What’s the next highly anticipated piece of reef keeping equipment??

K7BMG · Jul 15, 2019

Ohashimz said:
It is not..
dos is not build for AWC.

My DOS seems to do the job very well.
Could you elaborate on why you say this?
I am interested to know what I need to no and be prepared for, thx.

road_runner · Jul 15, 2019

K7BMG said:
My DOS seems to do the job very well.
Could you elaborate on why you say this?
I am interested to know what I need to no and be prepared for, thx.

Already explained my rational in earlier post. Couple posts above.
As I said there this is my openion, maybe am over thinking it.

User1 · Jul 16, 2019

Next highly anticipated piece of the reef? Common sense coral propagation and prices similar to open market or drive buy fruit stands. Seriously, that is what I'm anticipating. I can go to a local store and pay 5 dollars for a bin of strawberries or go down the road and catch a fruit vendor on the side and pay 2 bucks for a box. Why can't I do this with corals from most if not all resellers? Oh, it is all in the name...got it

In all seriousness I think the next big thing is how to standardize interfaces similar to PC's and peripherals. Probably will never happen but one can hope. If not that then big data will be a player in 3 to 5 years. As we share more and more information with regards to actual real scientific names of corals, how we keep them, lighting and other chemistry mixed in with ICP water testing I can see this being sort of like the DNA databases. Personally I would love to tap into ATI's database and run some analytics on it and visualize it. I bet it would be interesting just as much as the quality (ICP test, standard of error, process, etc).

Anyway maybe not really tied to equipment but the move to LED and DC is already happening for power savings. Efficiency is next. Control is already there. Data and standards is what I see fair market value for propagation. If we don't see this the restrictions and laws being proposed will make this a very limited and expensive hobby when corals can be considered crops...

EmptyWallet · Jul 16, 2019

All in one tester and doser - alk, calc, mag, nitrate, phosphate, iodine, potassium, strontium, iron etc. call it the top 10. Doesn't need to test every 5 minutes, once or twice a day and top up when anything falls below set point.

An 'in-tank cooler' like an aquarium glass heater where it can cool the water off a temp controller would be nifty - no more bulky noisy chillers

Something to reduce/control evaporation would be nice - like a tank hood with an inbuilt dehumidifier that recycles the water back into the ATO. Peeps who live in cold climates will know what I mean, I pull a few litres a day of condensation off my windows and that's with a dehumidifier running. Sitting next to it is my ATO pumping the replacement water back in - a vicious cycle

vetteguy53081 · Jul 16, 2019

A motorized glass cleaner such as roboSnail made for thicker glass acrylic tanks. There is not much out there for thicker tanks.

reef_daze · Jul 21, 2019

https://www.mindstreamh2o.com/

My wife just showed me this. Anyone have thoughts on this real time water parameter monitor? We were just talking about how we would spend good money for one of these.

road_runner · Jul 21, 2019

reef_daze said:
https://www.mindstreamh2o.com/

My wife just showed me this. Anyone have thoughts on this real time water parameter monitor? We were just talking about how we would spend good money for one of these.

Mindstream is actually looking very attractive to me. There are couple of threads discussing it.
While entry cost might look bit steep but if you factor all costs of other solution, mindstream looks great.
I only hope they deliever on their promises and the product work as advertised

reef_daze · Jul 21, 2019

Ohashimz said:
Mindstream is actually looking very attractive to me. There are couple of threads discussing it.
While entry cost might look bit steep but if you factor all costs of other solution, mindstream looks great.
I only hope they deliever on their promises and the product work as advertised

Yes, I totally agree. A $1000 honestly seems reasonable if the results are what they claim. I know to have a quality parameter checkers you looking at $100's anyways easily.

vetteguy53081 · Jul 21, 2019

$1000 is a bit high but comparable to similar monitoring gadgets such as reefbot and Trident , it is right in range. Im not enthused about subscription costs but has a purpose.

reef_daze · Jul 21, 2019

I didn't catch the sub cost, how much and how frequent?

road_runner · Jul 21, 2019

reef_daze said:
I didn't catch the sub cost, how much and how frequent?

Think of the sub is like the reagent in any testing method. Only difftence is, they ship it to you and its 10 parameters.
Ili believe its 30 35$ a month.

Still cheaper than how much I spend a month to test 4 elements not 10

)

reef_daze · Jul 21, 2019

Ohashimz said:
Think of the sub is like the reagent in any testing method. Only difftence is, they ship it to you and its 10 parameters.
Ili believe its 30 35$ a month.

Still cheaper than how much I spend a month to test 4 elements not 10)

lol, yeah that's not to bad. Thanks for the info! I'm really thinking of getting this.

vetteguy53081 · Jul 21, 2019

reef_daze said:
I didn't catch the sub cost, how much and how frequent?

Subscription plans start at $34.95/month and will be purchased within the MindStream web app after you have received your monitor.

Skibum · Jul 22, 2019

Call me a skeptic on the mindstream business model. I understand they're trying to recoup development costs which I'm sure are extraordinary for this small company. With that being said, I consider the following to be major red stop signs for buying this piece of gear:

1. Normally, with subscription services you would get the main device as part of the subscription. (Think Vonage, dollar shave club etc.) They're not making money on the device, they're making money on the subscriber volume. It seems to me they're attempting to double dip.

2. 34.95 per month, per year... to START. That's at least 420 dollars per year on test kits... I doubt anyone on this board spends 420 dollars a year on test kits unless they're a vendor. What happens when they decide to move certain features to a "premium sub model" after you're already locked in to a 1000 dollar device? Let's say you're already reconciled to pay 420 dollars a year and you get everything you want. The following year, mindstream decides to move No3 and Po4 testing to the new premium subscription for 600 dollars a year. Are you still okay paying that?

3. If you stop paying for the subscription, the device is WORTHLESS. You've paid for a magnetized brick. You can't unlock a device that you own. I understand corporations use this model with other devices etc, that doesn't mean it doesn't suck. I should be able to buy the device, buy the disks and use it how I see fit. The cloud app should come with the 1000 dollar price tag and the repurchase of disks etc. I've used the ecosmart live app thousands of times since my last ecotech purchase, not once have they asked me to pay a subscription to keep it running. This is because quite simply the cost is built into the initial purchase price of the devices and the operating costs for such a site are minimal once it's established.

4. Finally, I think someone will come up with a similar device now that it's been proven to work, it will cost half as much and it won't require a yearly subscription. In this new era of automated testing I'm leaning more towards reefbot, GHL, ion testing etc. Now, with all that being said I believe the prices are going to eventually drop on all this stuff and it all comes down to whether or not you can wait to avoid the early adopter penalties.

JM2C

Tom

jd371 · Jul 22, 2019

Silver14SS said:
I don't know how highly anticipated it is, but I think the GHL PTC2 looks interesting.
https://www.aquariumcomputer.com/products/ghl-cooling-technology/profilux-temperature-control2/

I could have used this over the weekend. Even with a fan over the anemone tank that's in my workshop, the tank temp. reached 85 degrees yesterday.

inDcreations · Jul 22, 2019

@GregOyeah and the others talking about an automatic frozen fish food feeder, there is definitely a real solution in the works!

reef_daze · Jul 22, 2019

Skibum said:
Call me a skeptic on the mindstream business model. I understand they're trying to recoup development costs which I'm sure are extraordinary for this small company. With that being said, I consider the following to be major red stop signs for buying this piece of gear:

1. Normally, with subscription services you would get the main device as part of the subscription. (Think Vonage, dollar shave club etc.) They're not making money on the device, they're making money on the subscriber volume. It seems to me they're attempting to double dip.

2. 34.95 per month, per year... to START. That's at least 420 dollars per year on test kits... I doubt anyone on this board spends 420 dollars a year on test kits unless they're a vendor. What happens when they decide to move certain features to a "premium sub model" after you're already locked in to a 1000 dollar device? Let's say you're already reconciled to pay 420 dollars a year and you get everything you want. The following year, mindstream decides to move No3 and Po4 testing to the new premium subscription for 600 dollars a year. Are you still okay paying that?

3. If you stop paying for the subscription, the device is WORTHLESS. You've paid for a magnetized brick. You can't unlock a device that you own. I understand corporations use this model with other devices etc, that doesn't mean it doesn't suck. I should be able to buy the device, buy the disks and use it how I see fit. The cloud app should come with the 1000 dollar price tag and the repurchase of disks etc. I've used the ecosmart live app thousands of times since my last ecotech purchase, not once have they asked me to pay a subscription to keep it running. This is because quite simply the cost is built into the initial purchase price of the devices and the operating costs for such a site are minimal once it's established.

4. Finally, I think someone will come up with a similar device now that it's been proven to work, it will cost half as much and it won't require a yearly subscription. In this new era of automated testing I'm leaning more towards reefbot, GHL, ion testing etc. Now, with all that being said I believe the prices are going to eventually drop on all this stuff and it all comes down to whether or not you can wait to avoid the early adopter penalties.

JM2C

Tom

You make a lot of good points. I have to say I agree with everything your saying. I guess I'm saying I am willing to spend good money to have a device that live updates my water parameters, even if its once a day automatically for me. I feel that would be such a useful tool to have when it comes to reef tanks. It would be such a time saver, plus the benefits of knowing something is not quite right with your water within a day. Then you could make simple adjustment and right back to being where you want everything.