Mattgsa 315 gallon build

mattgsa · Aug 31, 2021

I'm not sure why I waited so long to get this calcium Reactor online. It really does a much better job of maintaining the numbers than I do through manual dosing.

This is my first time with a Trident, and I was wondering if any of you use it to control dosing from the Calcium reactor, or does it only work on two-part?

Hydrored · Aug 31, 2021

mattgsa said:
I'm not sure why I waited so long to get this calcium Reactor online. It really does a much better job of maintaining the numbers than I do through manual dosing.

This is my first time with a Trident, and I was wondering if any of you use it to control dosing from the Calcium reactor, or does it only work on two-part?

HYG, short answer is you are controlling the electronic selenoid

Calcium reactor control by Neptune Trident

Since the beginning of April 2019 I've had my Trident and after a couple weeks when I trusted it, I started experimenting with some programming I thought of well before its release. More people with reactors need to know about this easy to create and use program to help with Alkalinity...

www.reef2reef.com

mattgsa · Aug 31, 2021

Hydrored said:
HYG, short answer is you are controlling the electronic selenoid

Calcium reactor control by Neptune Trident

Since the beginning of April 2019 I've had my Trident and after a couple weeks when I trusted it, I started experimenting with some programming I thought of well before its release. More people with reactors need to know about this easy to create and use program to help with Alkalinity...

www.reef2reef.com

I was actually in the process of reading that exact form when a server here at work started acting up and I had to go work on that. The only thing is i can see how that would work for a normal calcium reactor, I'm just not connecting all the dots when it comes to the ACR.

mattgsa · Aug 31, 2021

unless I take it off the DOS and just have it flow into the tank on a constant drip, then control the solenoid with the Apex. Does that sound right.

GBRsouth · Aug 31, 2021

mattgsa said:
unless I take it off the DOS and just have it flow into the tank on a constant drip, then control the solenoid with the Apex. Does that sound right.

Wouldn't the apex be able to read the measurements from the trident and have a low value where it allows the dos to start dosing/increase dosing and a high value where it stops/reduces dosing?

Hydrored · Aug 31, 2021

GBRsouth said:
Wouldn't the apex be able to read the measurements from the trident and have a low value where it allows the dos to start dosing/increase dosing and a high value where it stops/reduces dosing?

Then you will still be releasing CO2 into the reactor. The trick here is the need to manage the PH in the reactor to have an impact on the alkalinity concentration, in my experience the more you increase the effluent rate the higher the PH in the reactor becomes, the more CO2 you need to keep the same alkalinity

Dennis Cartier · Aug 31, 2021

I was building a deck all day. Just catching up on this thread. You don't want to use the Trident to control the solenoid on the ACR. That would work on a normal calcium reactor, but not on a saturation style of reactor. For these types of reactors, you need to stop the flow through the reactor and leave the reactor pump and solenoid valve powered.

I don't use a Trident, but I have my Alkatroninc disable my ACR when the alkalinity exceeds a limit. I use the port on the Alkatronic that simulates a pH probe and then use an off the shelf Milwaukee pH controller to toggle off my Masterflex.

I have not used Apex, but can the readings from the Trident not be used to change the DOS program? Barring that, you would need to switch to another peristaltic pump and use the Trident to control that instead of the solenoid.

Dennis

Dennis Cartier · Aug 31, 2021

Ok, I read the article. As stated, I have never used an Apex, but it looks like you could dispense with the virtual outlet and instead just control an outlet based on the alk reading from the Trident. Doing it this way would require a peristaltic pump be powered from that outlet to feed the ACR and have the flow rate set just above the rate that keeps a stable alk reading.

Dennis

mattgsa · Aug 31, 2021

Dennis Cartier said:
Ok, I read the article. As stated, I have never used an Apex, but it looks like you could dispense with the virtual outlet and instead just control an outlet based on the alk reading from the Trident. Doing it this way would require a peristaltic pump be powered from that outlet to feed the ACR and have the flow rate set just above the rate that keeps a stable alk reading.

Dennis

I need some time to think about this. I can easily control the Neptune DOS with the apex, and i think I can use the alk measurement for a variable. How often would I need to test. Right now I have it testing every three hours. Let me think about this some more and I will post a follow up tomorrow.

I also tested nutrients tonight, I think I order macro algae to soon. My phosphates were at 0, and nitrates were at 5.

I hope the deck is coming along great.

mattgsa · Sep 1, 2021

Here is my current ALK reading, the large dip is from calibrating the Trident last night. There is not much of a swing do you think I should worry about trying to even it out even more. I think the spick at the end there is from Kalk dosing at night.

GBRsouth · Sep 1, 2021

mattgsa said:
Here is my current ALK reading, the large dip is from calibrating the Trident last night. There is not much of a swing do you think I should worry about trying to even it out even more. I think the spick at the end there is from Kalk dosing at night.

I'd collect more data points first and see what time of day to do any adjustments. Gives you time to see if there's consistent changes during the 24hr day.

mattgsa · Sep 1, 2021

The red OGO came in today from Algae barn. It didn't look like it was in the best of shap, however, i put it in the sump, and I set the light to come on at night. I don't think the little bit of algae that is in there will make much of a difference. Although I'm interested to see if it will grow or just die.

I'm still waiting on my clorine buster for my RODI system which is suppose to come in tomorrow from BRS. I just hop it comes in time because I'm almost out of water in the ATO.

mattgsa · Sep 2, 2021

I stop dosing Kalk just as a trial. I must say I'm very impressed with the stability of the calcium reactor. My tank has never been this stable. I want to see how much of a difference the Kalk was making if any. I'm also loving the Trident. I have it testing I think 8 or 12 times a day while I'm tuning the Calcium reactor, and I love having the visibility. I have to go out of town for a couple of days coming up, so I'm going to wait on getting corals. But I think my tank is more prepared now than ever before. The Coraline algae is really starting to take off. I also want to simplify my tank some. Don't get me wrong the Automation is not going anywhere. I think my last major hurdle that will come in time is stabilizing the nutrients. I'm still working on that.

GBRsouth · Sep 2, 2021

It would be interesting to know how much effect on your pH taking your kalk offline makes.

mattgsa · Sep 2, 2021

I'm not sure what happen, but for the life of me I can't get zero TDS water. I have been doing the same thing for over a year and have not had a problem, but now the lowest I can get even after replacing all the media is 2 TDS. I don't know what to do.

mattgsa · Sep 2, 2021

mattgsa said:
I'm not sure what happen, but for the life of me I can't get zero TDS water. I have been doing the same thing for over a year and have not had a problem, but now the lowest I can get even after replacing all the media is 2 TDS. I don't know what to do. I'm starting to wonder if my TDS meter is broken or not reading correctly. I may order a new one just to double check it.

OOPs I meant to hit edit and hit reply instead. Sorry about the double post.

Dennis Cartier · Sep 2, 2021

mattgsa said:
I'm not sure what happen, but for the life of me I can't get zero TDS water. I have been doing the same thing for over a year and have not had a problem, but now the lowest I can get even after replacing all the media is 2 TDS. I don't know what to do.

It might be your TDS monitor. Pull the sensor head out of your RODI line and give it a quick cleaning in vinegar. Deposits can build up and affect the reading. Randy pointed that out to me recently for my EC meter that I use in my kalk reactor.

See if that helps.

Dennis

mattgsa · Sep 2, 2021

Dennis Cartier said:
It might be your TDS monitor. Pull the sensor head out of your RODI line and give it a quick cleaning in vinegar. Deposits can build up and affect the reading. Randy pointed that out to me recently for my EC meter that I use in my kalk reactor.

See if that helps.

Dennis

thanks, i will do that first thing tomorrow. After all it's a 7 stage RODI, there should be no reason any TDS is coming out of that end.

mattgsa · Sep 3, 2021

Well last night with no Kalk, the PH dropped by .01. I'm going to leave it off longer and see what happens. In my opinion that was not enough of a drop in PH to justify turning the Kalk reactor back on.

Dennis Cartier · Sep 3, 2021

mattgsa said:
Well last night with no Kalk, the PH dropped by .01. I'm going to leave it off longer and see what happens. In my opinion that was not enough of a drop in PH to justify turning the Kalk reactor back on.

I would suggest that the minimal effect is probably due to low saturation in your kalk reactor. Kalk is notoriously hard to keep saturated (with reactors). Until I started measuring the saturation with an EC meter, I always over estimated the saturation of the effluent.

I have a thread on here about the challenges of getting kalk to dissolved in reactors.

Dennis