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Neptune Apex System - How to Get Power Outage Notifications
Last updated on November 17th, 2023
Aquarium Controller - Power Outage Notifications
This article should be short and sweet, but very important none the less. Have you ever been away from home, on vacation, at a wedding, or even just out running errands when suddenly you hear that there was a big storm or power outage near you home? Then suddenly... What amount my tank?!
That's where reef tank controllers, like the Neptune Apex, are able to help! Just to be clear, other aquarium controllers have this functionality as well, however, I will focus on the Neptune Apex as that is what I am currently using.
Why Do I Need Power Outage Notifications?
The "heartbeat" notifications offered by aquarium controllers are one of the most important notifications you will get. They let you know that something with your reef tank, and your home, is not working. The notification can come from a power outage, internet outage, or a failure on your aquarium controller. While this may not seem like a lot, let me give you a real-world example.
Every year I have a squirrel hop on the same power transformer and take out the power to just me and my neighbors. This outage is small enough that the power company typically won't notice and alert me very quickly, so I usually need to notify them. The humor, it's almost always while I'm out running errands.
Here I am at Wal-Mart, when *BANG* notification! "Apex disconnected from Apex Fusion". Telling me it's time to go home and get a battery operated air pump or backup generator running!
Neptune Apex System - How to Get Power Outage Notifications
The Neptune Apex has a function called "heartbeat" that sends an "alive" message to the cloud when things are going well. If your power or internet goes out, the app will let you know that something went wrong!
How to Get Power Outage Notifications - Neptune Apex System
What you will need:
- Any one of the following Neptune Apex System Base Units will work:
To learn more about the difference between the base units, check out the article: Neptune Apex System - Base Unit.
After your Neptune Apex System is set up, it will need to run for a couple days before you will be able to enable the heartbeat function in Apex Fusion.
1. Open the Heartbeat Menu
After you log in to Apex Fusion, you will need to click the dropdown menu, and select "Heartbeat" from near the bottom of the list.
2. Enable the Neptune Apex System Heartbeat
From the Heartbeat Dropdown, select "Enabled", then click "Save". If you can't enable the heartbeat, verify all of the requirements at the bottom of the page are satisfied.
3. Test the Heartbeat Notification
To test the Neptune Apex System Heartbeat, unplug your wireless router for a few moments. The Apex Fusion app on your Smart Phone will fire a notification to let you know the Apex lost connection.
Neptune Systems - How to Set Up The Apex Heartbeat
Conclusion
That's all there is to it! Now, if you Neptune Apex System loses connection to the internet, you will be notified. Though this can happen from simply having an internet outage or unplugged router. It's still better to be safe than sorry. Most of the time, these events happen from a power outage anyway. Now you will be notified if your power ever goes out and you can either rush home or have someone take care of the tanks while you're away! This could save all of your fish and coral, and potentially hundreds, or thousands, of dollars.
About the Author
John Krenzer
John is a Software Engineer with a passion for saltwater aquariums, as well as the founder and president of Reef Stable. He started in the aquarium hobby as a child with a 20 gallon freshwater aquarium. His interest in aquarium life grew and in 2008, John set up his first saltwater aquarium.
Today, John maintains an over 300 gallon reef tank system, consisting of a 120g reef and a 210g reef. These large tanks are contained within the same system, sharing a sump as a means to reduce total maintenance and increase total water volume.
John writes articles for the blog as a means to learn about more reef aquarium topics. These articles act as a reference for the readers as well as himself. John updates these articles frequently to provide additional information or make corrections as new information becomes available.
If you would like to request an article, tank tour article, or to collaborate, let me know via the Contact Me Page!
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