Mindstream

Murica

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I’ve been searching the mindstream endlessly on multiple sites and still can’t tell whether the dang thing is worth it or not. I understand that they’ve had an absolute terrible rollout, but to those who did receive them, are they worth it? I haven’t read one forum yet that shows consistency in people’s reviews/opinions.

I’ll be in the market for one next spring and I’m still unsure if i should look into getting one or go ghl/apex

Advice is greatly appreciated considering how much money they cost
 
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Juniorh2r

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I own an Apex but I'm considering a mindstream myself I like the idea of no reagents that's a big plus plus it test for other parameters too. In my opinion it is a good investment and saves you time.
 
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Murica

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I own an Apex but I'm considering a mindstream myself I like the idea of no reagents that's a big plus plus it test for other parameters too. In my opinion it is a good investment and saves you time.

I’m going the ca reactor route also so i don’t really have a use for a controller/doser. I’m hoping by the time i get one the company will get its act together.
 
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bam123

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I ordered the mindstream sept 1, 2018. I will probably not get it until the beginning of the year at the earliest as they have no idea how long the backlog will be. It test 10 things every 15 minutes. Half of them Temp, ph, orp, salinity are done by apex or other effective systems. Alkalinity, Ca, K, Mag, Nitrate, ammonia are nice to know. Ammonia almost never an issue in a reef tank, nitrates pretty easy to control with a fuge, alkalinity and Ca usually doesn't have big swings once you have it dialed in (probably need to test once a week), and K, Mag are usually not deficient if doing regular water changes and/or the triton method. The main thing I need testing for is phosphate in my tank. Mindstream does not test for (probably will in the future). Everything else is on point. I will likely cancel my order this week and get an apex and a doser for automatic water changes. I can always fine tune it with the triton method. Turns out to be around the same price. With frequent automated water changes I won't have to worry about ca, alkalinity, ph, mag… My tank is a 60 cube with an oversized skimmer and a macroalgae reactor. I plan on automated 1-2 gallons a day water change daily.
 
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Murica

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I ordered the mindstream sept 1, 2018. I will probably not get it until the beginning of the year at the earliest as they have no idea how long the backlog will be. It test 10 things every 15 minutes. Half of them Temp, ph, orp, salinity are done by apex or other effective systems. Alkalinity, Ca, K, Mag, Nitrate, ammonia are nice to know. Ammonia almost never an issue in a reef tank, nitrates pretty easy to control with a fuge, alkalinity and Ca usually doesn't have big swings once you have it dialed in (probably need to test once a week), and K, Mag are usually not deficient if doing regular water changes and/or the triton method. The main thing I need testing for is phosphate in my tank. Mindstream does not test for (probably will in the future). Everything else is on point. I will likely cancel my order this week and get an apex and a doser for automatic water changes. I can always fine tune it with the triton method. Turns out to be around the same price. With frequent automated water changes I won't have to worry about ca, alkalinity, ph, mag… My tank is a 60 cube with an oversized skimmer and a macroalgae reactor. I plan on automated 1-2 gallons a day water change daily.

Thanks for the feedback!
 

LAReefer4Life

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Mine has been on order for 6 weeks. Hopefully it will arrive by Christmas. LOL

I am watching this thread. I am curious too on peoples feedback about the performance and accuracy. There is very little out there on it and want hear the updates.
 
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I own an Apex but I'm considering a mindstream myself I like the idea of no reagents that's a big plus plus it test for other parameters too. In my opinion it is a good investment and saves you time.

Since you already own an Apex I'd reconsider.

If nothing else make a list of what the MS does, then what the Apex + Trident does, and go from there. I say for two reasons nothing more. First - there is nothing wrong with reagents. Secondly, you will save money by going with the Trident. If I was to give a third you will have some duplicate coverage should you choose the MS.

Above anything else look at your testing frequency then the subscription vs 6 month reagent cost and see which one is cheaper. I'm all for people supporting the MS but paying for the upfront cost without receiving the product for 10 or more weeks later or getting something in return is a non starter for me.

I was in your shoes with the Apex already. Trident made more sense and saved me money.
 

robbyg

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I’ve been searching the mindstream endlessly on multiple sites and still can’t tell whether the dang thing is worth it or not. I understand that they’ve had an absolute terrible rollout, but to those who did receive them, are they worth it? I haven’t read one forum yet that shows consistency in people’s reviews/opinions.

I’ll be in the market for one next spring and I’m still unsure if i should look into getting one or go ghl/apex

Advice is greatly appreciated considering how much money they cost


The only difference between the botched roll out of the Trident and the botched roll out of the Mindstream is that MS required payment upfront. Both companies have been trickling out their devices, it's just that more of the owners of the Trident frequent and post to R2R since it's a forum that Apex owners use a lot.


The Mindstream is not a scam, people have received them and are using them. The problem was that they handled the roll out even worst than Trident. They had been promoting this product in it's beta form for years and then on July 1st they turned on the online order page and announced it was ready. My understanding is that they thought they might get a couple of hundred orders but instead got thousands within a single day. In the case of the Trident they had more experience so they let the dealers do lists and let them deal with the public and the slow flow of units.

If I was already invested in the Apex ecosphere the only major consideration for me would be if I want the device to control my dosing or not. If you feel comfortable with fully automated dosing then your choice is clear. I personally do not trust any of these devices to set my dosing amounts. So for me it comes down to how many different things can it test for and how accurate and precise are the tests.
 

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Here's my MS dashboard from this morning. I have had mine for about 2 months and it is working well for me.

yiJPqXB.png

They ran into a bottleneck with making disks and had a bad run of disks, so I think that is what slowed them down. Hopefully, they are turning the corner.
 
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Murica

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Here's my MS dashboard from this morning. I have had mine for about 2 months and it is working well for me.

yiJPqXB.png

They ran into a bottleneck with making disks and had a bad run of disks, so I think that is what slowed them down. Hopefully, they are turning the corner.
[/QUOTE
Have they been able to send your monthly discs every month?



Have they been able to send your monthly discs every month?[/QUOTE]
 
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bam123

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It seems to me they could let you know where you are on the backlog list, and combined with how many they believe they can ship a day have a realistic outlook on when it will arrive. All we know now for those who have already waited 10 weeks is that it could possible be several more MONTHS or more. After 12 weeks, Paypal won't be able to back you. This happens to coincide with Black Friday sales and an APEX with a doser for small water changes at the press of a button is looking like a much better deal.
 

robbyg

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It seems to me they could let you know where you are on the backlog list, and combined with how many they believe they can ship a day have a realistic outlook on when it will arrive. All we know now for those who have already waited 10 weeks is that it could possible be several more MONTHS or more. After 12 weeks, Paypal won't be able to back you. This happens to coincide with Black Friday sales and an APEX with a doser for small water changes at the press of a button is looking like a much better deal.

I feel your pain. I get the feeling that you want to stay on the list but don't want to chance the PayPal window closing. While I personally feel confident that they will deliver that has nothing to do with how you feel or what level of risk your willing to accept.


My suggestion is to see if MS will cancel the PayPal payment and at the same time re-bill you on your credit card and hold your spot. Since it's their delay in delivery it might be something they are willing to do if their computer system facilitates it.
 

bam123

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I feel your pain. I get the feeling that you want to stay on the list but don't want to chance the PayPal window closing. While I personally feel confident that they will deliver that has nothing to do with how you feel or what level of risk your willing to accept.


My suggestion is to see if MS will cancel the PayPal payment and at the same time re-bill you on your credit card and hold your spot. Since it's their delay in delivery it might be something they are willing to do if their computer system facilitates it.


That's the crazy part. Ryan said They will refund, and if you re-charge or use a different card immediately that it does not not matter and you will LOSE your place in line. It's really messed up.
That was the exact moment when I started having major doubts.
 
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robbyg

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That's the crazy part. Ryan said They will refund, and if you re-charge or use a different card immediately that it does not not matter and you will LOSE your place in line. It's really messed up.
That was the exact moment when I started having major doubts.


The software they use is almost certainly generic retail point of sale stuff. It probably does not have a feature that will allows them to go in and change the payment method on a completed sale. Most retail software only allows you to refund and cancel an order and then you can go in and place a new order, which will of course be given the newest order number. You can see why in 99.9% of the cases this would not be an issue, but in the case of MS and it's unique problems, the order number means everything.

BTW am I missing something. If I am reading this correctly you have a six month window for refunds with PayPal?

You can request a refund of a completed payment by sending the seller an email. Ask the seller to go to the Transaction Details page for your transaction and click Issue a refund. You can request a refund up to 180 days after you pay for your item.
 
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bam123

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The software they use is almost certainly generic retail point of sale stuff. It probably does not have a feature that will allows them to go in and change the payment method on a completed sale. Most retail software only allows you to refund and cancel an order and then you can go in and place a new order, which will of course be given the newest order number. You can see why in 99.9% of the cases this would not be an issue, but in the case of MS and it's unique problem the order number means everything.

BTW am I missing something. If I am reading this correctly you have a six month window for refunds with PayPal?

If the company is not around to issue a refund, I do not believe paypal will give me the money back past 12 weeks. That is the issue. In regards to an order number, its hard to believe that a company so sophisticated to come up with their product can not figure out a wait list ?!?! And if order number is everything, let me know how far I am down the list. I am still up in the air on this. Will see how I feel by this Friday (11 weeks). In good faith they could at least partially refund 50 percent of the money until the product ships. 1 grand can get an apex with a doser for water changes. It can also get some pretty fricking amazing corals:))
 

robbyg

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If the company is not around to issue a refund, I do not believe paypal will give me the money back past 12 weeks. That is the issue. In regards to an order number, its hard to believe that a company so sophisticated to come up with their product can not figure out a wait list ?!?! And if order number is everything, let me know how far I am down the list. I am still up in the air on this. Will see how I feel by this Friday (11 weeks). In good faith they could at least partially refund 50 percent of the money until the product ships. 1 grand can get an apex with a doser for water changes. It can also get some pretty fricking amazing corals:))

I understand how you feel, but I honesty do not think they have any control over the features of the software they are using and probably never even though about issues like this at the start.

PayPal does not state it's position on refund situations where the company has closed. I suggest you shoot PayPal an email and get a written response for your records. My feeling is that it really does not matter, they would see that as additional proof that you did not receive the product and their own insurance system would take care of the refund. I have ordered some cheap electronic stuff on eBay from a Chinese company and never received the product. After 8 weeks I then went looking for them and found their accounts had been closed. I reported it to Paypal and they refunded me very quickly. Is time and the price a factor in the 180 day refund? I think you need to ask PayPal.
 

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