Why are people so excited over KH automation?

[d2mini]

But to answer your question... I probably shift .2 throughout the day. No clue how much that matters to corals, before I used to dose most alk at night for ph boost, had .7 swing throughout the day. But it would test the same at a given time. I don't correct based off one day of lower consumption, I check that everything is running properly(flow,aeration, room co2, lights etc). If it continues to decline for 2 or 3 days I will back off doser until I get consumption to climb for 2 or 3 days then adjust again. Calcium reactors were much more popular back when they didn't test that often, right? I've only been at it for like 7 or 8 years

In big tanks I run a CaRx but in smaller ones I use a doser. I only dose minor elements manually.
Either way, it keeps things pretty stable. Even if I saw a .2 difference after a week, i still wouldn't make a correction to my dosing. That could just be testing error/variance.

I totally agree with your previous post though, and is what I was agreeing with earlier... that the benefit to this mostly seems to be to catch something that is wrong, ie. clogged dosing line or something like that. And not having to manually test how ever often you feel is necessary.

 

[Alex7845]

I guess you don't know me. lol

Definitely a serious question. Been in the hobby for so long, just didn't understand the point since like I pointed out, unless something is broken, Alk should stay pretty dang stable day to day. So far, frequent travel seems to be the only reason that for me would make it worth it.

indeed, sorry i don't know you, but now i feel like i should

other than travel there can be work and life in general
if you have been maintaining tanks for long, i am sure you already have had equipment failures, or a kinked dosing tubing that would lead to a catastrophic drop in one of the elements - this is the value of automatic testing: alert of a problem early enough so it doesn't become a problem

that said, the equipment is expensive, the reagents are outrageously priced if you think of what they are, and i would surely not trust it as a fully automated system with a loop that controls dosing - it is just a (very pricey and valuable) alert system for those of us that at times become too busy to watch the tank

 

[d2mini]

indeed, sorry i don't know you, but now i feel like i should

other than travel there can be work and life in general
if you have been maintaining tanks for long, i am sure you already have had equipment failures, or a kinked dosing tubing that would lead to a catastrophic drop in one of the elements - this is the value of automatic testing: alert of a problem early enough so it doesn't become a problem

that said, the equipment is expensive, the reagents are outrageously priced if you think of what they are, and i would surely not trust it as a fully automated system with a loop that controls dosing - it is just a (very pricey and valuable) alert system for those of us that at times become too busy to watch the tank

Yup yup yup, all makes sense.
When I started this thread, I think I was more focused on the dosing and correction aspect of it.
But after reading all these replies it sounds like for many people it's more about the automatic testing, which I definitely understand. One less thing to test, and testing more often than you would if you were relying on yourself to do it manually.

 

[d2mini]

Actually, that said... does anything exist that DOESN'T correct, but instead is just an auto-tester?
A cheaper version with half the function seems like something I'd be more interested in. As long as I had a daily test sent to my phone, I could make any correction needed on my doser myself. I could even do that remotely.

 

[rtparty]

Actually, that said... does anything exist that DOESN'T correct, but instead is just an auto-tester?
A cheaper version with half the function seems like something I'd be more interested in. As long as I had a daily test sent to my phone, I could make any correction needed on my doser myself. I could even do that remotely.

Trident, just to name one, but many don’t correct.

You don’t have to setup Trident controlled dosing if you don’t want to use it. If it crashes my tank I’ll change my opinion but after 7 months of use, I’d never go back to manually testing and adjusting. Would someone really want to go back to manually testing and adjusting temperature every now and then? Or do you find value in letting a temp probe and some controllers/thermostats/plugs control that for you?

 

[Alex7845]

Actually, that said... does anything exist that DOESN'T correct, but instead is just an auto-tester?
A cheaper version with half the function seems like something I'd be more interested in. As long as I had a daily test sent to my phone, I could make any correction needed on my doser myself. I could even do that remotely.

The Reef factory device i own is just a tester. Can have pumps slaved to its results but that would be another additional purchase
I wouldn’t classify it as cheap.

 

[d2mini]

Trident, just to name one, but many don’t correct.

You don’t have to setup Trident controlled dosing if you don’t want to use it. If it crashes my tank I’ll change my opinion but after 7 months of use, I’d never go back to manually testing and adjusting. Would someone really want to go back to manually testing and adjusting temperature every now and then? Or do you find value in letting a temp probe and some controllers/thermostats/plugs control that for you?

My doser doses for me but I'd rather make the changes myself. For now anyway. One less thing to go wrong and as I've said it would need to change so infrequently, it just doesn't seem worth it.

 

[Aquariumaddictuk]

Or..., if you're not a top level reef master and can use some help understanding what is going on with your stony corals. Plain and simple- if consumption slows, something is wrong. Question is how long does it take to realize... I think the people with this perspective haven't used one for a month or more. Or sit at home all day testing and fiddling with their tank

I have two weeks off work at the moment so the last part of this message is certainly applicable to me

 

[Alex.qld]

I recently changed my aquascape for a custom built marco rock scape as pictured below

i expected it may leach some carbonate but did not expect kh to get to 12.5 dkh - i stopped any dosing and changed 25% water twice a day for 2 days then once a day until it stabilised. I use natural sea water which has a 6-7 dkh.
The kh keeper proved to be very useful to monitor and target water changes. I am really happy with the accuracy of the device and capacity to automate 2 hourly tests for such critical periods.