Trident vs Alkatronic vs KH Director vs kh guardian

[GoVols]

Yes ghl kh director using ph to measure kh. Ph based kh measurment is one of the best and simplest kh measurments methods in my humble openion.

Agree

The Alka-T gets the job done for my situation

With my cal reactor I only dose up cal about 20ppm once a month.
Run 10% ZeoMAg in stage one, so my mag is always hanging at about 1400ppm.

And I use a salt mix that matches my parameter when doing water changes.

(lol)
Only test cal and mag once every two weeks.

If I still balled or ran 2 part + mag, other options (controllers) could be better the better choice.

 

[GoVols]

Awesome...what are they exactly? Controller ot test equipment?

It test only and you still have to pay a $35 monthly fee.

 

[GoVols]

@HolisticBear

There's some great stuff in this thread...

 

[road_runner]

Agree

The Alka-T gets the job done for my situation

With my cal reactor I only dose up cal about 20ppm once a month.
Run 10% ZeoMAg in stage one, so my mag is always hanging at about 1400ppm.

And I use a salt mix that matches my parameter when doing water changes.

(lol)
Only test cal and mag once every two weeks.

If I still balled or ran 2 part + mag, other options (controllers) could be better the better choice.

+1 to that. One thing CArx teach you is how alk is what's important and need to be dialed down. Everything else follow it.
I test ca once a month and mag once a quarter

 

[Darrell Brady]

It tests 10 paramaters . alk,ca ,mg ,sal temp, ph o2 co2 nh3 ka. mindstream aquarium monitor

 

[road_runner]

It tests 10 paramaters . alk,ca ,mg ,sal temp, ph o2 co2 nh3 ka. mindstream aquarium monitor

Just saw couple of videos, pretty impressive. But entry price is high.
If they make it 500$ with 10$ monthly for motoring I would get in and pay the monthly subscription

 

[mitch91175]

Agree

The Alka-T gets the job done for my situation

With my cal reactor I only dose up cal about 20ppm once a month.
Run 10% ZeoMAg in stage one, so my mag is always hanging at about 1400ppm.

And I use a salt mix that matches my parameter when doing water changes.

(lol)
Only test cal and mag once every two weeks.

If I still balled or ran 2 part + mag, other options (controllers) could be better the better choice.

Yeah I notice that when I go through growth spurts in the tank and the Alkatronic has to dose alkalinity, at that point the balance begins to decrease (calcium more than magnesium). Over the last 30 days the Alkatronic has had to dose right at 300ml to keep me in my range. That's on top of dosing 4400ml daily saturated kalk and running a calcium reactor. Saying this because as diligent as I can be about trying to test dKH to get all this working together, definitely is much easier to do with a dKH unit that has low per test cost.

At this point, I honestly think it is going to come down to current equipment investment and overall cost. I haven't had the privilege of using all devices out there, but it seems that each device currently on the market is performing as advertised.

 

[GoVols]

Yeah I notice that when I go through growth spurts in the tank and the Alkatronic has to dose alkalinity, at that point the balance begins to decrease (calcium more than magnesium). Over the last 30 days the Alkatronic has had to dose right at 300ml to keep me in my range. That's on top of dosing 4400ml daily saturated kalk and running a calcium reactor. Saying this because as diligent as I can be about trying to test dKH to get all this working together, definitely is much easier to do with a dKH unit that has low per test cost.

At this point, I honestly think it is going to come down to current equipment investment and overall cost. I haven't had the privilege of using all devices out there, but it seems that each device currently on the market is performing as advertised.

Mitch,
I'm gambling on that blue tooth socket.
I lowered my melting point just a tad. My desire is 9.0 dkh.

So when the dkh reads high the Alka-T blue tooth socket shuts down my SS Dual Stage GLA Pro regulator / then it test every two hours until my alk is at 9 or lower. Then it turns back on the regulator.

(lol)
I only test four times a day. So some days the Blue Tooth socket never turns off.

So, The blue tooth socket is in the same Apex plug switch that runs my regulator and the regulator's plug is plugged into the blue tooth socket.

I'm fine bumping up my cal by 20ppm once a month. It just takes a little Seachem Reef Advantage cal powder to do that.

Shot taken on 6/21
Blue Dots are when the Blue Tooth socket has been turned off / Then the Alka-T is programmed to test every two hours.

6/17 - 6/21

 

[smartwater101]

Yup am aware of this. The ion based testing is being adapted in the aquarium test industry. GHL also coming with their ion prob tester.
This is something worth waiting and spending money on.
Both this one and GHL ion tester will test CA, mag, K+, nitrate amount others. And adding more test abilities will not require a device change.
Gonna be interesting to see how much they position it for. If its 700$~800$ or less it's going to be game changer...

Both Xepta and GHL have been very vague about if they will test nitrates or not. They both "hope to" but I'm guessing we'll have some definitive answers come MACNA.

Phosphates seem like a pipe dream at this point but i hope one of them figures it out. Nitrate AND Phosphate!? Ill give them all the monies lol

 

[leepink23]

Well I’ve decided and bought the kh director

Any updates on how you are liking this so far?

 

[CNDReef]

Any updates on how you are liking this so far?

I literally just finished setting it up Yesterday and so far it’s been consistent with my salifert test kit of by .1-.2 but I don’t think that’s a bad thing considering. I’ll try to update in a week with (hopefully ) no new news

 

[leepink23]

I literally just finished setting it up Yesterday and so far it’s been consistent with my salifert test kit of by .1-.2 but I don’t think that’s a bad thing considering. I’ll try to update in a week with (hopefully ) no new news

Are you running with Profilux or Apex?

 

[CNDReef]

Are you running with Profilux or Apex?

Stand alone right now. Tossed the apex ( literally) and the profilux will be here tomorrow

 

[road_runner]

Stand alone right now. Tossed the apex ( literally) and the profilux will be here tomorrow

You will be pleased with profilux. Powerful yet easy to use controller

 

[CNDReef]

You will be pleased with profilux. Powerful yet easy to use controller

I wouldn’t say easy since I had a apex for 3 years. There’s a big learning curve and questions on end but was lucky enough to find some helpful people here on r2r and locally that use ghl and everything gets resolved rather quickly. Then I sit there and am like “ that was totally easy, how didn’t I think of that” lol

 

[road_runner]

I wouldn’t say easy since I had a apex for 3 years. There’s a big learning curve and questions on end but was lucky enough to find some helpful people here on r2r and locally that use ghl and everything gets resolved rather quickly. Then I sit there and am like “ that was totally easy, how didn’t I think of that” lol

Oh yeh..you will have bit of learning curve but they was a fun part for me to be honest.
Ghl is more intuitive than apex. If you are not used to apex, you would find ghl earlier yo setup.
Enjoy the proccess my freind, that is also part of the hobby fun...learning new things.

 

[Silver14SS]

@mitch91175 Any updates on your comparison? Thanks!

 

[road_runner]

@mitch91175 Any updates on your comparison? Thanks!

For the record, I will admit first that I have not sent mitch anything yet. I got swamped with biz trips and vacation trips back to back).
It on my list thu..

 

[mitch91175]

Hey guys nothing major to update between the Trident and Alkatronic that hasn't really already been reported. They both are staying pretty consistent in measurement difference. I think I will have to replace reagent A tomorrow.

The new toy feel has worn off pretty fast. Maybe because I cannot tinker with my own schedule has a little to do with it.

 

[ReeferBud]

Just ordered an Alkatronic. Can’t wait to get it set up!