@IOnceWasLegend
That would be cool having a group talk about the subject, I've never seen one in person let alone do I know the ins and outs as far as what it does and doesn't, and potential issues with them. So your thoughts are very informative.
I think Robert has a few set up at Neptune Aquatics you could check out. As for what it does/what it is:
- Tank water gets pumped into a cuvette (basically a test tube)
- Testing reagents for alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium get pumped into the chamber (in three separate steps)
- A little stir bar in the cuvette mixes up the water/reagent solution
- A laser shoots through the cuvette and measures the color of the solution
- This is converted to a number for alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium
- The solution is pumped out of the Trident and into a waste container
Your Hanna alk checker operates on a similar principal, the Trident just automates it. The other method to measure alk (used by KH Director, KH Guardian, etc.) is pH-based: have a pH probe in a sample of tank water. Alkalinity in seawater is a buffer, and will prevent pH changes until it gets overwhelmed. So you slowly add a weak acid, monitor pH until you see a sudden drop, and then the system calculates alkalinity based on that. The more acid you have to add to get the sudden change, means the more alkalinity your tank water has.
@IOnceWasLegend
From a generalist view i see the merits of having a way to know results without having to play at being a chemist. The time it would save. Same as not having to hand dose daily. Yet at the present moment I'm content with the lessons gleaned from doing things the manual way. Yet I still look foward to be able move on to easier methods.
Lol it would be like using a talk to text app, and never actually learning how to type or write.
Once you know the basics the next logical step is seeking to make things more convient.
I 100% think this is the way to go.
When I was a research scientist, the head of the lab I worked in had been a researcher for nearly forty years. He was very competent with new technology, and made extensive use of preassembled kits, but he had a rule: before you used the kit, you had to know how it worked. What the chemicals and reagents in the kit were, how they worked, why you do X and not Y in the protocol, etc. It was a pain in the ass at times, but it forced me to understand and think about what I was doing at every step of the way. And, if something went wrong, it made me extremely efficient at troubleshooting and figuring out how to fix it.
I think those lessons apply to reefkeeping in much the same way. Thinking about what you're doing, understanding why you may do X and not Y, etc. Then, when and if it starts becoming a drain rather than a plus to your enjoyment of the hobby, move to automation. That point is different for every person, and someone's, "That's a waste of money" is someone else's "I need this to enjoy it."
Now I’m holding out for the Hydros Maven so I can stop testing lol
