I mean - I’m intrigued. I really am, but this is a lot talk with little to show scientific notes on, charts, graphs - heck I don’t even know what it looks like but I am intrigued.
The basics are, you set what the device should keep your tank at. I use KH Guardian, it’s $400 plus some accessories from
Amazon.
Your alkalinity, is variable, and is consumed by corals. This can be at different rates, some times of day/night they grow more than other times. Adding coral, losing coral, and coral growth over time, all change your hourly overall consumption.
For me, I have mine set at 8.25. It checks the tank every 6 hours. Sometimes it measures above, sometimes below.
If it measures below 8.25, it automatically doses a baking soda/rodi mixture, and it knows how much each ml of solution should raise my tank, and it calculates how much to add. Now, this is a estimate because I don’t know exactly what my water volume is factoring for rocks and sand and plumbing and whatever, but I’m very close.
So if it detects below 8.25 it calculates what is needed to bring me back to 8.25. If it detects above 8.25, it does nothing and waits for the next test in 6 hours
Because my volume is an estimate and slightly off, the calculated amount brings me a little above 8.25
You can see the daily pattern here
It keeps my tank between roughly 8.25 and 8.45 which is stable enough for me to not want to fiddle more
When alk gets low it’s bringing me up to about 8.45, and as the day goes on it does small doses to keep me at target,
I can make this more level with more frequent testing throughout the day, or by tweaking my water volume amount in the settings, but more testing = more reagent being used. I feel the stability is very good and the range Im staying in is tight and acceptable.
The tricky thing is that alk is highly variable and this is full automatic compensation. I could add 20 corals, it will make the needed adjustments by itself.
www.aquawiz.net
