Hydros maven

[Reefering1]

To be clear, I stopped monitoring alkalinity every hour. I mothballed my alkatronic. I concluded that it was one of those unnecessary expenses foisted upon me by ill informed hobbyist due to the current fads.

For the purpose of comparing apples to apples, alkatronic doesn't care what form of alkalinity is doses, whether it be a mixture of carbonate or bicarbonate.



I think this is a topic widely ignored by hobbyist. I wish I knew why because it's a big red flag.

Especially in today's climate when you don't even know if coralvue maker of kh guardian and hydros or neptune systems maker of apex or any other company with cloud or subscription based plans will be in business 5 years from now.

If, like most of us, plan to be in the hobby longer than 5 years, we should consider these things and know that our initial investment will still be working long after we choose another hobby.

I want nothing to do with devices that are reliant on cloud services to operate, or captive to subscriptions or forced to use branded consumables. I will not invest in future boat anchors.

I've recently became concerned of this. A couple hurricanes ago, when we lost internet for almost a month. Consumption dropped without the halides running and I couldnt turn down the doser. I resorted to unplugging the dosetronic every other day to keep parameters from running away. It has been a great/ precise doser but aggravating to say the least, when you can't connect to it via LAN. But it seems they are all this way? Is there one you suggest that doesn't need internet to function?

 

[BeanAnimal]

Is it a subscription?

I think his (mine too) point was broad regarding products that require something proprietary from the outside to work, known up front or not.

His point was that most people have not really considered that the use of their expensive product is predicated on the health and whim of the company that sold it to them, and in many cases the connection between them and that company.

I don't think most people really understand the business model that these companies have saddled themselves with, and how they have basically signed on to their own pyramid scheme.

Something has to give... and one way or the other a lot of this equipment is going to be no longer support in the somewhat near future, or it is going to cost you monthly to use it.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Is it a subscription? Netflix, prime, or similar offering is a subscription. Reagents in the case of the Trident are known up front and part of the operating cost. No different than GHL's probe or similar automated test platforms. OEM vs 3rd party similar to auto manufactures would be nice I agree but I don't see it as a deal breaker. Just my view on it though I admit.

It's more about the idea that built into a product is a reoccurring cost that forces a pay to play mementality. If Netflix goes under, my television doesn't get demoted to yard art.

Even best case scenario a company stays in business for decades more, it doesn't negate the concern that they reserve the right to stop footing the cost of cloud services and pass that cost off to the user as a monthly or yearly expense.

Same goes for proprietary reagents, who's to say that they don't eventually feel the need to raise prices and you're left with a choice to pay or find another product. They sort of painted themselves in a corner.

I'm also reluctant to agree that the majority of people making these purchases consider these things or are even aware that these possibilities exist.

I think that's why it's important to have a discussion about it as well as educate people when the topics arises.

Edit: d'oh, I didn't realize there was already a new page of this thread.

 

[ReefED!]

I'd be thrilled with daily alk/phosphate testing

Anything else I don't need automated. Maybe nitrate.

 

[areefer01]

It's more about the idea that built into a product is a reoccurring cost that forces a pay to play mementality. If Netflix goes under, my television doesn't get demoted to yard art.

Even best case scenario a company stays in business for decades more, it doesn't negate the concern that they reserve the right to stop footing the cost of cloud services and pass that cost off to the user as a monthly or yearly expense.

Same goes for proprietary reagents, who's to say that they don't eventually feel the need to raise prices and you're left with a choice to pay or find another product. They sort of painted themselves in a corner.

I'm also reluctant to agree that the majority of people making these purchases consider these things or are even aware that these possibilities exist.

I think that's why it's important to have a discussion about it as well as educate people when the topics arises.

Edit: d'oh, I didn't realize there was already a new page of this thread.

I hear what you and Bean are saying, I do. I actually don't disagree for the most part. However the onus is on the hobbyist to be aware of these things. No different than if they listen to social media and buy the biggest tank because that is what they have been told yet forgetting the run and maintain cost of the basics like salt.

We can't spoon feed them situational awareness or success but admit I am being unrealistic.

 

[DJF]

FWIW I think you can connect to hydros from the comfort of your log cabin with Bluetooth and no WiFi.

 

[nickng]

Would this suffice instead of buying a expensive apex system i just need my water tested i have no dosing pumps st the moment everything is hand dosed

I have an apex jr for 2+ years connected to a trident. It works well and can also control a Neptune dose with the remaining “usb-like” port. Or if you need more ports you can attach it to a eb832 or eb8 brick

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I use both the trident for the big 3 and I have a Alkatronic and a Mastertronic. I am not a fan of subscription based programs. I have done the trident hack to lessen the frequency of the testing, but drift happens as the reagent gets stale. I have been running my Alkatronic in parallel with my Trident, and I am pleased. For everything but DKH (including nutrients), I don’t care to see it daily. Once maybe twice a week is fine for me. I do want to see my DKH much much more often though. And the Alkatronic is a great tool for that, which is stand alone, but I view it through my apex and will use it to manage dosing and my CARX. In a few months I will be taking my trident offline regarding my big system. I will severally spin up a separate smaller grow out system for redundancy, and I will repurpose one of my tridents there as I purchased the years supply of ABC several months ago which makes the Trident’s subscription plan much much more tolerable.

 

[Blu-J]

I invested big time into hydros, all my dosing and automatic water changes etc are managed by it.
However, I got tired of waiting for the maven and so bought a used apex el + trident - automatic testing is fantastic!

I was thinking of going this route, I really love my hydros system and I have a large setup

 

[Sm1nts2escape]

Well the onus is on the hobbyist to put aside their bias hat and just speak to their experiences. Obvious maven is only in the hands of those beta testing it if that is still going on. As you noted - the debate rages on /shrug

OP - you state 'start keeping sps such as acros and want my water to be as stable as possible' which leads me to believe that you are just getting started. Or the display is (frags vs colony). Not knocking experience level but one doesn't really need automated testing. That is a quality of life thing, not a necessity. Sounds like I'm lecturing but not trying to, sorry. Hanna Alkalinity manual test can be done in a couple of minutes. Phosphate, nitrate, Hanna checkers in a couple of minutes as well. Calcium - pick one that is easy to use. In fact all I tested for was Alkalinity but we all have personal preferences.

Point being is the automation is optional. Several to choose from and you will get a lot of varying opinions on them. Mine included. May be easier, and cheaper (not knocking budget), to just get alkalinity, nitrate, phosphate checkers and do a manual test every couple of days and add the data to excel. Within a couple of weeks you will see the daily consumption and trends which is all you need really.

I have been running a mixed reef tank (got complete running/neglected) now for approximately 1 month and just realized this. Previously I thought controllers were pretty much essential. Now I realize is all you need is a little redundancy (esp water heater) and sample testing every few days etc. The overall health of the tank and the corals really show you a lot. I found that I also need to test calcium some and have been dosing afr every 2-4 days along with water changes since I had some die off during the setup/transfer. Soon I will be getting a RODI setup since I am currently purchasing ro from the lfs and then I will get a launch to consolidate and tidy up everything. This was a nice post to see.

 

[braaap]

I was thinking of going this route, I really love my hydros system and I have a large setup

When I swapped over to hydros I kept my apex head unit and trident to continue testing. With the widgets on IOS I never have to open the apex app to see results. The only reason Coralvue even announced the Maven is because Neptune teased the Trident NP. The next day Coralvue announced.

I had a Trident NP and it was not even remotely accurate so I returned it. Hopeful that the Maven can have some accuracy or Neptune has fixed the NP with the latest update this past weekend. If results are positive I'll get an NP as I'm tired of waiting and don't have time to manually test as often as I would like.

 

[GettingSalty]

I have several Hydros devices and have loved the convenience they bring, but the experience since the announcement of the Maven has really dimmed my opinion of the company.

It feels like they really did announce this thing purely as a “me too!” without being anywhere near a functioning product.