Is a Reef Keeper Worth the $$$?

[sj miller guy]

I've been doing some research about RK2's and other similar products. My 90 gallon is pretty basic compared to a lot of ARC members setups. Would this actually be worth the money or should I just pick up a ph probe and spend the money elsewhere?

Just curious as to what all the benefits of this product are besides the obvious like light timing, feeding cycles, etc.

 

[washowi]

Not worth it in my opinion.....you will find those that think otherwise...

My system is not basic in fact quite elaborate... Had one then sat down and said what I am going to hook to it? no what...nothing....maybe the heater but that is controlled by my skimmer...so waste of money. buy a good $20 timer at HD and buy some coral and fish with the rest

That's my go at it.

 

[mojo]

I say "yes, absolutely." It's 100x easier than trying to manage even two timers on a power strip. It may not be much more than a glorified timer, but with things like auto-cutoff for lights after a certain temp, it definitely has it's advantages.

 

[parsonsaj]

I *love* my RK2, and don't regret buying it, but.... the main limitation is that it will only control 8 switchable devices. I have managed to cheat this limitation somewhat by adding cube taps or pigtails and plugging multiple things into a single outlet, but 12 or 16 would have been a much more palatable limitation than 8...

I guess their answer would be for me to buy the RK Elite or whatever the new variant is called, but that was a good bit more $$$ that I didn't want to spend at the time...

 

[ksauerb322]

My reefkeeper was probably the best investment I've made since I've started this hobby. My temperature doesn't budge anymore, since it controls my canopy fan, chiller, and heaters. And if something ever did malfunction, the alarm I set, would turn off the lights and heater until the temp stabilized. I also have an alarm set for the backup switch just in case my auto top-off fails, the pump that supplies the topoff water is disabled.

Mine controls my lights on 2 tanks, moonlights, canopy fan, heater/chiller, auto top-off, ph alarms for my calcium reactor, standby mode to turn the pumps off for feeding, fuge light, and soon to have salinity monitoring and internet alarms.

It has given me a good peace of mind when I'm on vacation, or even away at work for long hours. Even if you have a "basic" setup, I'd still invest in the models with less functions, and add on later. I only wish they would make a dog-keeper funcion that would feed/let me dog out I'd really be set!

 

[washowi]

OMG.....me a dawgdude AGREE on something finally!!!!!!! Write this date down..

Sorry $350 for a timer!!! No way. Home Depot for me.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

If all your using it for is a timer, then it is rather a waste of money. They do SO much more. Temp control and reaction. pH control and reaction. Feed timers. Wavemaker. Metal halide delay restart. NEVER having to reset a stupid analog timer after a power outage.

I am not techno savvy enough to get involved in the RKE or ACIII, but the RK2 is absolutely ideal for me. Even if I were using it for a timer- it is 8 timers in the space of 1 power strip. Not 8 clunky large boxes. But to each, their own.

 

[jhutto]

I love my RK2 and just purchased the new Reef Keeper Lite. Its about what Jeremy, Chris and ksauerb322 said....They do much more than a timer. Its all in what you want to spend your money for...

 

[rostato]

Simple answer YES! Best investment I made second to a better skimmer.

 

[mred]

I too think it was well worth the money for me. It saved me bucks for a controller for my CA reactor and a pH controller in additon to the reduced clutter from eliminating all of the timers for the lights and powerheads. (I had two for halides, one for fluorescents, one for moon lights, and three for power heads.) The wavemaker option is very effective.

However, if you don't have a CA reactor and don't need to monitor pH to turn on and off the reactor, then it is an expensive timer!

 

[skriz]

Well worth it IF you are going to use it. It will shut down your lights if your temp spikes-which can be huge!

The best money I've spent on this hobby by far.

 

[schwaggs]

I can't comment on the RK2 or RK lite, never had one however, they seem a little limited in the programming and output area. I have been running an Aquacontroller for about 10 years now and I couldn't live without it.

My ACIII controls heaters, chillers and fans in various stages to keep my tank temp stable. It cuts the Halides one at a time if the temp climbs too far over the set point.

It maintains a consistant pH in my CA reactor which makes dialing that thing in a snap. It also cuts the feed pump if by chance the tank pH drops too low.

I use the feed timer to turn off the skimmer during feeding and automatiaclly back on after an hour.

I have one of the switch inputs on a float switch in my skimmer effluent container. It turns off my skimmer when it fills up so it never overflows (again).

I have it turn on my Actinics an hour before "dawn" and turn on my 3 halides, one at a time, 30 minutes apart, east to west and turns them off in reverse order.

It turns on my frag tank and refugium lights on a reverse light cycle to the display.

It turns on a variable brightness moon light (incandesent) according the the actual phases of the moon.

I varies the tank temperature (75-80) and lighting photoperiod (8-12 hours) based on seasons.

It sends me an email and sounds an audible alarm if any parameters get out of line.

My next project is to setup some relays to monitor the 3 circuits coming into my fish room and send me an email when one of the circuits gets cut (GFCI or circuit breaker trips).

If you are a gadget guy and like the idea of automating some things on your system, it is money well spent. If you can't figure out how to program your furnace thermostat, or just are not that interested in gadgets and automation, maybe you should skip it...

 

[washowi]

Let me ask the one that like it......Say, the thing shuts down, power outage, the thing just dies, who knows. It's electronic, something will happen sometime.....

what then? Is everything then basically shut down for you? no ph control, temp control, whatever you have in the thing....what will happen to your tanks?

Just askin...cause I see it that you are relying on ONE item to control your tank....No redundancy.....Too me that's a bad idea..maybe? maybe not?

Sorta like diving, you have redundancy built in....Airplanes have more than one engine, you know what I mean....

Do you have it?

 

[schwaggs]

There is always that risk with any control or electronic system. You treat it the same way you do any critical component. You keep spare parts on hand for the components that are cheap or notoriously unreliable. If a critical component fails that you don't have a spare, you revert back to the old fasioned way until a replacemet arrives.

That being said, I have found the Aquacontroller to be very reliable. It is only a simple microcontoller running a few basic electronic components after all. It takes all of 10 seconds to start up in the case of a reset or power outage.

Power outages are no big deal, there are no lights or heaters or chillers to control when the power is out...

 

[johnr2604]

Being as though I dont have calcium reactors or anything I picked up a cheap original reefkeeper. So I basically use it for a glorified timer but I didn't pay alot. I also use it to provide redundancy. It controls my heaters plus the heaters have a thermastat. I also find it much easier to maintain everything from the unit. No fiddling with timers.

Would I have dished out the money for a newer one? probably not at the moment but if I start running a reactor then I see it being a good investment.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Schwaggs;277986 wrote: There is always that risk with any control or electronic system. You treat it the same way you do any critical component. You keep spare parts on hand for the components that are cheap or notoriously unreliable. If a critical component fails that you don't have a spare, you revert back to the old fasioned way until a replacemet arrives.

That being said, I have found the Aquacontroller to be very reliable. It is only a simple microcontoller running a few basic electronic components after all. It takes all of 10 seconds to start up in the case of a reset or power outage.

Power outages are no big deal, there are no lights or heaters or chillers to control when the power is out...

I understand Todd, but the same goes for your Home depot timers and power strips. Lets just say of the 5 dollar timers busts, and the analog switch stops turning the dial. Lights on constantly, or off constantly. He is the MAJOR benefit in having them all in one. If the RK2 goes down- its visibly obvious. The lights are off, the sump return is off, the wavemaker is off,- EVERYTHING is off. If everything is independant, and the heater outlet goes out on the power strip, then there is no way to know until the water is very cold, or the animasl start dying.

 

[skriz]

Another way of looking at the redundancy aspect: let's say your chiller goes out, or it's just a morbidly hot day, and your tank temp goes up. With old school timers, the temp continues to climb. With a controller, the lights are shut down at a certain setpoint, saving your tank from overheating.

Also, my return pump is not controlled, so if the RK2 went out completely, I still have circulation to keep everything alive; I don't need lights, calc reactor, skimmer etc. for that.

 

[washowi]

As long as your covered....then great, nothing worse than the keeper fails...your in Idaho, trying to tell your neighbor how to hook up stuff.

Been there done that....short of a total power failure, (am I have a generator) not one thing failing by itself would cause the tank to crash.

I hope......knocking on wood all around me.

 

[FutureInterest]

I'm a huge fan of the RKII or any decent controller... like most in this thread as well. As long as you are able to use its other abilities aside from timing you will find that its well worth the investment. I use it to backup my ph controllers and my ranco temp controller. It gives you some peace of mind that even if one component fails, which is unlikely, there is another system in place to prevent harm.

I'm pretty much being redundant here as others have said the same thing but that's what these systems are for. Redundancy rocks! .

 

[mockery]

What is ya'll opinion on the RKL Lv 2? Would it be worth it if i'm running a CA reactor, heaters, and lights?