Eric I can see exactly why you aren't interested in one. That's pretty easy to understand
Heather I'm not sure what you read but I can whole heartedly assure take a temp reading. It uses that temp reading to control the heater,chiller, fans etc. Whatever you want to happen at whatever temperature. It can control Dosers, Pumps, take PH, SG readings... and a whole list of things. In all reality it can do as little or as MUCH as you like.
Now in all reality this particular controller is WAY over-kill and not something you'll see on very many tanks. It's the Mack-Daddy of controllers.
One thing I can say is after reading what happened to a fellow-ette RS member yesterday... I wont run any Reef Tank without some type of Heater Controller. I can see why a whole system controller isn't feasible but having something to turn the heater On & Off without relying on the whimpy built in thermostat. Her heater stuck in the ON position and literally cooked the entire tank over-night. When she got up yesterday morning every single thing
in her tank was dead. All coral, fish, inverts EVERYTHING gone.
If you want a simple "Heater Controller" there are a couple on the marker and I think they are less than $100 each. For that same amount you could install a simple
ReefKeeper Lite Aquarium Controller and be able to control more than just the heater.
Heather just for fun (and because I like reading it) here are some of the "Generic" specs of the unit (
add optional modules and you can do think like Automatic Water Changes etc). Granted some of this is overly technical but hopefully it'll at least shed some light on just how Dynamic this unit really is. . . .
ProfiLux 3 Technical overview
Functions &features (
dependent on the available hardware)
• Measurement & control of pH-value, temperature, Redox, conductivity (salt or fresh water), oxygen, humidity, air temperature, all sensors are galvanically isolated.
• Seasonal temperature courses.
• Automatic calibration of all sensors.
• Auto top off, automatic water change, leakage detection.
• Illumination control for dimmable (1-10V-interfaces or DALI) and non-dimmable lamps, calendar-based moon phases, storms, also seasonally variable illumination possible including thunderstorm simulations using the GHL LED sticks and spots.
• AC dimmable ballast controllable eg Phillips advanced mark 10.
• Aqua Illumination compatible unlocking the true capabilities of the aqua illumination system.
• TMC Aqua Ray controllable.
• 8 x Tunze stream controllable with the addition of a single cable, no Tunze controller required. Tunze wave box controllable.
• Hydor Koralia 12v controllable using pump control-1 expansion box.
• Pump control for controllable and non-controllable pumps (see above), different pump groups with different settings, waves, ebb-flow, surge, random, sequences, shortest wave duration 0,4 s, therefore also suited for wave boxes .
• Dosing pump control, GHL dosing pump systems.
• Universal timers, shortest switching time 1s.
• Integrated web-server (display of values and configuration, remote programming), own website can be loaded, compatible with all current browsers.
• Integrated e-mail-client (sending of e-mails in case of an alarm).
• PIN-protection.
• Reminder functions.
• Optical and acoustic alarm.
• Feeding pause and maintenance function.
• Safety functions, e.g. redundant sensors, monitoring of the sensor function, value check.
• Due to simple software updates (device doesn’t need to be opened for this), always the newest functions are available.
• Large internal storage for measured values for all sensors, according to the setting, you can store measured values up to several years.
• Switch-on delay of sockets after blackout.
• Programmable logic.
• PC-software available for FREE.
• 100%-downwardly compatible: hardware of ProfiLux Plus II can be used further on (e.g. expansion cards, powerbars, ProfiLux View II).
• ProfiLux Plus II can be upgraded to ProfiLux 3, ProfiLux Plus II (eX) can be upgraded to ProfiLux 3 (eX) with an Upgrade-Kit.
• Connection of external display and operating units (ProfiLux View-PAB) possible, also several to one system.
• Internal clock keeps on running also during a blackout (Goldcap instead of battery, therefore no battery change necessary).
• All settings remain also during blackout.
• Universal analog (0 - 10 V) and digital inputs.
