Setting Up Trident For Controlled Dosing

[reeferericb]

I’m in the process of setting up my Trident to add alkalinity and calcium to my tank. How would anyone here recommend I do that? I know I’m not supposed to raise the alkalinity more than 1 over a 24 hour period. The lfs suggested setting the alkalinity around 10 for the first few months until all the corals are added. Then scale it back from there. His advice was that higher alkalinity encourages growth and a lower level has better color. Regardless, my number needs to go up. According to the BRS calculator I need to add 391ml to the tank. Is setting a 200ml dose too much? I plan on starting the program today and raising it one dkh, then reprogramming it tomorrow to add another dkh (I may actually spread it out through the weekend). Does this sound reasonable?

 

[Hydrored]

I would not do any controlled dosing unless you have already established a baseline dose and have your levels where you want them.

 

[reeferericb]

I would not do any controlled dosing unless you have already established a baseline dose and have your levels where you want them.

The trident has been running for a month now. I’m ready to start dosing. I’m just not sure what the best approach is.

 

[Woodneers]

Following along on this one. Good luck and keep us posted. I would very slowly manually dose to get everything where you want it then set it up but I've never done automated dosing so I could be way off!

 

[Hydrored]

Best approach is to understand what your daily alk consumption is by testing it the same time daily. Use the calculator for the dose amount, dose the tank, test at the same time the next day. Once you are getting close to the same value that is what you sethe dose to in the trident controlled dosing.

you should manual adjust your values to where you want to keep them prior to controlled dosing.

From your initial post I read it as you don’t know what your daily dosing should be

I personally do not agree with your LFS at all on the DKH, what salt are you using and what’s it’s DKH?

Im not sure if you’re new to reefing but I recommend starting at an alk of 7-8

here is a snapshot of my controlled dosing and you can see where the trident made a correction

 

[cperry7467]

A couple of things. You didn't ask about this but your salinity is low. Recommend 35, but take it or leave it.

Regarding raising your levels, I would setup your Trident and DOS to maintain what level you want to keep and then add alk, calcium, mag separately to raise it to your desired level. Using the trident for auto dosing is better suited for maintaining a level as opposed to raising it. If you already have corals I'd recommend raising .5dkh per day. If you don't, 1dkh per day is fine.

 

[DC Reefer]

More of and FYI, I do controlled dosing with my Trident. My experience with the Trident is that it will not keep your levels flat, they will still fluctuate some each day. The only one I pay attention to each day is Alk and it will move as much as .2dkh throughout the day which has never been a problem for me.

 

[reeferericb]

A couple of things. You didn't ask about this but your salinity is low. Recommend 35, but take it or leave it.

Regarding raising your levels, I would setup your Trident and DOS to maintain what level you want to keep and then add alk, calcium, mag separately to raise it to your desired level. Using the trident for auto dosing is better suited for maintaining a level as opposed to raising it. If you already have corals I'd recommend raising .5dkh per day. If you don't, 1dkh per day is fine.

I’m also trying to slowly raise the salinity as well. 35 is my target, I’m about halfway there.

 

[reeferericb]

More of and FYI, I do controlled dosing with my Trident. My experience with the Trident is that it will not keep your levels flat, they will still fluctuate some each day. The only one I pay attention to each day is Alk and it will move as much as .2dkh throughout the day which has never been a problem for me.

That seems close enough for me.

 

[reeferericb]

Update on using the Trident and a DOS to do a corrective dose on my tank.
I went to the BRS website and got a calculation for how much I would need to dose alkalinity and calcium into my system. Basically 100ml would raise the numbers about 1dkh per day (mine ended up being slightly more than that each day so far).
I set up the Trident to do controlled dosing increasing the amount by 1dkh per day on alkalinity and about the same on calcium. Each day I would then go back through the task and increase the numbers.
My calcium is close enough now that I’m dialing it back to keep it at 480 (the default on the Trident). The alkalinity I’d like to increase to 10dkh and I’ll be within range by the end of today.
Spreading out the doses with the DOS pump has been extremely easy on me. My water never clouded up and everything has stayed very clear and clean. I’ve also added a couple gallons of saltwater into my sump to bring up my salinity as well. Now it’s just a matter of keeping everything at the numbers I have set them to. Is there anything you guys would recommend me change?