Alk testers and controllers

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Ive been out of the hobby for a cpl yrs now. Recently back in. Im more old school in the sense that i do manual things on my fish tank like top off. Its more of a feel type of thing. I do test cal and alk and dose accordingly.
However.

Im shooting for stability and i want to go on vacation this december. Im going to get a auto top off and use one. I have never had or used one in the 5-7yrs of reef exp. i have.
Anyways...
I wanna hear.from the ppl who are or have used an alk controller and constant monitor.
Yes i could use a ph probe with cal r3actor and run t3sting and dial it all in.
Seems a good hard # and dosing pump might b the way i wanna go till i get enough need for a cal reactor.

Is ur tank more stable?

Do you see more life in ur tank?

Hows ur stoney coral skeletons growth been since and prior to the new equipment?
Thanks!
-d

 

[JoshH]

Really your best two options out there right now are the GHL KH Director and the Alktronic. Both have a pretty big following and both seem to be bang on now with there reliability to accurately test and dose accordingly below is a link to the Alktronic thread that has taken off and I'll tag @Ditto @WWIII in here for more details on the Director.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-honest-opinion-about-the-alkatronic.372934/

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Will it overdose? I still need.to r3search and look at the equipment.

Ive heard that testing is easier than the hannas?!
D

 

[JoshH]

Will it overdose? I still need.to r3search and look at the equipment.

Ive heard that testing is easier than the hannas?!
D

To my knowledge all you have to do is fill the reagent every once in a while and calibrate them. They do all the testing and dosing on there own. So definately easier than the Hanna checkers lol

 

[Ditto]

I have multiple directors running and they are both within .1 of my set mark.

I am currently testing every 4 hours and adjusting based on that consumption without any issues.

You need to dial it in and once dialed in no issues what so ever keeping it stable.

It would virtually impossible to overdose because the adjustments are based on a perctage if your existing dose up to 50% of what your currently dosing. Which you can set to even a smaller % if you wish. You can use a higher % if your testing more and a lower % if your testing less. (Unless you set your base dosing to high to begin with, then you were overdosing to begin with)

Here is a great thread of us dialing a KH director in:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ghl-kh-director-kh-control-settings.573123/page-4#post-5897320

 

[Ditto]

I would like to also add I have adjusted twice on my older tank the base dosage by .4 per hour due to it consuming more. Usually if I see it swing more then .2 I make a base dosage adjustment and monitor.

I would also monitor first for a few months then switch to adaptive mode.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

k. thank u both of u!
-d