New to Alkatronic

[thatmanMIKEson]

I'm a new alkatronic user, I literally just set up the alkatronic, set up was a breeze, and I'm not tech savvy at all but i think its been out so long now and so polished up its super easy when following the directions and calibration tips. I am currently 20 test in to a 24 test session in 24hours, after calibrated and verified I have been getting pretty good reading along with my Hanna( which I use one test covett and two Hanna checkers)

I'm also having a hard time in my sump with micro bubbles, pump A was slowly picking up bubbles through the provided filter, so I've made a temporary bubble stop with a reef diaper and a frag plug zip tie to the line , while I come up with a solution.

At first I was collecting the waste water but it was amounting to too much of a water change, so yes its going back into the sump with my dosing lines in high flow.

So far I'm liking this product, I honestly think it's the right Time for me to get one of these, I've never needed one before I can say that, but lately I've been testing allot most times everyday and writing all my data down, it's just getting to be to much for me, and even better this is testing more this one day than I did all month, with all the data neatly organized, I've never been able to watch my alk swing testing once a day.


I will keep using and testing with this and update this thread if anyone wants to put anything on here related to alkatronic that would be great, I know when I was looking to purchase there's not much recent information or updates, mostly everything is around the release date, which is fine but now that supply has caught up a little I'm sure there will be an increase in new users looking for information and fist hand experience.

I'd like to know more tricks on mixing the reagent, maybe having some quick access ready mixed 2L containers could be nice. I just ordered some tools to help my measurements a little better, I already weigh out the solution with a lab grade scale, but I think some mixing vessels and funnels could help along with a large syringe.

 

[dwest]

Below is how I mix my reagent (I also put reagent back to tank). I make big batches at a time. You probably have read this, but your pH probe will need recalibrated about a week after starting. I also replace the tubing at twice the suggested hose counter interval. I’ve been using mine a little over 2 years.

To make 5L of alkatronic reagent

100 ml 1M HCl plus 4900 ml water

Instructions:

1. Fill a 100 ml volumetric flask with 1M acid
2. Put the acid in a 1L volumetric flask and fill to 1L with RODI water
3. Add the solution to the alkatronic feed container.
4. Add 4 more L RO water to container.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Below is how I mix my reagent (I also put reagent back to tank). I make big batches at a time. You probably have read this, but your pH probe will need recalibrated about a week after starting. I also replace the tubing at twice the suggested hose counter interval. I’ve been using mine a little over 2 years.

To make 5L of alkatronic reagent

100 ml 1M HCl plus 4900 ml water

Instructions:

1. Fill a 100 ml volumetric flask with 1M acid
2. Put the acid in a 1L volumetric flask and fill to 1L with RODI water
3. Add the solution to the alkatronic feed container.
4. Add 4 more L RO water to container.

Very nice information. In the first week I will do a full recalibration with a new batch of reagent, im not positive, but I would assume everytime you replace reagent you would recalibrate to it, I started with the 250ml reagent it came with.

With large batches do you ever worry about quality dropping of with time and evaporation?

Do you ever weigh out the liquids or always by volumetric flask, although this is perfectly fine to measure with volume, my chemistry buddy said it was kinda a waste of time weighing it out, but being new to it, I wanted to do the best I could for accuracy, that may change with time just like the wastewater.

I've also had the dosetronic on my mind I currently run balling method, im not having the alkatronic dose alkalinity just yet, im just monitoring for a while to learn the system. What do you do in terms of the control side, and alkalinity?

 

[dwest]

Very nice information. In the first week I will do a full recalibration with a new batch of reagent, im not positive, but I would assume everytime you replace reagent you would recalibrate to it, I started with the 250ml reagent it came with.

With large batches do you ever worry about quality dropping of with time and evaporation?

Do you ever weigh out the liquids or always by volumetric flask, although this is perfectly fine to measure with volume, my chemistry buddy said it was kinda a waste of time weighing it out, but being new to it, I wanted to do the best I could for accuracy, that may change with time just like the wastewater.

I've also had the dosetronic on my mind I currently run balling method, im not having the alkatronic dose alkalinity just yet, im just monitoring for a while to learn the system. What do you do in terms of the control side, and alkalinity?

Evaporation has not been a problem. I use a 10L plastic jug with a hole just large enough for the tubing.

I don’t weigh anything. I only use the volumetric flasks.

For control on the high side, I allow my Apex to shut off 2 part and kalk if above 8. On the low side, the Alkatronic adds alkalinity if below 7dKH. Almost always, these only occur when I travel. Basically, I control my tank and the Alkatronic provides guardrails.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

So now I've had the alkatronic for a couple of weeks and I am starting to understand it more and really trust it. I like it so much I bought a second one for my other system.

I have figured out that when I make new reagent, I will recalibrate the pumps and the ph probe along with testing against my hanna and salifert tests kits and adjust the baseline settings if needed, so far I've done this three times and have needed to adjust the baseline every time a little.

Once it's set, it's kind of amazing how accurate it is to my hanna, I've gone through more hanna reagent in the last 2 weeks than I have in 3 months just trying to find fault in the alkatronics testing, but I could not! I'm really impressed, even if the number is not exactly what my alkalinity actually is, it's enough to show me the trend and whatever my hand tests are showing. So its great.

I have been mixing up 2liters worth of reagent at a time because that's the size of the containers I have. I was thinking about mixing up 5liters next time with larger vessels, but like I was suspicious of before, some evaporation with larger volumes of reagent, I have been seeing condensation in my container so I worry about the accuracy twords the end of the reagent. I believe I will stick to the 2L of reagent for now and have more frequency of recalibration and reagent mixing, to hopefully keep the accuracy higher. I am testing every 3 hours on both systems for now, with washout mode enabled.

I am adjusting my dosing with custom times based on the graph and I have gotten the swing much smaller, it's very cool to see. I also have gotten a recent uptake on alkalinity, I think its due to lowering the swing im not sure.

I will give more updates with time, so far its great for me, I have alittle more time and less worry, so it's extremely valuable to me!

Questions and comments are welcome! I'd love for more experienced users to chime in with any additional information on the subject

 

[dwest]

So now I've had the alkatronic for a couple of weeks and I am starting to understand it more and really trust it. I like it so much I bought a second one for my other system.

I have figured out that when I make new reagent, I will recalibrate the pumps and the ph probe along with testing against my hanna and salifert tests kits and adjust the baseline settings if needed, so far I've done this three times and have needed to adjust the baseline every time a little.

Once it's set, it's kind of amazing how accurate it is to my hanna, I've gone through more hanna reagent in the last 2 weeks than I have in 3 months just trying to find fault in the alkatronics testing, but I could not! I'm really impressed, even if the number is not exactly what my alkalinity actually is, it's enough to show me the trend and whatever my hand tests are showing. So its great.

I have been mixing up 2liters worth of reagent at a time because that's the size of the containers I have. I was thinking about mixing up 5liters next time with larger vessels, but like I was suspicious of before, some evaporation with larger volumes of reagent, I have been seeing condensation in my container so I worry about the accuracy twords the end of the reagent. I believe I will stick to the 2L of reagent for now and have more frequency of recalibration and reagent mixing, to hopefully keep the accuracy higher. I am testing every 3 hours on both systems for now, with washout mode enabled.

I am adjusting my dosing with custom times based on the graph and I have gotten the swing much smaller, it's very cool to see. I also have gotten a recent uptake on alkalinity, I think its due to lowering the swing im not sure.

I will give more updates with time, so far its great for me, I have alittle more time and less worry, so it's extremely valuable to me!

Questions and comments are welcome! I'd love for more experienced users to chime in with any additional information on the subject

I’m glad yours is working well.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve learned that my alkatronic needs calibration after replacing hoses or pH probe, then about a week later, then only when the internal counter reminds me.

Also, I replace hoses after it cycles through the hose counter twice.

I now compare alkatronic to Hanna monthly. But I don’t have a real reason that I need to do that. I guess it helps my peace of mind.

Knock on wood, but a pretty great reefing tool.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Both alkatronics are working great, I've seen a definite uptake in alkalinity demand. I have now moved away from 24/7 alkalinity dosing. I dose both tanks on the same schedule, from 00:01:00-03:45:00. And 11:15:00-23:59:00.

This seems to have leveled the swing quite a bit, I have both alkatronics set in a .04dkh window, also allowing them to adjust alkalinity with sodium bicarbonate. I have also switched to testing every 4 hours now that I have seen the trends, I will probably got to every 6 hours with the next reagent mix, then probably down to twice a day which is really what I think will work for me, an end of night and end of day test.

I think I will share the reagent mixing next time I make it.

Please share any questions or comments

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I am really getting the hang of the alkatronic now that it's been a few months, I really like it and have caught a few things before the became a problem because of it.

I'm now mixing reagent with a volumetric flask and usually adjusting the base line with a new reagent batch, I often manual test if I have a questionable alkalinity test but so far every test I've tested against has been accurate.

last month I had my alkalinity dosing head malfunction and I didn't realize until I got a low alkalinity alert from the alkatronic, this was very helpful and a great reason for me to continue running them.

I keep up on the maintenance on schedule which is pretty easy and I replace the intake filter a little more often as they get pineapple sponges that grow on them in my systems.

so far I have absolutely no regrets on purchasing these units and I'd say I highly recommend them if you have a demanding system and want a little more test results with a little less hands on testing. I currently test every 6 hours which seems to be on the high side of necessary testing but im ok with it for now as I like to see the results a little more frequent, and the allows me to see a trend in a few days I can usually tell the trend of alkalinity consumption, which does go up and down in my systems but it allows me to adjust my dosers rather easily based off the results.

I said I would share the mixing procedure but I just made up a batch for both units and forgot to document the process but I will get around to it for anyone interested.

as you can see in this graph alkalinity consumption is slowly going up as the graph slowly goes down. I don't use any corrections from the alkatronic I usually dose sodium bicarbonate by hand and increase my daily dosage to account for the up take, same for a decrease in alkalinity consumption I will take off a few ML of alk/cal/mag for the daily dosage.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

here's the tank that's on, dirty glass but ...