I purchased a reefbot around last Christmas. Everything was working great and it was saving me so much time in manual testing. However, around the time I went fallow, the reefbot started telling me that my nitrates were 0. Of course, that made total sense to me. No fish, no poop, 0 nitrates. So I stated dosing nitrates. According to the reefbot, the nitrates came up a little, then drop down to 0. Eventually I started heavily dosing nitrates. Finally got levels around 10-20. Then I noticed the reefbot was using a lot more RO water then it usually does. I finally realized that the acuator wasn't working and needed to be replaced. While waiting for the part to come in, I started manually testing. I usually the use tropic marin pro in the reefbot. The last test the reefbot did said my nitrates were around 5. Two days later, I tested manually and my results were way above 20. I did an api test and I was actually at 160! The reefbot was giving me the wrong value all along and I was just dumping tons of nitrate in there and making it worse. Even after I replaced the part, I'm still getting the wrong value. It fluctuates between 0-5, occasionally 20. I know for a fact I'm still around 60-80ppm. I've tried calibrating the RO and testing chambers, switching out the reagents for all new reagents, shaking the crap out of the vials, replacing the needle and syringe. Nothing. I'm getting so frustrated with this thing. It's taking me more time to try to fix it than manual testing would have taken me. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Were you able to find a solution?
Reefbot giving inaccurate nitrate results
- Thread starter DrMMI
- Start date
- Tagged users None
You aren't going to want to hear this, but this is what happens with new stuff on the market and while it has not really taken off with many folks. You will likely get a better product a few iterations down the road, but that does not help you know. Your only hope is to see if the manufacturer has any way to help you. I guess that what I am trying to say is that it just is what it is. Also, always verify ANY test result from anything automated before you change anything - trust none of them since they all have stories like this.
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