Desperate Essentiality...

[marco fish]

For me testing daily, specifically Alk, was what got me to the point of really learning my reefs consumption on a daily basis after getting into the SPS world ! I like gadgets and new technologies but have also learned that a saltwater environment, breaks or eats up everything. I speak from over 28 years of living off the ocean commercial fishing yellowtail snapper, and always having to repair or replace something on my boat that the saltwater environment consumed. Don’t take this in the wrong way, I think that it’s great that people have invented such great gadgets and it helps many people enjoy their reefs at home without having to stress about leaving because of work, or cannot attend to testing because of their hectic life, trust me that I understand. I just have gotten to the point and learned it the hard way to go by the KISS method, the older I get, the simpler I make things for myself, so that there’s less things that I have to worry about, “And that’s all that I have to say about That “ .

 

[User1]

So where am I going with this one? Well, I have seen post after post about new gadgets and the “need” for things like the Mindstream and Trident, Reefbot, etc, like we can’t do it without them, and as I’m seeing all this, I’m thinking why do we really believe that we need these things so badly? Will, any of this stuff make our lives easier, or allow our tanks to thrive any better than they would have without?

Do you need it? No, of course not. If we are all being honest and remove our personal bias hat for a minute the reality is no. We do not. Many a successful, and unsuccessful, tank has been run without electronic wizardry and/or test automation. We did it old school with pen, pencil, paper, and manual test kits. Oh, and good old visual inspections of the tank to let it guide us. Those are really the facts.

There is a bigger question here of course which is what it would do to improve your quality of life as a hobbyist. Only you know what that is. Since you noted a couple different automated testing solutions I'll focus on that with my question. If you are testing weekly I'd say no. It isn't going to change your quality of life. You probably have your testing routine dialed in so it isn't going to do much for you. On the other hand daily testing and or twice daily now we are talking about saving some time even if your processes are dialed in. Not only that we are now talking about an automated process that in theory will test consistently by measurement and visually eyeballing it (too dependent of course).

Since you mentioned an Apex the choice for you is pretty simple, at least I think so. Being in a similar situation of owning an Apex the trident was a no brainer. In my case I wasn't doing testing but when I did I only really cared about Alk and Ca. Apex already, no testing, trident, now I'm guaranteed to at least test at the minimum setting which is 4/2/2 and have numbers to match what I see visually.

tl;dr: up to you to decide. Not needed but if it saves you time, and time is money, then pick what would work for you.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Only equipment I have ever needed was Rock, Skimmer, Cheato, and a bag of carbon. Combined with very strong (wind like ) flow, good lighting, and Hanna ALK checker (daily if needed, but 2 days when stable). I definitely see a benefit to a ALK monitor. However, every 1 hour is probably just a waste of reagent. I would prefer 6 hours as this would be more than enough time to catch an issue with CA reactor or dosing pump. Then again since your a Coral farmer your consumption rates will be changing more than a normal display tank so definitely continue to rely on it, or just add it on when your traveling.

 

[doodledreads]

That's a pretty subjective question, can you afford it? does it save you time? increase your reef game? etc., let me put some my thoughts on the subject here:

1. The reef hobby is expensive as it is. If you cannot afford the gadgets, then don't go into debt getting new and fancy equipment. There are a lot of low tech tanks which might need a little more manpower but are very successful. I started with a low tech tank and slowly added more tech as I grew career wise and could afford more. Did I go overboard sometimes? Of course; that's me being passionate, impulsive and just being human.

2. A lot of us are busy with work, family, travel, other projects. Equipment like auto testing, monitors, controllers help us keep an eye on the tank. I notice some of members here look down on such gadgets and think that people with a low tech and manually involved tanks are better; let me tell you we love our tanks just as much as you do.

3. Say what you will, automation is the way of future. Even if you are 100% dedicated to your tank, you still need some automation to cover all the bases.

Like I said, everyone and every tank is different. I believe instead of looking down or patronizing the tech, we should help other hobbyists to understand what the tech is and ultimately only they can decide if its useful to them.

EDIT: Oh, I wanted to say this: FOMO (Fear of missing out) is huge in this hobby.

 

[Brew12]

I'm a Profilux user, not Apex, but I love the automated Alk testing. I went from testing Alk every day or two and now I may test once a month. I match my 2-part dosing to my Alk reading (KH Director doesn't test Calc) and only test Calc monthly, also. I've never stressed mg, NO3 or PO4 so I may go a week or two with no testing at all now.

If you aren't going to change your testing habits, there is no reason for an automatic tester. If you use it to free up time for other stuff, it can be a huge benefit imo.

 

[Abhishek]

I would love to get myself up to date with latest leds that run some AB+ or CD + programs , cordless pumps in displays and
automated measurements of Alkalinity , calcium and magnesium that make me forget the basics in no time and stop watching my acros ....

But that’s only possible when you stop selling me Battlecorals !!!

Every time I think about technologically advancing myself by renouncing my old techs , you come up with new acros and all my technological dreams go kaput ....

But seriously , between technologically advancing myself and choosing Battlecorals - I have always chosen the later and never ever regretted

 

[Battlecorals]

I would love to get myself up to date with latest leds that run some AB+ or CD + programs , cordless pumps in displays and
automated measurements of Alkalinity , calcium and magnesium that make me forget the basics in no time and stop watching my acros ....

But that’s only possible when you stop selling me Battlecorals !!!

Every time I think about technologically advancing myself by renouncing my old techs , you come up with new acros and all my technological dreams go kaput ....

But seriously , between technologically advancing myself and choosing Battlecorals - I have always chosen the later and never ever regretted

HA well, I appreciate the levity lol. figured id give this one a quick push to the top and see how some people with any of these new techs want to chime in, having used them for a while now. Less "stuff" to worry about or just "more new" stuff lol

 

[justingraham]

HA well, I appreciate the levity lol. figured id give this one a quick push to the top and see how some people with any of these new techs want to chime in, having used them for a while now. Less "stuff" to worry about or just "more new" stuff lol

I wanna disagree with u I enjoy the khg alk monitor I don’t look at it daily but have a zone between 8.5 and 7.5 dkh and get an alert when it’s out of that zone for me it has made my hobby so much better and with the consistency ok my alk my coral growth has really taken off
U watch and look at ur tanks daily if I was able to do that I think I would feel the same way as u but I can at most put 25 mins of work into my tank daily and have found a system with the monitor to make me succeed and not change my thought process of this hobby being work instead of a hobby that happened on my fist tank where I was spending more time with the tank then I should have.
I planned my tank so I can leave for 1 month and not worry about anything and In doing so it makes my day to day work easy as well.
I also just use it to monitor I would never let my apex or my khg make decisions for me but I do use the information to make better Decisions.