Mastertronic Honest review!
Initial setup:
Got my package from DHL, the box was slightly damaged but it hadn’t punctured the soft box inside so I continued to unbox it - new notification in Focustronic owners group in Facebook: Open the box carefully because the vials are exactly in middle and they can fall off. So with that information I put the box on some towels and kept on unboxing it and by my suprice the calibration cup was broken.
I plugged in the beast and followed Eric setup guide on Facebook but connected my Mastertronic to my mesh 2.4 ghz wifi and everything went well until it didn’t showed up under my devices in Focustronic app... I waited for 2 hours and lost my hope, I tried to reset the machine but it doesn’t have any reset button so I contacted Focustronic support on Facebook and Eric answered me - he wanted me to download new update from my computer and put it on the microSD card but I didn’t have any sdcard reader so I went to the store and bought myself one -> it didn’t work either so I contacted Eric once again and he did answer the chat within a couple of minutes and the time in China was like 11pm but he kept on helping me until midnight. He was tired and I had to go to work so he told me to wait for tomorrow so he can help me with flashing the sdcard.
Next day I woke up and Eric had already messaged me on Facebook and asked if I was ready, I replied 2 hours later but he answered me just seconds later. Eric flashed my sdcard with teamviewer and I tested it on my Mastertronic and it worked (connected it to my router instead of mesh) So a tip: Connect MT to your router.
The setup was easy and I just kept on watching Eric’s video on YouTube about initial setup and how to calibrate - was done in 30 minutes, you just have to calibrate 2 pumps and the syringe.
CHECK YOUR HOSES 1 OF MINE WAS LOSE IMPORTANT!!!
I didn’t have all the test kits at home except Red Sea magnesium pro test kit and I filled the vials and wrote down MG A MG 2 MG 3 on the stickers you get in the box- very easy and the carousel rotates after what vial number you choose.
Economy:
I think this is the biggest question most of us have/had:
Is it worth it? Both yes and no, I’m not a rich and i work as a security guard with 12 hours shift - I work a lot and with that I don’t have any time to test and yes of course I have free time but to be honest I want to spend that time with my wife and my children so for me it’s worth but if you don’t have my problem and have time with hanna checkers or whatever you have stick with it. And it doesn’t really matter if you have 20g or 500g tank in the end I swear you have some expensive corals in there and you will put in some more in the future so if any test shows insane numbers you have time to fix that instead of thinking like me that you will test end of the week but it never happens and the days flies away and your corals start to look sad.
So if you have the money and you don’t have time to test 2-3 times a week or you are just lazy - get this masterpiece!
Why should I buy it I can go and buy a trident - yes you can but buy reagents for 2 or 6 months when it is so expensive - for me it is a BIG NO because I live in Europe and we can only buy 2 months reagents for 70 euro but now I can chose Red Sea and API etc refills for far less money. Focustronic said that they will release their own reagents and if they release a update that stops us from using other test kits will be a boomer.
What does it test?:
Alkalinity once a day to not outcompete Alkatronic. Salifert kh test kit.
Magnesium: Red Sea pro test kit.
Phosphate: Red Sea pro test kit.
Nitrate: Tropical marin Nitrate or Fauna Marin Nitrate pro test kit.
Calcium: API test kit.
OLI - You don’t need anything, MT tests water quality.
Tip - If you want to buy MT = go buy your test kits today because they are sold out in Europe.
Tip - Buy refills.
Accuracy:
Magnesium was spot on with my shaky hands but to be honest I trust this robot more then I trust myself with a syringe and those ml numbers if it is 0.43 or 0.44 and when the colour changes if I need to drop one more or stop when it turns light blue.
Integrations:
Focustronic released a new update to there Dosetronic that will dose Mg, Ca, PO4, NO3 after a number you want that makes your tank perfect.
Solartronic (lights): Copy pasted from Focustronic website:
Auto adjustment of lighting intensity based on nutrient level. Example, lighting is now at 70% (define by user) and with PO4 at 0.1ppm. Mastertronic now has a new reading of 0.3 PO4 and will increase lighting intensity for the profile by 10%. When PO4 resumes 0.1ppm, the intensity is back to default which is 70%. Will also work in opposite direction when nutrient is too low and reduce intensity.
Summary: This is a great product and it is Focustronics first all in one tester that works great so far. The app has some bugs like loading time or just randomly throws me out (iOS)
The price is hefty but like I said, you have some expensive corals that you want to take care of.
I love that I can buy refills from different brands and hope they integrate more brands in the future.
Great support or I mean REALLY great support.
I’m not partnered with Focustronic and this is my review of Mastertronic that I bought with my own money.
I’m sorry for my English I did my best!
If you have questions feel free to ask.
Initial setup:
Got my package from DHL, the box was slightly damaged but it hadn’t punctured the soft box inside so I continued to unbox it - new notification in Focustronic owners group in Facebook: Open the box carefully because the vials are exactly in middle and they can fall off. So with that information I put the box on some towels and kept on unboxing it and by my suprice the calibration cup was broken.
I plugged in the beast and followed Eric setup guide on Facebook but connected my Mastertronic to my mesh 2.4 ghz wifi and everything went well until it didn’t showed up under my devices in Focustronic app... I waited for 2 hours and lost my hope, I tried to reset the machine but it doesn’t have any reset button so I contacted Focustronic support on Facebook and Eric answered me - he wanted me to download new update from my computer and put it on the microSD card but I didn’t have any sdcard reader so I went to the store and bought myself one -> it didn’t work either so I contacted Eric once again and he did answer the chat within a couple of minutes and the time in China was like 11pm but he kept on helping me until midnight. He was tired and I had to go to work so he told me to wait for tomorrow so he can help me with flashing the sdcard.
Next day I woke up and Eric had already messaged me on Facebook and asked if I was ready, I replied 2 hours later but he answered me just seconds later. Eric flashed my sdcard with teamviewer and I tested it on my Mastertronic and it worked (connected it to my router instead of mesh) So a tip: Connect MT to your router.
The setup was easy and I just kept on watching Eric’s video on YouTube about initial setup and how to calibrate - was done in 30 minutes, you just have to calibrate 2 pumps and the syringe.
CHECK YOUR HOSES 1 OF MINE WAS LOSE IMPORTANT!!!
I didn’t have all the test kits at home except Red Sea magnesium pro test kit and I filled the vials and wrote down MG A MG 2 MG 3 on the stickers you get in the box- very easy and the carousel rotates after what vial number you choose.
Economy:
I think this is the biggest question most of us have/had:
Is it worth it? Both yes and no, I’m not a rich and i work as a security guard with 12 hours shift - I work a lot and with that I don’t have any time to test and yes of course I have free time but to be honest I want to spend that time with my wife and my children so for me it’s worth but if you don’t have my problem and have time with hanna checkers or whatever you have stick with it. And it doesn’t really matter if you have 20g or 500g tank in the end I swear you have some expensive corals in there and you will put in some more in the future so if any test shows insane numbers you have time to fix that instead of thinking like me that you will test end of the week but it never happens and the days flies away and your corals start to look sad.
So if you have the money and you don’t have time to test 2-3 times a week or you are just lazy - get this masterpiece!
Why should I buy it I can go and buy a trident - yes you can but buy reagents for 2 or 6 months when it is so expensive - for me it is a BIG NO because I live in Europe and we can only buy 2 months reagents for 70 euro but now I can chose Red Sea and API etc refills for far less money. Focustronic said that they will release their own reagents and if they release a update that stops us from using other test kits will be a boomer.
What does it test?:
Alkalinity once a day to not outcompete Alkatronic. Salifert kh test kit.
Magnesium: Red Sea pro test kit.
Phosphate: Red Sea pro test kit.
Nitrate: Tropical marin Nitrate or Fauna Marin Nitrate pro test kit.
Calcium: API test kit.
OLI - You don’t need anything, MT tests water quality.
Tip - If you want to buy MT = go buy your test kits today because they are sold out in Europe.
Tip - Buy refills.
Accuracy:
Magnesium was spot on with my shaky hands but to be honest I trust this robot more then I trust myself with a syringe and those ml numbers if it is 0.43 or 0.44 and when the colour changes if I need to drop one more or stop when it turns light blue.
Integrations:
Focustronic released a new update to there Dosetronic that will dose Mg, Ca, PO4, NO3 after a number you want that makes your tank perfect.
Solartronic (lights): Copy pasted from Focustronic website:
Auto adjustment of lighting intensity based on nutrient level. Example, lighting is now at 70% (define by user) and with PO4 at 0.1ppm. Mastertronic now has a new reading of 0.3 PO4 and will increase lighting intensity for the profile by 10%. When PO4 resumes 0.1ppm, the intensity is back to default which is 70%. Will also work in opposite direction when nutrient is too low and reduce intensity.
Summary: This is a great product and it is Focustronics first all in one tester that works great so far. The app has some bugs like loading time or just randomly throws me out (iOS)
The price is hefty but like I said, you have some expensive corals that you want to take care of.
I love that I can buy refills from different brands and hope they integrate more brands in the future.
Great support or I mean REALLY great support.
I’m not partnered with Focustronic and this is my review of Mastertronic that I bought with my own money.
I’m sorry for my English I did my best!
If you have questions feel free to ask.