My Honest Opinion About The Alkatronic

[biecacka]

So I know people are using this unit with dosers, but how would us CaRx users benefit from this? My understating is that it tests the Alk and doses accordingly, what does (if anything) that relate to in CaRx assistance.

Corey

 

[markstubb]

It'll shut off your carx if dkh gets too high, and conversely it'll turn it on if it gets too low. Depends how you have it configured. I use my alkatronic to control my co2. I recirculate water through the carx as well as continue to pull water from the carx 24/7, no matter what.

 

[biecacka]

So do you have your CaRx set up through your apex, or through the Alkatronic and use it as the controller for the reactor? I currently use my apex to turn it on and off as needed.

corey

 

[markstubb]

Apex controls everything. I don't use the little bluetooth power outlet adapter.

 

[erky]

mixed 250 ml of reagent with 1k ml of rodi and not my measurements are .4 dkh higher... Thoughts?

 

[mitch91175]

mixed 250 ml of reagent with 1k ml of rodi and not my measurements are .4 dkh higher... Thoughts?

Hey Erky, you should check the manual because you mixed your reagent incorrectly. I don’t have it in front of me but I think it is a 1 to 4 ratio.

 

[erky]

Hey Erky, you should check the manual because you mixed your reagent incorrectly. I don’t have it in front of me but I think it is a 1 to 4 ratio.

that is what the original reagent was supposed to be mixed at, hmm that is the only thing that could be incorrect, I will take a look.

250:1000 is correct

 

[mitch91175]

mixed 250 ml of reagent with 1k ml of rodi and not my measurements are .4 dkh higher... Thoughts?

 

[mitch91175]

that is what the original reagent was supposed to be mixed at, hmm that is the only thing that could be incorrect, I will take a look.

250:1000 is correct

So think of it this way, when mixing the solution has a "total" of 4 parts (1 part solution and 4 parts reagent). So in your instance, the 1 part is 250ml and the total parts "with" is RO water for a total of 1000ml. I think in the manual that it could be written as such to eliminate some confusion.

From the manual:
"DO NOT remove the canister from the scale, let it be, still reading 400 g of course, and now add RO-water until you read exact 2000 g at the scale. Done!"

@erky, what is the resulting weight of your mix? Is it 1000ml or 1250ml?

 

[mitch91175]

 

[erky]

So think of it this way, when mixing the solution has a "total" of 4 parts (1 part solution and 3 parts reagent). So in your instance, the 1 part is 250ml and the 3 parts is RO water for a total of 1000ml. I think in the manual that it could be written as such to eliminate some confusion.

that is not correct.

this is from the manual, so if i did 1 part @ 250 ml reagent and 4 parts h20 1000ml then I would get 1250 ml total

 

[mitch91175]

that is what the original reagent was supposed to be mixed at, hmm that is the only thing that could be incorrect, I will take a look.

250:1000 is correct

Should have been 200ml of reagent.

 

[mitch91175]

that is not correct.

this is from the manual, so if i did 1 part @ 250 ml reagent and 4 parts h20 1000ml then I would get 1250 ml total

Yeah I changed it.

 

[mitch91175]

Drinking my morning coffee now after working until 2am in the morning. Brain having to wake up

 

[erky]

Should have been 200ml of reagent.

?what

 

[mitch91175]

?what

Were you trying to mix 1000ml total weight? If so you should have add 200ml of reagent instead of 250ml.

 

[erky]

Were you trying to mix 1000ml total weight? If so you should have add 200ml of reagent instead of 250ml.

no i did it correct, the first reagent was 250 ml and that is what I used again.

 

[BrianReefer]

So think of it this way, when mixing the solution has a "total" of 4 parts (1 part solution and 4 parts reagent). So in your instance, the 1 part is 250ml and the total parts "with" is RO water for a total of 1000ml. I think in the manual that it could be written as such to eliminate some confusion.

From the manual:
"DO NOT remove the canister from the scale, let it be, still reading 400 g of course, and now add RO-water until you read exact 2000 g at the scale. Done!"

@erky, what is the resulting weight of your mix? Is it 1000ml or 1250ml?

Mitch - I’m not sure that’s correct. In the CoralVue pack, the reagent included was a 250ml bottle. On the label, it said to mix 250ml of that bottle (full bottle basically) with 1000ml of RODI water. Which is a 1:4, but for a total of 5 parts adding up to 1250ml, not 4 parts adding up to 1000ml. I mixed mine per the bottle instructions for a total of 1250ml and am getting accurate readings FYI.

 

[danoo]

I ordered mine last week mostly as a result of this thread. Got it yesterday and it took about an hour or two to setup. I have to say I'm very impressed with the packaging and the build quality. From a hardware perspective it seems every bit as well built and high quality as any devices I have for my reef. The software is not quite polished, but that isn't a big deal to me as outside of the initial setup I won't have to interact with it all that often.

The precision of the testing is very good. I ran the test 7 times, and all of them were within 0.03 dkh. Very cool. The problem is that the accuracy of those results wasn't great, so I re-calibrated everything and even tested the reagent independently. Not finding any issues, I just adjusted the baseline multiplier and that solved the problem.

And now the results are dead on. I ran the test after adjusting the baseline multiplier and it matched both my Salifest kit and my Hanna tester. Then I added enough sodium bicarbonate to raise the alkalinity ~0.3dkh, and an average of the next 6 tests showed the dkh going up by 0.29. Thumbs up!

So I'm quite satisfied. All I want in the machine is something that:
- Performs the tests consistently
- Requires little to no maintenance
- Export the results correctly to my Apex

I don't have a BNC cable yet so I can't test that 3rd one, but thus far the machine is performing the tests very consistently, and the maintenance seems quite easy. Definitely a little quirk with the baseline multiplier thing, which seems to be an issue a lot of people are having in the thread, but just not a big deal to me as long as the machine stays consistent. I do also appreciate how thorough the manual is. It is probably a little intimidating if you just want something plug & play, but I'm an engineer myself and I appreciated all the details.

I'll followup in a month or two once I see how well the machine holds its calibration and to see if any other issues come up, but as of right now I'm a very optimistic.

 

[mitch91175]

I ordered mine last week mostly as a result of this thread. Got it yesterday and it took about an hour or two to setup. I have to say I'm very impressed with the packaging and the build quality. From a hardware perspective it seems every bit as well built and high quality as any devices I have for my reef. The software is not quite polished, but that isn't a big deal to me as outside of the initial setup I won't have to interact with it all that often.

The precision of the testing is very good. I ran the test 7 times, and all of them were within 0.03 dkh. Very cool. The problem is that the accuracy of those results wasn't great, so I re-calibrated everything and even tested the reagent independently. Not finding any issues, I just adjusted the baseline multiplier and that solved the problem.

And now the results are dead on. I ran the test after adjusting the baseline multiplier and it matched both my Salifest kit and my Hanna tester. Then I added enough sodium bicarbonate to raise the alkalinity ~0.3dkh, and an average of the next 6 tests showed the dkh going up by 0.29. Thumbs up!

So I'm quite satisfied. All I want in the machine is something that:
- Performs the tests consistently
- Requires little to no maintenance
- Export the results correctly to my Apex

I don't have a BNC cable yet so I can't test that 3rd one, but thus far the machine is performing the tests very consistently, and the maintenance seems quite easy. Definitely a little quirk with the baseline multiplier thing, which seems to be an issue a lot of people are having in the thread, but just not a big deal to me as long as the machine stays consistent. I do also appreciate how thorough the manual is. It is probably a little intimidating if you just want something plug & play, but I'm an engineer myself and I appreciated all the details.

I'll followup in a month or two once I see how well the machine holds its calibration and to see if any other issues come up, but as of right now I'm a very optimistic.

Super detailed response and great that you see what we have been talking about pertaining to the unit overall. It can use some polishing (specially the software - but even then it isn't like it's not usable either. Just little nits here and there, but I'd rather have nits with software than equipment any day .)

I am more of a consistency in readings guys and the rest I know can be taken care of with more development of software, etc. It has been consistent for me and that is great. I am not trying to have 0.00dkh difference either. I am even comfortable with 0.1 difference (that's not gonna make or break my tank or coral). If something that minor would, then I'd say I have more issues that worrying about what the Alkatronic is doing/not doing. Plus if I was that anal about it, I have other issues besides my aquarium too .

Cannot wait to see what they do with the Dosetronic.