I was daydreaming about the Mindstream monitor and I thought I would share a few thoughts. I'd like to get other opinions and possible uses for the Mindstream from you guys. I'm assuming that the monitor will work as promised, there really is no point debating the monitors accuracy until we actually get a chance to test it.
- Alkalinity monitoring is huge! Every time my calcium reactor runs out of CO2 before I notice it my alkalinity crash. On my system I've seen 4-5 dKH drops in alkalinity in just a single day and this is a constant dread with monitoring the reactor. I'm also thrilled at the though of tuning in new reactors/dosers with the constant monitoring. The alkalinity monitoring alone justifies the price for me and this would have paid for the monitor dozens of times over in alkalinity crash preventions.
- Ammonia, initially I was really bummed out that this was one of the parameter. I must have a dozen expired ammonia kits in a box somewhere that were simply used for cycling new tanks. After thinking about this for a bit I started to really think this might be a game changer. The obvious benefit is detecting a recently deceased tank inhabitant or monitoring ammonia levels on new fish additions to ensure we are not adding fish too soon or quickly to our tanks. But, if the ammonia monitoring is as accurate as Mindstream says I think this might be a game changer in itself. I think it might be possible to monitor the "health" of our tank continuously detecting, not only death, but the health of our tank inhabitants. Neptune Systems already promotes their ORP monitoring as a "health" gauge already (rather than for ozone dosing) and I think accurate, real-time ammonia monitoring is going to be a huge step forward.
- Potassium is a vital macronutrient for our tanks and it is possible that we might end up discovering an ideal NPK ratio for our tanks (it certainly is important for agriculture). If an ideal NPK ratio does turn out to be beneficial then an accurate and easy potassium test will be key to maintaining this. Also, low potassium levels have been known to stunt growth of corals for many decades now so why don't we regularly check this? I don't think continuous potassium monitoring is necessary but an easier, and more importantly, accurate way to measure it might be a big deal.
- Oxygen is obviously an important parameter but I think we might gain some valuable insight on it's usefulness once we start monitoring it regularly.
I guess I sound like a salesman for the Mindstream but I don't think anyone realizes where this will take us 5 years from now. I'm baffled that the Kickstarter campaign hasn't received more love from us. I actually emailed them and asked them if I could reserve a dozen of these things!
Ultimately, I think this is going to start a revolution in reef keeping.
- Alkalinity monitoring is huge! Every time my calcium reactor runs out of CO2 before I notice it my alkalinity crash. On my system I've seen 4-5 dKH drops in alkalinity in just a single day and this is a constant dread with monitoring the reactor. I'm also thrilled at the though of tuning in new reactors/dosers with the constant monitoring. The alkalinity monitoring alone justifies the price for me and this would have paid for the monitor dozens of times over in alkalinity crash preventions.
- Ammonia, initially I was really bummed out that this was one of the parameter. I must have a dozen expired ammonia kits in a box somewhere that were simply used for cycling new tanks. After thinking about this for a bit I started to really think this might be a game changer. The obvious benefit is detecting a recently deceased tank inhabitant or monitoring ammonia levels on new fish additions to ensure we are not adding fish too soon or quickly to our tanks. But, if the ammonia monitoring is as accurate as Mindstream says I think this might be a game changer in itself. I think it might be possible to monitor the "health" of our tank continuously detecting, not only death, but the health of our tank inhabitants. Neptune Systems already promotes their ORP monitoring as a "health" gauge already (rather than for ozone dosing) and I think accurate, real-time ammonia monitoring is going to be a huge step forward.
- Potassium is a vital macronutrient for our tanks and it is possible that we might end up discovering an ideal NPK ratio for our tanks (it certainly is important for agriculture). If an ideal NPK ratio does turn out to be beneficial then an accurate and easy potassium test will be key to maintaining this. Also, low potassium levels have been known to stunt growth of corals for many decades now so why don't we regularly check this? I don't think continuous potassium monitoring is necessary but an easier, and more importantly, accurate way to measure it might be a big deal.
- Oxygen is obviously an important parameter but I think we might gain some valuable insight on it's usefulness once we start monitoring it regularly.
I guess I sound like a salesman for the Mindstream but I don't think anyone realizes where this will take us 5 years from now. I'm baffled that the Kickstarter campaign hasn't received more love from us. I actually emailed them and asked them if I could reserve a dozen of these things!
Ultimately, I think this is going to start a revolution in reef keeping.
