The ReefBot!

[coralcruze]

@lactose can you explain how you are measuring the water consumption as this is a concern of mine. Also How can you measure the RO being used independently of the saltwater being used? I would like to set my apex to compensate for the saltwater being used on these tests. I also want to adjust the water filtering into my ato reservoir so I have enough water for these tests. over 10 tests so far I can see about a gallon used. Thats not all saltwater... I assume thats mostly RODI water but small amount is the regents as well.

Is everyone seeing that the reefbot cleans the mixing chamber and testing chambers as well as the needle and syringe many times on each test? I counted and the reefbot will clean once before any test and once after a test is completed and then clean after each regent is used. so for a test that has three regents thats 5 cleanings. If you run tests back to back the reefbot will clean before the next test is performed even though it just cleaned at the end of the previous test. Perhaps this is something reef kinetics need to reprogram if the reefbot can sense that back to back testing has occurred. Also, I do see that there is a counter for RO water in liters and also a counter for the waste water but I do not see a counter for the saltwater being used. Perhaps @drernesto can provide a difinitive on that.

 

[Joe Grubbs]

So today I ran a Elos Alk & API Ca test from water in a beaker and they both took ~100ml of water from the beaker. I will run it later for tropic marin nitrate and red sea phosphate and report back how much it uses for each of them as well.

After a couple months of testing with the Bot, 3 test/day (Ca & Alk daily and alternate between NO3 & PO4), I initially setup with a BRS 1.1 ml dose pump on the APEX cycle program to dose 1 gallon salt water per week.

Generally my measured SG and Apex Salinity have been 'stable'. Much more so than before I started testing with Bot. So the additional saltwater dose is reasonably making up for the bot, skimmer, and 'other' reasons I lose a bit of water here and there.

 

[coralcruze]

After a couple months of testing with the Bot, 3 test/day (Ca & Alk daily and alternate between NO3 & PO4), I initially setup with a BRS 1.1 ml dose pump on the APEX cycle program to dose 1 gallon salt water per week.

Generally my measured SG and Apex Salinity have been 'stable'. Much more so than before I started testing with Bot. So the additional saltwater dose is reasonably making up for the bot, skimmer, and 'other' reasons I lose a bit of water here and there.

this is exactly where I am at... can you explain how you replenish your saltwater from the tests and skimmer? is there a way you are doing this automatically or are you doing so manually? unfortunately, reefbot does not communicate with apex so there is no way that I am aware of to achieve this automatically. once reef kenetics releases thier dosing pump salinity and other corrections could be done more automated.

however its unfortunate that those folks with a reef computer cant tap into the information being dispensed by the reefbot to make adjustments and corrections using current apparatus we already own. my only suggestion for improving the reefbot. other than that its been wonderful having testing done automaticly and as often as one would like with readily available test kits.

 

[Joe Grubbs]

In general, I keep 10 - 20 g of salt water mixed and available at all times. The mixed saltwater has a SG of 1.027 to 1.030 (as measured by a digital refractomer) and is used for my saltwater makeup/changes.

OK, I just looked up the dosing pump I'm using on the BRS site and realize that it is 1.6 ml/min and not 1.1... So, I'm dosing a bit more than a gallon/week, closer to 1.3 g/w (which explains why the re-cycled vinegar jug has been running out before the end of the week).

Using the following Apex configuration:

Fallback OFF​

Set OFF​

OSC 000:00/005:00/011:00 Then ON​

When On > 120:00 Then OFF​

I run the dosing pump for 5 minutes at a time. I started with more off time (30 minutes) and have been tuning it downward till my SG stopped dropping (currently 11 minutes). I like to maintain 1.024 in my mixed reef with fish and testing with the digital refractomer. The Apex salinity runs 30.3 to 30.6 over a given week (and no, I do not calibrate my salinity probe is it is used for trending information only).

Hope this helps.

 

[coralcruze]

why this statement?
When On > 120:00 Then OFF

 

[Joe Grubbs]

why this statement?
When On > 120:00 Then OFF

If you would allow, the When On statement is there as 'a string tied around my finger' to remind me (should I forget) that this pump is not a continuous duty pump...since we cannot add notes to our code...

 

[Cassian]

I’m really wanting to get a Reefbot, but I don’t have WiFi or Ethernet. I emailed customer support and they said I should have it. But can the machine FUNCTION without internet???? As in, can I perform a test without being connected to the internet? I read it can blue tooth to your phone, so can it just send the results via Bluetooth? My ghl doser is similar. It has WiFi and Ethernet abilities, but It puts out its own WiFi signal which I can pick up with my phone and I can program it like that. Any info would be greatly appreciated, as I would really love to own one of these machines.

 

[rushbattle]

I’m really wanting to get a Reefbot, but I don’t have WiFi or Ethernet. I emailed customer support and they said I should have it. But can the machine FUNCTION without internet???? As in, can I perform a test without being connected to the internet? I read it can blue tooth to your phone, so can it just send the results via Bluetooth? My ghl doser is similar. It has WiFi and Ethernet abilities, but It puts out its own WiFi signal which I can pick up with my phone and I can program it like that. Any info would be greatly appreciated, as I would really love to own one of these machines.

Nope, it does some calculations in the cloud so it will not work without internet. Infuriatingly, it will fail pretty often when it thinks my internet is down, but it wastes the reagent all the same. And my internet is monitored and hasn’t been down when the tests are failing.

 

[Cassian]

Nope, it does some calculations in the cloud so it will not work without internet. Infuriatingly, it will fail pretty often when it thinks my internet is down, but it wastes the reagent all the same. And my internet is monitored and hasn’t been down when the tests are failing.

Thank you for the reply. Man I wish this thing could function without internet!

 

[rushbattle]

Do you have cellphone data? How do you browse R2R?

 

[Cassian]

Do you have cellphone data? How do you browse R2R?

Yes I have cellphone data. I use personal hotspots to get on my computer. And I can’t leave a hotspot on 24/7 to run a Reefbot because it would cost a fortune

 

[coralcruze]

Nope, it does some calculations in the cloud so it will not work without internet. Infuriatingly, it will fail pretty often when it thinks my internet is down, but it wastes the reagent all the same. And my internet is monitored and hasn’t been down when the tests are failing.

sounds like the location where you have your reefbot is not getting a good connection to the internet. have you tried connecting it directly to you router? many people have the reefbot in cluding myself tthat dont run it direct connect with no issues. I have expiereined it disconnect once but since has not disconnected... i hope there is a way with future firmware updates there would be a way to save regents once testing begins or there is a lost connection.

 

[rushbattle]

sounds like the location where you have your reefbot is not getting a good connection to the internet. have you tried connecting it directly to you router? many people have the reefbot in cluding myself tthat dont run it direct connect with no issues. I have expiereined it disconnect once but since has not disconnected... i hope there is a way with future firmware updates there would be a way to save regents once testing begins or there is a lost connection.

Little chance it’s the local network; I have a very reliable mesh network with an access point about 15ft away. I apologize for not being clearer, it still thinks it’s connected to the network, but the server never gets the data thus the results are not calculated.

You share the same desire as I do. The data should be stored and crunched later rather than just timing out and calling it a fault, or the test should not run if the bot can’t comma-unicameral with the servers got whatever reason.

Disclosure: I edited this post as I thought it was too sharp sounding and lacked useful input.

 

[biecacka]

Question....,in addition to testing my ALK, does this connect or have the ability to work alongside my calcium reactor? Or is it more of just for the testing aspect of it.
not downplaying it’s abilities. Just merely curious is all.

corey

 

[New Jersey REEF]

Just tests

 

[coralcruze]

Question....,in addition to testing my ALK, does this connect or have the ability to work alongside my calcium reactor? Or is it more of just for the testing aspect of it.
not downplaying it’s abilities. Just merely curious is all.

corey

reef kenetics is due to release their doser befor the end of year that will work allonside the reefbot to dose and make corrections based on tests performed. I am not aware of anything on the market that will controle a calcium reactor to make adjustments based on tested values of your tank.

 

[biecacka]

Alkatronic I believe can help control your CaRx. Maybe the KH guardian too. Some can work alongside it I believe.

corey

 

[coralcruze]

Alkatronic I believe can help control your CaRx. Maybe the KH guardian too. Some can work alongside it I believe.

corey

how so? alkatronic just tests and doses alkalinity please tell me how alkatronic will increase or dearease bubble count of co2... increase or decrease flow in calcium reactor? this is news to me... but highly doubtful.

 

[biecacka]

I think it can be linked to your apex and the numbers it reports to your apex can be used to control the on/off aspect of your reactor. Clearly you know better than I do, and clearly I am wrong and the question was inappropriate and clearly I apologize for my ignorance on the the forum on a product I do not know everything about. I was hoping the use of the word “help” in my sentence would indicate that it was not a stand alone solution.
my apologies for asking. I will refrain from such outbursts again.


corey

 

[coralcruze]

corey... I agree the reefbot should be able to communicate with apex but does not unfortunately. I know many people who tell me they hessitate purchasing the reefbot because of this gap. many reefers have apex and not being able to communicate with existing reef comp. is a problem. however... if you look at the testing and correction as a stand alone tha. reefbot is quite superior IMHO to all the other solutions on the market especially trident which does communicate with apex. but trident forces you to min testing oer day and only three params which arguably may NOT be the most important params to test in a reef.

the alcatronic only tests alkalinity... for $899 i didnt see the value in that. very very limited testing.