Alkatronic mode Overdose

[VintageReefer]

How did they prove that? I don’t see how it’s related

Also. I use this on my unit. Works really well and is washable. They have a short YouTube video on it as well
https://vividcreativeaquatics.com/shop/swf-pod-sample-water-pre-filter/

 

[fushi]

How did they prove that? I don’t see how it’s related

Also. I use this on my unit. Works really well and is washable. They have a short YouTube video on it as well
https://vividcreativeaquatics.com/shop/swf-pod-sample-water-pre-filter/

They haven't responded to me even though I messaged Reddie directly.

I just decided to investigate why all of a sudden the PH reading was so off, It has a pre filter, but looks like the algae grew in the silicone tube, then clogged up with precipitate.

And yes, I don't believe this issue is related to the Alkatronic overdose, as the reading that caused the overdose were not this far off.

 

[Cool tangs]

Following along, I hope you can get this resolved!

I just bought the mastertronic essentials on pre-order. I've personally never liked the idea of a ph probe and sulfuric acid to test my alk as I feel it's too much calibration and potential to go out of whack with the probe vs the good old school titration methods. This does not explain your issue with the machine not picking up on such a huge jump in dosing and having some logical thinking in making the decision.

We have a bit of a laugh at work when people talk about AI and how they think it's this amazing well reformed fine tuned instrument. When in reality it's far from it. At the end of the day the AI is only as good as the data it's fed/learns from.

 

[reefchi]

I commented on that post and was checking this morning to see what they had said. I wasn't aware they deleted it. I'm also interested in this because I been debating on having my Alkatronic and dosetronic dose automatically for me but been scared of this exactly. Especially since my tank is a nano tank.

 

[fushi]

Following along, I hope you can get this resolved!

I just bought the mastertronic essentials on pre-order. I've personally never liked the idea of a ph probe and sulfuric acid to test my alk as I feel it's too much calibration and potential to go out of whack with the probe vs the good old school titration methods. This does not explain your issue with the machine not picking up on such a huge jump in dosing and having some logical thinking in making the decision.

We have a bit of a laugh at work when people talk about AI and how they think it's this amazing well reformed fine tuned instrument. When in reality it's far from it. At the end of the day the AI is only as good as the data it's fed/learns from.

Thanks, I have the original Mastertronic, it has a lot of quarks due to its design, I think the essentials will be a big improvement. However I recommend pre ordering spare tubes for the peristaltic pumps as I had had lots of issues with a small crack in a tube causing wacky results. It's super helpful to have a spare tube ready to go and help you diagnose the issue.

I actually like sulphuric acid test, as its cost efficient so you can test all the time and not have to refill reagents, its simple and the results are pretty accurate. I originally only had the Mastertronic and filling alk reagents got to be a pain.

However I DO NOT recommend anyone trust any tester to adjust their dosing, just do the dosing settings manually.

I always laugh at "AI" too I think it's an annoying marketing buzz word these days.
We recently tried to switch to another company for our OCR software at work, not for the "AI" but for some inventory features. However this company loved talking about how great their AI OCR was. Turned out the "AI" software was so bad we couldn't even use the inventory features we wanted and had to go back to our old software.

 

[fushi]

I commented on that post and was checking this morning to see what they had said. I wasn't aware they deleted it. I'm also interested in this because I been debating on having my Alkatronic and dosetronic dose automatically for me but been scared of this exactly. Especially since my tank is a nano tank.

Yeah, and told me it was deleted because this was my mistake, and Reddie would contact me and tell me why. Apparently Reddie had time to comment on other posts but not enough to message me.

Not even an I'm sorry this happened or something. Just an its your fault don't make us look bad.

Yet they advertise the idea that "alkatronic mode" is safe. Like yeah the ability automatically adjust the dose 300x the previous dose is "Safe".

If it was "Safe" I wouldn't have thousands of dollars of dead coral and fish.


Anyways I would not trust automatic dosing again, when it's really easy to just change the dosing when you need view your result.

 

[2una]

and my apex probe is showing 8.81

Sorry to hear about your loss. If you have an apex there then perhaps have the doser plugged into that & add
If Ph > 8.* then Off might safe guard it happening again.

 

[fushi]

Sorry to hear about your loss. If you have an apex there then perhaps have the doser plugged into that & add
If Ph > 8.* then Off might safe guard it happening again.

I do have an apex, and I could have programmed that extra safeguard in however the Alkatronic was said to have safe guards to prevent this issue.

 

[fushi]

So I spent about a half hour on FaceTime with Reddie, nice guy, actually said sorry and didn’t just blame me for making a mistake.

We went through everything in the app, and he couldn’t find anything that would cause this issue so they “need to look into the issue further on the back end” to see what happened. He also was able to see everything was working fine until last night.

I showed him the tank, he thought the corals just bleached from stress and would come back, so I zoomed in and showed him how they were actually RTN and not gonna survive.

He didn’t offer any compensation for my losses, and said they will let me know what they find.

 

[dedragon]

He didn’t offer any compensation for my losses, and said they will let me know what they find.

Unfortunately i dont think any company would and it really sucks. Just look at red sea tanks just falling apart. Hope things start turning around and the corals bounce back

 

[Cool tangs]

So I spent about a half hour on FaceTime with Reddie, nice guy, actually said sorry and didn’t just blame me for making a mistake.

We went through everything in the app, and he couldn’t find anything that would cause this issue so they “need to look into the issue further on the back end” to see what happened. He also was able to see everything was working fine until last night.

I showed him the tank, he thought the corals just bleached from stress and would come back, so I zoomed in and showed him how they were actually RTN and not gonna survive.

He didn’t offer any compensation for my losses, and said they will let me know what they find.

So in other words at this stage, your just the lab rat

I really hope they get to the bottom of this, sorry to hear about them not offering any compensation!

Thanks for the tips and advise, appreciate it and I'll be making all my adjustments manually moving forward. Everything is cloud based anyway so it's easy enough to make adjustments. I really do hope the essentials is a big improvement as I did not like the syringe/actuator idea either (fussy I know). It was focustronic or the kamoer reef master spa. Hope I don't regret my decision, but I guess the idea is to make improvements and get out the bugs over time right? Just a shame it had to be at your expense

 

[fushi]

Unfortunately i dont think any company would and it really sucks. Just look at red sea tanks just falling apart. Hope things start turning around and the corals bounce back

Yeah I feel like the quality and quality of service in our industry has really diminished.

Unfortunately of my corals have rtn, which is what I’m most sad about, I lost some really cool pieces that I don’t remember the names of and some slow growers that I have had for a couple years.

 

[fushi]

So in other words at this stage, your just the lab rat

I really hope they get to the bottom of this, sorry to hear about them not offering any compensation!

Thanks for the tips and advise, appreciate it and I'll be making all my adjustments manually moving forward. Everything is cloud based anyway so it's easy enough to make adjustments. I really do hope the essentials is a big improvement as I did not like the syringe/actuator idea either (fussy I know). It was focustronic or the kamoer reef master spa. Hope I don't regret my decision, but I guess the idea is to make improvements and get out the bugs over time right? Just a shame it had to be at your expense

That’s what it feels like lol.


That’s why I posted here, I really hope my experience helps others prevent something like this.

My experience won’t stop me from using equipment like this, as it does save a lot of , I just will never trust them to do anything automatically, no matter how “safe” the company tells you it is.

 

[VintageReefer]

That’s what it feels like lol.


That’s why I posted here, I really hope my experience helps others prevent something like this.

My experience won’t stop me from using equipment like this, as it does save a lot of , I just will never trust them to do anything automatically, no matter how “safe” the company tells you it is.

And no explanation besides algae growing inside the lines? Or did algae get sucked in?

If it grew in there maybe get black dosing tubing ? Or something colored to reduce light into the tubing ?

Are there logs they can review ? Example -
this many ml was dosed because…

The safety was overrided because….

 

[fushi]

And no explanation besides algae growing inside the lines? Or did algae get sucked in?

If it grew in there maybe get black dosing tubing ? Or something colored to reduce light into the tubing ?

Are there logs they can review ? Example -
this many ml was dosed because…

The safety was overrided because….

The algae in the line only became an issue because all the precipitate got caught it in it after the Overdose issue occurred and was something I figured out trying to test after the overdose. It was a tiny amount of algae and a lot of precipitate.

So probably no need to change the tubes, just a quick check during normal maintenance.


According to them they should be able to see more information in the backend there, but they haven’t responded back to me yet.

Reddie sent me a bunch of pictures in FB messenger but quickly deleted them before I could view them.
That and the delay in response doesn’t leave me hopeful Focustronic will do the right thing and provide good customer service at this point.


It seems like a lot of the companies in this hobby have chosen to try and hide their mistakes and shove things under the rug; maybe they think it reduces liability. However these days with easy access to stories like mine this is the worst strategy and only costs companies more in the long run.

I recently had an experience with a company that prioritizes customer service, and it’s impressive how hard it is to get upset with them when they are communicative and on top of addressing issues. Their product does tend to come with some problems, but they have an entire engineering team only deals with issues on their current models. While I understand that not every company is large enough to operate this way, this company has prioritized customer service from day one, and that commitment is what made them a leader in their industry.

I hope more companies in the reefing industry figure this strategy out.

 

[Cool tangs]

I agree, open and honest policy is the best policy!

I'm always open with my clients and I'll always own up to a mistake as soon as I know I've made one (we are human after all) and the first thing is coming up with a solution and most of the time it's not hard to fix a problem. The first part is owning it! And whilst there is some frustration at the beginning long term the clients are more trusting and overall more happy with the service provided, so long as we are learning from our mistakes. I'd much rather have the bad news convo and fix the mistake then no convo at all and sweep it under the rug.

It's not just this hobby thats impacted, but everywhere the services provided with products is just getting worse and worse and worse. The best part is most of it is fuelled by corporate greed and taking advantage of people. I see it at my work alone, businesses will find every way possible to cut cost, even if it means a worse service. Cause they know people will still buy the product.

This is not directed at focustronic in anyway as I've personally had good experience with them. But in your case it does destroy that hope factor. I'm sure they will come up with a answer and I really hope they do. Not just for your sake but for those who care about the product as well. As passionate reefers some of us really want to see that drive around automation and see if grow in this industry

 

[fushi]

Update, they are going with it’s not their fault and is probably something I did. Even though there is no log of me changing anything in the app, just the log of the alkatronic adjusting the dose……

 

[fushi]

And all log history has magically been deleted!

 

[reefchi]

I’m surprised they deleted your post. I would have wanted to give a direct answer to that question. Funny how he mentions it logs everything but yet thinks if you made a change and possibly your “mistake”. Wouldn’t have that been logged well?

I wonder if you just went directly to their website and open a support ticket if you would have someone else look into it? Maybe ping Eric and say their answer isn’t up to a standard a company like that should be giving.
I had Reddie help me before and was a great guy but nonetheless the way it’s been handled is disappointing to see.

I’m sorry for your loss and headache

 

[Uncle99]

While automation has great time savings, it comes with risk of failure which can be catastrophic.

I was lucky on the first mistake, now it sits on a shelf.
It only a matter of time before something goes awry.

It only costs me 15 minutes once a week and 30 minutes once a month to do testing.

I only hold 1 week of product dosed in case of error.