Reef Factory Smart Tester Review: Automatic Phosphate Testing Is Here!

[@ReefDork]

Here's my long-term review after 12 months kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZaWooSPhsqhrbM

[@smokeandkippers]

£200 and I’d buy it. £300 and I’d consider it. £600 nope!

[@MrNewrossman]

Great vid, even adding a ph/temp/Orb probe that dont need reagent would make buying a easier option, but for now I''ll keep using my dear Hanna

[@ShaunGrimshaw-n4b]

How do you test the water and maintain

[@davideamer8617]

Any longer term review yet on this Alex ?

[@ReefDork]

First unit stopped working shortly after this video but the replacement is running fine. It's within something like 0.02 or 0.03 of my hanna

[@stephenmattinson6892]

Hi Alex. Could be a handy piece of kit for us colour blind folk 😂. Little tip ? Clear silicone the old screw holes inside the cabinets which will stop delamination and bubbling. Prolonging the life

[@queencityreefs]

Agreed, luxury item for sure. Very nice for sure. And want it but dont need it. Im between mastertronic and reefbot. Thoughts?

[@ReefDork]

Mastertronic looks much more sophisticated to me

[@josephposada1830]

Most esteemed Good Sir, You are obviously in Gear Gadget Heaven 🎉

[@fishyjoe6470]

9:44 whats the green coral just to the right of the zoas on the (left of center, bottom)?

[@ReefDork]

John Deere Leptastrea

[@foxglovemead]

Perhaps need a three way race to determine if a more frequent use of Hanna (your 2 weeks to more frequent e.g. once a week) gives you sufficient insight vs this tester with a stretched test interval e.g. also weekly and an ICP about monthly e.g. at five weeks? This Tester could either be extended (ask manufacturer) or by ignoring intermediate results, give a weekly result. All run for at least 3-6 months…. to get some data. I’m prompted to get my Hanna tests started in the morning PO4 being the one I watch the most (but only weekly). Normally, NO3 and PO4 don’t change too much in a week, but I have had them go to nothing in a day, know when an extra test might be a good idea…. Is there any technical reason why test interval couldn’t be extended to a week? Reagents dry up? Is there much to keep tester running?

[@ReefDork]

More data is always better and an auto tester will never wake up one Saturday and think "I can't be arsed to test today" unlike me! Reef Factory are apparently going to update the software to let you test less often.

[@hakman239]

I’m setting up a similar tank to evo doesn’t have any chambers bought an internal filter for it but now Iv bought a bubble magnus mini q skimmer should I just sell the internal filter and use the skimmer?

[@TomNuyten]

Could you please review the reef flare bar 2.0? Nobody has done one on the first version and this month 2.0 was released. I wanna buy 2 as supplement lighting.

[@ReefDork]

I don't have one I'm afraid and I have no plans to change my lights at the moment...

[@reefcubedan2680]

Any updates on this ? Still working well?

[@ReefDork]

It developed a fault after this video that RF couldn't fix but they replaced it and it's been great since then. Still early days so can't say I trust it fully, but I like it so far.

[@reefcubedan2680]

Mines very unreliable to the point where it’s now out by 0.09 they’ve just offered me a replacement I’m hesitant to accept it and keep pushing for a refund I’m just trying to find other people’s experience with them before I do accept it

[@reefcubedan2680]

@@ReefDork I’m unsure I can put my trust in another

[@ReefDork]

@@reefcubedan2680 Ah, got ya. If this is accurate long-term, I'll absolutely love it - my phosphate has never been under control like this...

[@schule.digital69]

11:59 What kind of cabinet lighting is this?

[@ReefDork]

Philips hue bulbs on a motion sensor for the door

[@liampritchard4163]

So it a trident that only test 1 thing at the moment at that price point you might as well get a Neptune system

[@sailorjbn]

4:05 not premium except the price😮 Also 12:57 the cost of reagents will rise when/if product get serious markedpenetration😮

[@ReefDork]

I wouldn't expect them to go up - their kh keeper reagents have stayed the same price (cheap) for a couple of years since release.

[@jonathanstephens7804]

really like the look of these, shame about the price lol. my only concern is for some reason my wifi and reef factory do not get on! I run a salinity guardian which just will not connect to virgin wifi I have to run a hotspot to connect to it

[@ReefDork]

Yeah, they do have connection issues sometimes - I think it's something to do with 2.8ghz...

[@N.M.1887]

Jep, that helps a lot. Move it to 2.4ghz and tell your router to keep it like that. Or get a cheap TP-Router that is only capable of 2.4ghz 😅

[@reef_water_drop]

Please can you do Nyos reactor review 😊

[@ReefDork]

Will do, but the short answer is... It's brilliant!

[@reef_water_drop]

@@ReefDork I’m planning to get one tomorrow 😀

[@damiantosd8720]

Great bit of kit just the price is far too high for me and I have an Apex so I’m not a cheap arse lol.

[@N.M.1887]

Yep, same I WAS hiped until I saw the enormous price for only testing one parameter.

[@chicagorc3967]

@@N.M.1887 i dont have the cost of it in my whole 65 gallon set up and i have ecotech xr30s and mp40s lol

[@xisotopex]

the pink hanna checker looks like something I bought for my lady friend...

[@Richs_reef]

Great Review Alex! Have you noticed any daily fluctuations in PO4 such as night vs day or before and after feeding?

[@ReefDork]

I set it to test every hour for a couple of days to see that - no real changes. It did go up and down a tiny bit, but it's really steady generally. I'll show the graph on the livestream this Sunday

[@Richs_reef]

Awesome thanks Alex!

[@reefcubedan2680]

How did u manage to get cartridges 😂

[@alexl.9317]

Way to expensive and greedy. Testing daily only to waste reagent. If you have such a PO4 variation that you need to test daily, your corals are dying already, tester won't save you. And if your corals are not that demanding, you don't need the tester. I am not sure who is this tester marketed for for. I hate how these devices are marketed as a guard for "when disaster strikes", as prevention, whereas anyone who has a reefer for more years knows that this is not a real use case. Most disasters do not strike overnight and just a simple weekly tests can keep you out of harms way. But no company seems to "figure this one out", everyone seems to force you to think that testing 24 times a day is the way to go. At least is less scammy than KHG and less dishonest than GHL, so it's a plus!

[@N.M.1887]

Especially for PO4 😮 NO3 I agree, they change - but not that quickly that I need daylie testing for it. KH is another thing tho. Honestly I was shocked, on interzoo they said a very good price compared to other testers. I still try to find those other testers 😅 But just my opinion, I see other people's might need it. I would buy a autotester not for disasters, I would buy it for my lazieness 😂

[@704hunter]

Yeah I actually like Reef Factory and their products but this tester just seems to miss the mark. It being overpriced definitely doesn't help it either.

[@Philsta007]

£600 is nuts!

[@vascojardim6703]

I have vad the KH Director (GHL, piece of crao), the Trident (Really easy to use and great interface) and currently use a ALkatronic + Mastertronic. This looks like a decent piece of kit but 600 for one parameter is just ridiculous. The Mastertronic will youse onle one plug and as you said will test all 5 parameters, costing little less than 250 per parameter. And it will use one plug only. Swapping the reagents any time you want to test NO3, Ca or Mg means it will probably be more hassle than getting out the manual test kit itself and takes away the automation out of it. If Reef Factory wanted to have a chance in this market they should have proposed a downward slopping prices for each additional unit, so that if for example you were to buy 4 units it would come out at 1500. Still more expensive, still 4 plugs and 4 waste containers, but a bit more competitive. I gather 2 units will be enough for anyone in order to automatically test PO4 and NO3 and once a week check Ca and Mg. But that will still set you back 1200 and for that price…. MT would test ewverything with one waste container and one plug.

[@ReefDork]

Their dosing pumps come with a splitter that I bet you could use with these, so that'd sort the multiple plug thing.

[@tomg5405]

wich one of the three you had was the best? I agree with you this device is useless if can do juste one test

[@vascojardim6703]

@@tomg5405 none is perfect but for Alk hands down the Alkatronic and for multi parameter the Mastertronic. The Mastertronic has a lot of maintenance and can be a bit of a pain but it is the only one that tests all parameters. The Trident is not a bad unit and by far the easiest to setup but I found Cal and Mg would drift with time and the cost of reagents is absolutely prohibitive, especially in Europe. Waiting to check out the new Mastertronic Essentials.

[@simonlockley-evans3925]

The day all these manufacturers can just make their products work with wifi 2.4 or 5ghz or whatever wifi is out there is the day we can have a much better experience. At £600 you should just be able to switch it on, whack in your wifi password and it connects and stays connected! I dont want to dick around with internet modem settings. I have a RF P.H probe and its so good. Apart from the fact it just decides to go offline or disconnect randomly. Same with my redsea doser and reefmat. Sometimes they just randomly decide to play up. Some just work like my kamoer dosers and my inkbird. My radions annoy me as I need to put bluetooth and location on to connect. Ive not even attempted to connect my cloud gyres yet i just dont have the will 🤣

[@N.M.1887]

Its difficult they nearly all use some ioT Chip like ESP32 and they all are only able to communicate over 2.4Ghz. 5Ghz ones are rare and expensive and for Iot Devices mostly overkill. Same problem here with the redsea devices...

[@simonlockley-evans3925]

@N.M.1887 I figured it would be something like that, but thanks for explaining.

[@N.M.1887]

Forcing me to test once a Day to test feels wrong for me, i want to decide how often i test in a week 😂 especially for 450€. 12:26 Same tought here, a Mastertronic is ~1300€ (in germany), tests much more parameters, is "semi" free to choose reagents and freely configurable time wise. But at that Pricepoint the jump isnt that far, so for me it made the decision easier to save a bit longer and go for a Mastertronic. Dont want to sound overly critical! Good video enjoy the Video content keep it up! 😊

[@ReefDork]

No, all fair criticisms! Apparently they're going to update the software at some point so you don't have to test every day...

[@N.M.1887]

Fair call, but still the Price... And you buy the Product now and not on what they might integrate in the future. 😮 And they are not that fastest in Pushing out device Patches. A comparison would be interesting did not finde one online.

[@meinriff2704]

I get along quite well without this device😂

[@marcuswong1797]

This was interesting until i found out it does only for 1 parameter at a time. Why would anyone buy this over Trident or spend more and get the Mastertronic/Reefbot. This is the most epic fail from Reef Factory. They were doing so well until this product. $625 USD for 1 test lmao

[@nodrush80]

What are you doing to lower your phos? Pretty much all reefing equipment is overpriced. Lower it to a reasonable 2-300, and even that is borderline overpriced. Once a week testing is also an obvious needed option.

[@ReefDork]

I use nyos phosi-ex at the moment, but i'm weighing up a switch to carbon dosing or lanthanum chloride

[@nodrush80]

@@ReefDork What do you say about Rowaphos?

[@ReefDork]

@@nodrush80 very effective but also very dusty

[@nodrush80]

@@ReefDork True, haven't used it in a long time. Thinking about trying aquaforest nitraphos minus, not sure the difference between it and redsea nopox. Have you had any experience with it?

[@ReefDork]

@@nodrush80 never used either I'm afraid...