KH Guardian: Automatic Alkalinity Controller- My Experiences

Rick.45cal · Feb 7, 2017

samparker said:
waste. Without knowing ANY details of what is in the reagent, I'm not putting that back into my tank. Besides, I have a full litremeter auto water change system across all four of my tanks. Once I know precisely how much tank water it is "wasting" I can easily account for that in water changes via the litremeter

That's my plan as well. I've got it running into a 2 quart vessel. I will figure out about how much it is using in a day and then add that to my NSW pump of my DOS and make it automatically make up for it with my AWC.

(Great minds think alike)

samparker · Feb 7, 2017

Rick.45cal said:
That's my plan as well. I've got it running into a 2 quart vessel. I will figure out about how much it is using in a day and then add that to my NSW pump of my DOS and make it automatically make up for it with my AWC.

(Great minds think alike)

I also have my skimmer cup hard plumbed to the drain, so I would be happy to just dump the waste into the skimmer cup. Consider it a very basic level of cup "washdown"

Rick.45cal · Feb 7, 2017

I need a swabbie and a 5 gallon skimmate locker and I'll be able to walk away from my tank for awhile

.

samparker · Feb 7, 2017

Rick.45cal said:
I need a swabbie and a 5 gallon skimmate locker and I'll be able to walk away from my tank for awhile .

I've got the swabbie, they are great! With the skimmer plumbed to drain - I can be hands off the tank for decent periods of time without too much worry. Plus it means I can be lazy and only touch the skimmer once or twice a year

Rick.45cal · Feb 7, 2017

samparker said:
I've got the swabbie, they are great! With the skimmer plumbed to drain - I can be hands off the tank for decent periods of time without too much worry. Plus it means I can be lazy and only touch the skimmer once or twice a year

I do wish I had a floor drain, life would be easier! (A man can dream). Otherwise I'm pretty set!

samparker · Feb 7, 2017

Mine goes through the wall to the laundry drain! But for other tanks that don't have that luxury, I am putting peristaltic or diaphragm pumps on float switches to keep it under control.

Gary Taylor · Feb 7, 2017

Following

HmoneyReefOkc · Feb 7, 2017

Following eagerly.

Rick.45cal · Feb 7, 2017

So it just tested on it's own (without me forcing it to test). It came up with 6.9dKH and this time I made it dispense into a graduated cylinder. The set point is at 7.5 dKH so I figured it would dose the max amount I allowed (35ml). I figured out that 28.2ml of the sodium bicarbonate solution will raise my tank by 0.1 dKH. Well it dosed 37 ml, (seems acceptable too me). I am going to change the set point to 7.0 dKH and see what it dispenses again next time.

I tested with the Salifert and came up with 7.0 dKH

Rick.45cal · Feb 7, 2017

Upon closer inspection it was 7.0 dKH that it finally determined the KH was. My bad, I must have read the display before it finalized it's decision. (There's that operator error thing again

).

samparker · Feb 7, 2017

eager beaver

. Leave it run a few tests and view the log (Y)

Rick.45cal · Feb 7, 2017

Can't help myself, it's too cool!

rockworm · Feb 7, 2017

Thank you for posting your experience. Mine left Miami on Feb 5 "to destination" which will be Canadian customs. I hope to have it next week.

Rick.45cal · Feb 7, 2017

rockworm said:
Thank you for posting your experience. Mine left Miami on Feb 5 "to destination" which will be Canadian customs. I hope to have it next week.

Awesome, I think once you get over the intimidation factor (and remove the stupid acrylic plugs in the tubes like a normal person.

) you'll find it's pretty easy to navigate the functions of it. Also feel free to share your experience/post questions here

. Maybe we can help, or you can help us

(Some of us are probably beyond help

)

rockworm · Feb 7, 2017

Rick.45cal said:
Awesome, I think once you get over the intimidation factor (and remove the stupid acrylic plugs in the tubes like a normal person. ) you'll find it's pretty easy to navigate the functions of it. Also feel free to share your experience/post questions here . Maybe we can help, or you can help us
(Some of us are probably beyond help )

Thanks Rick. I already downloaded the pdf manual. I love new technology and am hoping that this will really help with my 400g SPS tank. It is worth every penny if I can maintain stable peramaters. I will use this thread to update the good and the bad.