Reef Angel Forum

Roberto,

You should look into making a nitrate, Phosphate and calcium probes.

this a possibility?

As far as my knowledge goes, none of these probes can be used for constant monitoring.
They are made for spot checks only.

Should be able to program it to read once a day?

Wish it were that simple.
As far as I know, the probe can't be submerged in saltwater and it also can't be left dry.

This is the multi million dollar solution that everyone is looking for, unfortunately, whilst the technology exists, its not at the home user price point!

http://www.hach.com/no3d-sc-nitrate-sen ... allback=bc

I'll opt for a manual test kit

Lol, just the cable is too pricey.

I'm researching what Aquarium Controller if any to buy.

Mainly want to control dosing for a reef tank.

I know probes for Calcium, Phosphate and Nitrate are pretty expensive. I use a Seneye to monitor PH, NH4, NH3 and temperature: that has a reagent slide that gets replaced every 30 days.

Would like a monitor that will measure salinity and PH, and an application that would allow me to track my manual test readings for things like Calcium, Phosphate, Magnesium, Nitrate and Ammonia. I'm assuming that if salinity is stable then PH reading would indicate carbonate levels, just not if that was calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate etc. So balanced additives could keep the carbonate levels "about right" and then once could tweak which carbonate was out of balance with manual readings.

Are there any good links that would explain how to use this aquarium monitor with dosing pumps to maintain stable water? I find it hard from this website to get a sense of how the software and apparatus could be configured in practice.

I'm not so interested in control of my lighting or pumps, and have an ATO. Leak detection module would be a bonus. But if I bought an aquarium controller it would all be about maintaining much more stable water chemistry.

My plan B is just to buy automated dosing pumps and use manual tests to adjust. I miss the ability to make adjustments remotely via iPad /Laptop etc - for example if needed when on vacation or traveling. Any pointers, advice etc most welcome.

I'm not a chemist, but I don't think what you're wanting to do is practical with any controller, since pH is so volatile and affected by so many different factors in an aquarium.

If you don't get a good answer here try Reef Central's Reef Chemistry forum. I'd be interested to know if such a method exists.

--Colin

DavidFaik wrote:I'm researching what Aquarium Controller if any to buy.

Mainly want to control dosing for a reef tank.

I know probes for Calcium, Phosphate and Nitrate are pretty expensive. I use a Seneye to monitor PH, NH4, NH3 and temperature: that has a reagent slide that gets replaced every 30 days.

Would like a monitor that will measure salinity and PH, and an application that would allow me to track my manual test readings for things like Calcium, Phosphate, Magnesium, Nitrate and Ammonia. I'm assuming that if salinity is stable then PH reading would indicate carbonate levels, just not if that was calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate etc. So balanced additives could keep the carbonate levels "about right" and then once could tweak which carbonate was out of balance with manual readings.

Are there any good links that would explain how to use this aquarium monitor with dosing pumps to maintain stable water? I find it hard from this website to get a sense of how the software and apparatus could be configured in practice.

I'm not so interested in control of my lighting or pumps, and have an ATO. Leak detection module would be a bonus. But if I bought an aquarium controller it would all be about maintaining much more stable water chemistry.

My plan B is just to buy automated dosing pumps and use manual tests to adjust. I miss the ability to make adjustments remotely via iPad /Laptop etc - for example if needed when on vacation or traveling. Any pointers, advice etc most welcome.

I think you'll run into the same problem with any controller, the readings are only as good as the probes, and the probes have quite a variance for error. They're better than they used to be, but I think in the end the dosers would often be adding too much of something and skewing the tank slowly until you noticed it.
I'm moving away from the apex controller because of multiple reasons, but in my year using it, the probes were never correct/constant and they were lab grade.(orp had the most stable trending aside from the conductivity and ph probes lol)

One day if mindstream comes to market. This will be the best shot at what your looking for. Today it doesnt exist

You should also take a look at the Exact iDip test kit. I just invested in a set of these and will be testing them.

Keep us posted on this. Looks interesting.

So overall this is an easy test kit to use. It seems I bought the freshwater nitrate test in the app so it was only $5 I overspent. I'll take it up with them later. Anyway I did some tests, ph 8.2, calcium 520, alk 148, nitrate 15 and phos .26. Only the calcium seemed high and the nitrates were the lowest the meter goes but it seems an accurate number based on what I get from Red Sea and Salifert. Hanna had my phos at .56 but that seemed high to me. The total hardness registered Hi and I the app is a little limited so I wasnt able to get the calculated magnesium. I made a few mistakes grabbing the wrong test strips, but with practice I should get a consistent result. Took about a half hour to run through it all my first time. I'll be able to cut that in half. So much better than measuring!!

Nitrate has a low limit of 15? That's no good. I usually run <5.

Yeah was disappointed at that but I'll take it over 10 25 50 measurements on the salifert. I'm curious if it will measure lower or if thats just the accurate range. But I'd say with nitrate less than 5 you don't really need to test for it i on the other hand used to be off the chart so it's handy and reading color charts just sucks

Which hanna meter did ya use? (po4 vs p)

Know off hand if they're working on pc integration? hehe

Been tempted to look into this one, the mindstream seems to have missed phosphate and nitrate was it iirc? (they might release it later iirc, which I'm holding out for)

Take a look at the exact idip. They are going to be fixing the magnesium, nitrate and phosphate ranges in the next release toward the end of the year. For alk and calcium its perfect plus where my nutrient levels are at now its great and I can live without magnesium for the time being. So far using the device has been super easy. Double checking values have been 1-2ppm deltas. I feel very confident in giving it a good recommendation.

Now that apex has done this with the trident, how long before we can see it revert engineered so other products could use it?