CoralVue has added a new Auto Water Tester to its Hydros controller range called Maven. Named after “one who is experienced or knowledgeable,” Maven will be able to automatically test the big five reef aquarium parameters – Alkalinity (KH,) Calcium, Magnesium, Nitrate, and Phosphate, a killer testing combo that many reefers crave, as well as performing a whole host of other Hydros Wi-Fi connected monitoring and control features at the same time.
How Maven works
Maven uses a single built-in stepper motor to draw in water from the tank and place it in a front-mounted external cuvette. Once there it then draws reagents from seven different bottles, 1 x alk, 1 x calc, 1 x mag, 2 x nitrate, and 2 x phosphate, and uses prisms, an LED, and an electronic eye to take readings and relay information from behind the clear cover of the unit. CoralVue says it needs no calibration, and the best part is that the user can program the frequency of the tests, so alkalinity could be tested every few hours for example, nitrate and phosphate daily, and more stable parameters like calcium and magnesium, weekly.
What’s more, it even has two saltwater intake lines, so it could be used to monitor the intake and effluent lines of a nitrate reactor to check its performance, or importantly, two separate saltwater systems, as long as they are close together. A micro diaphragm airpump purges the lines after each test, the cuvette is external to the main box and can be removed, cleaned, or replaced within thirty seconds without risk of water ingress.
Hydros monitoring and control
As well as answering the prayers of many a water parameter freak, Maven is a Hydros controller in its own right and comes with two Drive ports for dosing pumps and cooling fans, two Sense ports for water level sensors and leak detectors, and two Command Bus ports for wired connection to other Hydros devices. And the “Hydros World” just keeps growing and growing, with the recent addition of the new Hydros Minnow and Hydros Launch. Join up the right components and the Hydros ecosystem will provide dozens of monitoring and control solutions for your reef aquarium.
What we think of Maven
CoralVue is no stranger to the automatic water testing market and distributed many of them before embarking on their own auto water tester journey with Hydros. The combination of a stand-alone unit, those five key parameters in combination, and the ability to program how often each one gets tested will be a huge draw for many, and we know just how many conversations are held in our LFS each week by people requesting exactly that. The unit looks well built and rugged, it fits in with the existing range and (without actually testing one,) it seems about as simple as it could possibly be. Now people will be able to test, monitor, and action those five key water parameters via an app, and that’s a big deal.
Calcium and Magnesium are combined tests, so you can’t split the frequency with those although you can still control how frequently they both test the water. The reagents are made and controlled in-house by CoralVue so there won’t be any third-party replacements, but we hope fewer out-of-stock of those reagents too.
Maven price and availability
The price of this All-In-One testing solution? We don’t know yet as CoralVue hasn’t released pricing, and price is the most important parameter of all. We also need to know if the reagents come separately (as they will be consumed at different rates,) and the price of them.
Note that Hydros is also not available in Europe yet. CoralVue wants to hold onto Maven for a few more months to do more Beta testing and make sure the device is truly ready for market in the US. We’ll bring you more details on this exciting device as soon as we know more, and if we get our hands on one, a review.
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