how cool

[photokid]

i saw this and thought how cool. would i buy it i think not but cool idea anyways.

 

[krb]

those things are amazing. Talk about auto pilot for the tank.

 

[twinytwin]

yeah they r pretty cool. i know guy who has one on his 550 cube tank i watch when he goes out town. i will try and take pics next time i go and watch his tank again.

 

[FutureInterest]

I think mojo had one at some point? I'm pretty sure he sold it for some reason though...

 

[jaustin]

it would take me months to learn how to set that thing up...i would more than likely crash my tank too by setting it up wrong. The more simpler the better in my case.

 

[skriz]

these have been around for ages. I've spoken to people who have them and they abdolutely love them. It constantly does water changes and their water chemistry is perfectly stable.

 

[twinytwin]

if anyone is still interstead i am going next week to look after the 550gal did anyone want me to still take pics of this system, tank and fishroom.

 

[photokid]

yeah please take some pics.

 

[twinytwin]

will do

 

[navyreefer]

http://www.seavisions.com/2008PHOTO.htm">http://www.seavisions.com/2008PHOTO.htm</a>

some amazing tanks from that site

 

[twinytwin]

As promised here are pics...

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[navyreefer]

Thanks for taking care of the tank for me, and your oil change is 3 months over due!

 

[twinytwin]

NavyReefer;155764 wrote: Thanks for taking care of the tank for me, and your oil change is 3 months over due!

Anytime...now we just got to talk about my fee...its not overdue i just keep forgetting to replace the sticker after i do my own oil change.

 

[mojo]

FutureInterest;138458 wrote: I think mojo had one at some point? I'm pretty sure he sold it for some reason though...

Yeah - I bought one used and sold it about 6 months later (and made $800 profit!). The unit itself is huge - I mean I had a hard time getting into my car when I picked it up. It's also complex - there's a lot going on, and it doesn't really fall in line with the "Keep it Simple, Stupid" philosophy, but that's another story.

The unit itself is well-built, although the guy that sells them is kind of an mad scientist that works out of his garage, and so it's not the high quality you'd expect to pay for that kind of device. Good - just not incredible. The frame itself is made of wood.

There's a built in RO unit, with two membranes. There's two very large, very heavy duty peristaltic pumps, and two dialysis membranes. The guy I bought it from (who was very inventive himself) said he finally gave up on the dialysis - they clogged way too easily. What was left was the automatic water monitoring and water changes (still valuable).

The way it replenishes water is interesting - you fill up a jerry can with salt. Then seal it, with a rigid line that goes down into the salt. It slowly fills up with saltwater until it's a very thick slurry of saltwater. That slurry is pumped through the peristaltic pumps and into the tank, to maintain salinity. That configuration lead to having to replace the peristaltic tube on the pump every time you filled up the salt bucket - expensive and tedious; the salt slurry is just really rough on the tubing.

The electronics themselves are well designed and well-thought out - as if from a professional product.

All in all, it was a neat idea, but there were too many "what if's" and too bleeding-edge for me to trust. It was a cool toy, but IMO, I'd rather just do a water change once a month (or a continuous water change) and not worry about the balance of everything....

 

[mojo]

NavyReefer;150656 wrote: http://www.seavisions.com/2008PHOTO.htm">http://www.seavisions.com/2008PHOTO.htm</a>

some amazing tanks from that site[/QUOTE]

All of those tanks look like they're maintained by someone. I mean, seriously - do you see any tank on there that looks like it's in a place where he or she would do their own tank maintenance? The reason I bring this up is that this means the unit is either a) too expensive for the average hobbist or b) too complex to really be needed, and so is only implemented by people who want to play around with new toys with a customer's unlimited budget.

There are several reviews out there (usually positive), but most come to the same conclusion - yeah, it works, but I'm not sure it's really worth the hassle or expense.

 

[krb]

mojo;155947 wrote: All of those tanks look like they're maintained by someone. I mean, seriously - do you see any tank on there that looks like it's in a place where he or she would do their own tank maintenance? The reason I bring this up is that this means the unit is either a) too expensive for the average hobbist or b) too complex to really be needed, and so is only implemented by people who want to play around with new toys with a customer's unlimited budget.

There are several reviews out there (usually positive), but most come to the same conclusion - yeah, it works, but I'm not sure it's really worth the hassle or expense.

dreamkiller