Alkatronic or Gh guardian

B

bearpeidog

Member
Hello - I am done waiting for the Trident :( and want to monitor my Alk now. Sorry for the tangent, but I feel duped by Apex after upgrading my controller to the 2016. Think the announcement was premature and designed to push the 2016 model. Anyway, I put this here to explain why I have decided to go Alkatronic or KH Guardian and not have a wait for Trident discussion. For discussion sake I need a product available today.

Couple questions:

Anyone with experience with either device please post your opinions on the product - any regrets?

Are reagents available readily in US for the Alkatronic? Alktronic reagent doesn't seem readily available and that might be a problem.

KH guardian must be located within 3 feet of the test water. That means noise
that I don't want. Is there a similar limitation with the Alkatronic? I'd like to put it in the basement under my tank. Prob 5 or 6 feet of RO tubing.

Apex integration seems better with the KH Guardian in my reading.

I'm mostly concerned with monitoring and the KH guardian monitor seems like a good fit but for $100 more I can dose. Safe to assume KH Guardian dosing can be disabled? (Non-monitor edition). For $100 more seems like a good safeguard investment to be able to dose in case things change in the future.

Anyway, hoping for real world discussion on these two products!
 
Hi Bill,

I own the Alkatronic and have had it for about a month. This is a second generation model.

I have only used it to test my Alk, not dose it. IT has proven to be reliable and I will be changing that in a few weeks.

I too wanted to try the Trident too. The first reason I didn't was that the release date slipped to the right - with Neptune you don't know when that will stop (ref. COR pump). However, this usually means that you can buy a 1st generation model and have confidence it will work correctly. The second reason it I did a cost estiamte, and if I have to upgrade to a 2016 Apex head, Trident, DOS dosing pumps - I would be looking at over $1K.

Meanwhile, the Alkatronic was producing it's second generation, available now, less expensive and compatible with the classic apex.

Pros:
-The Alkatronic appears to do a great job in measuring Alk. I can easily see the consumption trend line repeating itself day after day.
-The Alkatronic also will retest the sample if the value seems to have increased or decreased too much
-The regent bottle you purchase form the US distributor should last 6 months or so
-The customer service is terrific

Cons
-The unit is loud. Apparently, the second generation model is substantially quieter but it is still loud to me (and my family). I have a bean animal overflow and DC pumps so my tank is nearly silent in the living room - maybe not the norm? When this thing kicks on (roughly 10 minutes to test, 25 min if a retest) the noise carries. I'm going to be building a box to put it inside. I'm not sure if this is maybe just my unit? If the box works to reduce the sound, i'll be 100% satisfied with the Alkatronic. As is, i'm at 90%. It really is an intelligently designed piece of equipment and I will likely buy the Dosetronic if it is equally impressive.

I looked at the KH Guardian, but to be honest, there seems to be a lot of moving parts and more maintenance than I wanted for the capability to automatically test alk.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

-Pete
 
I'm a huge fan of my Alkatronic.

All I wanted a piece of equipment that reliably tests my alkalinity and reports the data to the Apex. The Alkatronic does this perfectly.

You can tell the machine is incredibly consistent. When I first got it I ran about 7-8 tests in a row and it measured all of them within 0.1 dkh. It has held it calibration perfectly for over a month now and continues to exactly match the output of my Hanna test kit (you are supposed to recalibrate more every 2 weeks but I'm pushing the envelope and thus far the machine is rock solid). The alkalinity is sent to my Apex via a BNC cable and that works great.

Cons:
- The software is not polished at the level of neptune's software, but it is perfectly workable. I almost never log into the machine, I just monitor the value through my apex, but if you were using their system it quite the best (but it's fine and improving all the time)
- It isn't obnoxiously loud when running, but it is louder than all my other equipment when it is running, which for me is 3 times per day for 10 minutes. Not a problem at all where my tank is, but if your tank is in the family room that might be annoying.

And one final thing concerning the reagent availability, I use my own. I wanted to be able to put the waste back into my aquarium and I was uncomfortable putting an unknown substance back in. I fully respect why they make the reagent a trade secret, but that just wasn't workable for me. So I learned about the titration method the Alkatronic uses and found a substitute reagent that I use for my machine. I don't know if it is the same or different than the official reagent, but all I know is my reagent works great. I'm not going to recommend anybody uses anything but the official products, nor am I going to say what I use, but I will say I use my own reagent and the machine works perfectly well. It is actually one of the reasons I like the machine so well is that it does a really simple process, so it is always going to produce very reliable results and it is very easy to debug when something goes wrong.
 
Thanks folks - great feedback. Do you know how far the Alkatronic can be from the sump? I’ll ask on their official support page but did t know if you knew.

Thanks!
 
bearpeidog said:
Thanks folks - great feedback. Do you know how far the Alkatronic can be from the sump? I'll ask on their official support page but did t know if you knew.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The manual has some information about where it should be placed. I don't have any idea beyond the constraints in the manual, and mine is right next to the sump so don't have any experience with longer runs of tubing.
 
Bill,

Mine is near my tank too so I don't know about any runs. The manual does answer most questions.

The company's customer service is also excellent and very responsive. If you contact them directly with your question, they normally respond promptly.

-Pete
 
Right now reagent is an issue - not in stock and I can’t find it. Gonna have to hold off to see if reagent becomes readily available. KH guardian does have reagent available...but looks like Alkatronic has the better hardware. Argh ��
 
That is disappointing for them. They are really shooting themselves in the foot if they are losing sales on reagent availability.
 
sfdan said:
That is disappointing for them. They are really shooting themselves in the foot if they are losing sales on reagent availability.
Click to expand...

Jonas, who designed it, indicates there isn't a shortage on his side and its readily available. I think its just the US distributors are not yet keeping it in stock. I just ordered one....Not sure what to do about reagent right now. I might just run some KH guardian reagent and see how it goes for the time being. Fingers crossed - really wanted Trident but gave up waiting :(
 
Update - I pulled the trigger one the alkatronic. Took my time setting it up and working as advertised. Haven’t been able to order the reagent yet but it did come with 250ml so I have time for Coralvue to stock it and have a backup plan if needed.

I’m not dosing with it yet - just monitoring which is what I wanted.

Support will be phenomenal. Jonas Roman, creator, responds directly and quickly with any questions, tips on success and knowledge. I don’t know him but he has my respect for such a hardworking individual - I believe he CARES immensely about this product.

After setting it up I did a couple tests then dosed some Alk. As expected, the Alkatronic measured it, compared it to the prior test and retested to ensure it wasn’t an anomaly. It took me about 4 hours off and on to setup - which is me looking for the proper containers, mixing the reagent concentrate and running out for some miscellaneous plumbing parts for my specific needs in setup. Everything was included in the kit but I wanted to use RO tubing where I could. (Must use provided tubing on pump A and C.

I’m completely happy with it! Wish I could have tested the KH Guardian to compare. I think the Alkatronic has a MUCH cleaner look and doesn’t look like it would fall over. The Alkatronic is something you almost want to display.
 
Looks like you already made your choice, so I'm a bit late here. Just wanted to add that you did not go wrong choosing the Alkatronic over the KH Guardian. I have both. The only real downside to the Alkatronic is the noise. Even with the second gen I have, it is, in my opinion, very loud. No way it can be in a room where anyone sleeps, or maybe even next to one. But other than that, it's superior to the KH GUardian in every meaningful way; Easier to set up, easier to access, more polished form factor and UI and, so far, reliability.
 
I have the Kh guardian for the last few months. there was a learning curve for me but I got past it. It does work and I am happy with it. could it be better. yes. I think each new unit now has potential to be better as this technology is just beginning. I am liking what I have seen with the reefbot but that is going a whole other direction.
 
Alkatronics and Doseatronic

Alkatronics and Doseatronic

Hello,
I am thinking about purchasing the Alkatronics. Based on what I have seen it measures Alk. Does it not also dose or do you need to also purchase the Doesatronic when released.
 
I too want to purchase the Alkatronic...can I place the unit far away from tank and how often do you need to access the inside of the unit ?
 
A concern I have is the 50 ml each time it takes a reading would drive my ATO to add 50 ml of RO water. If I test 3-4 times a day thats a decent amount of RO water added to tank.
Tank is 75 with a 10 gal sump
 
Johnic said:
A concern I have is the 50 ml each time it takes a reading would drive my ATO to add 50 ml of RO water. If I test 3-4 times a day thats a decent amount of RO water added to tank.
Tank is 75 with a 10 gal sump
Click to expand...

That's nothing. Let's say your total volume is 80gals or 302833 ml's.

That's like .06% roughly...check my math haha
 
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