My Honest Opinion About The Alkatronic

[markstubb]

Oh and as far as the Apex, it should allow you to choose the first calibration solution when calibrating. You want 7 for the "low" calibration number. Do the appropriate button in the alkatronic app. the display on the alkatronic should show you what it's doing.

I use a PM1, but I don't know of any reason why the ORP probe shouldn't work. Are you looking at the base_ph2 number? Do you have base_ph2 enabled and base_orp disabled?

 

[Christopher Presley]

That was my mistake, yes I meant .5. I have done my last and final calibration, it seems slightly better but still high. I’m not new to calibration and graduated cylinders, I use them everyday at work to run test. Only thing I can come up with is my reagent was somehow mixed inaccurately or a faulty PH probe. I’ve checked calibration for accuracy and I am getting exactly 10 and 50.

 

[Christopher Presley]

Orp was switched to ph and is setup correctly, I had it still setup for orp initially. Still 1dkh higher though.

 

[mitch91175]

That was my mistake, yes I meant .5. I have done my last and final calibration, it seems slightly better but still high. I’m not new to calibration and graduated cylinders, I use them everyday at work to run test. Only thing I can come up with is my reagent was somehow mixed inaccurately or a faulty PH probe. I’ve checked calibration for accuracy and I am getting exactly 10 and 50.

I believe in the manual there is a way for you to test your mix as well

 

[markstubb]

10 and 50 is great. did you test the ph calibration too? that can rule out a ph probe. What is high now? the test result or the apex display? both are live-with-able if you are only concerned about trends and know what your baseline is. Both are likely fixable, too.

 

[markstubb]

Orp was switched to ph and is setup correctly, I had it still setup for orp initially. Still 1dkh higher though.

I'd contact Neptune as I doubt the alkatronic is outputting anything except the actual value. There was a bug at some point that if your dKH was around 8.5-8.6 that it'd not output the correct number until it fell outside that range, but not sure if it's fixed yet. You can contact focustronic on facebook too for help

 

[Christopher Presley]

So after several “calibrations” apex is reading close enough to alkatronic. Although alkatronic is still reading just about 1dkh higher than my Hanna and Red Sea test. Also it appears I can’t set the low reference point greater than 9? Why is that.

 

[Christopher Presley]

It would be great if you could put a bias on the end result of the alkatronic. This current situation wouldn’t be an issue then. I’m consistently getting 1.1-1.2 dkh above my other test. So I could put a -1.1 bias in and it would be on the money.

 

[markstubb]

You can. it's in the app under baseline calibration.

 

[markstubb]

Oh and contact Jonas on facebook. he'll probably know why it's reading differently than what you expect.

 

[Christopher Presley]

Ok talked to Eric I believe, I found the baseline and am using that now. But what about the max of 9 on the lower limit? Seems odd to have a cap at all especially since there’s many people that run above 9. He said he’ll get back to me about it.

 

[markstubb]

Was unaware of the lower limit cap. seems easily fixed. You could potentially mitigate that by using the offset and keeping the low limit at 9, to "trick" it into thinking the alk was lower than it is.

 

[erky]

how much fluctuation do you guys allow your tank a day? I am seeing a .17 dkh swing throughout the day wondering if that is anything to really worry about?

 

[markstubb]

That's about what mine is, i don't worry about it. The way I see it, if I was to get it any more stable, I'd have to vary my carx during the day and that isn't happening. Might be easier to get a flatter curve with kalk, but that's not how i roll

 

[Kann]

That's about what mine is, i don't worry about it. The way I see it, if I was to get it any more stable, I'd have to vary my carx during the day and that isn't happening. Might be easier to get a flatter curve with kalk, but that's not how i roll

You control your CO2 with your Alkatronic, correct? Does the CO2 turn off when your Alkatronic test gets to a certain level? How often do you test? If I understand it correctly, once the Alkalinity tests above a certain level the CO2 turns off and needs to wait until another test below the threshold before it turns back on. Is that correct?

 

[markstubb]

all my alkatronic can do is control my alk from going too high by shutting off the co2. I suppose i could fiddle around with the bubble rates and effluent rate a bit to see if I could get the curve even more flat, but .1dkh to .2dkh change over the course of 24 hours is nothing i care that much to mess with. the ph of the reactor is super flat at the moment, so i attribute the dkh change to just the daily swing of uptake from the corals.

i test every 4 hours at the moment. been meaning to move to 6. When the alkatronic tests high or low, it usually runs tests much more frequently, no matter the schedule (i can't remember the offset at the moment.. maybe hourly?) until it's back in the "comfort zone." You are correct in that the co2 won't turn back on unless i manually tell the apex to do it or if the alk is back into a safe range.

 

[mitch91175]

Well got the quiet fix all installed and I will say it is sooooooo quiet that I wonder if it is even testing. Alkatronic is hands down the best purchase I have ever made outside of the necessity items. Who cares about the other units when the Alkatronic rocks so much.

 

[mitch91175]

You control your CO2 with your Alkatronic, correct? Does the CO2 turn off when your Alkatronic test gets to a certain level? How often do you test? If I understand it correctly, once the Alkalinity tests above a certain level the CO2 turns off and needs to wait until another test below the threshold before it turns back on. Is that correct?

I’d say that’s not an issue at all. I also do not think you’ll be able to get it completely level either. If the Alkatronic told me that it was the same after measuring I’d question its accuracy.

 

[Christopher Presley]

Any BNC cable should work for you. I bought mine from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003D87JOQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Dis you buy the 10ft? I bought this very cable and I’m having trouble getting numbers remotely close on the apex. I was told it might be because the cable is too long.

 

[mitch91175]

Dis you buy the 10ft? I bought this very cable and I’m having trouble getting numbers remotely close on the apex. I was told it might be because the cable is too long.

Yes that is the one I purchased. My numbers are good in my Apex. I recently moved my Alkatronic so i am getting a shorter cable (the 3ft one).