Traditionally a reef aquarium has many different pieces of equipment that are controlled individually. For example pumps, lights and filtration equipment with controllable speeds or flow volumes. Whilst some products do exist that try to bring all of that equipment under common control, it is typically very expensive and has limitations on linking the actions of one piece of equipment to another if they are made by different manufacturers. Often your only control is whether to turn equipment on or off with a timer.
Live Reef developed ReefSync®, an open API framework, to allow full and simple control of all your aquarium equipment from inexpensive devices, controllers, and a free app for your PC or mobile device. ReefSync makes complex control easy. Things like “turn the skimmer off whenever the return pump is off” and “if the return pump drops below 20% flow send me a message” are just some of the things you can do.