# Marine Aquariums > Equipment and Water Quality Management >  Seneye Reef monitor

## Gary R

Well i got myself a seneye reef monitor for my reef tank the other day.

They also do them for coldwater,tropical aquariums and outside ponds as well.

as i said above i got the reef monitor for my marine setup, which you also need to buy a usb home base so that it can be networked unless you do have a PC close to your tank.

I end up getting the belkin wifi home base which is for sale on there site www.seneye.com/store 

i'm still in the middle of setting this up which as ended up being harder then i thought....but i also found out last night after buying this home base that it is not suported for windows 7 and above ??? which i find strange why seneye would sell it in the first place with this being the case.

So early days of letting you know have it works 

I will be adding to this thread and letting you know have i get along...so here is hoping that i can get this homebase setup  :lol: .

Regards Gary

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## lost

by the sounds of it this will be a short thread  :lol:  keep us informed

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## Gary R

well just came off the phone to seneye support.....i'm not happy at all 

after me buying this seneye reef plus the belkin home base 

I switch my laptop back on and it started working again

The guy now tells me that my PC needs to be running 24/7 to keep the updates coming in .....so what a waste of money buying the home base for £55

I could of just put an old netbook or laptop conected to it under the tank and left that running and save myself £55

They should be putting on the box that you need to have a PC runing 24/7 to get unlimted update well you are out and about.

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## lost

Will they alow you to send it back?

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## Gary R

Hmmm i would say not ....but its working now using the laptop

Will be getting back in touch with them tomorrow over it not working on me kitchen PC which as windows 7 on it, and the one which i did want to use this with.

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## lost

keep us informed gaz

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## Gary R

OK so here we go

Seneye Reef monitors a review by me over the next few weeks of what it does........

*Temperature* - constantly monitors water temperature, so you can get an alert if your heater breaks or your chiller fails.
*Free Ammonia* - monitors the highly toxic free ammonia (NH3) at very low levels, so you can stop your fish from dying from Ammonia poisoning.
*pH* - the Seneye monitors pH in your aquarium between 6.4 and 9. This range is ideal for most aquatic life and by focusing on this range increased accuracy has be achieved.
*Water Level* - readings are only taken when the Seneye device is in water, no false readings.
*LUX* - monitors ambient LUX and can be used to take direct LUX readings, understand how your light degrade over time.
*Kelvin* - understand where on the kelvin range your lights are and how light can change over time.
*PAR* - monitor the Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), understand if you have the correct quantity and quality of light for your corals or plants.

To start off the unit cost me £81 from www.WarehouseAquatics.co.uk that was with 10% off..... it is £99 from seneye

you need to buy slides for this which last for 30 days and cost £18 for 3 months.

as i said above you need to have a PC running all the time if you want 24/7 cover to see your readings

you can buy the USB Power Adapter that this unit can plug into and it will save the data for 30 days which then you will need to plug it into your PC to down load the readings.....this will cost you another £10 for the USB plug

or you could add like me the Belkin home base wifi sender which you still need the software on a PC to get the readings which you can get these off Ebay for around £55 ...from seneye £65

They do have a App out for this as well for the iphone, ipad and android phones.....which i have a iphone 5 and yesterday it crashed 7 times when trying to view my readings  :Frown: 

anyway more on this as the days go on.....i do need to get hold of there support team tonight once i get home over it not working on a windows 7 PC
and that should be fun .....not

Regards Gary

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## lost

Glad to see you are finlay getting this up and running after a few teething probs

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## Gary R

I would just like to say that I'm not trying to put seneye and there devices down in any way
as i think this is a good idea for a lot of us that have £1000s of pounds in a reef or pond system and would not like to come home to a load of dead fish or corals.

all i am trying to point out is the ups and down of this unit and hopfully any problems will be sorted out soon  :Smile: 

Regards Gary

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## Gary R

Had this running for a couple of weeks now, and to be honest i just don't think it is worth the money if you have had a marine tank for a couple / few years running.....

Don't get me wrong.............
This is Great for someone just starting out and new to the hobby as it shows temp, PH, free Ammonia, Dissolved oxygen and NH4  and once you get your head round it a Light table with LUX, PAR and Kelvin 

For me its another Gadget to play with, which i did to start off with, then found it a bit boring after a week.

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## lost

so by the sounds of it you would be better off using the test kits

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## Gary R

Yes unless they add the things to the unit you need to test to make life a lot easy'er ......like nitrites, nitrates, Calcium, alkalinity and for me i would like to see phosphates and Magnesium

Then you would have a Gadget that everyone would want to buy  :lol: 

But it is good to see your Temp and PH were ever you are on a iphone or PC  :Smile:

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## Gary R

Well its 5 months on and i'm having bad readings off this seneye unit with my PH saying that it is too low....this is day after day and have been for the last 4 weeks.
I had put a new slide in and still was getting the same PH to low ....testing with 2 of my PH test kits it shows all is ok on both.  :Frown: 

next thing I have found out is the updates that it does which goes back to seneye's server before coming back to a iphone or my PC at my works is always a hour or so later than when the reading was done .....so to me that shows that there server is not that good  :Frown:  

next is the update we have been waiting for from seneye which is another unit that they were working on which would mean that you would not need to leave a PC running at home 24/7 to get your tests from them........were is it Hmmmm still waiting  :Frown:  
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From seneye home page

SWS seneye web server

29/04/2013 After many months of successful alpha testing we are now working on the tooling and beta boards for the seneye web server SWS; however we expect at least 2 months till we have product to ship.  The SWS box will allow the seneye device to use your broad band router or switch to manage your seneye device from seneye.me. It totally removes the need for any computer in the home. Uploads will be faster, more reliable and it adds warnings for connection down (power out). There will be add-on modules available separately for Wi-Fi, Ethernet over power and eventually GSM. 

If you want to be on the beta test let us know; we will add you to the list and offer you the chance to be the first to own. We will produce a limited amount of SWS for beta testing and will also ask for deposits in a few months. As a seneye beta tester you will receive a small discount on the SWS (for helping us test) and the latest firmware update for your seneye device. 
----------------------------------------------------

Yes still ............waiting

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## lost

If I were you mate I would stick it on ebay it seems now they have your money they don't want to know, surely if you find the test results an hour later that can not be any good

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## acky3636

I too also bought a Seneye Reef about 6 months ago, I've had no end of false readings and every time the slide is changed (a monthly requirement) the readings change. After 3 months I rang Seneye and complained, they went through the conditions I kept my fish in and came to the conclusion, as I'm keeping Discus and using RO water the ionic value was very poor and the device couldn't read properly. I found this strange as a lot of serious fish keepers use RO water stored in barrels and aged for at least 48 hours prior to water changes. 

I decided to change to tap water only and spent the next 2 month changing to 100% tap water using only fluval aqua plus water conditioner to protect the fish from dangerous elements that are present in water straight fom the tap. Once on 100% tap water I was still having exactly the same problems, PH reading way out, temp varies, ammonia sometimes shows higher levels but fine on manual testers. Again I rang Seneye and I was asked this time what my KH reading was, I checked it and it was zero from the tap, again they said this was the reason and I explained that my chemical PH testers read okay, my both of my PH probes read the same as each other and match the chemical tests so why would the Seneye have issues, they insisted having a KH of zero from the tap was rare and worrying, until I resolved this the Seneye wouldn't work, I explained I live in Manchester and the whole of the North West use the same 2 or 3 local sources of water, I don't live in a little village in Scotland or Ireland and a warning should be included on the box. I since found out from reading many threads and numerous sites that many fish keepers have a zero KH reading from the tap.

I have now spent a month bringing the KH value in my tanks and water storage to 8 - 10 and guess what, my reading are still all over the place and I've just changed the slide again and guess what, the readings have changed again from one slide to another.

This device has the makings of being fantastic especially if they deliver the additional readings they keep promising that never seem to appear, however, this is currently a complete waste of time and I will not be buying any more slides until this device is updated and works properly, I feel at the moment I have wasted around £150 on slides and the device that could have been better spent elsewhere.

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*Gary R* (27-02-2014), *lost* (27-02-2014)

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## Gary R

Hi acky

And welcome to Fish-keeping.com

Good 1st post as well m8 ...the only thing I take any notice of with my seneye monitor is the temp reading on it...Water conditions are one of the most important things we need to pay attention to in this hobby, and the rest of this monitor is a waste of time in my mind as it don't work..... I'm with you, £150 is a waste of money, there web site as not had any updates since I got this thing a couple of years ago and having to leave a PC on 24/7 was another bad thing you had to do to get any readings.
As you said this could of been a good tool to have, if only they got off there backsides and got these new add-ons sorted out that they said was coming 12 months ago.  

As for keeping Discus, Reverse Osmosis (RO) water is not necessary for juveniles or most adults around the north-west..... As generally most of us have tap water that is fine for discus around here. If you do need to use RO water - Never use 100% pure RO water as it can be too soft and the pH can drop dramatically, You would be better mixing a percentage of RO and tap water to make stable water with a GH 3 – 6. 
If you have not already ...get yourself a pack of Tetra EasyStrips 5-in-1 Test Strips, 25 strips •Results for Nitrate, Nitrite, General Hardness (GH), Alkalinity (KH) and pH

Thanks for your post on your seneye monitor

Regards Gary

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## acky3636

Hi Gary

Thanks for the welcome, It's nice for someone to bother.

Your correct with the temp, it's the only reading that's near to stable although mine does differ occassionally by about 1 degree.
I do have a professional testing kit and two separate PH probes which is why I know the readings are so adrift of where they should be. I was interested in the Seneye as I work away from home occasionally and it was great to be able to access via the phone and check up on my tank. The device is a fantastic idea if they could get it to work, they seem helpful on the customer service line but will not admit there's a problem with the device.

Thanks for the advice ref RO, I was using it on one tank only (which is what I wanted the Seneye to report on) because I was trying to get some discus I've grown out to pair off and breed but I do use it with Waterlife 6.5 Buffer to replace all the minerals the RO unit has taken out and I do use tap water on the Juveniles and up to 50/50 as they get bigger to prepare them for the more acid softer water required for breeding.

Same as you, I get annoyed they give lots of information on the website to say they have lots under development nearly ready to go so you buy it, in reality in the 6 month I've had mine there hasn't been a single software update and nothing promised has ever been delivered.

Thanks for your comments and insights Gary

Regards

Kelvin

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*Gary R* (28-02-2014)

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## lost

Welcome to fish keeping acky keep us informed how you get on  with the Seneye

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## Gary R

Just Added a Discus forum here:  http://www.fish-keeping.com/forums/f....php?94-Discus 
hope to see some info and photos of your tank now Kelvin  :Smile: 

Regards Gary

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