thank you for all the comments. we don't visit here too often but was directed to this post by a fellow reefer.
hope I will be able to answer all the comments so far
1) cost - developing a product is not easy nor cheap. just engineers/designers we have 5 to develop this product for over 1 year and not to talk about all the toolings required to make a unique product. agree that the cost may not be for everyone but when you have considered the features, it may make sense. (i'll get to the features in a bit).
2) Reagent - the MT tests for NO3, PO4, Ca, Mg, KH, and OLI (our own parameter). Depending on your need and if you have other testers like Alkatronic or you might be running calcium reactor, you may not need to test all the allowed parameters but focus on nutrients, ca and mg. meaning you won't need to load all types of reagnets for it to work. We develop the product to accept 3rd party test kits mainly is to allow flexibility and time to market. We will be bringing out our own reagent in the next couple months. From my released info, we designed the product so that we do not need frequent refills and also we do not use the exact volumes based on the test but derived our own formulas based on the kits suggested. this way we will improve the accuracy and precision over the regular test kits. as for Ca and Mg, we have said this in many occasions, once you get kh stable the stability of Ca and Mg can be acheived easily (assuming your liquids are balanced). so testing once a day is not necessary but every few days would be suggested just to make sure everything is in check. (example is that the liquids or calibration of doser is off and you can quickly adjust it back)
3) IONIC probes - as someone said this in earlier post, there is still a running cost like changing the probe every 6-12 months depending on test frequency (more test = shorter life) and the calibration liquid that is needed before each test (so it is like a test reagent in terms of cost). ionic probe is not a new tech but just being used in other industy and is now taken to reefing. PO4 cannot be measured and the accuracy is still unknown (in fact, I have tested it before deciding on going the reagent route). One thing I like to point out is that in saltwater (marine), there can be a lot of conflicting ions which will reduce the accuracy of ionic probes. maybe other brands have methods to overcome these but these are the basic points about doing ionic probes tester.
4) what good is auto testing when you cannot automate actions. With mastertronic, you can do changes via Dosetronic, or Powertronic (soon to be released) and even control lighting (Solartronic) which most of us feels it is a "set and forget" parameter of a tank. In fact, lighting should also be adjusted based on water chemistry. for example, when nutrients goes up, so does your lighting. Not to talk about the patented dynamic light source for Solartronic where a fixture can have mutiple sweetspots and 7 days of different schedule.
5) KH in Mastertronic. Why go automatic if you have to maintain the tester every few days or a week. with this in mind, we allow kh being done once a day so that the unit can go without refill for around a month. When user really wants to control their kh, Alkatronic is the way to go with high accuracy/precision while low running cost (probably lowest compared to others). the KH in Mastertronic is to give user an "overview" if they want to start with Mastertronic so they have all the important parameters but when things get serious, KH should be handled by Alkatronic.
6) Hiring a tester - not impossible if you find the right person. but the thing is can he/she automate other settings in the system if anything is out of range? Call you back if you are on holiday or having a meeting at the office? not to talk about if you can trust his tests (assuming no human errors)
7) Where the company is based. If this is your main concern, we are based in Hong Kong so I am not sure why your source tells you we are from mainland China but is not a problem. HK is now part of China if that matters to you. We are considering moving or spliting production to other countries. if you or anyone has contacts to assembly facilities in the USA which might be interested in making products for us, pass him/her my contact (
[email protected]).
hope I didn't miss many points but can message us if you need more answers.
