KH Guardian: Automatic Alkalinity Controller- My Experiences

[coralbeauties]

My guardian records in tenths only so it only shows 8.90. I am guessing that its just a change in the settings to record say 8.93?
On another note I played around with making my own reagent. I made up some fresh reagent with guardian reagent and measured the ph of the solution. I then measured out 1500g of water and added muratic acid till I got the same ph. I used 31.5% acid that I got from the paint department at lowes. It ended up using 5.5ml of acid. It took about 4 tests to run my original reagent out and start using the diy reagent. It tested at .7dkh lower then the oem stuff. I will let it run for a couple of days and adjust the calibration to match my salifert and hanna checker. If it works out this should save about $17 a month.
Jeff

 

[ihavecrabs]

Hows is the new reagent working out after a few days in?

 

[coralbeauties]

these are my tests since I started using the diy reagent. The one jump in alk is where I added 2 part to boost it up some. I run a ca reactor to control my alk, mag, and ca. I think it is working out pretty good so far.


06/01 08:16:42 W.141 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.11
06/01 12:39:14 W.147 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.25
06/01 17:01:29 W.140 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.12
06/01 21:14:24 W.144 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.14
06/02 01:27:29 W.147 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.08
06/02 05:50:29 W.141 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.49
06/02 10:03:41 W.148 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.51
06/02 14:17:23 W.145 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.50
06/02 18:30:37 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.50
06/02 22:44:09 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.49
06/03 02:57:42 W.148 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.50
06/03 07:21:01 W.147 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.45

Jeff

 

[yellojello]

these are my tests since I started using the diy reagent. The one jump in alk is where I added 2 part to boost it up some. I run a ca reactor to control my alk, mag, and ca. I think it is working out pretty good so far.


06/01 08:16:42 W.141 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.11
06/01 12:39:14 W.147 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.25
06/01 17:01:29 W.140 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.12
06/01 21:14:24 W.144 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.14
06/02 01:27:29 W.147 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.08
06/02 05:50:29 W.141 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.49
06/02 10:03:41 W.148 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.51
06/02 14:17:23 W.145 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.50
06/02 18:30:37 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.50
06/02 22:44:09 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.49
06/03 02:57:42 W.148 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.50
06/03 07:21:01 W.147 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.45

Jeff

How much does your tank PH swing throughout the day?

 

[coralbeauties]

How much does your tank PH swing throughout the day?

I have a normal ph swing, looks like a low of 7.8 and highs little over 8.2 Pretty much normal for my tank. I would like to to be higher though.
Jeff

 

[road_runner]

I have a normal ph swing, looks like a low of 7.8 and highs little over 8.2 Pretty much normal for my tank. I would like to to be higher though.
Jeff

You doing good. Here is mine. Its normal for the kh to track ph.

 

[coralbeauties]

I believe I read that you shouldnt use the ph reading on the guardian as your tanks ph. My guardian's reading hardly ever matches my tanks ph probe.
jeff

 

[road_runner]

I believe I read that you shouldnt use the ph reading on the guardian as your tanks ph. My guardian's reading hardly ever matches my tanks ph probe.
jeff

Correct.
The khg ph prob is used for the kh calculation not for reading tank ph. That's why its calibrated for low end point 7/4. So it should not match your tank ph if your tank ph is above 7.
The plot am showing is kh results reported by the khg against ph results by the ph prob of my controller that is in the sump..

 

[CoralWealth]

is the PH the KHG shoes usually higher or lower then what your actually PH is?

 

[road_runner]

is the PH the KHG shoes usually higher or lower then what your actually PH is?

What do you mean?
My actual ph is measured by my apex or ghl ph prob.. it had nothing to do with khg.
The picture I shows kh reading. Along side apex prob ph reading...

 

[CoralWealth]

What do you mean?
My actual ph is measured by my apex or ghl ph prob.. it had nothing to do with khg.
The picture I shows kh reading. Along side apex prob ph reading...

I know that, I meant like the PH the KHG shows on the interface or online, is it lower or higher then what your apex shows? I am just wondering

 

[road_runner]

I know that, I meant like the PH the KHG shows on the interface or online, is it lower or higher then what your apex shows? I am just wondering

I do not track it. Again because kh prob function is not to measure tank ph level.
In my case I think it's close to actual tank ph with margin or error.

But again it's not the right comparison since both are used for diffrent measurments.

Comparing it to the apex ph reading do not make sense because both probs are calibrated for diffrent range.
Apex ph prob is calibrated for higher ph that's why calibration is done at 7 and 10.

While khg prob is calibrated at low range which is 7 and 4.

 

[Caleb740]

Is there anyone who has written code to control a doser unit from their apex using their reading from the khg? I emailed David at khg and it would be a $100 charge to upgrade the board to enable using my unit as a controller then I am assuming another cost of adding the doser itself. I was given mine as a non working unit so the price was right. Just had to upgrade the parts and the firmware and it has been working flawlessly for several months now. It has been so reliable I have considered using it to actually control my alk and not just monitor it.
thanks
jeff

Hey Jjoos! Did you ever figure out how to control dosing with the apex based on the reading from your KHG?

 

[ihavecrabs]

Hey Jjoos! Did you ever figure out how to control dosing with the apex based on the reading from your KHG?

Do you have the KHG controller or monitor?

I have the monitor and this could be done with a doser on a conrollable apex outlet or an apex DOS but I’m not sure I’d do it. If you did, I’d add a lot of redundancies and alarms, calibrate the probes often, and only have it control the on/off of the dose itself and leave it up to the user to increase or decrease dosages.

I’d be interested to follow along if someone does this. Definitely start a thread!

 

[coralbeauties]

Hey Jjoos! Did you ever figure out how to control dosing with the apex based on the reading from your KHG?

No I never did add any controls to my guardian. I have been getting pretty consistent reading out of mine but I dont know if I would trust dosing off a reading from any alk monitor. I will occasionally get a goofy reading. Like @ihavecrabs mentioned you could program your apex to dose off the guardian's reading but I would limit the amount that it would add at one time. I basically use mine to monitor trends.
Jeff

 

[Caleb740]

Do you have the KHG controller or monitor?

I have the monitor and this could be done with a doser on a conrollable apex outlet or an apex DOS but I’m not sure I’d do it. If you did, I’d add a lot of redundancies and alarms, calibrate the probes often, and only have it control the on/off of the dose itself and leave it up to the user to increase or decrease dosages.

I’d be interested to follow along if someone does this. Definitely start a thread!

I have the monitor coming in tomorrow. Like you said, initially I will most likely use it to control the on/off of the DOS. I may play with the code a bit and have 1 DOS set to control the bulk of my daily consumption and have my 2nd DOS controlled by the guardian set to fine tune my Alk limiting it to a small max amount after the hourly test from the guardian. We shall see.

 

[coralbeauties]

Unless you are going to make up your own reagent you are going to put out a small fortune testing hourly. Testing every 4 hours your reagent will only last a month or so.
jeff

 

[Caleb740]

Unless you are going to make up your own reagent you are going to put out a small fortune testing hourly. Testing every 4 hours your reagent will only last a month or so.
jeff

I plan to make my own. The HCL is in my amazon cart ready for checkout. Should be around $2.25 to make a batch but I may dial it back to every couple hours.

 

[yellojello]

Based on the facebook group, there are 2 new upgrades: KH Sensor Enhance module ($28) and high precision module ($15). They said for Black Friday sale, if you buy 5 reagents, they will give these upgrades for free. The KH Sensor Enhance module requires some soldering though, you can see it on their youtube videos. If you are on the fence purchase a KH Guardian, I would wait or ask your vendor to see if and when they will have these upgrades.

It's still new, but supposed to be more accurate, I think using smaller reagent droplets for the titration.

 

[coralbeauties]

I do not use facebook so I am in the dark about the newest upgrades. I glanced at the facebook page and it looks as if there is a new krs pump, kh sensor module and precision nozzle. Are these just to improve the accuracy of the unit. Is the krs pump what controls the drip of reagent?
thanks
Jeff