Trident paired up with DOS

[UCF Alum]

I’m fluctuating alkalinity lately by about .2 daily from 7.5-7.7 on my acro tank. I’m curious about the opinion of the Trident users that also use the Dos. I know you can have it adjust the amount you are dosing automatically as long as your within the preset range the end user sets. Do you see that it’s keeping your cal/alk more in check?

 

[jrill]

I’m fluctuating alkalinity lately by about .2 daily from 7.5-7.7 on my acro tank. I’m curious about the opinion of the Trident users that also use the Dos. I know you can have it adjust the amount you are dosing automatically as long as your within the preset range the end user sets. Do you see that it’s keeping your cal/alk more in check?

Is any test kit really accurate enough to detect that small of a change within their error margin?

 

[UCF Alum]

Is any test kit really accurate enough to detect that small of a change within their error margin?

Trident claims accuracy for alk test is .05
It reads alk in hundredths. 7.62 for example.

 

[Snookin]

You aren’t going to get much better consistency than a .2 swing in a 24hr period. That’s exceptional imo.

 

[DaneGer21]

IMO .2 is nothing.

 

[TheHarold]

I’m fluctuating alkalinity lately by about .2 daily from 7.5-7.7 on my acro tank. I’m curious about the opinion of the Trident users that also use the Dos. I know you can have it adjust the amount you are dosing automatically as long as your within the preset range the end user sets. Do you see that it’s keeping your cal/alk more in check?

Yes, I use the trident automatic dosing and it does keep my alkalinity in check. Before it was ranging .4, and after doing trident-adjustments, it is ranging .1.

 

[ADAM]

I setup the Trident based dosing and my ALK hasn’t varied more than 0.13 in a 24hr period, typically 0.06 change or less between test points. Also, I haven’t tweaked the dosing scheme either, it’s a set equal amount during a 24hr period. Adjusting timing of doses to meet the higher demand times would probably level it out closer than it already is.

 

[UCF Alum]

Yes, I use the trident automatic dosing and it does keep my alkalinity in check. Before it was ranging .4, and after doing trident-adjustments, it is ranging .1.

Is that consistent? You have to set a range from what I understand and if it’s outside that range the Dos defaults to it’s normal, set schedule without adjustments. So you can, per se, set a range of 7.5-7.6 and it will keep that range as long as it doesn’t go out side of it, correct?

 

[UCF Alum]

I setup the Trident based dosing and my ALK hasn’t varied more than 0.13 in a 24hr period, typically 0.06 change or less between test points. Also, I haven’t tweaked the dosing scheme either, it’s a set equal amount during a 24hr period. Adjusting timing of doses to meet the higher demand times would probably level it out closer than it already is.

If you’re dosing equal amounts every hour, then your Dos is not adjusting the amounts for tank fluctuations, correct?

 

[kennytze]

I am using controlled dosing and find it works really well. I also do a two gallon a day continuous water change using a Spectrapure LiterMeter III and slave pump. The Jul5th drop was a partial water change to clean detritus from main sump. very happy with Trident controlled dosing.

 

[jrill]

Trident claims accuracy for alk test is .05
It reads alk in hundredths. 7.62 for example.

Really. That's pretty darn good. I think I need a trident.

 

[rsumner]

After running my Trident for a while, I recently configured "Controlled Dosing" also. I have a single Neptune DOS and DDR where I dose Seachem Reef Complete for Calcium/Mag and Seachem Carbonate for Alk. My goals are to maintain Alk of 8.6 dKH and Calcium of 430 ppm. I normally dose 32mL of Reef Complete and 64mL of Reef Carbonate in my 140 gallon system volume with the sparse array of coral that I have in my display right now.

Before I enabled controlled dosing, I increased the number of scheduled tests the Trident is configured to do throughout the day to 8 times daily. The default (and the quantity Neptune estimates when defining the reagents will last 2 months) is 4 times daily. My thoughts here were that I wanted to have more test points to reference for the variation that the Trident might play in the dosing schedule.

First, we can look at Calcium. I have a single dosing interval defined on the DOS starting at 00:00 and ending at 23:59 adding 32mL. I then added Trident control to that interval using a value of 430 ppm, range of 50ppm, and limit of +- 40%. The Net result is the Trident is adding about 2mL more than my configured dosing volume (about 34mL daily). Here is a pic of the dosing schedule in Fusion in addition to a view of the interval summary:

Next, we can look at Alkalinity. Neptune recommends that you define 3 dosing intervals for Alkalinity with 70% of the dosing being done during your active lighting schedule and the remaining 30% split before and after the schedule with 15% on each side. My 64mL translated to a 9.6mL dosing in the morning, 44.8mL during the day, and a final 9.6mL in the evening. I set 8.6 dkH to be my control value with a 0.4 dkH range and +- 35% limit. The Net result is the Trident is adding around 3 to 5mL daily to my originally defined 64mL. The schedule and interval summary of my mid-day dosing interval:

NOTE: Since my calcium supplement also includes magnesium and strontium, I don't have Mag as a control variable defined since I don't dose it separately.

I've only been doing this for about 3 days and have done zero water changes. Below, you'll see the Fusion graph of Calcium and Alkalinity showing an average of 8.53 dKH and 426ppm from approximately when I started using the controlled dosing.

I bet that if I increased my Trident testing schedule to 12 times daily I would have more control points to work with and I would have less swing in my readings. I'm happy!