Auto testers, need your advice

[Biff0rz]

So I plan to go down the sps route. Testing is essential, obviously. I haven't bought equipment yet but was considering the trident (have an apex) or a reefbot. I was maybe considering alkatronic but wouldnt make sense for me since I don't plan to dose as I have a CaRx. What's everyone having success with right now?

 

[WIReefer]

Running a trident now it’s a nice tool!

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

You have to ask yourself, what you want to test?

I have a calcium reactor and use an alkatronic to assure my alk is stable. I don't use the provided pump that is supposed to dose alkalinity. But alkatronic comes with a wireless power switch that you connect to your CaRx solenoid and have it turn off if parameters get too high.

As for the trident, I asked myself, "do I really care to have a daily reading of calcium and magnesium?" And the answer was No. Especially if you're using a CaRx it is extremely difficult for calcium and magnesium to change without seeing it with alkalinity first. For me, automation for an SPS tank can be boiled down to alkalinity, phosphate and nitrate. All those other readings are for the tourists!

The main reason for choosing alkatronic over KH director or trident was reagent costs... reagent for the alkatronic and KH director can be DIY'd for far less than the monthly cost of the trident. And the only difference between KH director and alkatronic is that alkatronic dilutes the same reagent that the KH director uses 4:1. Meaning the overall cost to make reagent is 4 times cheaper than the KH director.

And lastly, I have an apex too, and one of the chief concerns is not having the ability to have apex use the information from alkatronic to do certain things (if I wanted). All you need is a PM1 module and alkatronic can communicate with apex.

So for me, the alkatronic is hands down the best choice. And the company has just announced mastertronic that will be able to test phosphate and nitrate.

 

[jda]

Maybe I am old school, but I tune my CaRx, look every day for bubbles and drips. I test for alk about once a week and calcium about four times a year. As long as I do not run out of co2, the thing is rock solid and my numbers slowly move downward as things grow and I have to up the output again.

I trust all of this more than a Director, Triton or whatever, from at least what I have seen so far. Maybe I will get one in four or five more years after you all work all of the bugs out of them. I know that this is flippant, but if you do choose to use one, then at least wait to get one until you know how to do all of this yourself first.

 

[Biff0rz]

You have to ask yourself, what you want to test?

I have a calcium reactor and use an alkatronic to assure my alk is stable. I don't use the provided pump that is supposed to dose alkalinity. But alkatronic comes with a wireless power switch that you connect to your CaRx solenoid and have it turn off if parameters get too high.

As for the trident, I asked myself, "do I really care to have a daily reading of calcium and magnesium?" And the answer was No. Especially if you're using a CaRx it is extremely difficult for calcium and magnesium to change without seeing it with alkalinity first. For me, automation for an SPS tank can be boiled down to alkalinity, phosphate and nitrate. All those other readings are for the tourists!

The main reason for choosing alkatronic over KH director or trident was reagent costs... reagent for the alkatronic and KH director can be DIY'd for far less than the monthly cost of the trident. And the only difference between KH director and alkatronic is that alkatronic dilutes the same reagent that the KH director uses 4:1. Meaning the overall cost to make reagent is 4 times cheaper than the KH director.

And lastly, I have an apex too, and one of the chief concerns is not having the ability to have apex use the information from alkatronic to do certain things (if I wanted). All you need is a PM1 module and alkatronic can communicate with apex.

So for me, the alkatronic is hands down the best choice. And the company has just announced mastertronic that will be able to test phosphate and nitrate.

OK, this is really great info, I made some assumptions and you've corrected my course, thanks. It sounds like a mastertronic with and pm1 is the way to go. Are you controlling your CaRx effluent with the alkatronic currently? I bought a kamora FX-STP to control the CaRx dosing speed.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

One thing about the Mastertronic is that it will only test Alk once a day. If that’s all you need, it’s probably fine. That’s just fine for the other tests (Mag, Cal, Nitrate, Phos). But I’ve gotten used to 4x a day Alk testing with my Alkatronic. :cool:

I agree with everything said above about it. It can control a calcium reactor and dose if needed. I only use it for testing and I bought it primarily for when I’m traveling. If I’m gone 2-4 weeks, I need to be able to test and adjust dosing remotely. Between Alkatronic and Apex I’m fully automated without the costly extras (Cal/Mag) from Trident.

 

[Biff0rz]

One thing about the Mastertronic is that it will only test Alk once a day. If that’s all you need, it’s probably fine. That’s just fine for the other tests (Mag, Cal, Nitrate, Phos). But I’ve gotten used to 4x a day Alk testing with my Alkatronic. :cool:

I agree with everything said above about it. It can control a calcium reactor and dose if needed. I only use it for testing and I bought it primarily for when I’m traveling. If I’m gone 2-4 weeks, I need to be able to test and adjust dosing remotely. Between Alkatronic and Apex I’m fully automated without the costly extras (Cal/Mag) from Trident.

Ah, once per day seems low. So it sounds like one would need an alkatronic and a mastertronic to be fully automated for sps. I do plan to understand all of this manually but my family likes vacations ;)

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

OK, this is really great info, I made some assumptions and you've corrected my course, thanks. It sounds like a mastertronic with and pm1 is the way to go. Are you controlling your CaRx effluent with the alkatronic currently? I bought a kamora FX-STP to control the CaRx dosing speed.

No I don't have the alkatronic do anything except monitor, and I use apex to shut the solenoid off of alk ever for too high, but it never has.

As far as effluent goes, I use a Versa and just like the fx-stp it's a set it and forget it scenario. Although it seems that these companies are going the direction of creating an algorithm that will control effluent rate for extreme stability, I don't know if it would catch on for most people. It would be interesting to see how it's received.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Maybe I am old school, but I tune my CaRx, look every day for bubbles and drips. I test for alk about once a week and calcium about four times a year. As long as I do not run out of co2, the thing is rock solid and my numbers slowly move downward as things grow and I have to up the output again.

I trust all of this more than a Director, Triton or whatever, from at least what I have seen so far. Maybe I will get one in four or five more years after you all work all of the bugs out of them. I know that this is flippant, but if you do choose to use one, then at least wait to get one until you know how to do all of this yourself first.

This is the route I take most of the time. If I am dosing with pumps I check it once a week at most and with a calcium reactor way less. I can just look at it and know it’s running right. I feel no need for any of these testing and dosing devices.
Simplicity gets me farther than tons of gear I have to monitor daily and or work on to keep running right. I have a hard enough time remembering to clean my powerheads :) Also some would be amazed at the results you can get with just hand dosing once a day.

 

[jda]

The dozen, or so, of the people who have done super-automated and techy tanks in my area have all become slaves to the stuff and most are out of the hobby in less than 24 months. This is not a large sample size, but they get ground down with the hobby-grade stuff and they are messing with it all the time since it is not super stable or reliable. The wanted to reef and they ended up with another **** to wipe.