Hydros maven

[BeanAnimal]

Haha, trademarks are hard to come by these days. Perhaps... he was pointing out that they both start with M??

In all seriousness, maven does sort of insist upon itself.

What was that other fancy vaporware controller with the pretty touch screen and icons?

 

[alpenreef]

looking at buying a automatic tester for my 50g reef tank. Was anticipating the launch of the hydros maven but with no insight on the delay i was wondering if the neptune trident is still a viable option for automatic testing, i want to start keeping sps such as acros and want my water to be as stable as possible.

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!

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

What was that other fancy vaporware controller with the pretty touch screen and icons?

Was it the Italian controller? Aquatronica?

Or are you talking about the vertex cerebra?

 

[BeanAnimal]

Vertex Cerebra :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

That one I knew was going to be vaporware - feature creep was an understatement -- I think there were units out in the wild, but they only had barely working software and(or hardware was never completed.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Vertex Cerebra :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

That one I knew was going to be vaporware - feature creep was an understatement -- I think there were units out in the wild, but they only had barely working software and(or hardware was never completed.

I remember big promises... and then nothing. A lot of people had high hopes. Same with Mindstream. That seemed too good to be true. Then the subscription based marketing approach tamped down demand. When the company folded, they approached a few reefing companies trying to sell off IP. That was shrouded with NDAs, who knows if anyone acquired the IP.

 

[ReefED!]

Maven hasn't been released because they're trying to get a satisfactory level of accuracy and reliability

I appreciate that they haven't rushed out shoddy product.

 

[VintageReefer]

IMO the most important parameter, and the fastest to change, is alkalinity.

My method is automate alkalinity - both testing and dosing - and then everything else can be tested weekly and manually corrected after testing

you can completely automate alkalinity for 500$ With KH Guardian. They were the first ones to bring automatic alk dosing to the market and their product has been out the longest. It’s got optical drip count sensors, magnetic stirrer, built in pumps, numerous safety feature, webserver for remote access. I like it a lot and much more affordable than a whole controller system that does 10 things I don’t need.

Kh guardian - $400
Wifi bridge - $25 from Amazon
Reagent dosing container - $24 amazon
Reagent dosing container - $24 amazon
Fine micron prefilter- $20 from Vivid Creative Aquatics
Baking soda - stole from kitchen

Total $495

For 50$ more you can add the AIM-S which adds temp, salinity, and orp monitoring also

For 20$ you can add AIM which allows it to integrate into apex

 

[alpenreef]

IMO the most important parameter, and the fastest to change, is alkalinity.

My method is automate alkalinity - both testing and dosing - and then everything else can be tested weekly and manually corrected after testing

you can completely automate alkalinity for 500$ With KH Guardian. They were the first ones to bring automatic alk dosing to the market and their product has been out the longest. It’s got optical drip count sensors, magnetic stirrer, built in pumps, numerous safety feature, webserver for remote access. I like it a lot and much more affordable than a whole controller system that does 10 things I don’t need.

Kh guardian - $400
Wifi bridge - $25 from Amazon
Reagent dosing container - $24 amazon
Reagent dosing container - $24 amazon
Fine micron prefilter- $20 from Vivid Creative Aquatics
Baking soda - stole from kitchen

Total $495

For 50$ more you can add the AIM-S which adds temp, salinity, and orp monitoring also

For 20$ you can add AIM which allows it to integrate into apex

Wasn’t the kh guardian discontinued a few years ago (and sold for $1200). Confused about this post!

 

[tsharpe291]

IMO the most important parameter, and the fastest to change, is alkalinity.

My method is automate alkalinity - both testing and dosing - and then everything else can be tested weekly and manually corrected after testing

you can completely automate alkalinity for 500$ With KH Guardian. They were the first ones to bring automatic alk dosing to the market and their product has been out the longest. It’s got optical drip count sensors, magnetic stirrer, built in pumps, numerous safety feature, webserver for remote access. I like it a lot and much more affordable than a whole controller system that does 10 things I don’t need.

Kh guardian - $400
Wifi bridge - $25 from Amazon
Reagent dosing container - $24 amazon
Reagent dosing container - $24 amazon
Fine micron prefilter- $20 from Vivid Creative Aquatics
Baking soda - stole from kitchen

Total $495

For 50$ more you can add the AIM-S which adds temp, salinity, and orp monitoring also

For 20$ you can add AIM which allows it to integrate into apex

love my kh guardian. bought it gently used on r2r after my trident started going haywire
and I wasn't wanting to go through the process of getting it diagnosed and repaired.

 

[VintageReefer]

Wasn’t the kh guardian discontinued a few years ago (and sold for $1200). Confused about this post!

Was never discontinued.

When a retailer stops carrying it they sometimes mark it as “discontinued” but what they mean is they are discontinuing carrying it.

Right now BRS has marked all sorts of things discontinued but they are in full production. Brs just isn’t selling them anymore

Kh guardian changed business models and reduced prices and sells to consumers direct and through coral life. Their sales rep / support staff is also on our forum and active

https://www.corallife.us/product/kh-guardian

 

[petcellar]

That would work to test Cal/Mg and Alk. And it would function simply as an aquarium monitor. It could be a controller if you add on an energy bar $300

If you want to test nitrate and phosphate you also need Trident NP. $649

My experience so far.......

Trident = great

Trident NP = bad

Still working through this and hope I'm wrong.
Hopefully NP gets where its older brother is someday but as of now not sure I'd invest in one.

 

[14 foot reef]

My experience so far.......

Trident = great

Trident NP = bad

Still working through this and hope I'm wrong.
Hopefully NP gets where its older brother is someday but as of now not sure I'd invest in one.

My Trident NP rotted the mini dosing pumps in 2 weeks, SWAq.com refunded money no questions asked because their fail rate is so high, there was no push back. Waiting on Maven, no matter how long the wait is.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

I really like my Apex Pro + Trident combo. Works fantastic and integrates really well into Dos pumps to automatically dose Alk/Cal/Mag and keeps them extremely stable. I use Hanna testers for Nitrate/Phosphate which takes hardly any time every other day and manually dose NeoNitrate/NeoPhos if needed. Not sure I would get a Trident NP until they get the issues worked out with that system in that there are reagents that seem to be wreaking havoc during tests and trashing units.

 

[braaap]

My experience so far.......

Trident = great

Trident NP = bad

Still working through this and hope I'm wrong.
Hopefully NP gets where its older brother is someday but as of now not sure I'd invest in one.

Yup. I returned my Trident NP. Honestly at this point I don't even seen N&P being that important to test daily. I test weekly and my levels are always on. I have my dosing dialed in. I might end up changing the dose .5ml a week or so.

Meanwhile my Trident is working great.

 

[14 foot reef]

I will add I'm full Neptune Apex junky, can't even count the number of modules, I do know I have 4 EB832's and adding 1 more soon, Love my regular trident ( 3+ years old, ZERO issues ).

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I will add I'm full Neptune Apex junky, can't even count the number of modules, I do know I have 4 EB832's and adding 1 more soon, Love my regular trident ( 3+ years old, ZERO issues ).

I'm right along with you. Although I'm not a junky per se, there are plenty of things they could do better and their perogative prevents them from making changes.

I will say, Apex Fusion does require a bit of a learning curve but once it clicks you'll never forget, it's like riding a bike.

Back to the threads topic, I never had a desire to utilize the Trident and when I was convinced I needed to monitor alkalinity, I went with alkatronic. Although in the same fashion, I wouldn't say they got the user interface right and after countless correspondence with the developers they never made it better. But the one advantage alkatronic has going for them is the ability to mix your own acid reagent for pennies and doesn't lock you into a subscription based plan to purchase their reagent less it bricks your unit like kh guardian. That adds up fast and becomes more expensive the longer you use it.

 

[VintageReefer]

Lol it would take buying the khguardian + over 3 years of buying reagent before braking even with the price of the alktronic

Making cheap diy reagent is a plus though but the initial investment offsets that

At least it lets you diy the alk additive with baking soda

 

[BeanAnimal]

I am happy with my KH director from GHL. Likewise, if they attempted to disable my device or invalidate my samples for using my now reagent, I would toss their equipment in the trash and never look back or do business with them again.

That brings me to the Maven and similar brands. 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 hope the maven works as well as they say it should, but the consumable cost is going to be a huge deciding factor for me, as is its ability to run fully standalone with no connected service requirement.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

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 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 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.

 

[areefer01]

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.

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 goes without saying that automated testers are a luxury and/or quality of life vs necessity to be successful. Nothing you don't already know though so I'll get off my soapbox.

Hope your day is well.