Ken's 215G Build
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kenchilada
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Selling my apex and I’ve been thinking about what to replace it with. I’m starting to convince myself controllers are a really dumb way to spend money.
I don’t use a controller for heaters, lights, Vortechs, etc. I don’t care about graphing temperature, ORP, etc. I only care about pH on a calcium reactor and there’s cheaper ways to do that (pH controller, reefpi, etc). A $40 smart power strip lets me control outlets and have timers. I don’t use dosers.
Why do I want this?
I don’t use a controller for heaters, lights, Vortechs, etc. I don’t care about graphing temperature, ORP, etc. I only care about pH on a calcium reactor and there’s cheaper ways to do that (pH controller, reefpi, etc). A $40 smart power strip lets me control outlets and have timers. I don’t use dosers.
Why do I want this?
JGT
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I’m in the same camp. While nice to have, not necessary. Plus it’s a single point of failure which worries me the most. I use the Kasa smart strips to do AWC, turn on pumps to mix my salt, control my rodi, etc. Got the InkBird for temp control and alerts. Use Mobius to control my lights and power heads. So I am automated just not single threaded which is a good thing.Selling my apex and I’ve been thinking about what to replace it with. I’m starting to convince myself controllers are a really dumb way to spend money.
I don’t use a controller for heaters, lights, Vortechs, etc. I don’t care about graphing temperature, ORP, etc. I only care about pH on a calcium reactor and there’s cheaper ways to do that (pH controller, reefpi, etc). A $40 smart power strip lets me control outlets and have timers. I don’t use dosers.
Why do I want this?
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kenchilada
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Things looking good so I did the first batch of water tests. Got some surprising results.
Ca: 430 ppm (Hanna)
Alk: 3.3 dKH (Hanna)
NO3: 2 ppm (Salifert)
PO4: 0.31 ppm (Hanna 736)
The phosphate could be from cooking my rock since October and ghost feeding it with no fish. I ran the test twice. Maybe I’ll run some GFO and knock it down, but I’m not too concerned yet. The skimmer is just breaking in .
I believe the low NO3 is a good thing since I’m feeding heavily already and it’s not skyrocketing even without the skimmer being broken in. I will keep feeding heavily so nitrate doesn’t bottom out and cause problems.
Alkalinity... what the heck? Tested twice. I can’t explain this one. The tank was filled with brand new Fritz blue box. I didn’t test what it mixed to but I have another box and will test next batch. May switch to Red Sea blue. I do have coralline on the rocks but I don’t think it’s enough to eat that much alkalinity yet.
I have some Seachem Reef Builder on hand I use in my quarantine tanks so I might mix about 4dKH of that into the top off water for the week. But I might get a second alkalinity test kit first just to be sure because this seems weird.
Fish are super healthy and doing great.
Ca: 430 ppm (Hanna)
Alk: 3.3 dKH (Hanna)
NO3: 2 ppm (Salifert)
PO4: 0.31 ppm (Hanna 736)
The phosphate could be from cooking my rock since October and ghost feeding it with no fish. I ran the test twice. Maybe I’ll run some GFO and knock it down, but I’m not too concerned yet. The skimmer is just breaking in .
I believe the low NO3 is a good thing since I’m feeding heavily already and it’s not skyrocketing even without the skimmer being broken in. I will keep feeding heavily so nitrate doesn’t bottom out and cause problems.
Alkalinity... what the heck? Tested twice. I can’t explain this one. The tank was filled with brand new Fritz blue box. I didn’t test what it mixed to but I have another box and will test next batch. May switch to Red Sea blue. I do have coralline on the rocks but I don’t think it’s enough to eat that much alkalinity yet.
I have some Seachem Reef Builder on hand I use in my quarantine tanks so I might mix about 4dKH of that into the top off water for the week. But I might get a second alkalinity test kit first just to be sure because this seems weird.
Fish are super healthy and doing great.
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kenchilada
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It’s HI772 which reads dKH but that’s a really good thought. So good I pulled out the manual to see if there’s some magic setting to change to meq/L but I don’t see one. ;Blackeye
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kenchilada
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I bought an AquaForest alkalinity test (all they had) and it read 7.8dKH. That’s what I was expecting the Hanna to read. So now I either have a bad batch of reagent or Im an idiot and did the Hanna test wrong twice in a row. ;Sour
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kenchilada
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10mL tank water, hit button, remove and add 1mL reagent, invert 5 times, put back in, press button...
REALLY??
I’m sure the AquaForest kit is right.
REALLY??
I’m sure the AquaForest kit is right.
Chlorinated
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They sell calibration solition. May be worth it. Maybe fell out of calibration through shipping and such?10mL tank water, hit button, remove and add 1mL reagent, invert 5 times, put back in, press button...
REALLY??
I’m sure the AquaForest kit is right.
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kenchilada
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At the moment I don’t want to spend another dime on this thing.
But I did go buy another bottle of reagent and it read 8.5dKH first try. So, definitely bad reagent in the kit, expiration date 02/2022.
Now I’m curious if the 8.5 is accurate or if the AquaForest 7.8 was closer. The AquaForest came with reference solution so I might test that.
Makes me really lose a lot of confidence in these. I might sell them all and switch to something else.
Skynyrd Fish
Valuable Member
Great setup. You killed it on the stand and canopy. The plumbing looks great. Nothing like real live rock. Following.
Chlorinated
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Sounds like you just had a bad lot. Can happen with any kit honestly.At the moment I don’t want to spend another dime on this thing.
But I did go buy another bottle of reagent and it read 8.5dKH first try. So, definitely bad reagent in the kit, expiration date 02/2022.
Now I’m curious if the 8.5 is accurate or if the AquaForest 7.8 was closer. The AquaForest came with reference solution so I might test that.
Makes me really lose a lot of confidence in these. I might sell them all and switch to something else.
I would say the 7.8 vs 8.5 can be attributed to the visual difference you see with other test kits.
I switched to Hanna Alk and have been very happy with it. Results are very consistent and reproduceable.
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kenchilada
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Thanks for the kind words!
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kenchilada
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Definitely a bad lot. But it seems like they have a real QA problem and poor manufacturing controls on this reagent. I’ve bought at least 50 Salifert kits over the decades and never had one this far out of whack.
Plus titration is a faster test to perform. I think I will go back to Salifert except for nitrate (always found it hard to read). Not sure what I’ll do for phosphate yet, but I don’t really trust that 0.3 ppm reading I was getting at the moment.
For nutrients I don’t care about precision, just dependability so I can see trends. I’m more concerned with not reaching zero residuals than knowing an exact number.
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kenchilada
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I tested this AquaForest kit against the reference solution they provided, just for the hell of it. It was right on the money at 7.3. This was only $13 and claims 75-100 tests. Not sure how consistent they are from one box to the next but I’m pretty impressed with this one. I’m still going back to Salifert but I’d buy these again.
panic
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I was thinking about trying the Hanna tester for Nitrates and Alkalinity since the phosphate tester that I have seems to be pretty accurate, but is a bit tedius. I bought the Red Sea kit to have something a little faster for more frequent testing and really like it. It's easy to do. Alk is what I test daily and I feel like the Salifert test has an area of around .5 where I'm not sure if it is fully pink yet. I'm the same as you with doing the same forever. That one I was thinking to get the Hanna Alk tester but you have me second guessing that. So maybe Red Sea is the was to go for that one too.
