European equipment brand Reef Factory has released a liquid test kit range called Smart Test. The range consists of five individual test kits for KH, Calcium, Magnesium, Nitrate, and Phosphate, the main difference between these and other liquid tests is that results can be logged on their app to help facilitate correction if the results need remedying. To use them you do the water test in the standard way but then you type in how much reagent you used on the Smart Reef App. Then based on that the app will give you the test result based on the value. It will then log the result against historical ones and plot them on a graph for easy visual reference. If the results fall outside of those recommended for reef tanks however the app will then tell you, but the Smart bit is that it will also recommend how much additive, like Reef Factory’s own Calcium supplement, for example, needs to be added to correct it. And if you have a Reef Factory dosing pump so much the better as that can then be programmed to make the correction there and then.
The five tests don’t involve using any powder reagents and are very competitively priced, starting at around £12/$14 for the KH test. The Smart Test isn’t to be confused with the Smart Tester, however – a box that automatically tests a single water parameter for you, but once that launches there will be three testing options, liquid test, Smart Tester, and ICP, all of which will link to the app and enable a system that will be able to test for and then correct key water parameters autonomously. We’ve watched Reef Factory’s reefing product presence grow rapidly lately and this latest Smart testing system is a bold move into the future of monitoring. You would need a lot of dosing pumps, Smart Testers, and individual elements to do it, but in theory, Smart Reef will be able to test for and then correct many parameters by linking to Reef Factory ICP results and then dosing individual Reef Factory elements to correct the levels. It’s an evolution in water parameter management and a step closer to autonomous testing and correction across a much wider set of elements.
