Reef2Reef Calculators

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I am for EVER using calculators.

I wish there were easy formulas for:
- Converting salinity SG to PPT or reverse with temp variations.
- and, yes on volume, but maybe other ways. Here is a real world problem I am having. Attached is my mixing station. They are both 300g. I mix in the one on the left then it goes through a couple sediment filters and the. Eventually into the one on the right which is then considered display ready. Due to where the bulkhead is when ever I transfer all the water from the left to the right, there are sever inches left. I don’t know how many gallons this is. I would love to know how many gallons per inch. But I don’t know the diameter. Ideally I would like to only fill it with 200 gallons of Rodi. But, right now, my rodi stops filling around 250 gallons, I drilled and put a float valve in it. I have to do a salinty test, usually around 3 PPT, but the water is often 90 degrees, so I cool it to 77 in my sump, then test then mix salt based on 35 - 3 ppt, then test again after getting the water down to 77 degrees. Fortunately, 250-300 G’s last me 6 weeks on my AWC so I don’t have to perform this poop show that often. Can you cook me up some magic pixie dust?

Yes, specific gravity to ppt is easy to make a calculator and there is no significant temperature variation to that from a reefing perspective (there are definitional complexities that we can discuss in another thread if you want).

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Is there such a thinks as a co2 to alk calculator. Ie if room c02 is xxx ppm and alk is 8.5 dkh. Then assuming perfect aeration and not assuming co2 consumption from photosynthesis than PH in a perfect world should be ……x.xx. In one of your old ph write up you had a chart showing this relationship but never gave the formulas

That is calculable, yes. I agree it is interesting. I have done it for some articles. But it has limitations in that both temperature and salinity impact it as well, and it is beyond our capability to incorporate those. So it would need to be be for something like 35 ppt at 25 deg C.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I agree. I’m going to suggest it as a design possibility to whoever codes it. I use it many times each day.

I will have you meeting directly with us and our dev to ensure we do it right! We’ll also be adding this to our reef tools on the app.

 

[KStatefan]

Ok, maybe some engineer can step up and help put that together. I don’t remember having a pump that stated its pressure while running (aside from maximum head). But in any case, this is out of my area of understanding and I’ll have to leave it to others to assist. :)

There used to be a calculator that had the pump curves in it so you selected your pump and plumbing and it would give you flow and a number of iterations but that was all AC pumps with good pump curves given by the manufacture.

 

[BeanAnimal]

A hydrometer reading/temp/salinity calculator is a good idea. I’m not sure exactly how we’d implement it since it is probably a look up table as opposed to a calculation, but I’d leave that to the coders (which won’t be me if you want it this century).

As an fyi, salinity does not change with temp, specific gravity hardly does, refractometers and conductivity meters and swing arm hydrometers mostly correct themselves, so we are talking about floating glass hydrometers only.

I put a good bit of work into mine — the lookup table is fine, but you still need to apply the unesco equation of state for conversions — that is where the code comes in

 

[BeanAnimal]

I will have you meeting directly with us and our dev to ensure we do it right! We’ll also be adding this to our reef tools on the app.

There used to be a calculator that had the pump curves in it so you selected your pump and plumbing and it would give you flow and a number of iterations but that was all AC pumps with good pump curves given by the manufacture.

I have a few unpublished calculators for things like that, as well as other engineering calcs ( beam deflection, head loss, heat loss, ohm’s law stuff, salinity changes form evap, water change, bulkhead and siphon flow, cooling via evap, etc.). Never find the time to build the pages or polish the interface. I did do the Triton calc recently, as their refusal to publish concentrations was driving me crazy.

 

[KStatefan]

I have a few unpublished calculators for things like that, as well as other engineering calcs ( beam deflection, head loss, heat last, ohm’s law stuff, salinity changes form evap, water change, bulkhead and siphon flow, etc.). Never find the time to build the pages or polish the interface. I did do the Triton calc recently, as their refusal to publish concentrations was driving me crazy.

That reminds me I have not commented in awhile but you need to fix your gravity flow calculator on your website.

I have a number of calculators I use but know where close to be able to publish. They look like my scratch pad of engineering paper.

 

[MyFirstCar]

I'd love a mix a salinity reference solution calculator! I know it can be found and calculated from that article Randy wrote, but I'd love an easy calculator on how to make it

 

[MoeStachio]

I’ve actually been brainstorming calculator ideas for the past several hours. I think I JUST got a very interesting one!

People who make DIY 3 part solutions don’t always want or have gallon containers; some have specific container volumes.

Basing the required solids (g) inputted based on the desired container size (2 L , 2.3 L, 1.5 gallon, etc) seems like it would be super helpful.

Loads of people have those custom acrylic containers that don’t always fit the standard “gallon” size.

I had the same idea!!!

 

[Ziggy17]

Is there a way to create a map/calculator that can translate how much PAR or which ever unit best represents how much light is going to a certain depth of a tank.
- insert light make/model
-insert tank dims
-insert substrate
-slider to represent colour spectrum intensity

From there, you can to touch a part of the tank image and it tells you what the PAR reader would tell you. Essentially a virtual PAR reader. I think for the most part, it’s a mathematical equation unless there are variables I’m not aware of.

Perhaps BA can chime in on this one, as I recall he is quite educated with lighting.

For most of us, buying a PAR reader isn’t viable for the couple times we may use it. Most LFS don’t have one to rent. Not to mention the data we get from them, only gives a portion of the information needed to properly assess how much light intensity it at that spot.

Apologies if this exists already, but if it does, let’s get it in that same area as the others.

Thoughts?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Is there a way to create a map/calculator that can translate how much PAR or which ever unit best represents how much light is going to a certain depth of a tank.
- insert light make/model
-insert tank dims
-insert substrate
-slider to represent colour spectrum intensity

From there, you can to touch a part of the tank image and it tells you what the PAR reader would tell you. Essentially a virtual PAR reader. I think for the most part, it’s a mathematical equation unless there are variables I’m not aware of.

Perhaps BA can chime in on this one, as I recall he is quite educated with lighting.

For most of us, buying a PAR reader isn’t viable for the couple times we may use it. Most LFS don’t have one to rent. Not to mention the data we get from them, only gives a portion of the information needed to properly assess how much light intensity it at that spot.

Apologies if this exists already, but if it does, let’s get it in that same area as the others.

Thoughts?

I personally think it would be quite subject to local conditions (how much is coralline algae or green algae impacting reflection from the glass, things shading each other, etc) and way beyond the scope of what R2R can accomplish.

As a general rule, if it’s not something that a single reefer can readily calculate for their own case, making a calculator to do it for even more cases isn’t going to be achievable with reasonable time and effort.

 

[Ziggy17]

I personally think it would be quite subject to local conditions (how much is coralline algae or green algae impacting reflection from the glass, things shading each other, etc) and way beyond the scope of what R2R can accomplish.

As a general rule, if it’s not something that a single reefer can readily calculate for their own case, making a calculator to do it for even more cases isn’t going to be achievable with reasonable time and effort.

Totally fair.

What is it was just dumbed down to light wattage, height of light. Making the assumption that nothing was shading and glass was clean? There still would be a challenge of overlapping of multiple lights, but maybe in a simple form it could be done?


I wonder if one exists in an Ap driven reader or a software suite sold with a quality reader. If one exists, perhaps R2R could approach them and see if we (the Royal we) could house it on the site.

Let’s dream big, until the answer is no :)

 

[UncommonSense]

Ok, maybe some engineer can step up and help put that together. I don’t remember having a pump that stated its pressure while running (aside from maximum head). But in any case, this is out of my area of understanding and I’ll have to leave it to others to assist. :)

Max head height is synonymous with maximum pump output pressure; it’s a fairly simple equation honestly!

 

[Dom_P]

How about a calculator where both the current Alk and Ca can be input. And it produces how much of what product(s) needed to bring them into balance for a given Alk level requested.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Is there a way to create a map/calculator that can translate how much PAR or which ever unit best represents how much light is going to a certain depth of a tank.
- insert light make/model
-insert tank dims
-insert substrate
-slider to represent colour spectrum intensity

It is a very appealing idea, albeit not really attainable.

Ignoring the problems with “PAR” altogether and talking about any type of intensity or spectrum map. There simply too many variables to make a light intensity map even remotely possible. The closet one could like get would be to display various maps based on known measurements, but interpolation to different footprints, fixture or fixture counts would be not provide much in the way of accuracy — given those variables.

I think for the most part, it’s a mathematical equation unless there are variables I’m not aware of.

There are numerous variables. We can’t use something as simple as the law of inverse squares or even interpolation — even if we can imagine it shouldn’t be that complicated.

 

[KrisReef]

I see folks asking for both calculators

and perhaps reference tables, like static drain flow capacity by PVC pipe diameter, maximum flow through a pipe by diameter, etc.

Medicine Calculator for Dummies (and Reefers) that explains how to add a proper mg/l dose / gallons (or liters) of treatment tank.

And we need a sticky calulator that estimates the Tang Police response time to a thread by Tang species, Tank size, and number of total fishes/gallon in the DT.

You got this, and many of these are actually going to be popular, helpful, and useful to the hobby!

Thanks Randy, et al!

 

[BeanAnimal]

and of course two very important calculators

https://beananimal.com/tools/equilibrium-curing-calculator/
And of course this was needed to settle a debate for the degenerates that associate with @Fish Styx
https://beananimal.com/uncategorized/caffeine-overdose-calculator/
@revhtree will there be a “misc, but essential calculators” category?

 

[Stakenshake]

Max head height is synonymous with maximum pump output pressure; it’s a fairly simple equation honestly!

Hey! Pumps produce the same head no matter what fluid they are pumping. The pressure varies based on the density of the fluid you are pumping. This is why all pump curves are in head pressure because the head is always the same if you are pumping water, gasoline, or brine. A great resource for pumps is Cameron’s hydraulic data book.

 

[Fish Styx]

and of course two very important calculators

https://beananimal.com/tools/equilibrium-curing-calculator/
And of course this was needed to settle a debate for the degenerates that associate with @Fish Styx
https://beananimal.com/uncategorized/caffeine-overdose-calculator/
@revhtree will there be a “misc, but essential calculators” category?

 

[Peace River]

A calculator for power consumption and cost for entire system.