What doesn't exist for reefing yet but you really, really wish it did?

[Wheelman76]

Originally Posted by kooky

I think if we had a probe/monitor that constantly shows the Calcium/Alkalinity/phosphate levels in your aquarium at all times without doing individual test, like a temperature or PH probe which are currently available, that would help the hobby immensely.

There is something like that out there already , hopefully they release it soon.

https://reefbuilders.com/2015/07/27/...e-kickstarter/

[e46er]

Originally Posted by Wheelman76

There is something like that out there already , hopefully they release it soon.

https://reefbuilders.com/2015/07/27/...e-kickstarter/

I think he ment probes which last more than a month.

I think the idea is cool but at 7-900 up front and 500 a year for discs @ the discounted pricing which im sure are both in USD. It's not a realistic purchase for a lot of people where a $50-70 probe that lasts any length of time I'd buy them for sure.

[whatcaneyedo]

An auto feeder that dispenses frozen food. I've seen a few interesting DIY jobs involving mini fridges but nothing even remotely compact.

Plasma lighting in the 14K spectrum.

I'll put my hand up too for the Alkalinity monitor.

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by e46er

I think he ment probes which last more than a month.

I think the idea is cool but at 7-900 up front and 500 a year for discs @ the discounted pricing which im sure are both in USD. It's not a realistic purchase for a lot of people where a $50-70 probe that lasts any length of time I'd buy them for sure.

There are commercial probes for exactly this and they last quite a while... but they ain't cheap ($250+) and seawater can cause them issues. I used to have 5 or 6 of them in my lab (we specialized in electrochemistry) and tried them at home a few times with relative success. I believe Pinpoint Monitoring actually makes a somewhat affordable unit and, if I remember correctly, was reviewed by Randy Holmes-Farley in one of the reefing magazines.

The kicker with these units though is that to get accurate measurements they sometimes need to be paired with a pH probe. The potential (i.e. voltage) of an electrode shifts 0.059V per decade (meaning one pH unit, such as if the pH shifts from 7 to 8). Doesn't sound like much but once that error gets factored in, your measurement could swing wildly with pH shifts throughout the day, talk additions, etc.

So, it can be done but it hit always going to be cheap.

[Dearth]

second the frozen food feeder

an adjustable sump system where you can increase or decrease size of the chambers with sliders so you can add or remove equipment and make space accordingly

[Animal-Chin]

A fitration system that takes in your dirty tank water and spits out water as clean as the day you made it. The filter would remove all bad items but leave the salt and all trace elements. A true sea water purification system that is easy to use.

It would remove all algae, nitrate, phosphate, pests (ich) and just return water that only had the good stuff left in it.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Wheelman76

There is something like that out there already , hopefully they release it soon.

https://reefbuilders.com/2015/07/27/...e-kickstarter/

Yeah it's like never coming out....

But yeah, if you could live monitor or even hourly monitor cal and alk even just those two would be immensely helpful.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Because Calk/Alk probes seem to be pretty popular I've been thinking this over quite a bit today. I experimented making some ion-selective solid state probes a few years back that were very cheap to make. I think I can adopt this to work with calcium without too much issue and, if I'm lucky, I might even be able to do the same with all as well.

Alk is the tricky one, but you should know that.

Mindstream claims to have it figured out, but they are lacking funding badly since a serious failure in their Kickstarter program.

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by Myka

Alk is the tricky one, but you should know that.

Mindstream claims to have it figured out, but they are lacking funding badly since a serious failure in their Kickstarter program.

They're doing theirs through spectral analysis of a reactant test... never made sense to me to do it that way. Too complicated. Too many things to go wrong. No wonder they are struggling!

I was doing some reading tonight and it seems it should be fairly straight forward to make a carbonate selective electrode (provided I can synthesize a molecular tweezer ). In fact, I think I could put pH, Calc, Alk and Nitrate all on the same electrode.

[Etaloche]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

They're doing theirs through spectral analysis of a reactant test... never made sense to me to do it that way. Too complicated. Too many things to go wrong. No wonder they are struggling!

I was doing some reading tonight and it seems it should be fairly straight forward to make a carbonate selective electrode (provided I can synthesize a molecular tweezer ). In fact, I think I could put pH, Calc, Alk and Nitrate all on the same electrode.