Automatic, regular, unattended alkalinity monitoring

[Jonty]

If I send you $500 can I be a beta tester?

 

[patent]

Great to see Jim, good luck.

 

[Radman73]

Tagging along. This would be a game changer. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[aquaterra]

If I send you $500 can I be a beta tester?

I'd do the same. I test my alkalinity at least every other day with 2 different tests.

 

[nitro]

Looks promising and very very cool. I wish you well with this great product and getting it out to market.
Following, Nitro

 

[thetedinator]

Subscribed

 

[martinrselva]

I would like to pay $500 and become a beta tester as well! let me know if it's possible...

Awsome idea and product

 

[Balz3352]

Umm yes!! Exciting. Gonna have to follow this along

 

[FarmerTy]

Great work and great potential product. If it was me, I'd design and sell it off to a large manufacturer. Some people that are in the business of design have no business in manufacturing/distribution. I'm not saying you aren't but it's a rare quality in my mind to be great at both.

Either case, amazing work!

 

[Hernan]

Following. A dream for our SPS tanks.
Great work!

 

[ludnix]

Can you tell us anything more about the measuring process? We don't need schematics or parts specifically but would be interested in the broader measuring process.

 

[Breadman03]

Great work and great potential product. If it was me, I'd design and sell it off to a large manufacturer. Some people that are in the business of design have no business in manufacturing/distribution. I'm not saying you aren't but it's a rare quality in my mind to be great at both.

Either case, amazing work!

That's probably why you read about so many entrepreneurs who have sold x-amount of companies to the big name we recognize. The skill sets required are quite different.

 

[Trevor40]

I would pay a good chunk of money for a reliable Alk test that plugs into my controller. I hope this comes to market soon.

 

[James T Hatcher II]

Take my money

 

[stunreefer]

Glad to see you go public, Jim, congrats!

Alkalinity is the only parameter that several coral farms I've worked with check every day... far and away best parameter to monitor/control.

Was very pleased to see the unit last night at Rich's, much more compact than I expected. See you soon!

 

[Lifer]

Sorry maybe I'm missing something here but I'm not joining the bandwagon. I test my alkalinity twice a week if that much. I'm using the Apex hooked up to my Calc reactor and I just check daily two things. . . One that the ph in the reactor is graphing correctly and the drips are dripping! I would love a contraption that hooks up to my Apex but only if it's like no more than $100. . . $500 for a alkalinity monitor is wayyyy too much. I'd rather have a Nitrate monitor and still no more than 100 bucks!

 

[JonasRoman]

For those of you attending MACNA this coming weekend, keep an eye out for me demonstrating a prototype of my Alkalinity Monitor device. It is capable of interfacing with any controller that can accept a pH probe's input. It has both an accuracy and also a precision of +/- 0.05 dKH. I'm thinking this could be a game changer.

Here is an Apex graph of two day's worth of monitoring of my tank, showing a small daily alk swing in response to the photoperiod:

I would appreciate very much if you will answer me and make a comment on my question: First, thanks for your work, very interesting and impressive. Now my considerings: KH/Alk is not varying with CO2(aq) thus not varying with Photoperiod (as pH does). The law of the conservation of alkalinity. If you measure pH after a fix titrating amount and indirect calculate that pH to KH(as i suspect you do), you must also know CO2(aq) as you always need both pH and CO2(aq) to correct calculate dKH. The other method is to only measure CO2(aq) after titrate the sample to a pH of 2.3 and measure the difference in CO2(aq) after titration, and that rise in CO2(aq) is with some calculations an exact measure of true HCO3+CO3. In both cases you must at least measure CO2(aq) with infrared sensor. As you demonstrate that you measurement varies with light (=CO2(aq)), i am very curious how you calculate and measure dKH. Of course i understand and respect that you will not tell details, but maybe you can answer in big lines so i/we can evaluate your method.

Kind regards
Jonas Roman

 

[Thle009]

Shark tank.... Shark tank...

 

[sroot17]

Game changer is right!

 

[iiluisii]

There is an occasional outlier, as can be seen in the diurnal swing graph. It uses a reagent, and if the reagent runs out, then that currently causes the output to show a false large sudden alk spike, but these issues can be handled with better anomaly detection algorithms in the software. Once broken in, which takes just a day or two, there is virtually no drift. Reagent aging might cause some drift, but I actually have a solution to greatly minimize that issue that I just haven't implemented yet. There is a calibration procedure that can be run any time. With calibration, the unit is basically as accurate as the calibration standards are.

Great for monitoring alk daily but no so much for using it to add alk on its own. So what happens if the regent is defective like we have seen in previous situation with Hana?