Alkalinity monitor/controller -experiences
- Thread starter FarmerTy
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OP
OP
For reoccurring alk reagent charges? [emoji23]
mitch91175
2500 Club Member
And the trust level too.
mitch91175
2500 Club Member
He wasn’t referring to switching, just allow the unit to control his CaRX on/off and dose ALK only if necessary.
OP
OP
Mitch has me covered. 2-part is just to dose the level back up. You put a container of it beside the alkatronic and if needed, it'll dose your alk back up if low.
My calcium reactor will still supply my foundation element needs but if its ever producing more than uptake and my alk starts rising, the alkatronic will shut off my solenoid so that it stops for a bit to let the alk level drop.
biecacka
Valuable Member
Ahhhh. I think I understand you. So if it gets to high the alkatronic shuts it off. If it gets too low then it’ll dose alk for you. The reactor will mostly maintain the desired levels.
Do you use your apex (or other brand)to control your reactor now?
Corey
Do you use your apex (or other brand)to control your reactor now?
Corey
OP
OP
I use my Apex for pH control over the solenoid but it usually maintains the same pH so never really has to control it.
Thanks Raik
I am a senior automation engineer for Siemens. That is why I had a PLC lying around to set up. It took about a week to design, install and commission the GHL replacement. It was nice to do something at home. I am building up an HMI for the trending and display of all the data.
What industries do you work in? I do pharma/automotive/manufacturing but currently on an experimental project doing a large number of autonomous vehicles.
Reliability is the biggest factor for me. Even though the overall cost will exceed the GHL unit or even the Apex I know the results far exceed theirs with the system I built at home.
Awesome, I work in automotive industry (Body shop mainly). Do you control you whole system with a PLC?
I was controlling my reef using a s7 1200, but since I am originally from Brazil and over there the cost of the PLC is 4x, I ended up selling my CPU and getting a Neptune.
Another PLC guy here, AB mostly and few others. I have a system w/hmi I plan to use on my RODI/mixing station, Tag me If you do a tread on that Alk system
Hi Raik
Yes I have a S7 315 as my CPU with a few digital cards and analogies that I had lying around. I have the advantage of being a senior automation engineer for siemens. For the HMI I am using a tablet running WinCC RT Professional. It has made it a very cheap control system that does exactly what it want.
@siggy
I have been lucky to work in automotive, oil and gas, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, manufacturing, clean water.....pretty much everything. If you want to know how to make an alk controller of your own just send me a PM and I will tell you all about it. I am giving away all of the designs for my system and offering advice to anyone with questions.
spartanman22
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Hey all, I am in the market for either an Alkatronic or KH Director and am at a bit of a standstill. From what I've researched they both will do the job, but would appreciate on some insight as to what you all would recommend based on my situation. I have an Apex classic for the brains of my system. My dosing is handled by a GHL SA Doser 2.1. The KH Director seems like a smart choice as it will provide a more seamless operation between alk testing and dosing. I like the fact that the Director can make alk adjustments and then tell my 2.1 doser to adjust all other doser in accordance with alk changes. My understanding with this though is that at the moment no graphic trending, no integration with apex, and reagent costs are higher/more reagent use. Also could someone clarify, can the KH Director waste be discharged into the tank like the Alkatronic waste?
Benefits of the Alkatronic seem to be: better customer service, apex integration, lower reagent cost/use, reagent waste can be returned to tank. The negatives appear to be that I can only really adjust alkalinity through the built in doser. The alkatronic would not be able to adjust the other dosing solutions that my GHL Doser is dosing.
Price between the two is negligable. From my research it seems like people are slightly more happy with the Alkatronic, but it seems like the KH Director would offer more of a consistent dosing scheme for all of my solutions. If you had to pick, given these circumstances, which would you choose and why?
Thanks!
Benefits of the Alkatronic seem to be: better customer service, apex integration, lower reagent cost/use, reagent waste can be returned to tank. The negatives appear to be that I can only really adjust alkalinity through the built in doser. The alkatronic would not be able to adjust the other dosing solutions that my GHL Doser is dosing.
Price between the two is negligable. From my research it seems like people are slightly more happy with the Alkatronic, but it seems like the KH Director would offer more of a consistent dosing scheme for all of my solutions. If you had to pick, given these circumstances, which would you choose and why?
Thanks!
dragon99
2500 Club Member
@spartanman22
I've had the KHD since March. My only complaint is the lack of graphing/Apex integration (graph/history is only visible if you have a Profilux). In order to see my Alk test results, I have to log in to the GHL app twice a day.
Regarding reagent, you can by standard 0.1N acid instead of the GHL reagent. I've been using this one for ~2months now. No difference in readings or calibration from GHL reagent.
Waste can be dumped back into the tank assuming you trust the purity of the acid/reagent. The GHL reagent is tinted blue though, so I wouldn't put that back into the tank. Personally, my waste goes into a 1gal container that I dump every 2 weeks.
I've had the KHD since March. My only complaint is the lack of graphing/Apex integration (graph/history is only visible if you have a Profilux). In order to see my Alk test results, I have to log in to the GHL app twice a day.
Regarding reagent, you can by standard 0.1N acid instead of the GHL reagent. I've been using this one for ~2months now. No difference in readings or calibration from GHL reagent.
Waste can be dumped back into the tank assuming you trust the purity of the acid/reagent. The GHL reagent is tinted blue though, so I wouldn't put that back into the tank. Personally, my waste goes into a 1gal container that I dump every 2 weeks.
I am coming from KHG, which having tonnes of issues. And now I m happy user of GHL KHD. Initially I wanted to get Alkatronic but it s not available here.
Basically KHD built quality is rock solid, all its pumps is stepper motor if not mistaken n it s dead silent n super accurate compare to my kamoer X4, it s day and night difference. KHD setup is abit tedious n if u do it right, it s very consistent. The result is spot on all the time. PH probe calibration take like 10-15mins which I think why KHD is result is consistent n accurate.
U can dose your KH buffer with pump4 in KHD and use adaptive mode to maintain your tank KH.
Here are some cons about KHD:
1. KHD stand-alone is not able to provide u historical data with graph, u can have it provided u have profilux4 to do so (heard they working on it to have this feature on KHD stand-alone but not sure about the schedule)
2. The actual value compensation using % approach to match your fave manual test kit result is a bit tricky as but u can trial n error couple to get it spot on
3. They used to have some bubbles issue on the reagent tube but it s already solve using pvc tube
Reagent cost is quite affordable in my opinion as each test it consume about 3ml, 1000ml bottle will last u 333 test or 83days (4test daily). It cost like $0.12 per test. It consume total 100ml of SW if I set test using 80ml option.
The waste is not recommend to dump into your sump. So u have dose back SW n I dose back 400ml SW to my tank using kamoer daily
That s all I can tell u about KHD.
Basically KHD built quality is rock solid, all its pumps is stepper motor if not mistaken n it s dead silent n super accurate compare to my kamoer X4, it s day and night difference. KHD setup is abit tedious n if u do it right, it s very consistent. The result is spot on all the time. PH probe calibration take like 10-15mins which I think why KHD is result is consistent n accurate.
U can dose your KH buffer with pump4 in KHD and use adaptive mode to maintain your tank KH.
Here are some cons about KHD:
1. KHD stand-alone is not able to provide u historical data with graph, u can have it provided u have profilux4 to do so (heard they working on it to have this feature on KHD stand-alone but not sure about the schedule)
2. The actual value compensation using % approach to match your fave manual test kit result is a bit tricky as but u can trial n error couple to get it spot on
3. They used to have some bubbles issue on the reagent tube but it s already solve using pvc tube
Reagent cost is quite affordable in my opinion as each test it consume about 3ml, 1000ml bottle will last u 333 test or 83days (4test daily). It cost like $0.12 per test. It consume total 100ml of SW if I set test using 80ml option.
The waste is not recommend to dump into your sump. So u have dose back SW n I dose back 400ml SW to my tank using kamoer daily
That s all I can tell u about KHD.
spartanman22
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Do you notice an salinity swings in a weeks time from the waste? I do weekly water changes so easy enough to just adjust salinity during water changes, but if it’s more of an issue I may have to setup a the GHL to dose makeup water.
dragon99
2500 Club Member
The basic principle of the KHD (and maybe all of the Alk monitors right now) is this method.
http://www.reefedition.com/a-diy-alkalinity-test-by-randy-holmes-farley/
So I purchased from .1N acid from Amazon (this one) to test and sure enough, identical results after replacing the GHL reagent.
Initially I was adding salt once a week to compensate, but laziness has taken over and I haven't done that for a few months. I have not noticed any appreciable drift in my salinity. My weekly water changes compensate for the loss easily.
spartanman22
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Ok thank you for all the information. It sounds like the KH Director May be my best option given I’ve already invested in a GHL SA Doser. From what I’ve read GHL is working on the graphing/trending issue, correct? I don’t necessarily care if the graph is in fusion or GHL’s app
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