REEF KINETICS is a potential GAME CHANGER! Auto Water Tester

[Smotz]

Can we combine it with Amazon's Alexa? "Alexa, what is my ALK at?"

 

[Fishtankery]

I have more concerns around their long term sustainability as a company. Who are these guys? What have they built in the past? What type of device QA experience do they have? I'd hope they have some background in medical device manufacturing or chemical test analytics.

Given the price tag that will come with this equipment, my primary concern would be that the final product was built upon a thoroughly vetted proof of concept.

 

[drernesto]

Can we combine it with Amazon's Alexa? "Alexa, what is my ALK at?"

It can be done.
Best,
Rabih

 

[Rogergolf66]

Would be very cool. Anyone hear anything about price ball park?

 

[nashvillian]

So does it take a picture of a sample and then compare it to a library? I'm sure for PH and alkalinity you could use electricity but for Phospate and Magnesium not sure how that would work. What's the proprietary science behind it?

 

[MCooper]

Want

 

[DurocShark]

Think stores and showpiece aquaria (restaurants, hotels, etc). Labor costs would pay for the thing pretty quick I would think.

As for how it works, there are cell phone based testers, and Hanna automates a lot of tests. This just removes the human component (aside from refills and whatever cleaning can't be done automatically.) I don't think most of us are going to be able to afford or justify it without the controller component.

Being an IT guy, it really reminds me of an amazing tool out there called Darktrace. Darktrace can detect malware on a network based on the activity of the PCs on that network. It doesn't do anything but tell you about it though, which is why I don't have it at work. That and the $3k-6k a month for a couple hundred network devices.

 

[radiata]

I'd plunk down a grand, but they'll have to add pH and salinity first...

 

[m0nkie]

I tried to buy one of their samples but they wont sell me haha.. but the good news was they said they are officially taking pre orders in Feb 2017. Sale starts April 2017. Each unit is $600. Monthly subscription of reagant disk mailed to you for $35

Mindstream was at MACNA as well. There were three different automated testing machines/ products presented, that I saw at least. I don't think there is any doubt we are close.

After the Kickstarter campaign came up short they started another round of funding from other sources and received their full amount. I spoke to all three presenters and of the three, Mindstream seems the most efficient and affordable option if it finally makes it to production. (That's my non scientific opinion at least). There were upside and downside to all of them but cool none the less.

 

[tgp4274]

I want one.........

 

[tj w]

I'm in once it has been beta tested and all of the kinks worked out. I'll beta test too of course.[emoji4]

 

[zxet]

Guy said it was 600 for the base unit each addon is another 200

 

[jason2459]

Not really the type I had in mind. But it's a start.

With some quick programming on an APEX DOS and a mini fridge, you can have yourself a frozen food feeder in about an hour.

Look up Slief on RC. He's made one with a wine bottle chiller and the apex dos as it can run in reverse.

Edit: Looks like he's chimed in here. Also shows his first model using a mini fridge.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/automatic-frozen-fish-food-feeder.231500/

And him first setting it up with pictures of the wine bottle chiller.

https://forum.neptunesystems.com/sh...uestions-regarding-minimum-time-between-doses

Test kits yes, but difficult to automate. There really isn't anything available to hobbyists to continually monitor alkalinity like pH for example. I agree with you on the others, it would appear that real time alk monitoring at a reasonable cost is pretty elusive and tricky though.

JimWelsh has a working model with controller connectivity via a standard bnc port.
https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/264562/

 

[ngvu1]

I knew I should have asked the rep this but I was too shy. How do you use guy use this machine to test with Salifert Mag test kit? I was told that this machine will use a pump to take in the reagent like how many drops of this and that and wait between the too steps and shake. That works out fine for most test kit. I don't know how they use that machine with Salifert Mag test kit ...There is no spoon in the machine to scoop out the powder reagent.....:-(

 

[drernesto]

So does it take a picture of a sample and then compare it to a library? I'm sure for PH and alkalinity you could use electricity but for Phospate and Magnesium not sure how that would work. What's the proprietary science behind it?

It's equipped with a color censor.

 

[drernesto]

I'd plunk down a grand, but they'll have to add pH and salinity first...

Dear,
All the probes will be available aside of the reagent testing.
Ph, salinity, ORP, DO, Temperature.
Best,

 

[MarsRover]

Dear,
All the probes will be available aside of the reagent testing.
Ph, salinity, ORP, DO, Temperature.
Best,

I'm amazed no one has asked this.....especially since we have the developer right here ^^^^

Instead everyone is distracted by the simple things like "no way it works" or "it costs how much??!?" Maybe it's just the engineer in me.... This concept is certainly feasible and by no means fantasy with enough money for mega-fancy sensors and pumps. The hard part is finding "good enough" pumps and sensors that are reliable enough for the job, at cheap enough prices for the masses.

Okay now that we have the skepticism out of the way....

I haven't heard a single thing about how this will integrate with other people's systems. For example,

Say someone has an ATO on their sump. They just drop a grand on this spiffy little tool. How many mL does this thing suck per test? Say it's like many of the standard test kits out there, 5mL per test. Say it's testing only dKH, pH, NH3/4, NO3, PO4, Mg, Sr, I, Ca. The big ones. At 5mL a piece that's 45mL a test-set. Say you have this thing going once a day, your ATO is now backfilling exported saltwater with freshwater thinking its evap.... In about 12 weeks we've already exported a gallon in tests....and back filled with fresh.... Now if you have a BIG system.... This may not be an issue.....

Point is, and I preach this at work probably 5 times a day, automation is good, but over-automation is real. Even with this system you likely will be looking at a different-new kind of maintainance routine. Yeah, might not be testing parameters, but it'll be something else!

Also, the idea of this machine pumping the unused portion of the water it draws in, back into my tank.....if any of you have ever worked in a ChemLab.....or a restaurant filling ketchup bottles, you must know that you never ever pour what's been poured back into the source.....ever! Being that many of these testing Chems are extremely deadly to aquatic life (look on the box or instruction book of your test kits now...) I don't want any reverse flow into my tank. I want a completely separate, sealed location for chems and for the test-product-waste. Far far far from my tank.

 

[locito277]

I'm amazed no one has asked this.....especially since we have the developer right here ^^^^

Instead everyone is distracted by the simple things like "no way it works" or "it costs how much??!?" Maybe it's just the engineer in me.... This concept is certainly feasible and by no means fantasy with enough money for mega-fancy sensors and pumps. The hard part is finding "good enough" pumps and sensors that are reliable enough for the job, at cheap enough prices for the masses.

Okay now that we have the skepticism out of the way....

I haven't heard a single thing about how this will integrate with other people's systems. For example,

Say someone has an ATO on their sump. They just drop a grand on this spiffy little tool. How many mL does this thing suck per test? Say it's like many of the standard test kits out there, 5mL per test. Say it's testing only dKH, pH, NH3/4, NO3, PO4, Mg, Sr, I, Ca. The big ones. At 5mL a piece that's 45mL a test-set. Say you have this thing going once a day, your ATO is now backfilling exported saltwater with freshwater thinking its evap.... In about 12 weeks we've already exported a gallon in tests....and back filled with fresh.... Now if you have a BIG system.... This may not be an issue.....

Point is, and I preach this at work probably 5 times a day, automation is good, but over-automation is real. Even with this system you likely will be looking at a different-new kind of maintainance routine. Yeah, might not be testing parameters, but it'll be something else!

Also, the idea of this machine pumping the unused portion of the water it draws in, back into my tank.....if any of you have ever worked in a ChemLab.....or a restaurant filling ketchup bottles, you must know that you never ever pour what's been poured back into the source.....ever! Being that many of these testing Chems are extremely deadly to aquatic life (look on the box or instruction book of your test kits now...) I don't want any reverse flow into my tank. I want a completely separate, sealed location for chems and for the test-product-waste. Far far far from my tank.

What he said!!! That's a great question

 

[ebushrow]

Does anyone still remember the iDip....that was sold at the last MACNA....still isn't working correctly, yet people threw there money at it as fast as they could get one.... This unit seems to use real-world reagents that you would use to test the parameters and an optical/color reader that takes the "guessing" out of the colormetric testing. I think that this has much more promise compared to mindstream so far...The mindstream unit is really not capable of testing all they say it will....not without external additions. I am not sure what the test kits are going to run yet, however, I do know from the mindstream folks that the disk replacement every month is gonna be costly....and the unit is not cheap either.

 

[ebushrow]

I think he said that the flushing 20ml was wasted off and the residual in the lines would be flushed to the waste before re-testing. The water use is an issue, however, maybe with the use of the water, we can just use sw in the top off....might be wishful thinking, but maybe....

I'm amazed no one has asked this.....especially since we have the developer right here ^^^^

Instead everyone is distracted by the simple things like "no way it works" or "it costs how much??!?" Maybe it's just the engineer in me.... This concept is certainly feasible and by no means fantasy with enough money for mega-fancy sensors and pumps. The hard part is finding "good enough" pumps and sensors that are reliable enough for the job, at cheap enough prices for the masses.

Okay now that we have the skepticism out of the way....

I haven't heard a single thing about how this will integrate with other people's systems. For example,

Say someone has an ATO on their sump. They just drop a grand on this spiffy little tool. How many mL does this thing suck per test? Say it's like many of the standard test kits out there, 5mL per test. Say it's testing only dKH, pH, NH3/4, NO3, PO4, Mg, Sr, I, Ca. The big ones. At 5mL a piece that's 45mL a test-set. Say you have this thing going once a day, your ATO is now backfilling exported saltwater with freshwater thinking its evap.... In about 12 weeks we've already exported a gallon in tests....and back filled with fresh.... Now if you have a BIG system.... This may not be an issue.....

Point is, and I preach this at work probably 5 times a day, automation is good, but over-automation is real. Even with this system you likely will be looking at a different-new kind of maintainance routine. Yeah, might not be testing parameters, but it'll be something else!

Also, the idea of this machine pumping the unused portion of the water it draws in, back into my tank.....if any of you have ever worked in a ChemLab.....or a restaurant filling ketchup bottles, you must know that you never ever pour what's been poured back into the source.....ever! Being that many of these testing Chems are extremely deadly to aquatic life (look on the box or instruction book of your test kits now...) I don't want any reverse flow into my tank. I want a completely separate, sealed location for chems and for the test-product-waste. Far far far from my tank.