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Hello everyone "Big Thanks to Cameron" we are having a Neptune Systems Power Buy for ARC members. They are offering a 20% discount for everything on their web site. This Power Buy will start today and run through June 30th I will be placing 3 orders, one at the end of each month.

http://www.neptunesys.com/


**ON HOLD: Please stand by for payment details... we're working on a couple different options.**

Cameron is my hero!!! ;)

Big thanks to Cameron. This is very tempting. :doh:

Thanks Cameron! That is great news.

-Andy

Do you know if they will do upgrades from a junior to a PRO or a III with the discount?

Nice job, Cameron!

Anyone know the pricing? The "Order" button points to a CGI (why CGI, I can't fathom) that times out consistently.

Edit: nevermind. Found the pricing on the comparison page.

Click on "Products" then the "Price List" option on the left menu.

which is better, an aquacontroller or reef keeper 2?

Do you know if they will do upgrades from a junior to a PRO or a III with the discount?

Yea, what he said... How about a deal on upgrading an Aquacontroller II to an ACIII?

which is better, an aquacontroller or reef keeper 2

Go to www.aquariumcontroller.com. He has a nice spreadsheet comparing all that is available.

As far is which is best, I have a RK2. I like it and it fits my system. But I have seen the Neptune in action and it is very impressive. If Santa had not brought me my RK2 I would jump on the Neptune.

20% off is pretty much unheard of in this hobby, good powerbuy. :up:

20% off is pretty much unheard of in this hobby, good powerbuy. :up:


Agreed... Thanks Cameron for this deal!!!!

P.S. My birthday is in June and as such I will be taking donations so that I can get an ACjr... Any takers?!?

Neptune Systems will not do any upgrades. You would need to sell your system and buy a new one.

One thing about the Aquacontroller 3 is that it con control 24 different items and It has the ability with the PX 1000 to monitor PH and Orp on 7 additional aquariums.

Is shipping free? Also, do we need to add PayPal fees? When do you think these units could be picked up?

I hate to do this but at this deal I think Im going to have to cancel my RK2 order and go with this.

I will place an order at the end of each month. I will calculate shipping once I find out how many units need to be ordered. Also I will find out about the paypal fees.

Great just what I needed. I've been wanting to upgrade my AC2 to a 3 for a while. Now I have to decide. 4 way from oceansmotions or an AC3. Decisions, Decisions!

Please stand by for payment options... we're working on something really sweet! :)

Neptune Systems will not do any upgrades. You would need to sell your system and buy a new one.

No biggie, if I remember correctly, 20% off the ACIII price almost equals what they were asking for an upgrade anyway. This way I get to keep both :)

IMO on the differences... The RK2 looks better and is easier to mount the head unit as only one cable comes out of it. Neptune systems in the black back lit look better now, but still not RK2 sexy. Neptune systems are programmable with an actual simple programming language, have true data logging (as in if you aren't hooked up to the PC they are still logging data), the AC3 allows you to monitor ORP, the AC3 Pro adds conductivity and dissolved oxygen and all AC systems can control more than 8 connections with the AC3 and AC3 Pro controlling dozens of power connections. The AC3 and AC3Pro can be accessed via network including wirelessly with a cheap adapter and have a built webserver. The AC3 and AC3Pro are also more upgradable with the PCX1000 which allows the user to attach float switches, water alarms and just about any other kind of swithch. As well as the Lunar Simulator which includes up to 5 LEDs that are controllable by the AC3. Lastly in the works, is the Tunze Stream controller. You will be able to control these pumps from the AC itself. It hasn't been released as to which units will be able to control them so nobody knows if the ACJr can do it.

Curiosity killed the cat.....so I am curious...Why are we doing 2 power buys for controllers at the same time? When I was President, there was an unwritten rule that we would not have multiple powerbuys going on at the same time. Can someone explain this to me?

Options? Our new PB coordinator has been getting contacted with multiple offers. We're planning a BoD meetinig soon and will be discussing items like this topic at that time.

Options? Be true to your word...a man's word is nothing if they don't follow it up by actions of standing behind it! You have to stay with the original powerbuy until it is completed...PERIOD....especially since Neptune is NOT a sponsor.

I'd like to know the reasons you wouldn't have multiple powerbuys at once. At DFWMAS and the couple other clubs I know well we always used to have many many power/group buys going on at the same time. It works out much better for the members this way. A bulb buy may go one once every couple months, vs. once a year with one only, same with salt, other drygoods, etc. It's just hard to line up one with appropriate timing for everyone.

This is always a touchy topic with sponsers but we need to watch out for members first and sponsers next. The club should be run for the members to get the best value.

Andy, don't take this wrong. I support sponsers when I can but not offering a great opportunity like this because we already have a powerbuy going or because they are not a sponser doesn't seem in the members best interest to me. I'll shutup now as this is a BOD issue.

The first one was setup and the other one dropped into our lap.

Kinda off/on topic to all this, I personally have become dissillusioned with this entire process and won't go out of my way to help people out in the community (reef keeping as a whole not ARC) in the future. Between the hate email, phone calls and other posts I am ready to forget the entire affair. Can we just bury the complaining and move on. I am sorry to those who don't like the club discount and I am real sorry I wrote an application. I won't be making either mistake again soon.

Signing off on this subject, Cameron.

Curiosity killed the cat.....so I am curious...Why are we doing 2 power buys for controllers at the same time? When I was President, there was an unwritten rule that we would not have multiple powerbuys going on at the same time. Can someone explain this to me?

Andy, I not know you but I can say this is about the worse comment I can imagin from an ex-president. I heard rumors about some of the decisions made in the past while you were president, it is no secret that, as a sponser, you think the club should cater to the sponsers at the cost of the members. I happen to disagree. Sound like useless complaining instead of being curious... No one ever said... DO NOT BUY A RCII FROM SAM!!! I for one ould take the RCII over the ACjr if I had the money and the choice due to the looks. It is nice to have the choice and better now then in 4 months when I am kicking myself because I got one when the other could have been gotten if I would have waited. Worse yet, if I found out Tony held off on giving us an option to choose which one we wanted and held out for 4 months. I would be insainly pissed at that time.

Options are NEVER a bad thing. I owe a big thanks to Sam over at Aquabuys for all he does for most of us in the Hobby. I cannot speak for him, but I hope that he is not upset about the choice that is being offered right now and have a hard time believeing that he is.


Kinda off/on topic to all this, I personally have become dissillusioned with this entire process and won't go out of my way to help people out in the community (reef keeping as a whole not ARC) in the future. Between the hate email, phone calls and other posts I am ready to forget the entire affair. Can we just bury the complaining and move on. I am sorry to those who don't like the club discount and I am real sorry I wrote an application. I won't be making either mistake again soon.



Hate e-mails and calls?!? *** is going on?!?!? Grow up people!

I can see Andy's point, and I mostly agree with it. However, as I am president, I don't always know EVERY detail of what other projects people are working on. As Cameron mentioned, Sam offered us a fantastic deal when he heard we were working on it... the other one just kind of fell in our laps. When Alan approached me telling me that he had posted a second PB he expressed his concern for having both at once and asked me what I thought... at the point of that conversation I was still working (approx 9:30PM), was tired as heck, and said... "go for it, it offers our members an option based on their preference."
The following day, I saw someone make a comment something along the lines of "oh, I'll cancel my order with Aquabuys now" and just about set me off.
Unfortunately, it seems that every PowerBuy or GroupBuy that we've had recently, there's always a few people that want something extra, or something other than what was being offered. I don't understand the logic behind this and can understand why we have so many people stop helping out when members respond in such ways.

I do want to be very careful with our sponsors... I don't think members nor sponsors should "come first." Without the other, we don't have anything.
I have more I want to say on this but..... Anyway... I don't want to get into this too much at this point. I'll make the announcement about the Board of Directors meeting once I get back into town. Right now I'm going to spend time with my dying grandmother and take a break for a couple of days....

I have more I want to say on this but..... Anyway... I don't want to get into this too much at this point. I'll make the announcement about the Board of Directors meeting once I get back into town. Right now I'm going to spend time with my dying grandmother and take a break for a couple of days....

Tony.... My thoughts are with you, take care and spend time with her! Much more important then what is going on here!



I do want to be very careful with our sponsors... I don't think members nor sponsors should "come first." Without the other, we don't have anything.



You know, I just can say that I agree with this comment. Without the sponsors we still DO have something... A group of like minded people that are here to offer advice and support to eachother. Yes, the discount is nice but it is not why I am a member. Maybe I speak for myself here but I would be a member with or without the sponsors!!!

I am really sorry that this has happened. I thought I took all the necessary precautions when setting up these Power Buys. I did not how ever expect people to cancel their orders but people have the right to buy what they want. I don't want to upset our sponsors because they are our life line to the reefing community. Before I took this position we had very few power buys so I went out of my way to provide for the club. If anyone has any questions please pm me and I will respond asap.

I appreciate the choices in products. Maybe in the future powerbuys can be coordinated to offer a choice in similar product but have them drop at exactly the same time. This would allow people to make a choice between the two or three etc. products from the start and not switch products in midstream. Just a thought

Alan,

I just wanted to extend a big thanks for all you have done. You have had to deal with a lot since you took over the position of PB coordinator and I (and obviously most others) really appreciate it. I don't think you should apologize for anything. You have done nothing wrong and are just helping the club. Both the RKII and AC's are different and are each great in their own way. I see no problem with offering them at the same time.

Thanks again for helping the club out!

Andy

Andy, I not know you but I can say this is about the worse comment I can imagin from an ex-president. I heard rumors about some of the decisions made in the past while you were president, it is no secret that, as a sponser, you think the club should cater to the sponsers at the cost of the members. I happen to disagree. Sound like useless complaining instead of being curious... No one ever said... DO NOT BUY A RCII FROM SAM!!! I for one ould take the RCII over the ACjr if I had the money and the choice due to the looks. It is nice to have the choice and better now then in 4 months when I am kicking myself because I got one when the other could have been gotten if I would have waited. Worse yet, if I found out Tony held off on giving us an option to choose which one we wanted and held out for 4 months. I would be insainly pissed at that time.

Options are NEVER a bad thing. I owe a big thanks to Sam over at Aquabuys for all he does for most of us in the Hobby. I cannot speak for him, but I hope that he is not upset about the choice that is being offered right now and have a hard time believeing that he is.




Hate e-mails and calls?!? *** is going on?!?!? Grow up people!

The comment about when I was President has no bearing on this...so I won't respond. If you have questions about when I was President call me.

I am not complaining, I am looking out for the club and the sponsors. Did you know Sam ordered about $2500 worth of RK units to help ARC? Did you know he didn't ask for money up front, but did this in good faith? When people back out you are sticking him with the bill. That is money that he could have spent as he saw fit for his company not money on products that will now not be purchased by ARC members who wanted the initially. By having this happen all it does it turn sponsors away from doing PB's...they think..."why do I want the headache of setting this up when people will back out." It has happened to me when I have had them and to probably every PB that has been setup. Yes, I understand things happen, but this is direct competition against a sponsor with a non sponsor.

I don't think the club should cater to sponsors, but don't get the idea that sponsors exist because of the club either. It is a two way street. Powerbuys are a pain for the sponsor that does them. They go out of their way and get pricing and then people back out. It happened when I was President, it happens now.

No, options are not a bad thing...but don't have the attitude that everyone is happy with it and who cares if they are not. If you want to know how Sam feels, call him. I did today...you would be surprised if you think he is happy about being stuck with the RK units.

And yes, I was curious...believe what you want, but I have always had the best interest of the club at heart. If you believe otherwise, you are sorely mistaken. I am a charter member of this club, I was a President, a BOD member, a sponsor, and a regular member. I have seen this club grow from 20 members to whatever we have now 350+. You can't please everyone, but you can treat people fairly.


Cameron, I don't know you, but I am sorry you have rceived hate email and phone calls. That is uncalled for foranything related to a hobby and helping people. I was not here to condemn, but to shed light on how some actions are seen.

Tony, sorry to hear about your grandmother. I will put her in my prayers. I know what you are going through as I found out my father has cancer a few weeks back.

Tony.... My thoughts are with you, take care and spend time with her! Much more important then what is going on here!

TONY TAKE ALL THE TIME YOU NEED!!!! Family come first before anything.

You know, I just can say that I agree with this comment. Without the sponsors we still DO have something... A group of like minded people that are here to offer advice and support to eachother. Yes, the discount is nice but it is not why I am a member. Maybe I speak for myself here but I would be a member with or without the sponsors!!!

My thought are the same as brandon.
The first one was setup and the other one dropped into our lap.

Kinda off/on topic to all this, I personally have become dissillusioned with this entire process and won't go out of my way to help people out in the community (reef keeping as a whole not ARC) in the future. Between the hate email, phone calls and other posts I am ready to forget the entire affair. Can we just bury the complaining and move on. I am sorry to those who don't like the club discount and I am real sorry I wrote an application. I won't be making either mistake again soon.

Signing off on this subject, Cameron.

Hmm Hate mail..

grow up.. I can't belive that someone would go this far with this before the knew the whole story.

Cameron you are doing a great job helping out the club. If I knew who it was sending you those hate mail I would send them some of mine.


Alan
You are doing a SUPPER JOB with the PB... There are over 300 club member. You can not please everyone...

AS for ARC sponsor... There are some sponsor out there that I would NEVER step foot into their store again. Don't get me wrong. Most of our club sponsor are great, but some are just sponsor the ARC for cheat adverstive and mostly ripping member shirt off their back.

I really don't care for RK2 nor AC at this point, but I'll be the first to step in to buy a RK2 if someone back out on SAM.

Well, If sam is upset I owe him a huge "I am sorry for speaking for you.." (Which I was not doing. I do not think anyone should be allowed to back out of an order that was placed. I know people have a habit of backing out of PBs and that does need to stop.

I guess some of my anger could have been vented towards your comment due to the fact that I was so upset at the way Cameron has been treated in this whole process. He did nothing in this process but to look out for his fellow members. If there has been anyone that I have personally seen give up any free time he has to donate it to the ARC, it is Cameron. He did not have to give that great skimmer demo that he did. He did not have to write Reef Tool, He did not have to answer all the questions that he has and look up the information if he did not know the answer. And people write hate mail?!? It leaves a VERY bad taste in my mouth about it!! Anyone that writes another e-mail should be ashamed about it.

As far as the whole PB issue. Maybe it should have been announced after the RKII deal was over, but we can not solve that now. Maybe rules need to be inacted for this very reason, mainly to prevent people from backing out if it can be done!

I knew I shouldn't have come back and read any further into this thread, but I did. So here it is...

I joined this club because I thought we helped fellow members out and that is what I was doing. I didn't join because of the discount, I didn't join for the PBs, I didn't join for the sponsers and I certainly didn't join for this ****. Slice it however you want Andy, but if you had the best interest of the club at heart you would have called Tony and spoke with him privately about this. Tony likely would have called Sam and worked something out and we probably would have cancelled or delayed this PB, but it wouldn't have turned ugly like this. We certainly wouldn't be in here attacking each other adding to the fires of stupidity.

That said, I got a real easy fix to this mess. Delete this **** thread and lets forget it ever existed. Sam will be better off, I will be better off, DA will be better off, Neptune won't have to come out of pocket for anything, I won't have to hear former presidents tell us how this never happend on their watch again, Alan won't have to deal with this and Tony will have less work as well.

Mojo, Tony, Alan and whoever else is in charge around here and blast this thing to oblivion so we can move on and I can get the hell out of here before this drives me nuts. I am frustrated beyond belief at this entire situation and have been punished enough for trying to do good in the reef keeping world and for our little community.

Done... Fin... Complete.

Cameron, I am sorry for killing a dead horse. I am fin as well.

[QUOTE=Cameron;34616]

That said, I got a real easy fix to this mess. Delete this **** thread and lets forget it ever existed. Sam will be better off, I will be better off, DA will be better off, Neptune won't have to come out of pocket for anything, I won't have to hear former presidents tell us how this never happend on their watch again, Alan won't have to deal with this and Tony will have less work as well.

QUOTE]

But Cameron, the whole reason I sold you that skimmer yesterday and sold my ACjr and IC660 was to finance an ACIII specifically for this powerbuy!!!!

Look, there was a whole long thread where the two products were compared side by side and it was a VERY respectful, fair, and well-informed thread and I think all members will be better prepared to make informed decisions about what they want. As many of the comments indicated, you could come away making either decision based on what your priorities are. I TOTALLY understand the sensitivity of posts about cancelling orders, but people say what they say and it doesn't necessarily mean it's what they end up doing and I don't think it's necessary to have a knee-jerk reaction right off and shut the whole thing down. Obviously, this is something for the BOD to take up and discuss. Sam has been a great sponsor and member of the community and in fact was partly responsible for my entry into the hobby. Even though he is in Lawrenceville and I am in Macon, I drive up to see him and buy from him and call him to chat all the time when I need advice. I also happen to know others here in Macon drive up to buy from him. Anyhow, I know as a club we will have plenty of opportunity to work with Aquabuys and support Sam's great establishment. I think you all are doing a great job and I'm really sorry to see people get disuaded when things got a bit prickly (though I understand what it must be like to get ugly emails and calls from people)

People, we will all be OK!

Cameron, I sent email yesterday to the powers that be, but it was my understanding that this PB was a done deal...not a WIP. I never said this didn't happen when I was Pres, we had 2 PB's going at once before, but for different items and even then people would back out of PB-1 because they wanted to spend their money on PB-2. Still doesn't make it right to the sponsor of PB-1. 2 PB's at the same time just doesn't work as intended. Slice it however you want Cameron, this was not directed at you, but mud has been thrown my way. My integrity and past Presidency has been in question. I have no idea who started this PB nor did I care, my intention was to find out why a sponsor was getting shafted...period. I would have felt the same way if I was not a sponsor. Maybe, it would be in the best interest of ARC if I were not a sponsor of this club, then could I speak my mind or would I still be judged as a retailer? I am in a no win situation.

C'mon, Andy, everyone knows you're a great sponsor with great products and it's great to have you here locally. I Think your opinion is valid from whatever perspective it is voiced--sponsor or no. It just seemed like it was voiced in a bit of a negative tone (not against the law, I know), and it just seems like everyon's got their hackles up now. Can we all just behave like grown ups here (and I'm not directing this at Andy specifically)? Sam can and will work out whatever business he needs to with the BOD, and I'm sure all will be righted in the end. Nobody's reputations needs to be impuned for any reason. Nobody needs to be zinging each other. This kind of thing happens sometimes, and if we're a well-functioning club, which I reason we are, we work it out and everyone turns out okay.

Seems we're both in a no-win situation... I had nothing to do with either of these Powerbuys yet I'm the one getting criticized and held responsible (which is understandable)
As I mentioned before, this will be discussed in the upcoming BoD meeting.
As far as I'm concerned, Sam at AquaBuys is a MUCH higher priority! I have a tremendous amount of respect for him (as well as you Andy) and it's important to me that our sponsors aren't walked all over.
This PB has been on hold for the past few days anyway... Alan and myself are both taking responsibility for launching this before the full details were in place. For that, we have both already apologized.
I'm going to submit a new standard for PB/GB at the next BoD meeting to be voted upon. Until then... can we just drop it?

Consider it dropped...no win situations are part of the job...yours and mine. When is the next BOD meeting? Nevermind...I will look it up. :)

I haven't scheduled it yet. I'm still out of town. Once I get in touch with the BoD and figure out schedules, I'll make an announcement thread for it. It will be before the end of the month.

I know this thread is in let it go mode, but can we still delete it? If the next meeting votes to keep the deal, you can repost it as you have the next 3 months to start this up. Besides you don't have a clean payment system in to handle it yet. Also, it might take off some of the pressure on Sam. I think everyone agrees we want to keep Sam happy as he is both a great ARC member and sponsor. He is a great guy and I personally feel sorry the most for my part in this landing on him.

Amazingly, it seems this all erupted from good intentions.

I know this thread is in let it go mode, but can we still delete it? If the next meeting votes to keep the deal, you can repost it as you have the next 3 months to start this up. Besides you don't have a clean payment system in to handle it yet. Also, it might take off some of the pressure on Sam. I think everyone agrees we want to keep Sam happy as he is both a great ARC member and sponsor. He is a great guy and I personally feel sorry the most for my part in this landing on him.

Amazingly, it seems this all erupted from good intentions.

Although I don't agree the thread should be deleted, but just closed, I agree about the good intentions part. The PB staff, Cameron, Alan, et al, and mine. We all were looking after the club...the members and the sponsors. That is what this is all about after all. I do have some proposals that Sam and I have talked about in the last 24 hours that might help remedy this mess in the future. Hopefully, I will be able to make it to the next BOD meeting.

I'm going to try to get it on your side of town specifically with the hopes that you and Sam can make it. Im going to go ahead and close this out so we can discuss options later on.