Mindstream Aquarium Monitoring System

[cxvbxghn]

So where did you hear about it? Honestly, it sounds either too good to be true or too expensive to afford!

[Happyschneider]

The technology seems to work. There is another company out there doing something similar (seneye). They also integrated a par reader. Interesting concept but just too expensive if you don't get phosphates.

[nuxx]

Alk, P04, Calcium and Nitrate would be what I'd be most interested in.

Nitrates mainly for carbon dosing.

[jason2459]

Any reports on this from MACNA?

[slief]

Originally Posted by jason2459

Any reports on this from MACNA?

Nothing new. As of yesterday they were about half way to the their pledge goal. They say if they make their goal, they could be shipping by end of year. If I had to guess, this is much further off than people would hope for.

I've been doing very high profile trade shows since the late 80's and wasn't impressed. Their booth, display and message was less than impressive IMO. If you didn't know who they were, you would have no idea what they were all about and would have walked right by them. I saw nothing that looked to be working as far as a good demo. Not a knock of them but I don't think they presented themselves very well. Especially for the investment that they are seeking and at a show like MACNA, I think they should have done a better job marketing themselves and more importanly, their booth should have spoken volumes about what they were all about but that is just my opinion.

[zzz111]

Originally Posted by slief

Nothing new. As of yesterday they were about half way to the their pledge goal. They say if they make their goal, they could be shipping by end of year. If I had to guess, this is much further off than people would hope for.

I've been doing very high profile trade shows since the late 80's and wasn't impressed. Their booth, display and message was less than impressive IMO. If you didn't know who they were, you would have no idea what they were all about and would have walked right by them. I saw nothing that looked to be working as far as a good demo. Not a knock of them but I don't think they presented themselves very well. Especially for the investment that they are seeking and at a show like MACNA, I think they should have done a better job marketing themselves and more importanly, their booth should have spoken volumes about what they were all about but that is just my opinion.

Thanks for the update! But too bad I dropped my DIY alk auto tester project and pledged them on kickstarter, now i probably need to pick my own project back up again, hate to do that. And agreed they can do a much better job representing themselves, at the show or online.

[zzz111]

BTW guys, might be a bit off topic, but anyone know there was a guy on this forum, once posted a DIY alk titrator way back, and the guy just disappeared maybe out of the hobby. Any one who can help contact him would be very, very appreciated, I'd much rather buy his DIY than doing it myself.

Been paying attention to Mindstream since when, 2013? They had always been 6 to 12 months from production since i first heard of them. If they fail this pledge, I'll have to buy one somewhere or make one myself, definitely prefer buying. And, alk and alk only, i don't even bother to know what else are in their 10 or 12 testing lists, stock index tomorrow? not interested.

[Happyschneider]

It seems that with a very accurate pH meter you might be better off IMHO. They are not measuring alkalinity but calculate from several parameters.

[MrineLfRlz]

Originally Posted by nuxx

alk, p04, calcium and nitrate would be what i'd be most interested in.

Nitrates mainly for carbon dosing.

+1!

[zzz111]

Originally Posted by Happyschneider

It seems that with a very accurate pH meter you might be better off IMHO. They are not measuring alkalinity but calculate from several parameters.

pH plus CO2 (or HCO3-) will nail it, but HCO3- sensors are usually only good for fresh water. I don't know how they make an alk probe, but my plan is just a good old titrator, bunch of pumps, tubes and solenoids, simple stupid but a real headache to make.

[MrineLfRlz]

Originally Posted by slief

Nothing new. As of yesterday they were about half way to the their pledge goal. They say if they make their goal, they could be shipping by end of year. If I had to guess, this is much further off than people would hope for.

I've been doing very high profile trade shows since the late 80's and wasn't impressed. Their booth, display and message was less than impressive IMO. If you didn't know who they were, you would have no idea what they were all about and would have walked right by them. I saw nothing that looked to be working as far as a good demo. Not a knock of them but I don't think they presented themselves very well. Especially for the investment that they are seeking and at a show like MACNA, I think they should have done a better job marketing themselves and more importanly, their booth should have spoken volumes about what they were all about but that is just my opinion.

It looks like you try out a number of new products, are you going to give there product a try or pass it by i would love to get your opinion of it. Im subscribed to your thread and love your tank system and having your say with experiencing this product first hand would mean alot to me and other reefers.

[slief]

Originally Posted by MrineLfRlz

It looks like you try out a number of new products, are you going to give there product a try or pass it by i would love to get your opinion of it. Im subscribed to your thread and love your tank system and having your say with experiencing this product first hand would mean alot to me and other reefers.

I'll be passing. I don't need a subscription-based product to tell me how my tank & my parameters are doing. Just something to make people chase numbers. Perhaps down the line if it integrates with the apex & in the subscription fees next to nothing. But at this point I have no use for it. It is a neat idea though.

[zzz111]

Just got the notification email that the mindstream pledge project has failed to reach its funding goal by the deadline. Too bad.

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by zzz111

Just got the notification email that the mindstream pledge project has failed to reach its funding goal by the deadline. Too bad.

They weren't supposed to need this kickstarter funding to go live. Now we'll see if that was true.

[soulpatch]

Have to agree that I was horribly unimpressed with their station at macna. In talking to then they came across as smart and knowledgeable in what they do but perhaps not the best business minded people. They would probably do well to being someone on to manage that side of the house and present a better front to the public

[gcarroll]

Originally Posted by slief

Nothing new. As of yesterday they were about half way to the their pledge goal. They say if they make their goal, they could be shipping by end of year. If I had to guess, this is much further off than people would hope for.



I've been doing very high profile trade shows since the late 80's and wasn't impressed. Their booth, display and message was less than impressive IMO. If you didn't know who they were, you would have no idea what they were all about and would have walked right by them. I saw nothing that looked to be working as far as a good demo. Not a knock of them but I don't think they presented themselves very well. Especially for the investment that they are seeking and at a show like MACNA, I think they should have done a better job marketing themselves and more importanly, their booth should have spoken volumes about what they were all about but that is just my opinion.

You are not the only one who was underwhelmed at MACNA! I had a couple other friends mention the same thing and one noted that there was no one even seeming interested at the show. They really missed the boat on this.

[oldbones]

I'll admit, I'm bummed that they seem to have done such a poor job of marketing this project, especially at MACNA. There was more movement on the Kickstarter campaign in the first two hours it was open than over the whole MACNA weekend! They definitely missed the boat.

It will interesting to see what happens next.

[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by vbnh

So where did you hear about it? Honestly, it sounds either too good to be true or too expensive to afford!

What is with all these spammer accounts? They join post in 3 threads then post the exact same thing every time...

[ca1ore]

I'll continue to stick with my long-held view that this is a 'believe it when I see it' piece of kit.

[ca1ore]

Originally Posted by zzz111

pH plus CO2 (or HCO3-) will nail it, but HCO3- sensors are usually only good for fresh water.

My sense is that if it were easy to infer alkalinity, Apex would be able to do it already

[Sk8r]

The number of steps you have to go through to run an electronic Hanna alk test is (no kidding) twice the number of steps you have to go through to do it with Salifert and involves an added chemical, which says building an electronic one-shot test for alk is not easy to do.

[805reef]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

The number of steps you have to go through to run an electronic Hanna alk test is (no kidding) twice the number of steps you have to go through to do it with Salifert and involves an added chemical, which says building an electronic one-shot test for alk is not easy to do.

I haven't used a salifert test in a while but if what you are saying is true it must be only 1 step because the hanna is only 2 steps unless you actually count pushing the button as a step. Add 10ml of tank water then add 1 ml of reagent. Done.


Hanna
1. Turn on unit
2. Fill cuvet with 10ml of tank water
3. Press button, wait for C2 to flash
4. Add 1ml of reagent
5. Press button and wait for reading

[nuxx]

Originally Posted by slief

Nothing new...

Maybe with all the hype around the Mindstream, companies like Neptune will look harder at a solution using their existing controllers.

[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by nuxx

Maybe with all the hype around the Mindstream, companies like Neptune will look harder at a solution using their existing controllers.

Hype but that is where it kind of ended. With as much money as many of us will spend the lackluster response from many of us into this product probably did not help push the effort of the other guys to invest in it.

Had this taken off and there was money to be had I bet we would have seen some more action from the other guys...

[slief]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

Hype but that is where it kind of ended. With as much money as many of us will spend the lackluster response from many of us into this product probably did not help push the effort of the other guys to invest in it.

Had this taken off and there was money to be had I bet we would have seen some more action from the other guys...

If Mindstream's technology is worth the weight in gold or is far enough along in development and actually works, a company like Neptune or even Hanna could conceivably buy Mindstream for the intellectual property or license the technology but based on what I saw at MACNA, I don't think the product isn't ready for prime time yet. I suspect there are still some major developmental hurtles to address.

Had they done a better job at MACNA, they would have stood a much better chance at securing the investment funds they needed to move things along quicker as that was the venue that they really needed to make a big splash at. Instead they kind of blew a big opportunity IMO and created some doubts not only among their Kickstarter investors but also among potential investors and perspective users. Time will tell but if I were a betting man, I'd bet this product is much further from production than expected or at least the complete set of tests that they are touting. Don't get me wrong, the concept is great and while I wouldn't be chomping at the bit for something like this, obviously, there are many that would be and from a tech standpoint, it's a leap forward as far as testing goes.