Chase the alk?

JimWelsh

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Sweet thanks for tagging along
So ur saying that u doubled ur daily dose from two hours after lights on until two hours after ur lights go out?

So for easy math u dose 10ml a day and your lights come on at 8am till 8pm:

So u would dose 20ml between 10am and ten pm?
Almost. If I previously dosed 1 mL every hour 24/7 for a total of 24 mL per day, then I would dose 2 mL every hour between 10:00 AM and 10:00 PM (for a total of 24 mL per day in both cases).
 

maxwell

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Hi
Here's my tank measurements using a KH guardian over a 7 day period ,the average is 7.37KH and the guardian is set at 7.5KH .The table shows the amount dosed and times.
Bill


 
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justingraham

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Almost. If I previously dosed 1 mL every hour 24/7 for a total of 24 mL per day, then I would dose 2 mL every hour between 10:00 AM and 10:00 PM (for a total of 24 mL per day in both cases).
Got ya i over thought that so in my case

Jim couple other questions for ya since this is just so amazing ur posting on one of my threads

What type of lights are you using? And have you seen any diffence in the uptake after lights out between say leds and halides?
Also what is ur photo period? How long is it and how long is your peak period?
Then one last thing have you seen better growth with switching the doseing up to this new way?

Thanks again for the info really appreciate this
 
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justingraham

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Hi
Here's my tank measurements using a KH guardian over a 7 day period ,the average is 7.37KH and the guardian is set at 7.5KH .The table shows the amount dosed and times.
Bill


What am I looking at? Looks like binary to me.

Not trying to be funny just trying to understand.
how many times do you test a day? And at what times? What's ur lighting schedule? And if your aiming for 7.5 how come ur average is 7.3?
 

maxwell

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Hi
I have had it running approx. 4 weeks the first 2 was just running as a monitor and me gradually reducing the calc reactor. Its set to test every hour at the minute , the table shows the day ,hour KH dosing amount and the test level .You would be amazed at the swing in tanks mine is crammed with sps and the dastaco was all over the place .I don't think you will ever get a straight line if that's what your looking for and I think 7.37kH against a set point is great .My PH is also more stable as I have a pinpoint proble and computer on 24/7.
Bill
 
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justingraham

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Also @JimWelsh or @Randy Holmes-Farley coukd u guys dumb down the +-3 of the Hannah alk checker. Does that mean if you add the same amount of water and regant every time you could get a different result? Or does it mean that the end dkh could be off by that much
Thanks again
Justin
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I'm not sure exactly what they did to determine it, but what it should mean is that with all types of uncertainties considered (human, machine, volume measurement, etc.), the actual value may be higher or lower than the indicated value by that amount.
 

JimWelsh

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Got ya i over thought that so in my case

Jim couple other questions for ya since this is just so amazing ur posting on one of my threads

What type of lights are you using? And have you seen any diffence in the uptake after lights out between say leds and halides?
Also what is ur photo period? How long is it and how long is your peak period?
Then one last thing have you seen better growth with switching the doseing up to this new way?

Thanks again for the info really appreciate this
LEDs. A mixture of different brands. I haven't run halides for years, so I can't make that comparison. My photoperiod is 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM ramping up and down for appx. 2 hours, so peak is 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM. I can't really say that there has been a huge growth increase with the new dosing schedule, but I did notice a small improvement.
 
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justingraham

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Hi
I have had it running approx. 4 weeks the first 2 was just running as a monitor and me gradually reducing the calc reactor. Its set to test every hour at the minute , the table shows the day ,hour KH dosing amount and the test level .You would be amazed at the swing in tanks mine is crammed with sps and the dastaco was all over the place .I don't think you will ever get a straight line if that's what your looking for and I think 7.37kH against a set point is great .My PH is also more stable as I have a pinpoint proble and computer on 24/7.
Bill
So I'm a justin this aka my thought process

Ur using a calcium reactor correct. I have looked into them but haven't really studied up if u know what I mean. So a steady flow would be coming out of the reactor to keep alk steady so wouldn't this be better then what I do by doseing every hour? Unless the media ur using has "hot spots" and certain water coming out would be a higher dkh? Because every time u have the guardian dose to bring up the alk wouldn't ur calcium and magnesium get out of wack? Or did I read up on this wrong? Thanks again for posting
Justin
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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So I'm a justin this aka my thought process

Ur using a calcium reactor correct. I have looked into them but haven't really studied up if u know what I mean. So a steady flow would be coming out of the reactor to keep alk steady so wouldn't this be better then what I do by doseing every hour? Unless the media ur using has "hot spots" and certain water coming out would be a higher dkh? Because every time u have the guardian dose to bring up the alk wouldn't ur calcium and magnesium get out of wack? Or did I read up on this wrong? Thanks again for posting
Justin

Only if demand was steady 24/7, which it appears to not be. Demand is larger during the day and lower at night. So more dosed during the day can lead to a more steady alk (if that is a goal of yours, other goals may also come into play, like keeping pH from dropping too low at night, which might have more dosing at night) than would equal dosing every minute of the 24 h day.
 
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justingraham

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Only if demand was steady 24/7, which it appears to not be. Demand is larger during the day and lower at night. So more dosed during the day can lead to a more steady alk (if that is a goal of yours, other goals may also come into play, like keeping pH from dropping too low at night, which might have more dosing at night) than would equal dosing every minute of the 24 h day.
Never looked into calcium reactors "that much" I just thought it would continually put of a steady dkh but thinking about it it is useinf lower ph water to melt the media so that would make sense about ph at night or am I wrong in thinking this way?
 

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Just kidding welcome aboard yo have any thoughts?

Lol! :)

I switched to a calcium reactor after dosing two part for years. I actually made my two part using @Randy Holmes-Farley recipe. Thanks Randy.

The calcium reactor is much more consistent IMO. It took a couple months to dial it in, but now it is 8.6 every time I test it. Hardest part for me now is mixing my new saltwater to exactly 8.6
 

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Never looked into calcium reactors "that much" I just thought it would continually put of a steady dkh but thinking about it it is useinf lower ph water to melt the media so that would make sense about ph at night or am I wrong in thinking this way?

The pH is lower at night in any reef tank, and the low attained may be lower with a reactor. That's its primary drawback, IMO. :)
 

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But in all seriousness I could figure it out but is it worth the time and aggravation? I guess that's why I'm asking cause if there is a benifit I could and prolly would do this

Wouldn't it be like, 3.5 minutes to figure it out AND change the doser? :D

I'm going to switch up my doser to simulate Jim's dosing regimen. Now I'm curious. :)
 
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justingraham

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Wouldn't it be like, 3.5 minutes to figure it out AND change the doser? :D

I'm going to switch up my doser to simulate Jim's dosing regimen. Now I'm curious. :)
Yea well I'm OCD ADHD so I would try to figure it down to the exact minute the change happens and dose the exact amount it needed to stay at the number to be honest mine was still consuming three hours after lights out then I fell asleep so it could be longer.

I would love to change it but I'm going on vacation in two weeks don't wanna mess with anything as I'm scared enough and I already ran into problems days after I cleaned all my pumps and powerheads
 

Rick.45cal

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For people that run an automated solution like KH guardian, what is normal and minimal swing that those users manage?

Dosing consistently 24 hours results in a daily swing of .3 to .4 dKh pretty much daily. Alkalinity swings are very interesting, it seems to be a very punctuated process.
 
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