Alkatronic Users Thread

[smartwater101]

Yes, Alkatronic puts out a signal that Apex can read through the PH/ORP port.

This os from my Apex dashboard.

I'm curious why your readings are so stair-steppy. Is that just because you're daily readings are so stable?

 

[reefandreptileautomation]

I think the alkatronic just send an average. I am not sure but mine usually is between 8.5-8.6. So when the alkatronic says 8.55 for example my Apex shows 8.6. So I think that its why.

 

[smartwater101]

I think the alkatronic just send an average. I am not sure but mine usually is between 8.5-8.6. So when the alkatronic says 8.55 for example my Apex shows 8.6. So I think that its why.

ah that's too bad. I like numbers! lol

 

[Wrasse-cal]

I'm curious why your readings are so stair-steppy. Is that just because you're daily readings are so stable?

Alkatronic tests only every so often. In my case, every two hours. The steps correspond to each test.

 

[Wrasse-cal]

Here is mine:

 

[Kyl]

Here is mine:

Nice oscilloscope you have there! ;)

 

[TMB]

I'm curious why your readings are so stair-steppy. Is that just because you're daily readings are so stable?

I'm not exactly sure why it looked like that on that day. But I have a guess. When the Alkatronic is restarted, it sends a default signal of 7.0 to Apex until the next test. Then it reports correctly. I suspect that the 6.97 you can see as the lower end of the Apex chart is that default.
This is what it looks like today, and the range is really small, like +- .11

Here's the 7 day chart from the Alkatronic cloud too. You can see that I'm chasing a constantly falling alk. Not a bad problem to have, but lately I need to bump my Calcium reactor weekly to keep up.

 

[Silver14SS]

Just got an email that the Dosetronic is available for preorder. Must resist urge to order...

 

[smartwater101]

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[smartwater101]

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[ycnibrc]

Just got mine install yesterday so far so good compare to salifert dkh test at 7.0 and alkatronic at 7.89 it's only deviate 0.89 put it to the base line adjustment now I have accurate test to monitor

 

[GoVols]

Just got an email that the Dosetronic is available for preorder. Must resist urge to order...

How has your Dosetronic been up to this point?

Thanks!!

 

[Silver14SS]

It's been great, the interaction with the Alkatronic is awesome.

I've used both ODA and SDA to get the dosing dialed in. I recently went overboard with adding urchins, they ate up a lot of my coralline so alk consumption went way down. Dosetronic skips the dose when above the desired Alk, I ran ODA to get it back to the correct dosing. SDA is nice for fine tuning.

Alk has been very steady between 8 - 8.15.

 

[GoVols]

It's been great, the interaction with the Alkatronic is awesome.

I've used both ODA and SDA to get the dosing dialed in. I recently went overboard with adding urchins, they ate up a lot of my coralline so alk consumption went way down. Dosetronic skips the dose when above the desired Alk, I ran ODA to get it back to the correct dosing. SDA is nice for fine tuning.

Alk has been very steady between 8 - 8.15.

Thank you

Glad your happy with your Dosetronic

Loving my Alka-T too, to this point.

 

[slojmn]

At the 6 month mark with my Alkatronic. While I love the Alkatronic I have made some observations over time that are concerning. I've had difficulty with WiFi connection so no data when there is no connection. It will reconnect with rebooting the machine but the data is lost for the period of time it was not connected. I've had no explanation as to why this is happening every few weeks. I have it connected to a dedicated 2.4 GHz router per Alkatronic customer support suggestion. Still dropping off.

Love this machine when it is locked in and working well. Recently it went on the fritz, didn't test for 24 hours, it got stuck in "testing" mode but nothing was happening. I was out of town and had my housekeeper reboot it. It began testing, numbers were WAY off. Since I was away I just had to watch it test every 2 hours with no way to shut it down. Uggg, if I had it connected to a Dosatronic it would have dumped a lot of Alk into my system which would have been catastrophic. I also have the Trident on the same tank and it continued to give me stable Alk readings during the same time period. 5 days later I got home and shut it down. Upon reboot, I updated firmware via USB per Alkatronic customer service. My firmware continues to not show the latest update on the settings page but the machine shows the firmware as latest. I calibrated pump A and pump C and my next reading was worse. I shut it down again in frustration. 24 hours later I rebooted and did a new measure, Alk reading back where it should be. I have no idea what is happening but my confidence was/is seriously shaken. It has been testing for the past 5 days with stable data and steady connection. My plan has been to move the Alkatronic to my Nano Reef next week and run the Trident on big tank. Hopefully, the Alkatronic will run with more stability, both in connection via WiFi and within the machine itself. My next hurdle is to replace the hoses, the recommendation is every 6 months.

Again, I LOVE this machine when it is running in a stable manner. Hopefully all of these problems are in the past and the machine will continue to work well.

 

[GoVols]

@slojmn

Have you been excepted into the Focustronic's Facebook Users Group / Forum?

Jonas, other members and a mod will help you out on that forum.

I think there has been more updates since yours is six months old.

Edit:
FWIW..
I've just been using the Blue Tooth app on an latest Ipad and ran a BNC to Apex Fusion.

Thanks for your incite and will pick up some replacement pump lines for down the line.

 

[slojmn]

@slojmn

Have you been excepted into the Focustronic's Facebook Users Group / Forum?

Jonas, other members and a mod will help you out on that forum.

I think there has been more updates since yours is six months old.

Edit:
FWIW..
I've just been using the Blue Tooth app on an latest Ipad and ran a BNC to Apex Fusion.

Thanks for your incite and will pick up some replacement pump lines for down the line.

Thanks for the info on the FB forum. I didn't know about it. I have since joined.

Hopefully I can get some help there. Through FB messaging I've had some help from Focustronic folks but , all in all, no real explanation for my issues. This last episode was not good at all. I'm glad to see it stable at this point but I will need to see some long term stability before I am less concerned.

 

[GoVols]

Thanks for the info on the FB forum. I didn't know about it. I have since joined.

Hopefully I can get some help there. Through FB messaging I've had some help from Focustronic folks but , all in all, no real explanation for my issues. This last episode was not good at all. I'm glad to see it stable at this point but I will need to see some long term stability before I am less concerned.

I hope you've stabled out too and understand your concern.

I saw Jonas work with another member. It wound up being a leak right before the A or C's pumps connection line.

 

[slojmn]

I hope you've stabled out too and understand your concern.

I saw Jonas work with another member. It wound up being a leak right before the A or C's pumps connection line.

I joined the group, great info over there and a nice bunch of folks. My machine has been very stable so far. I believe it may have been the update that worked everything out.

 

[GoVols]

I joined the group, great info over there and a nice bunch of folks. My machine has been very stable so far. I believe it may have been the update that worked everything out.

Good to know.

Looks ;Wideyed like the guys want Jonas to go with phosphates and nitrates, next... ;Woot ;Woot