neoGeorge
Well-Known Member
As my first reef aquarium (a Nano Cube 28g) past it's one year anniversary I began to realize the importance of alkalinity and calcium testing. Early on the corals were small and everything seemed stable so I didn't test much. After losing some snails, an emerald crab and my cleaner shrimp, it became clear that something had changed, and sure enough, alk and Ca were way low. Algae and cyano also started to become an issue.
Now I'm burning through Red Sea Pro reagents as I document frequent alk, Ca, nitrate and phosphate tests to work towards stable chemistry and a tank sans cyano and hair algae. My only export mechanism is NOPOX and water changes.
To make testing easier I purchased a magnetic stirrer and then designed an Arduino-based testing timer - this post is about that timer. I'm a self taught Arduino hack, so feel free to add your feedback for improving this solution.
I focused on the CA, Mg, NO3 and PO4 tests - the Mg test is particularly cumbersome because instructions dictate adding 5 drops of reagent A with 15 seconds between drops; NO3 and PO4 are cumbersome because of the 9 and 15 minute waits before results are better.
Press a button to select a test, then follow the steps shown in the second row of the display, pressing the ENTER button when each step is complete (in this case, adding 2 ml of tank water to the beaker). Steps that require delays display a countdown timer in the second row, as shown below.
Your prompted for each drop in the Mg test; once you press ENTER a 15 second countdown begins.
After adding 5 drops of reagent B there is a 60 second wait before titration.
Now I'm burning through Red Sea Pro reagents as I document frequent alk, Ca, nitrate and phosphate tests to work towards stable chemistry and a tank sans cyano and hair algae. My only export mechanism is NOPOX and water changes.
To make testing easier I purchased a magnetic stirrer and then designed an Arduino-based testing timer - this post is about that timer. I'm a self taught Arduino hack, so feel free to add your feedback for improving this solution.
I focused on the CA, Mg, NO3 and PO4 tests - the Mg test is particularly cumbersome because instructions dictate adding 5 drops of reagent A with 15 seconds between drops; NO3 and PO4 are cumbersome because of the 9 and 15 minute waits before results are better.
Press a button to select a test, then follow the steps shown in the second row of the display, pressing the ENTER button when each step is complete (in this case, adding 2 ml of tank water to the beaker). Steps that require delays display a countdown timer in the second row, as shown below.
Your prompted for each drop in the Mg test; once you press ENTER a 15 second countdown begins.
After adding 5 drops of reagent B there is a 60 second wait before titration.
