So while I appreciate what Jake Adams did for the hobby I think he is off base a bit.
It seems his gripe here is more with the cost of the units vs the actual usability and how it enables people to maintain tanks much easier. He talks about how a controller is not necessary (which I agree it is not necessary) but then he talks about all the smart pumps and smart outlets/power strips etc that he can use to do the same thing. He is right, using those smart outlets kinda is a poor man’s apex. I used smart outlets to control my mixing station before I ran an extra eb8 downstairs and it worked. However when I got the eb8 downstairs it allows for leak detection among other things all from one source rather than having to use multiple apps to control things. A controller is not for someone on a tight budget. As everyone knows this hobby is not a cheap hobby. I do think he makes good points about how some of the add ons for the controllers are to expensive but again not a cheap hobby; a controller is a luxury.
He eludes to a big coral farmer or whoever having a huge crash and simply is trying to put the blame on the apex when he even says per the programming they used the apex thought it was fine. Again this goes back to what I said above that if programmed properly this system could have stopped the issue. A controller is only as good as people entering the information. I don’t know what the issue was in that situation but per his own words he states that the programming that person had didn’t catch the issue.
When I maintained tanks for years majority of people wanted these devices bc it made their lives easier. That’s the purpose of a controller, to make your life easier. While a controller is not necessary for a successful tank I disagree with him when he says a controller doesn’t make your tank better. For someone like Jake who is taking time out of every day to test or check there tank a controller might not be needed. But the average person out there that gets busy with life or work and can’t put attention on there tank for a week or so a controller allows that grace period.
The last thing i will disagree with him is when he says that they are hard to program. I only know apex so I can’t comment on the ghl controllers or the new hydros but there are more simple then ever to control thanks to the task menu within the apex, it simply walks you through exactly what you want and it programs for you. That video is from a few years ago and I believe the tasks menu for programming was a thing at the time the video was recorded.
As Jake mentions in the interview he could have talked about controllers and PH for literal weeks. What I took from his 15+ minute explanation is this. He talks about the same technology being in place since the 90’s. Before the Apex, there was the aqua controller Jr, and before that it was about the octopus Aquadime. Which does everything the Apex does today. Saying “it would even send you a message on your pager” talking about how there has been no progress. “Consumer electronics have gotten faster, better, smaller, and cheaper. Meanwhile in the aquarium hobby it has gotten more expensive, harder to use, and more expansive”
I linked the video and said I like his response because both him and the host talk about being in control. How they like seeing the consumption of different elements. Working to address the consumption and address the issue at hand. Seeing what is actually going on in their underwater ecosystem. Then going on to address the issue, stating they are the controller. He talks about similar to breeding fish, controllers are there own hobby.
The host agrees talking about you really can spend hours going down the rabbit hole. Dialing in and programming your controller to do exactly what they’re intended to do. They’re not knocking anyone using a controller, talking about how their tanks look good. But if you talk to them they’ll spend hours in their “control centers” talking about this and that, going on and on. Never once mentioning a coral or fish within their system.
Jake talks about getting so many notifications from the controller that he notices people turning off the notifications. Which in return turns into a problem. Talking about people spending money on a tank, lights, sump and then dumping thousands of dollars into a controller. I couldn’t agree more with him when he talks about it being a different hobby.
Instead of manually testing your water and responding with the correct solution (learning along the way) people spend hours learning how to program controllers and go down the rabbit hole which is a different hobby. Again similar to seahorse tanks & breeding fish, they’re totally different hobbies than reef keeping. Jake talks about there being almost an inverse correlation between the quality of the tank and running a controller. He talks about there are very few use cases where a controller is necessary. Talking about the controller actually benefiting the tank as opposed to hindering the tanks progress.
As stated here previously in the comments. Jake talks about major issues going on within a tank. Where the tank owner never received the notification. “If it’s sending you alerts for a bunch of different stuff, then you will probably turn those off”
“It’s not that the controller wasn’t working it’s a combination between the controller and user error” which was previously mentioned by BRS members here in the comments
Jake mentions you should set up your reef tank to fail without issue. Saying your controller can’t do that for you. Talking about people spending so much of their energy learning how to use the controller. They get all this “if this, then that. That they’re so proud of it.” That at the end of the day they do not have a better reef tank.
I really didn’t pay attention to the price tags he mentioned throughout the explanation. I couldn’t agree more with him feeling as if controllers are not necessity. That if anything they hinder a reefers progress rather than help. At one point in the interview he’s asked something along the lines of “what would you tell a nooby trying to get into the hobby?” Recommending them to stay off the internet, that there is too much useless confusing information out there. Proceeding to say he could write what is really necessity information wise, in the hobby down on one side of an index card. Talking about this excess of information is not necessary and most times will only confuse or misinform a new reefer.
I think controllers and a lot of other technology used today on our tanks isn’t necessity. Companies do not go into business to lose money. The newest and brightest technology for our tanks is not needed to help, rather to help the companies make profit.
This concept has been talked about with I believe radion. Saying the lights hardly change generation to generation. That upgrades are actually held back. There are always people willing to buy the newest greatest product just for these upgrades. Which really only benefit the company’s profits. Similar to what Jake is mentioning, saying these controllers have been around since the 90’s. That they really haven’t changed much, just becoming smaller and harder to use. Which once again goes against reef keeping.