Looking to buy controller

[fightinghippo]

I have been looking around to buy a controller for a while now. But never could justify the price for it. Recently sold a bunch of aquarium stuff laying around and got about $200. I started looking around and came across reef angel. Before i fork out about 420 dollars i wanted to get an honest opinion from people who have been using it.

How easy is it program for basic functions
I have wp40,wp25, skimmer, return, osmolator, bulk reef supply dual reactor for carbon, GFO, two heaters.
Planning on adding kr620 for kalkwasser dosing.
The LEDS i have an internal controller so it can simulate sunrise sunset already

What all can i do with my equipment that i already have if i buy this.

Things i have problems with.
Refilling the RO container
doing water changes on time ( i wait till i see algae on glass)
changing carbon, GFO on time
have tried several times to keep acans and har coral but i always kill them

What all attachments do u suggest that can help with any of the above.
Will the probes require their own power outlet on the relay or is it powered on differently.

Also are there any upgrades planned for the unit in coming months hardware wise?If so i would rather wait for the updated unit than buy one now


I know its a lot of questions but i waited a long time to buy bcoz of the cost so dont want to have buyers remorse later.


your advice is greatly appreciated.

[Sacohen]

I have been looking around to buy a controller for a while now. But never could justify the price for it. Recently sold a bunch of aquarium stuff laying around and got about $200. I started looking around and came across reef angel. Before i fork out about 420 dollars i wanted to get an honest opinion from people who have been using it.

How easy is it program for basic functions
I have wp40,wp25, skimmer, return, osmolator, bulk reef supply dual reactor for carbon, GFO, two heaters.
Planning on adding kr620 for kalkwasser dosing.
The LEDS i have an internal controller so it can simulate sunrise sunset already

What all can i do with my equipment that i already have if i buy this.

Things i have problems with.
Refilling the RO container
doing water changes on time ( i wait till i see algae on glass)
changing carbon, GFO on time
have tried several times to keep acans and har coral but i always kill them

What all attachments do u suggest that can help with any of the above.
Will the probes require their own power outlet on the relay or is it powered on differently.

Also are there any upgrades planned for the unit in coming months hardware wise?If so i would rather wait for the updated unit than buy one now


I know its a lot of questions but i waited a long time to buy bcoz of the cost so dont want to have buyers remorse later.


your advice is greatly appreciated.

I've been using the controller for about a year now.
I was originally of the thinking "what do I need this for, my lights come on with timers, and what ever other excuses I had back then.

I finally decided to get one around the time that the WP-40's came out an I saw how Roberto came to the plate and created a cable to control the pumps.

I started poking around the forums and just watched what was going on and I really liked the way things were handled here, kind of like a family all helping each other out.

Anyway the programming is really easy if you use the wizard (you can download it here http://www.reefangel.com/download.aspx and play with it before you buy anything.

The wizard will give you the basic setup that you will want.
It will hep you set up your pumps, heaters, WP's, kalkwasser dosing and skimmer to however you want it.

From there you may want to customize some things and that is were the forum come into play. There are plenty of people on here that will help you do the customized coding that you may want or you can just look at other peoples code to see what they have done.

For example my code is kept under the My PDE/INO file section and in there is some custom code that someone created for and Else mode on the WP pumps. In addition Lnevo had done some coding for someone that would take all the different wave profiles for the pumps and randomly change it everyday.

With the basic RA+, Relay, pH probe, Temp probe and ATO float switches you can tell you lights and pumps to turn off if the tank water is over a specific setting.
You can set you heaters up kick on and off and the desired temp.

You can control your ATO to come on when the water in the sump is low and stop when it reaches a high point.
You can turn off your pumps if the water level in the sump is to low so the sumps don't burn out.

Lnevo has thinks set up in his code that keep track of the last time the tank was feed or the last time he dosed something. (His code is very advanced)

I'm in the process of setting up and Automatic water change were it will replace 2% of my water daily with 2 pumps that are set up to run at the exact same speed.

There are so many things that you can do with the basic setup and what you have.

But I would definable suggest the Wifi module and 2 cables for your WP pumps to start off with at least.
I particularly like the Water Level Sensors for doing ATO. It seems more accurate and you can use the float valves as redundancy.

[fightinghippo]

I have been looking around to buy a controller for a while now. But never could justify the price for it. Recently sold a bunch of aquarium stuff laying around and got about $200. I started looking around and came across reef angel. Before i fork out about 420 dollars i wanted to get an honest opinion from people who have been using it.

How easy is it program for basic functions
I have wp40,wp25, skimmer, return, osmolator, bulk reef supply dual reactor for carbon, GFO, two heaters.
Planning on adding kr620 for kalkwasser dosing.
The LEDS i have an internal controller so it can simulate sunrise sunset already

What all can i do with my equipment that i already have if i buy this.

Things i have problems with.
Refilling the RO container
doing water changes on time ( i wait till i see algae on glass)
changing carbon, GFO on time
have tried several times to keep acans and har coral but i always kill them

What all attachments do u suggest that can help with any of the above.
Will the probes require their own power outlet on the relay or is it powered on differently.

Also are there any upgrades planned for the unit in coming months hardware wise?If so i would rather wait for the updated unit than buy one now


I know its a lot of questions but i waited a long time to buy bcoz of the cost so dont want to have buyers remorse later.


your advice is greatly appreciated.

I've been using the controller for about a year now.
I was originally of the thinking "what do I need this for, my lights come on with timers, and what ever other excuses I had back then.

I finally decided to get one around the time that the WP-40's came out an I saw how Roberto came to the plate and created a cable to control the pumps.

I started poking around the forums and just watched what was going on and I really liked the way things were handled here, kind of like a family all helping each other out.

Anyway the programming is really easy if you use the wizard (you can download it here and play with it before you buy anything.

The wizard will give you the basic setup that you will want.
It will hep you set up your pumps, heaters, WP's, kalkwasser dosing and skimmer to however you want it.

From there you may want to customize some things and that is were the forum come into play. There are plenty of people on here that will help you do the customized coding that you may want or you can just look at other peoples code to see what they have done.

For example my code is kept under the My PDE/INO file section and in there is some custom code that someone created for and Else mode on the WP pumps. In addition Lnevo had done some coding for someone that would take all the different wave profiles for the pumps and randomly change it everyday.

With the basic RA+, Relay, pH probe, Temp probe and ATO float switches you can tell you lights and pumps to turn off if the tank water is over a specific setting.
You can set you heaters up kick on and off and the desired temp.

You can control your ATO to come on when the water in the sump is low and stop when it reaches a high point.
You can turn off your pumps if the water level in the sump is to low so the sumps don't burn out.

Lnevo has thinks set up in his code that keep track of the last time the tank was feed or the last time he dosed something. (His code is very advanced)

I'm in the process of setting up and Automatic water change were it will replace 2% of my water daily with 2 pumps that are set up to run at the exact same speed.

There are so many things that you can do with the basic setup and what you have.

But I would definable suggest the Wifi module and 2 cables for your WP pumps to start off with at least.
I particularly like the Water Level Sensors for doing ATO. It seems more accurate and you can use the float valves as redundancy.

thank you very much for your response steve.

One last question. I am pretty comfortable with the coding part although havent used C a lot till grad school. I think its something that doesnt bother me much.

The upgrades to hardware - do you know if there are any plans to upgrade the base unit any time soon. Or is it pretty robust enough for any future updates that can be handles just by s/w

[fightinghippo]

I have been looking around to buy a controller for a while now. But never could justify the price for it. Recently sold a bunch of aquarium stuff laying around and got about $200. I started looking around and came across reef angel. Before i fork out about 420 dollars i wanted to get an honest opinion from people who have been using it.

How easy is it program for basic functions
I have wp40,wp25, skimmer, return, osmolator, bulk reef supply dual reactor for carbon, GFO, two heaters.
Planning on adding kr620 for kalkwasser dosing.
The LEDS i have an internal controller so it can simulate sunrise sunset already

What all can i do with my equipment that i already have if i buy this.

Things i have problems with.
Refilling the RO container
doing water changes on time ( i wait till i see algae on glass)
changing carbon, GFO on time
have tried several times to keep acans and har coral but i always kill them

What all attachments do u suggest that can help with any of the above.
Will the probes require their own power outlet on the relay or is it powered on differently.

Also are there any upgrades planned for the unit in coming months hardware wise?If so i would rather wait for the updated unit than buy one now


I know its a lot of questions but i waited a long time to buy bcoz of the cost so dont want to have buyers remorse later.


your advice is greatly appreciated.

I've been using the controller for about a year now.
I was originally of the thinking "what do I need this for, my lights come on with timers, and what ever other excuses I had back then.

I finally decided to get one around the time that the WP-40's came out an I saw how Roberto came to the plate and created a cable to control the pumps.

I started poking around the forums and just watched what was going on and I really liked the way things were handled here, kind of like a family all helping each other out.

Anyway the programming is really easy if you use the wizard (you can download it here and play with it before you buy anything.

The wizard will give you the basic setup that you will want.
It will hep you set up your pumps, heaters, WP's, kalkwasser dosing and skimmer to however you want it.

From there you may want to customize some things and that is were the forum come into play. There are plenty of people on here that will help you do the customized coding that you may want or you can just look at other peoples code to see what they have done.

For example my code is kept under the My PDE/INO file section and in there is some custom code that someone created for and Else mode on the WP pumps. In addition Lnevo had done some coding for someone that would take all the different wave profiles for the pumps and randomly change it everyday.

With the basic RA+, Relay, pH probe, Temp probe and ATO float switches you can tell you lights and pumps to turn off if the tank water is over a specific setting.
You can set you heaters up kick on and off and the desired temp.

You can control your ATO to come on when the water in the sump is low and stop when it reaches a high point.
You can turn off your pumps if the water level in the sump is to low so the sumps don't burn out.

Lnevo has thinks set up in his code that keep track of the last time the tank was feed or the last time he dosed something. (His code is very advanced)

I'm in the process of setting up and Automatic water change were it will replace 2% of my water daily with 2 pumps that are set up to run at the exact same speed.

There are so many things that you can do with the basic setup and what you have.

But I would definable suggest the Wifi module and 2 cables for your WP pumps to start off with at least.
I particularly like the Water Level Sensors for doing ATO. It seems more accurate and you can use the float valves as redundancy.

thank you very much for your response steve.

One last question. I am pretty comfortable with the coding part although havent used C a lot till grad school. I think its something that doesnt bother me much.

The upgrades to hardware - do you know if there are any plans to upgrade the base unit any time soon. Or is it pretty robust enough for any future updates that can be handles just by s/w

[Sacohen]

To my knowledge there are not any hardware revisions coming up, Roberto can answer that better.
Most of the revisions are software based with revised libraries.

Also Roberto is pretty good about doing a upgrade if you just purchased it a month or 2 ago.

I purchased mine and about 2-3 months later he changes the screen because he didn't like the way they were displaying so I just had to pay shipping for the new LCD screen and swap it out.

[fightinghippo]

thanks steve.

i have the following that i need to plug up


1 - return pump
1 - skimmer
1 - Tunze osmolator
1 - carbon/gfo reactor
2 - Jabeo pumps
2 - heaters
1 - Kalk reactor

I could connect both heaters to one slot on relay to make it 8 total.

But do the probes require their own power inputs on relay? If so i will be short of outlets on relay

[Sacohen]

I would not put both heaters on the same relay. The amperage draw might be to much for the unit to handle.

If you are going to use the 2 jebao's off the dimming channels on the relay then they don't need to be plugged into the Relay.

Plug the power that comes with the Jebao into a regular wall outlet or power strip.
Then plug the DC end of it into the pig tail coming off the RA cable.
Plug the dimming cable coming off the RA cable to one of the dimming ports on the relay and then connect the pump to the 3 prong water tight connector.

Power going to the WP's come along the dimming cable and you can code it to go to 0% when doing a water change or feeding.

You may have a different set up but my bulk reef supply dual reactor for carbon, GFO doesn't use a pump. I have my main pump in the sump feeding them.

Consider what you might want to do with these reactors that would be different from the main return pump. Youmay be able to plug the 3 of them into a power strip and then just have the power strip plugged into the RA relay.

The pH or temp probes do not need any separate power. The probes that come with or plug directly into the main head unit.
Any of the additional probes that use expansion modules like the salinity probe ORP probe or additional pH probe will need power, but it does not have to be plugged into the relay.

The way I would do it is

1) Return, carbon and GFO pumps on one power strip plugged into the relay.
2) Skimmer
3) Tunze osmolator
4) Heater
5) Heater
6) Kalk Reactor )(possibly on the same power strip as return on port 1)

Jebaos not plugged into the relay.