Would you use this product?

HI all! So I am just doing a hypothetical thread. If I (or someone else) were to make a product that is a electronic water tester (kind of like a digital thermometer, exept it shows you ammonia, ph, nitrite, nitrate, ect.) would you buy it and use it? Let’s assume it was priced at 100$, would you buy it?

 

Maybe I would but I'd put it off for a while. I very rarely test as it is, partly because it's annoying doing the liquid tests and partly because my tanks should be fine. I keep on top of maintenance and despite my tanks being heavily stocked whenever i've tested, my water has been good, better than I thought in terms of Nitrates beeing fairly low.

 

Maybe. Add TDS, KH, GH, and temperature and I'll be your first customer.

 

Maybe. Add TDS, KH, GH, and temperature and I'll be your first customer.

That was supposed to be under the “ect.”

Maybe I would but I'd put it off for a while. I very rarely test as it is, partly because it's annoying doing the liquid tests and partly because my tanks should be fine. I keep on top of maintenance and despite my tanks being heavily stocked whenever i've tested, my water has been good, better than I thought in terms of Nitrates beeing fairly low.

The point of this was to get rid of the need for water testing strips, that way it isn’t as much of a hassle.

 

Price would definitely be off putting for something I rarely use. £30 was bad enough

 

Would this device be reliable and not require recalibration every week or month or year ? There are such devices but most of the ones i've read about require frequent recalibration.

HI all! So I am just doing a hypothetical thread. If I (or someone else) were to make a product that is a electronic water tester (kind of like a digital thermometer, exept it shows you ammonia, ph, nitrite, nitrate, ect.) would you buy it and use it? Let’s assume it was priced at 100$, would you buy it?

 

Would this device be reliable and not require recalibration every week or month or year ? There are such devices but most of the ones i've read about require frequent recalibration.

Yeah. There are digital meters available for pretty much everything except ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Most manufacturers say recalibration and/or inspection is necessary once a year, though that's more of a warranty thing, not a technical necessity.

Still, if one for all was existent, reliable, and easy to use even for someone as technology-unsavvy as me, at a 100 bucks? I'd take it. Would have paid off within 18 months.

 

Add a few zeros because it already exists but not for $100.

 

An ammonia ISE probe alone is about $800. Nitrite ones are almost non-existent. Nitrate is about the same price. The ammonia probes, for example, need to be calibrated every 1-2 hours with three different ammonia standards.

There's no advantage unless you have a lot of tests to perform or the water is too colored for a colorimetric test to work.

These rental prices should give you an idea of how much it would cost to own:

EXO2 Water Quality Sonde Rental

And those don't even have all the sensors you want.

 

These rental prices should give you an idea of how much it would cost to own:

EXO2 Water Quality Sonde Rental

And those don't even have all the sensors you want.

So like I said above, if it will do all that for $100.00 I'll be the first customer.

 

Would this device be reliable and not require recalibration every week or month or year ? There are such devices but most of the ones i've read about require frequent recalibration.

No it would not take frequent recalibration.

Also I see the price should probably go up but this is hypothetical so I’m just going to stick to 100$

 

I love my TDS pen ...
If the same was available as you say I might even care enough to test again !
As it stands now they are about $1,000 and some still require reagents which totally defeat the purpose IMO ..
I would not pay $100 if you needed reagents like many of the Hanna Checkers ..

 

Id probably pass to be honest

 

It’s out there if you wanit and can afford it. I met a guy with a salt water tank that had an app on his phone that told him all about his water and equipment. How much salt to how much flow. And he could make adjustments from the phone. So if you have the Money and desire you can do it. I slowed his roll by showing him the live feed of my tank. All his stuff and he never thought of a camera go figure.

 

It’s out there if you wanit and can afford it. I met a guy with a salt water tank that had an app on his phone that told him all about his water and equipment. How much salt to how much flow. And he could make adjustments from the phone. So if you have the Money and desire you can do it. I slowed his roll by showing him the live feed of my tank. All his stuff and he never thought of a camera go figure.

It's an apex monitoring system. You can check all around water quality with it and control all components of the tank. That being said for a freshwater tank it's over kill. The system is 1000$. Even a fully stocked 125g freshwater tank you will lose maybe 1k in fish. A fully stocked reef tank could lose 10k.

 

To be honest the only thing I want to measure are tds, ph and nitrate. I have the tds pen recommended by coralbandit and it is great for measuring tds and temp. What I want is a a pen for nitrate since the bloody colour shades make it difficult to get a concise understanding what is happening. Anyone have one of those that is accurate for under $100 ?

 

I’d buy it if it did all of that. Though I’d probably still test with liquid every other week. Just in case. I’m paranoid like that.

 

No - bought a PH meter for about 11quid when we started which was ok for a while then I broke the glass bulb and had to replace. Calibration was a pain and once everything settled into a set pattern strips were easier. If it's not been used for a while, calibration is necessary again so now we never use it. However we have only one tank - easy plants - easy fish and nothing too adventurous. If we were raising difficult fish needing specific parameters then probably. The only such device we use now is for heating management.

 

To be honest the only thing I want to measure are tds, ph and nitrate. I have the tds pen recommended by coralbandit and it is great for measuring tds and temp. What I want is a a pen for nitrate since the bloody colour shades make it difficult to get a concise understanding what is happening. Anyone have one of those that is accurate for under $100 ?

Under $2000, sure.

 

To be honest the only thing I want to measure are tds, ph and nitrate. I have the tds pen recommended by coralbandit and it is great for measuring tds and temp. What I want is a a pen for nitrate since the bloody colour shades make it difficult to get a concise understanding what is happening. Anyone have one of those that is accurate for under $100 ?

Hanna has a long list of color checkers and not one is for NitrAtes !
Keepers [reefers] have gone as far as to come up with ways to read NO3 using the Hanna PO4 color meter !
None of it is easy or fun .
Again maybe they need it for reefs but if you have to add a reagent I am COMPLETELY turned off...
Once you have your tank running test are just peace of mind or something you usually wish you didn't know .

 

A holy grail for 100$? Count me in!

 

Yes, if it was cheaper. There is no option for that.

 

no thank you.
I don't test enough to need it.

 

It is the second part I want to watch out for but I also want to understand what triggers the change. I think one my tanks jumped from 15 to 40; but i'm not sure why since it has a low bio load and low feeding.

Once you have your tank running test are just peace of mind or something you usually wish you didn't know .

 

I'd get it when I saved up enough coupons and when it's on sale