The Korallenwächter is a new water testing machine from Germany which is designed to automatically measure the most important parameters of reef aquarium chemistry. The company Korallenwächter, bares the same name as their machine, has been developing a new concept for how an auto water tester can work to analyze and report everything we want to know about the minerals and nutrients in our tanks.
The roughly eight inch long rectangular box has been in development for most of this year and from the images you can already see that it has multiple cartridges that slide in and out of the primary device. Each cartridge contains the reagents that are required for performing tests to measure alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, nitrate and phosphate and these will be good for around 50 tests.
The Korallenwächter cartridge will provide the necessary chemicals required for classical colorimetric tests which will then be analyzed by optical sensors and they will be swapped out and replaced much like printer cartridges. However unlike disposable cartridges those for the Korallenwächter will be traded in to be sent back for refilling, refurbishment and most importantly calibration to ensure the most accurate results possible.
This exchange program for the Korallenwächter is a huge logistical challenge and will necessitate partnerships with many retailers and distributors so it’s reasonable to understand why Korallenwächter will launch first in Germany and then Europe before branching out into other markets. Korallenwächter is still very much in early stages of development and while they do have a couple working demonstration machines in the field, they expect to have a more refined design for the prototypes completed in March, after which point the real beta testing will begin to gather more data and feedback from users.
Naturally this kind of high tech machine will have some kind of indicator LEDs to communicate the Korallenwächter’s status, but the primary mode of interaction will be through their smartphone app. Interestingly, the Korallenwächter app will be available well in advance of the testing machine and will serve as a kind of water chemistry logging program which should help to smooth out the user experience, and familiarize new users to the user interface even before the machine launches.
Although Korallenwächter hasn’t yet released a single product they are aiming to be interoperable to communicate chemistry results with other controller and monitoring platforms, in addition to developing their own companion dosing product to compliment the Korallenwächter and make automatic adjustments as needed. The designers and engineering team are keeping their fingers crossed for a tangible public release in late 2022 and while they are aiming for a sticker price of 1500 to 2000€ for a complete device with one set of carts, all other details are still very much up in the air so they don’t really know how much the cartridges will cost to replace or exchange. [Korallenwächter]
