Seneye Reef Monitor

[Allentown]

Anyone using this?

For $100.00 less than an apex par monitor this thing can spot check LUX, Kelvin and PAR.

Then when you aren't using it as a light meter you can throw it in the sump where it will function as a water level sensor, back up temperature probe and give you a trending and early warning info on ammonia that might happen to spike for what ever reason.

If Apex had a combo par/lux/kelvin/water level/ammonia monitor for $199.00 I would buy it in a heart beat but as it is their pak is $299.00 and they haven't released their link enabled water sensors yet (something that I'm almost definitely getting so I can monitor high and low in my ato resovoir and sumps without using float valves).

I know ammonia is not something that normally needs monitoring in a salt water tank...which is why it is probably also something that gets completely overlooked when there is a problem. The more info you have, the better.

Anyway I am just wondering what people think about it.

Link: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/seneye-reef-monitor.html

 

[moondoggy4]

I almost bought one used for a good price, I wanted to use it on my quarantine tank, also would be great for spot checking Par. So for this I would think it would be good to have. One problem I think that they have a monthly charge and that would be a big deterrent.

 

[Mayberry]

I was also looking at this. I watched BRS's video and it looks impressive. Anyone using it yet?

 

[Colin]

I've had one for a few months now.

pH seems sketchy. It reads 0.3 higher than my pH probe. Who knows which is right. I think I'll drop the slide into some 7.0 calibration solution and see what happens. Temp is about 0.4 degrees lower than my Reef Angel temperature probe, which is a factory calibrated digital probe. Not sure if the Seneye uses a digital sensor or an analog (thermistor) style device.

Ammonia is useless after your tank has cycled.

The slides for pH and ammonia are $10-$15 each and are good for a month. You can probably leave them in longer. The temp and light meter work without the slide. Once my supply of slides runs out I don't think I'll purchase any more.

The light meter portion is interesting. It is more responsive to violet, deep blue, yellow, and red and is less responsive to lighter blue and green vs a traditional PAR meter. It also has a smaller angle of view to get more of a spot reading. This also means you cannot compare its readings accurately with a traditional PAR meter. Seneye says "We recommend that the seneye PAR function is used only as a measure against light readings taken from other seneye devices or a seneye PAR organism table." That table is woefully small. I think it's better suited for finding relatively brighter spots in your tank vs trying to get an absolute reading to brag to your friends about.

Also be aware that it only uploads readings (and sends out real-time alerts) if it's plugged into their web server ($260 if you want WiFi, or $180 for a wired ethernet connection) or into a computer. If you leave it plugged into a power supply, it will store readings and upload them the next time you plug it into your computer. I leave it plugged into an old, crappy netbook I had laying around. It works fine and I would suggest a cheap laptop over their over-priced web servers.

Another minor gripe, there doesn't seem to be any way to get the web site or app to show American style dates (mm/dd/yy). It's all dd/mm/yy.

Hope this helps,

--Colin

 

[clittrell]

I've had one for a few months now.

pH seems sketchy. It reads 0.3 higher than my pH probe. Who knows which is right. I think I'll drop the slide into some 7.0 calibration solution and see what happens. Temp is about 0.4 degrees lower than my Reef Angel temperature probe, which is a factory calibrated digital probe. Not sure if the Seneye uses a digital sensor or an analog (thermistor) style device.

Ammonia is useless after your tank has cycled.

The slides for pH and ammonia are $10-$15 each and are good for a month. You can probably leave them in longer. The temp and light meter work without the slide. Once my supply of slides runs out I don't think I'll purchase any more.

The light meter portion is interesting. It is more responsive to violet, deep blue, yellow, and red and is less responsive to lighter blue and green vs a traditional PAR meter. It also has a smaller angle of view to get more of a spot reading. This also means you cannot compare its readings accurately with a traditional PAR meter. Seneye says "We recommend that the seneye PAR function is used only as a measure against light readings taken from other seneye devices or a seneye PAR organism table." That table is woefully small. I think it's better suited for finding relatively brighter spots in your tank vs trying to get an absolute reading to brag to your friends about.

Also be aware that it only uploads readings (and sends out real-time alerts) if it's plugged into their web server ($260 if you want WiFi, or $180 for a wired ethernet connection) or into a computer. If you leave it plugged into a power supply, it will store readings and upload them the next time you plug it into your computer. I leave it plugged into an old, crappy netbook I had laying around. It works fine and I would suggest a cheap laptop over their over-priced web servers.

Another minor gripe, there doesn't seem to be any way to get the web site or app to show American style dates (mm/dd/yy). It's all dd/mm/yy.

Hope this helps,

--Colin

Thanks for the info. I have one but have not used it much yet. Do you look at your reading on the laptop or are using the website? Have you used the save feature in the computer app. I can't figure out where it saves.