thinking of of KH director. weighing my pros/cons

[Michael Gray]

right now im trying to get my dam tank dialed for sps.. struggling with SPS frags.. lol right now im testing at 12pm with my hanna kit. On my days off I test 12pm and lights out at 9:30pm to see consumption while lights are on and during the night. DKH reagent is 10 bucks for i think 20 tests. well thats 20 days or 2 a day only 10 days..

those of you that spurged on 850 bucks.. is it accurate and how much reagent last and how much tank water does it burn????

and replacing probe and such. just weighing out my options and cost of maintenance cost. hanna checker is pretty easy.. it doesnt bother me yet so not sure if im ready to kick hanna checker out the door quite yet..

 

[Michael Gray]

does the kh just read it 2 or 4 times a day and i still need to dose my 2 part through p4 auto dosing or does the KH director read and auto dose to keep the ALK close throughout the day and night?

IF it does this does it know to dose my CA as a 2 part same amount to be equal?

 

[huttyhawk]

Besides 10 year old real dry rock, the KH director has been the secret to my SPS success. You can test as many times a day as you want. For maximum stability I measure mine 6 times a day and use adaptive mode to control my Two part which I dose hourly.
You don’t even need a Profalox to see your alkalinity data if you get the standalone doser and use the GHL connect app.
I preordered my ion director and I can’t wait to be done testing everything except phosphate.

 

[Michael Gray]

i have a p4 with a doser 2.1 for my 2 part. already.

Im just wondering if its worth it and does it keep the ALK pretty stable. and it automatically doses my soda ash to keep it from dropping? also does it tell it to dose my CA equally if dosing alk ?

 

[Michael Gray]

im just confused on how it knows how much of my BRS 2 part to dose to raise it .1 when it drops when everybody mixes different or uses other fluids.....im not understanding how it auto doses accurately.

 

[Ditto]

Here is a great video showing the how to setup the KH and explains how it adjusts your dosing pumps used to dose your two part up or done per dose based on the KH value.

 

[Michael Gray]

hmm maybe ill wait until ion to buy both.. gives me a few months to figure it out manually and see if i can a dang acro

 

[Michael Gray]

those of you that have the KH and testing lets say 4 times a day. and plan on getting ION.. what is the plan to replenish all that testing water instead of ATO just keep replacement with pure water. isnt that a quick salinity issue???

 

[JasonC80]

those of you that have the KH and testing lets say 4 times a day. and plan on getting ION.. what is the plan to replenish all that testing water instead of ATO just keep replacement with pure water. isnt that a quick salinity issue???

I plan on using a dosing head from a Maxi to replace saltwater lost to sampling. Then 2 more for RODI and waste, which enables automatic water changes. No more buckets.

 

[Michael Gray]

oh i dont do auto WC. but before i buy KH and ION. i need to figure out dosing saltwater back in without ATO doing it first

 

[AZMSGT]

oh i dont do auto WC. but before i buy KH and ION. i need to figure out dosing saltwater back in without ATO doing it first

You're way over thinking this... Your salinity in your tank will swing more due to evaporation and skimmer production and removal of that water.

Each unit only uses about 85ml per test. Your 130 can handle that much change, without worrying about it.

Just do the math, say 85ml X4 times a day testing on the KHD = 340ml per day, and lets say the Ion is also doing 4 times a day. But we will say 170ml. so that's 680ml. Now you are up to 60ml a day. That's maybe 1L a day... How much salt do you need to add back to compensate for the loss of 1020ml? Perhaps 1/8 cup... ( not sure just guessing). Anyway it's minuscule salt loss. Figure out what your tank uses after say 4-5 days and just put that much salt back in after your chosen time frame.

I test 4 times a day on the KH D. It allows me to graph and see what's going on. The KEY IS make sure that the water sample tube is in pulling it's sample from a VERY stable location with no bubbles. I had problems with minor fluctuations and found my place where I was drawing the sample from was to turbulent. Now, my samples are very consistent. I'm at the point where I could set up auto dosing but I need to make some changes to my set up and will wait till I get that done. (nothing to do with the KHD, I just can't help but tinker)

 

[Michael Gray]

I was told it was 100ml a test. Not 5. That's why I was concerned

 

[Michael Gray]

You're way over thinking this... Your salinity in your tank will swing more due to evaporation and skimmer production and removal of that water.

Each unit only uses about 5-10ml per test. Your 130 can handle that much change, without worrying about it.

Just do the math, say 5ml X4 times a day testing on the KHD = 20ml per day, and lets say the Ion is also doing 4 times a day. But we will say 10ml. so that's 40ml. Now you are up to 60ml a day. That's maybe 1/3 of a cup a day... How much salt do you need to add back to compensate for the loss of 60ml? Perhaps 1/2tea spoon... ( not sure just guessing). Anyway it's minuscule salt loss. Figure out what your tank uses after say 4-5 days and just put that much salt back in after your chosen time frame.

I test 4 times a day on the KH D. It allows me to graph and see what's going on. The KEY IS make sure that the water sample tube is in pulling it's sample from a VERY stable location with no bubbles. I had problems with minor fluctuations and found my place where I was drawing the sample from was to turbulent. Now, my samples are very consistent. I'm at the point where I could set up auto dosing but I need to make some changes to my set up and will wait till I get that done. (nothing to do with the KHD, I just can't help but tinker)

Sorry

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

KHD can be set to use anywhere between 50 and 100ml.

I wouldn't worry much about replacing the saltwater. As mentioned earlier, changes in Salinity are more often caused from evaporation.

Take a 50 gallon nano tank for example...
If you're testing 4x per day with a 100ml water sample, that's removing 400ml everyday which sounds like a large number, but it's really not. Percentage wise, that equates to only 0.2% of your total water volume. Multiply that by 7 and you would have removed only 1.4% of saltwater from your tank in one week. Even if you do bi-weekly water changes,the impact on salinity would be miniscule.

 

[Michael Gray]

Well then I guess I'll have to add a doser and a kh ans try it. Rebuild my setup and move my equipment from under stand to a new stand next to tank I'll have to design and built to look like it belongs lol. And make room for I'm and a 3rd doser

 

[Kyl]

those of you that have the KH and testing lets say 4 times a day. and plan on getting ION.. what is the plan to replenish all that testing water instead of ATO just keep replacement with pure water. isnt that a quick salinity issue???

I run automatic water changes, and for my KHD tank take 2000ml out per day for waste, replenishing with 2320ml of fresh water (80mlx4 samples). Works great.

 

[griff500]

If you are dosing any decent amount then salinity can creep up anyway, so taking some out for testing really isn't a big deal at all. Mine stays fairly steady despite taking water out by skimming and testing and I'm not really dosing much at the moment.

So it's a non-issue in my opinion and it's easy to overthink these things. The KHD is a great bit of kit and I've been using it pretty much all of this year and it's remained rock solid and totally reliable.