Mike's 360G Dream Tank, Dream Box Build

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#26
When I got home this evening, I tested the DT's alkalinity and it came back at 6.2. I dosed the tank to bring it up to 7.3, I will dose the tank again tomorrow to bring it up to 8dkh. I also tested the water in the SW container and the alkalinity also came back at 6.2, I dosed it to bring it up to 8DKH. Both the tank and SW container CA was 445, MG 1440. Seems like Fritz RPM has low alk, I've gone thru about four boxes of it and each time, alk has been low.

Tonight, I setup the KHG. It took me well over 2 hours to set it up and get it going. When you first setup the KHG, you need to calibrate the PH probe with PH 7 and 4 solution. Plug in the KHG, put the probe in the PH 7 solution and hit buttons 2 and 4 to set, rinse the probe with RODI, pat dry and put it in the PH 4 solution. Hit button 1 and 4 to set.

Your home's network needs to run on DCHP in order to connect to the KHG via it's web interface. I initially had trouble with this step. When you first plug in the KHG, it will try to obtain DCHP, once that happens, it will display the IP address assigned to it and the port number. You need to write down this info and plug it into the address bar in your web browser. I had to constantly reboot the KHG to try to get the IP and port number as the info went away quickly and sometimes it wouldn't get the DCHP. After I was able to log into the KHG, I then setup the timezone, DT water volume, where I like to keep my DKH (8), how much I will allow the KHG to dose a sodium bicarbonate solution at a time after each test.

The KHG will only dose a sodium bicarbonate solution of 1000ML of RODI to 65 grams of dry baking soda. The reagent uses 1500ML of RODI to dilute the reagent. I bought graduated cylinders for this process.

You also have to purge the saltwater in and saltwater out lines, this took awhile to complete. Then you have to purge the reagent in and reagent out lines, this took even longer as the doser only pulls up one drop at a time. Then you gotta purge the sodium bicarbonate in and out lines.

Coralvue recommends you run five test to break it in. See the pictures below of all five test. I also did two test with my Hanna PPM alkalinity tester and two test with salifert's alkalinity tester. Hanna came back both times at 7.28 DKH. Salifert came back twice at 7.3 DKH. The KHG thru all five test came back at 6.93, 7.04 and 7.05. I went with saliferts result and adjusted the KHG's DKH readings. The 6th picture is a test after the adjustment. There is also a picture of the KHG test log. I will post another snapshot of the log after a few days of testing. I have the KHG testing every four hours which is the max time between test. Overall, I'm happy with the KHG and it's repeat-ability.


First test


Second test


Third test


Fourth 5est


Fifth test


Final test after adjustment


Hanna test with the same results twice





Side note, this skimmer is kicking butt! It sure does earn it's name.
 

joseserrano

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#28
How often are you testing yours alk with the guardian? I have not looked into it, but I wonder what everyone is averaging out on a day.
 
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#31
Have you guys ever seen coraline stay purple on dead rock? I don't remember seeing any coraline on the dry pukani rocks I used to start the tank. I am see spots of coraline here and there and think it's pretty early for the tank to start growing it already. I haven't introduced any corals or cleanup crew that may seed the tank with coraline.

Another issue I'm having is something in the tank is using up my ALK. A couple weeks ago, the tank was at 6.2 DKH and I dosed the tank up to 8 DKH. Yesterday, the tank was at 6.2 DKH again and had to does to bring it up. What can use up ALK with no corals in the tank? I'll test for CA and MG and see if those are being used up also.
 
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#32
This afternoon, I checked on the KHG to find that it had an error readying. SW>ERR, basically telling me the KHG is not getting enough SW into the reaction chamber fast enough to before the test can begin. I did everything stated in the manual to try and correct the problem, no dice. I looked in the reaction chamber and found that the float switch in the reaction chamber was not able to move freely. I could manually remove it but when water filled the chamber, it did not float up by itself. I found there is a magnetic agitator below the float switch, it looks like a little white pill. I took this out and moved it lower down the reaction chamber. This fixed the problem and the KHG finally processed a test without any errors. Each test performed while I was home was double checked with the hanna alkalinity checker and salifert alk test. All test came out very close in results. I'm currently using the KHG to dial in my alk doses. I'm currently dosing 36ml a day of ESV alk even with zero corals in the tank, weird. The KHG is also dosing sodium bicarbonate to try to keep the levels at 8 DKH. Here is a log from today.

08/05 00:44:42 W.131 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.00
08/05 04:38:48 W.132 %0 AK.68.00 KH :7.89
08/05 08:56:23 W.176 KS=55D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :7.88
08/05 12:13:58 RESET !
08/05 12:14:51 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 12:15:53 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 12:16:23 RESET !
08/05 12:16:52 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 12:22:30 RESET !
08/05 12:32:43 W.176 KS=56D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :7.93
08/05 12:34:23 Test KH doser
08/05 12:38:57 RESET !
08/05 12:40:15 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 12:41:45 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 12:52:56 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 16:22:37 RESET !
08/05 16:25:53 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 16:30:01 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 16:34:42 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 16:40:24 RESET !
08/05 16:40:59 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 16:48:02 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 17:01:16 RESET !
08/05 17:15:10 W.130 KS=38D L%0 S%0 AC_ERR KH :5.52
08/05 17:19:27 RESET !
08/05 17:30:26 W.128 %0 AK.64.00 KH :7.89
08/05 17:53:07 Save New System Environment.
08/05 17:54:01 Save New System Environment.
08/05 17:55:16 Save New System Environment.
08/05 17:55:55 Save New System Environment.
08/05 18:07:15 W.128 %0 AK.95.00 KH :7.74
08/05 18:08:27 Save New System Environment.
08/05 20:41:29 W.129 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.99
 
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#33
Here is the KHG log for today. It's been very accurate and consistent in the result. I cross check the result. I will perform a test while the KHG is doing it's test and the values are always similar. This device makes dialing in a doser a lot easier. However, I'm up to 96 ml of alk and ca. I literally only have one SPS frag in there to see if it will survive and color up before I purchase more SPS. My rocks are turning green, does that algae uptake ca and alk like purple coraline does? I'm stumped on what is using up all my ca and alk. ca and alk are dosed one hour apart from each other 12 times a day. I don't see any precipitate on any of the pumps. At this rate, I'm going to have to move to a calcium reactor soon once I start adding corals.

08/06 03:16:16 W.129 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.94
08/06 03:24:23 Save New System Environment.
08/06 07:35:18 W.131 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98
08/06 11:46:27 W.135 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98
08/06 15:57:48 W.131 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98
08/06 20:16:19 W.134 %0 AK.34.00 KH :7.89
08/06 23:38:10 W.132 %0 AK.95.00 KH :7.79
 

Fishnugget

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#35
Have you guys ever seen coraline stay purple on dead rock? I don't remember seeing any coraline on the dry pukani rocks I used to start the tank. I am see spots of coraline here and there and think it's pretty early for the tank to start growing it already. I haven't introduced any corals or cleanup crew that may seed the tank with coraline.

Another issue I'm having is something in the tank is using up my ALK. A couple weeks ago, the tank was at 6.2 DKH and I dosed the tank up to 8 DKH. Yesterday, the tank was at 6.2 DKH again and had to does to bring it up. What can use up ALK with no corals in the tank? I'll test for CA and MG and see if those are being used up also.
Mike I set my tank up in December of 2016 and it took about 6 months until I started seeing small amounts of corralline algae. I am at about 8 months and now have an explosion of corralline algae in the back of the glass. I see my dry rock finally getting visible patches of coralline algae. You just have to be patient, it will come.

As far as your tank using up ALK, it has been known that lanthanum chloride can drop your alk levels. Have you dosed any lanthanum chloride? You might want to read up on that if your using it. Also, I think GFO can do the same, drive alk levels down but don't quote me on that. I remember reading it somewhere.
 
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#36
Mike I set my tank up in December of 2016 and it took about 6 months until I started seeing small amounts of corralline algae. I am at about 8 months and now have an explosion of corralline algae in the back of the glass. I see my dry rock finally getting visible patches of coralline algae. You just have to be patient, it will come.

As far as your tank using up ALK, it has been known that lanthanum chloride can drop your alk levels. Have you dosed any lanthanum chloride? You might want to read up on that if your using it. Also, I think GFO can do the same, drive alk levels down but don't quote me on that. I remember reading it somewhere.

Hey, thanks for the reply. I'm not wishing for the coraline algae, I'm just seeing it on some of my rocks and in my experience, they turn white when dead especially coming from dry rock. So I was just surprised to see purple spots on several of my rocks already. That's why I asked if coraline algae would stay purple on dry rock as I did not remember seeing them when I set the rocks in my tank. I'm not dosing LC so not sure why I'm having to dose so much CA and ALK with only SPS frag in there. I'm literally up to 120ml a day or CA and ALK.
 
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#38
I'm planning to pick up a carx. I'm just trying to decide which one I want to go with. I know GEO is the go to everyone likes but I'm also very interested in the Dastaco A3. I'm new to carx so the simplier, the better. Pricing the two out, the Dastaco is only a few hundred off from a GEO with a second chamber. I'd also need to buy a PM1 and a PH probe if I go with a geo and plumb my system to feed the GEO. With a Dastaco, it already has a feed doser.
 

joseserrano

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#39
I'm planning to pick up a carx. I'm just trying to decide which one I want to go with. I know GEO is the go to everyone likes but I'm also very interested in the Dastaco A3. I'm new to carx so the simplier, the better. Pricing the two out, the Dastaco is only a few hundred off from a GEO with a second chamber. I'd also need to buy a PM1 and a PH probe if I go with a geo and plumb my system to feed the GEO. With a Dastaco, it already has a feed doser.
Yup, Dastaco would also not need an additional PH probe. We had a talk about Calcium reactors last month at the SCMAS club. Learned a lot about these guys, I would totally get one if I had the $$$ and was buying a new CA reactor. Call Joe at unique Corals, I am sure he would be more then happy to answer any questions or help.
 

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