling system. The new Apex is different in so many incredible ways and it finally brings with it a huge new crop of improvements that will help make the Apex even easier and more capable than ever before.
The new Apex replaces the ‘Classic’ Apex with built-in wireless connectivity, a salinity port standard, a native application for controlling on smartphones and much more. The head unit, or the brain of the Apex now has even more ports and connections which are easily accessible with an ingenious swiveling design.
The Energy Bar of the new Apex has also been completely redesigned, with more easily discernible regular and high current outlets, and our favorite touch, is LED indicators to communicate the status of the outlets in real time. Gone is the old black metal Energy Bar 8 and now replaced with an attractive grey enclosure with orange accents.
The Energy Bar 832 still has the same eight outlets, but now it also has a built-in 1Link module, and three 1Link connectors. The ‘chin’ of the EB 832 contains the 100 watt power supply to drive 1Link accessories, hence the increased size of this new energy bar.
It also has two 24 volt accessory outlets, for both powering and controlling other Neptune Systems devices such as the DOS doser, eliminating the need for both an Aquabus and power cables. This accessory port will also work with forthcoming accessories including solenoids for Auto top off, and a huge number of other applications.
One of the other big changes to the new generation of Apex is a native application for our ubiquitous smartphones. The Apex app has the same look and feel of the cloud-driven Apex Fusion interface, but it takes advantages of iOS notifications, with reminders and also one-touch firmware updates. However Neptune Systems doesn’t refer to it as a firmware anymore, but the Apex Operating System.
By this point it’s pretty clear that the new generation Apex controller is starting to pack a ton more features into an even smaller package. The new Apex will come standard with all probes, including the same Salinity and temperature probe, and double-junction pH and ORP probes which should last a lot longer than previous ones.
One feature which will not be included with the new Apex is a controller display, primarily because the system is meant to be accessed with your smartphone, or previous remote display. However there is also a new grey colored and orange screened display in case you want it, but it would be more economical and practical to use any of the widely available cheap full color displays.
The new Apex will cost the same as the old Apex Gold Bundle with a retail price of $799 and should start shipping this summer in early June. We have heaps of questions for Neptune Systems, especially in regards to backwards compatibility with existing Apex setups, so stay tuned for our first hands on with the new Apex in the following days for our ongoing coverage of InterZoo 2016.
