I want to buy a system for monitoring ph & temperature, controlling tank lights, pumps, etc. We have a 50g sump connected to a 90g display tank, and plans for a 2nd display tank. I am thinking of buying the Reefkeeper Lite L3 package, and was curious if anyone had experience with it?

1 x Head unit
2 x PC4 (8 outlets)
1 x SL1 (Inputs: pH, ORP, Temperature, 2 x Switch Ports)
1 x Temperature probe
1 x pH probe

I've had mine for just over a week now. I love it! I will never have another tank over 10gallons without a controller. It's currently setup to control my lights, heater, fans, and tomorrow I'm setting it up to control my kalk reactor.

My temperature has stayed between 78.4 and 78.6 since I hooked it up. I have it set so the lights will turn off if the temperature hits 81. I'll probably be looking to upgrade to the Elite later this year, but bottom line, this is an amazing bang for the buck.

Basically, I was looking to control a heater and fans, so that was going to be $140 at least. Then I was going to need a PH controller, that's another $100, at that point, it's a no brainer for this system.

Bottom line, I love it!

Just a thought, but here's a 100 bucks off an RKE if you trade in an old controller. Read the .pdf for details.

http://www.forum.digitalaquatics.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=311

My RKII is still worth more than 100 bucks. I almost wish I could find a broken one. haha

One thing I will say about controllers, I once saw the light just like the rest of you and thought it was a glorious thing for 7 months. Then a fuse blew and I lost a few hundred dollars in fish and thousands in corals. The setup was wired up correctly and it was a fluke power surge (according to DA) that caused the fuse to blow and cut off my heater, chiller, halides, return pump and 2 ph's on a wavemaker. That left my skimmer and one powerhead running and that one ph just wasnt nearly enough. Once the first fish died, the water went toxic within a day or two and resulted in the RTN and brown jelly of all SPS and LPS. Only softies and zoas survived along with my two false percs and 4 blue green chromis in a heavily stocked 90 gallon. I will never again run my return and phs all on the same circuit and ONLY let my controller have my chiller and heater tied in if I have a back up heater set 3-4 degr lower that is plugged into the wall. I guess the moral of the story is to not put all your chickens in one basket.

Yup, I'm planning one heater in the overflow set at 78 degrees, one in the sump maxes at 80 degrees. The powerheads will remain on a separate power strip until I can get the Vortech's. Redundancy is the name of the game.

Just finished setting up the timers for the Kalk reactor, but I still have to set up the float switches so it can work as a top off. I'm setting up two pumps for top off, one for kalk and one for straight RO/DI. Should the PH rise above 8.40 the top off will switch to RO/DI using the alarms feature. Basically this is set up by using the multiple timers. I'm setting the RO/DI timers to come on 5min after the kalk timers turn off. That way, if the PH is too high, the kalk drip won't turn on and 5min later the ro/di will turn on for top off. They're coming on every 4 hours, and I evap just under a gallon a day. The aqualifters are rated at 3gph, so the pumps run 4 minutes every 4 hours giving a total of 24min per day. I'll evaluate this to see if they need to run a minute or two longer. When they raise the float switch, the switches trip an alarm and turn the pumps off. 2 switches in the sump wired in series should provide more safety, and even then, the pumps will only run for a few minutes so it would take a while to overflow the sump in case of a dual failure.

My RO/DI top off container will also have 2 float switches connected to a solenoid in front of the RO/DI unit under the sink. I haven't set that up yet, but I will and the top off will fill itself every 2-3 days, hopefully automating everything. Of course it's no replacement for regular maintenance, but I'm hoping it will help.

I appreciate all of the info, and had a chance to see one in action today. The RKE is tempting, but the L3 provides the capabilities I need for less $$ - and I may order one as part of the May powerbuy from Bulk Reef Supply

BRS has the best price I found on those hands down. If I upgrade to the Elite sometime this year, I'm taking the RKL and putting it on my nano.

I've heard good things about the Aqua Controller 3 (AC3) might also be worth looking into that as well