maged88
New Member
Add to the disadvantage for me is the noisy waste water pump, even though it takes 2 minutes for rinsing but when you run the test 6 or more times a day you really feel the noise
KH Carer Review and Experience
- Thread starter MarineandReef Jaron
- Start date
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maged88
New Member
I agree thats why I communicated the same with Carlos to find a way to reduce noise and he suggested adding a speed control on the pump and reducing its speed will help reducing noise even if a test may take a couple of minutes more.
Maybe once he communicates to Kamoer we find this in the next app update but I’m not sure whether this will be an option
OP
OP
I have been testing twice per day before I wake up and before I get home from work. This is right before I normally look at the tank and I want to know the KH when I am looking at the tank. Since I am not at the tank I don't hear anything.
OP
OP
I guess enough is relative. I feel 2 times is enough to let me know if something is malfunctioning. If you are dosing then you may want more tests because the machine only doses after a test. Right now I have a separate pump adding kalk and I only plan on adding the alk dose after my kalk is maxed out.
n2585722
2500 Club Member
I went to once a day now. I was only testing with the Hanna once a week so once a day is a lot more than I was doing.
maged88
New Member
The unit is stable now and I relied on it to dose so I decided to go for 4 tests a day and so far the range is stable between 7.4 to 7.7 as I’m setting the target at 7.6, sos far so good and every 2 days I check with one hanna test to make sure nothing is way off , will give it another month before I feel confident
n2585722
2500 Club Member
I am trying dynamic dosing within the Hydros now using the KH Carer test results. I got a new XD controller I had intended for a different use but was not ready for that project so now it is in use for this. I am using a intllab dosing pump with the small tubing and have a flow rate of 13.2ml. I just started it so if it works out I will post setup, but so far it seems to be working.
Last edited:
Hi,I wanted to start a thread giving my experience with the new Kamoer KH Carer.
I have recently started using the Kamoer KH carer. Before I go into what I think of the unit I thought I should explain why I got one.
My tank is a RedSea 750XXL I set the tank up after moving to my new home 5 years ago Pic of my previous tank below sorry about the poor resolution.
With my new tank I removed alot of the corals and tried to restart everything from frags. The SPS started to do well until I flew back with reefapalooza Chicago with some frags last year. I am not sure what happened but as soon as I put the new SPS frags in all of my SPS RTNd. It was like they brought in some kind of bacterial infection. I have been trying to rebuild the tank but everything has been RTNing. What compounded the issue was that as the SPS RTNd my Alk shot up from 9 to 12 and I think that made everything worse. I felt that if I had caught the problem sooner I could have reduced my dosing and I might not have lost all of the SPS but because I didn't the alk spike just made the RTN even worse.
I started testing with a Hanna Checker every daily to mitigate this problem but SPS have not been able to live in the tank since. I eventually slipped into testing every 3-5 days due to life. I became a new Dad 2 months ago and the daily testing is just not an achievable thing any moire. I started getting actual SPS growth about a month ago and then left on a hunting trip. When I came home I found the rug by the tank soggy. The glass redsea sump had cracked from top to bottom and water was dripping out. Amazingly only about 5-10 gallons of water was on the floor and the leak slipped right around where I had my leak sensors placed. The tank's salinity dropped from 1.026 to 1.021 and my alk was again at 11.5 when it was at 8.5 before I left. All SPS died except for 1 Acro.
I learned a couple of things.
1. I need more leak sensors
2. I need some way of automating KH testing. My most successful tanks were when I worked at the LFS and I had hours next to the tank every day and I could pay attention to every detail. I dosed everything manually and tested everything manually but I can't do that now with where I am in life.
I picked up a KH Carer as a Christmas gift to myself. I chose the KH carer over the other automatic KH testers for a couple of reasons.
1. I wanted something that I could use stand-alone. I don't always use controllers and I use different controller ecosystems so I really didn't want something proprietary.
2. I wanted to be able to maintain the unit myself and the simple titration-based testing system that uses a pH probe and dosing pumps was something I could easily take care of myself.
3. I liked the affordability of the reagents and the fact that the reagent is not proprietary.
4. I prefer good hardware over good software. I will put up with a buggy app if it means stuff doesn't break. Since Kamoer makes the internals of some other testers and I have had good experiences with their dosing pumps I thought that the hardware in the Kamoer would be the best available.
I went to set up the unit this weekend. The instructions included are awful and make no sense, But once I opened the App and added the unit the app walks you through the initial setup. you need to calibrate the pH probe, the saltwater feed pump that adds tank water to the testing beaker, calibrate the KH dosing pump, and prime the reagent pump. I was surprised you don't calibrate the regent pump or the wastewater pump but I have since learned that the exact flow rate of the waste pump doesn't matter. It just needs to empty the beaker after the test. The reagent pump can be calibrated but there is more on that later. The pH probe comes with pH 7.0 and pH 9.89 solution but you can also use pH 4 and pH 7 which is good for maintenance.
I called CoralVue and they recommended testing with the unit 12 times per day for 1 day before doing the final calibration to let all of the pumps and tubing break in. The unit was 4 dKH higher than my Hanna Checker at this time. After the break-in, you can calibrate the reagent pump. The app lets you calibrate the regent pump traditionally or you can perform a test and then tell the app what the actual alk is. It then infers the correct reagent flow rate. I decided to calibrate to my Hanna Checker and this worked well for me. This morning Hanna read 8.1 and KH Carer read 8.15.
I realized after the fact that I needed dosing containers for the KH reagent and KH buffer. So I added them in yesterday. This messed up the calibration and I needed to recalibrate again. You can choose to have a third container for your waste or add the waste back to the tank. The reagent is sulfuric acid so it will lower the pH of the tank slightly if you add it back to the tank. I have been adding the waste to the tank and have not noticed any pH drop.
Right now I am just testing and not dosing. I don't plan on dosing with the unit for some time. Right now my alk demand is met with kalk and I want to keep using kalk until I can't and then I will add in alk solution with the KH Carer.
So far I like the unit. It seems any time you replace the reagent, alter the tubing length, or generally mess with the unit it will need to be recalibrated but recalibrating is simple and once it is dialed in I shouldn't need to touch it very often. I plan to mix up a large container of regent to avoid frequent recalibration.
The alkalinity seems consistent with my Hanna checker but the pH reading does not match my Apex. I recalibrated both probes with the same solutions last night and they still don't match. My Apex is reading 8.0 to 8.2 and the KH Carer is reading 7.6-7.8 and it only reads when it tests. I believe the little bit of leftover sulfuric acid on the probe and test beaker skews the results down.
Stay tuned for more updates.
I installed kH carer on 3rd of April. Calibrated on the date of install. It was then showing results around 7.2, but manual dKH by salifert is 8.5. So I left it on automatic mode with 5 measurements a day until today. On 14th the first batch of reagent was exhausted so, I made a new batch of reagent as per the instruction and added to the reagent bottle. Since then the kH results went down to 5.5. So, today, I recalibrate the pH probe, salt water pumps. After calibration the test results went up a bit to 6.1. Manual test again is 8.6 by salifert. I have few queries;
(1) I couldn't sync the time on app and time on my mobile; app replied "failed to sync time"
(2) I couldn't change the SG of the saltwater set on the app (its 1.022 by default)
(3) I couldn't tell the app (like you said) what the actual alk is; app replied "kH input Error".
I couldn't also contact the kamoer support to resolve the issue.
Thanks.
Ant
Hi,I wanted to start a thread giving my experience with the new Kamoer KH Carer.
I have recently started using the Kamoer KH carer. Before I go into what I think of the unit I thought I should explain why I got one.
My tank is a RedSea 750XXL I set the tank up after moving to my new home 5 years ago Pic of my previous tank below sorry about the poor resolution.
With my new tank I removed alot of the corals and tried to restart everything from frags. The SPS started to do well until I flew back with reefapalooza Chicago with some frags last year. I am not sure what happened but as soon as I put the new SPS frags in all of my SPS RTNd. It was like they brought in some kind of bacterial infection. I have been trying to rebuild the tank but everything has been RTNing. What compounded the issue was that as the SPS RTNd my Alk shot up from 9 to 12 and I think that made everything worse. I felt that if I had caught the problem sooner I could have reduced my dosing and I might not have lost all of the SPS but because I didn't the alk spike just made the RTN even worse.
I started testing with a Hanna Checker every daily to mitigate this problem but SPS have not been able to live in the tank since. I eventually slipped into testing every 3-5 days due to life. I became a new Dad 2 months ago and the daily testing is just not an achievable thing any moire. I started getting actual SPS growth about a month ago and then left on a hunting trip. When I came home I found the rug by the tank soggy. The glass redsea sump had cracked from top to bottom and water was dripping out. Amazingly only about 5-10 gallons of water was on the floor and the leak slipped right around where I had my leak sensors placed. The tank's salinity dropped from 1.026 to 1.021 and my alk was again at 11.5 when it was at 8.5 before I left. All SPS died except for 1 Acro.
I learned a couple of things.
1. I need more leak sensors
2. I need some way of automating KH testing. My most successful tanks were when I worked at the LFS and I had hours next to the tank every day and I could pay attention to every detail. I dosed everything manually and tested everything manually but I can't do that now with where I am in life.
I picked up a KH Carer as a Christmas gift to myself. I chose the KH carer over the other automatic KH testers for a couple of reasons.
1. I wanted something that I could use stand-alone. I don't always use controllers and I use different controller ecosystems so I really didn't want something proprietary.
2. I wanted to be able to maintain the unit myself and the simple titration-based testing system that uses a pH probe and dosing pumps was something I could easily take care of myself.
3. I liked the affordability of the reagents and the fact that the reagent is not proprietary.
4. I prefer good hardware over good software. I will put up with a buggy app if it means stuff doesn't break. Since Kamoer makes the internals of some other testers and I have had good experiences with their dosing pumps I thought that the hardware in the Kamoer would be the best available.
I went to set up the unit this weekend. The instructions included are awful and make no sense, But once I opened the App and added the unit the app walks you through the initial setup. you need to calibrate the pH probe, the saltwater feed pump that adds tank water to the testing beaker, calibrate the KH dosing pump, and prime the reagent pump. I was surprised you don't calibrate the regent pump or the wastewater pump but I have since learned that the exact flow rate of the waste pump doesn't matter. It just needs to empty the beaker after the test. The reagent pump can be calibrated but there is more on that later. The pH probe comes with pH 7.0 and pH 9.89 solution but you can also use pH 4 and pH 7 which is good for maintenance.
I called CoralVue and they recommended testing with the unit 12 times per day for 1 day before doing the final calibration to let all of the pumps and tubing break in. The unit was 4 dKH higher than my Hanna Checker at this time. After the break-in, you can calibrate the reagent pump. The app lets you calibrate the regent pump traditionally or you can perform a test and then tell the app what the actual alk is. It then infers the correct reagent flow rate. I decided to calibrate to my Hanna Checker and this worked well for me. This morning Hanna read 8.1 and KH Carer read 8.15.
I realized after the fact that I needed dosing containers for the KH reagent and KH buffer. So I added them in yesterday. This messed up the calibration and I needed to recalibrate again. You can choose to have a third container for your waste or add the waste back to the tank. The reagent is sulfuric acid so it will lower the pH of the tank slightly if you add it back to the tank. I have been adding the waste to the tank and have not noticed any pH drop.
Right now I am just testing and not dosing. I don't plan on dosing with the unit for some time. Right now my alk demand is met with kalk and I want to keep using kalk until I can't and then I will add in alk solution with the KH Carer.
So far I like the unit. It seems any time you replace the reagent, alter the tubing length, or generally mess with the unit it will need to be recalibrated but recalibrating is simple and once it is dialed in I shouldn't need to touch it very often. I plan to mix up a large container of regent to avoid frequent recalibration.
The alkalinity seems consistent with my Hanna checker but the pH reading does not match my Apex. I recalibrated both probes with the same solutions last night and they still don't match. My Apex is reading 8.0 to 8.2 and the KH Carer is reading 7.6-7.8 and it only reads when it tests. I believe the little bit of leftover sulfuric acid on the probe and test beaker skews the results down.
Stay tuned for more updates.
I installed kH carer on 3rd of April. Calibrated on the date of install. It was then showing results around 7.2, but manual dKH by salifert is 8.5. So I left it on automatic mode with 5 measurements a day until today. On 14th the first batch of reagent was exhausted so, I made a new batch of reagent as per the instruction and added to the reagent bottle. Since then the kH results went down to 5.5. So, today, I recalibrate the pH probe, salt water pumps. After calibration the test results went up a bit to 6.1. Manual test again is 8.6 by salifert. I have few queries;
(1) I couldn't sync the time on app and time on my mobile; app replied "failed to sync time"
(2) I couldn't change the SG of the saltwater set on the app (its 1.022 by default)
(3) I couldn't tell the app (like you said) what the actual alk is; app replied "kH input Error".
I couldn't also contact the kamoer support to resolve the issue.
Thanks.
Ant
n2585722
2500 Club Member
First question is what reagent are you using now? How did you mix it? If it is the CoralVue concentrated reagent then that has to be mixed 8 to 1. As an example if you add 100ml of the reagent you would add 800ml of DI water. The 4 to 1 mix ratio is for the Alkatronic and not KH Carer.
OP
OP
In addition to making sure the reagent is mixed properly. I would suggest you calibrate the kh directly under the advanced options. This has been the easiest way for me to calibrate. I would also contact CoralVue rather than Kamoer. They are the US based support and I have always had good experiences with them.
n2585722
2500 Club Member
You do know that these get sold at least three times and each time it is sold for a profit. There is at least the manufacturer, distributor and retail outlet. Some things are sold 4-5 times before we get them. So I doubt very seriously that the manufacturer will make 400% profit once you figure in research and development into something that is a narrow market like saltwater aquarium devices. There is not a huge buyer base for something like this so R&D has to be made up in 100's of thousand devices if even that many instead 100's million devices.
Borat
Valuable Member
I generally agree, however.. if you DIY a led light and include all nice furnishings, it won't come out significantly cheaper than a commercially made led fixture, so price is reasonably fair. You can diy a kh keeper for 200 bucks, so it must cost even less for a manufacturer to mass make these.
So for me the "fair" price of kh keeper is maybe $300 max - to let manufacturer make profit and feed distribution chain.
There is no "R&D" needed to put together 3 dosing pumps, a ph probe and a small pcb with lcd screen.
Iant419
Community Member
Alk and carbonate hardness are two different things. A regular alk test will read a n increase in pH the same as an increase in carbonates. A carbonate hardness test does not change with pH changes. Carbonate concentration is what we actually care about.
Iant419
Community Member
I test every hour and hydros dynamic dosing replaces almost exactly what is lost. ULTRAstable alk! It's only 4 cents per test and You can mix 1.7L of reagent once a week on the weekend. Corals love insanely stable carbonate hardness.
Iant419
Community Member
ALK IS NOT THE SAME AS CARBONATE HARDNESS. This is a carbonate hardness test that is much more accurate. Throw that stupid hanna tester away. Calibrate your carbonate hardness to your ICP results and make your reagent stronger or weaker to reflect that in the results.
Edit: sorry I responded to this twice lol
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