Ran across this thought you might like it:
http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/2239/YSI-5200-Water-Quality-Monitoring-System
For only $1695.00 “measures dissolved oxygen, pH, ORP, conductivity, salinity and temperature” and if you spend more for some additional attachments it “can accept additional inputs, including total dissolved gas sensors, water level sensors, pressure sensors, flow sensors, etc”.
Jon
When it gets down to $79.95 I will own one
When it gets to $25 I’l buy two …
When I finally get a large tank that I want some stuff to be automatically montiored/controlled im gonna get the Reef Keeper Elite. That thing is awesome.
Man that RK elite is sweet. Thanks Icy… now my wife is going to really put me out on the porch/deck!!!
Looks like lunch is now
PPBBJJ
Yeah it is. I cant really justify it now, but when we set up our 300g I’m definatley going to get one.
If setup properly you really don’t need all of those gadgets. There is no ORP meter in nature. Simplify the setup and keep things as maint free as poss.
[quote=“russellqueen, post:7, topic:541”]
If setup properly you really don’t need all of those gadgets. There is no ORP meter in nature. Simplify the setup and keep things as maint free as poss. [/quote]second that! i have limited room and need all these gadets so i thought. but now it seems the simpler the better. i have a friend in downingtown that his tank is amazing and all he does is water changes on a scheduled basis and seeing they say is believing. his tank is so overgrown and its only 8 months old and he has successful growth and color from all types of coral not just 1 or 2 healhy ones every coral is thriving. he doesnt even have a protien skimmer just a fuge.
[quote=“russellqueen, post:7, topic:541”]
If setup properly you really don’t need all of those gadgets. There is no ORP meter in nature. Simplify the setup and keep things as maint free as poss. [/quote]
While you dont need gadgets like this, I think its woth it on a bigger tank. With the RKE you can have it tell you when the water level is to low, to high, if the tank overflows you can have it set off an audible alarm, you can controll ATO, Dosing, Lights, Flow, Heating, Cooling, Calcium Reactor, Montior pH, Ozone, ect ect.
I know that I wont be relying on this for everything, but I simply want to use one so that it reduces that simple chores like watching 3x a day to make sure the temp is good and stuff like that so that I can spend the time in the tank doing stuff that I enjoy more. Its pretty easy to justify to myself getting it. I mean, ask Craig how much money water damage can do. With the RKE you can have a water sensor that will shut off your main returns whenever it senses water but keeps the powerheads on. Or you could have it set up to turn on heater on if the tank reaches 78, one if it reaches 76, fans on if it reaches 80, a chiller on if it reaches 82, and turn the lights off if it reaches 84. Plus, with one of these you never have to worry about a heater breaking because if it does stick the controller will turn it off as soon as it gets to a designated temprature. If I was taking care of all of that stuff it would require me to be home all the time every day. And I know that I have way more than 490$ invested in my corals and fish, so I consider it a worthwile investment.
I’m not saying that this should be used to replace good maintnance, just simplyify maintnance so that I can enjoy more free time to frag or just look at the tank.
I have 13 tanks in my fish room and have one skimmer in there… which is unplugged. I have enough macro algae currently to filter about 5gallons of water if that. One tank has carbon in it… which is about 9 months old. One tank has foam in it. People do a heck of a lot to avoid water changes.
This hobby is very odd in that for someone new to the hobby to run a successful tank it is a good idea to follow the advice of many different people who have kept tanks for several years, but never ever do what they do. I have to laugh when I’m in the store and get a question like how often do you do water changes on your tank or what skimmer do you use on your tank, lol.
I just posted this link as Tattoo was looking for something like this a month ago and couldn’t find anything but a fresh water version.
Jon
its only $490? i thought it was $4900
oh i see you are talking about the rke. does it send a message to your phone if needed? thats what i need something that calls me or sends a text. if i’m not mistaking alemab has a system like that
They dont have the internet module yet, but it is in the works. They wanted to get the NECESSITIES done before it was launched so things like the moonlight module and the internet module are being devoleped afterwards so that they could make it avalible. The moonlight module is pretty sweet. It stimulates a 28.5 day lunar cycle with different intensities every day of the cycle. The internet module is the one that they are currently working on I think and after that is the wirless internet module.
[quote=“icy1155, post:13, topic:541”]
They dont have the internet module yet, but it is in the works. They wanted to get the NECESSITIES done before it was launched so things like the moonlight module and the internet module are being devoleped afterwards so that they could make it avalible. The moonlight module is pretty sweet. It stimulates a 28.5 day lunar cycle with different intensities every day of the cycle. The internet module is the one that they are currently working on I think and after that is the wirless internet module.[/quote] so everyday your lights change times? is it to stimulate real life situations like a cloudy day or sumtin like that
Probably less the cloudy day and more the seasons and cycles of the moon. Few people have seen corals spawn in captivity for two reasons. One they often are not fed enough and don’t have enough energy reserved to do so and secondly because the queues they get from the moon are not present. Many people have been working on stimulating natural lighting both during the day and night.
Jon
Yeah, Jon got it right. Every day it varies the intensity of the moonlights, which many people think helps overall animal health as well as spawning.