KH Director

[eg8r210]

What's happened to you to be so pessimist about this new technology? Are you basing your position on anything factual or is it paranoia? If u have any links to where a KH automatic doser has "killed our animals" could you please post it as I cannot find anything... the crashes caused by faulty heaters, sticking dosing pumps, failed chillers, broken return pumps, leaking tanks in fact just about any hardware we use failing unfortunately number in the thousands, why single this technology out?? It simply doesn't make sense... if you add reefer error to the above list and god only knows how many crashes/ animal losses have been caused...

I have said enough at this point. I think GHL is going to make a great product and I certainly intend on purchasing the KHD for my system.

 

[RTab619]

Can other dosers be used?

 

[Joao junior]

Can i use KHD with calcium reactor?i think if the KHD stop and start the co2 in reactor is a good plan!

 

[chefjpaul]

Can i use KHD with calcium reactor?i think if the KHD stop and start the co2 in reactor is a good plan!

From Matthias Grob:
Via FB;

"The KHD will also work with a calcium reactor. Once the target KH value is reached it can deactivate the CO2 for the CR".

 

[reefwiser]

Can other dosers be used?

No the software has to be able to turn on/off the pumps and reverse the pumps to preform the test and clean the chamber after the test.

 

[HolisticBear]

Though, I would be curious to know how many people are viewing this new piece of equipment as example 'A' vs example 'B'.

I lean towards the A camp and that is someone who is doing balling. The Alk always matches Ca has not been true in my experience. There are many things that consume Alk besides the calcification process. Every tank is different and many factors are in play. The more mature + larger colonies, more likely tighter connection. Maybe your parameters are perfectly in lock-step, but Alk frequently needs a bit of topping off. The Red Sea approach says trace elements should be dosed via Ca consumption, while Triton says use Alk consumption. Triton does say dosing doesn't need to be equal, something like 20% variation is allowed, but that implies extra trace.

There is something to be said for monitoring your Mg/Ca and adjusting your balling amount if necessary and relying on the kH director as both a monitor of Alk and maintaining it stable for all the reason they aren't in lock-step.

For me, I don't think B is that crucial because your Ca/Mg consumption isn't going to change so quickly I don't notice and my tank is already 'dialed-in' before the director arrives.

D2Mini's flame out on Triton made be wonder about Ca vs Alk as the bias for trace elements, and avoiding overdoing trace.

Good thing, the KH Director supports both A/B.

 

[KJoFan]

I lean towards the A camp and that is someone who is doing balling. The Alk always matches Ca has not been true in my experience. There are many things that consume Alk besides the calcification process. Every tank is different and many factors are in play. The more mature + larger colonies, more likely tighter connection. Maybe your parameters are perfectly in lock-step, but Alk frequently needs a bit of topping off. The Red Sea approach says trace elements should be dosed via Ca consumption, while Triton says use Alk consumption. Triton does say dosing doesn't need to be equal, something like 20% variation is allowed, but that implies extra trace.

There is something to be said for monitoring your Mg/Ca and adjusting your balling amount if necessary and relying on the kH director as both a monitor of Alk and maintaining it stable for all the reason they aren't in lock-step.

For me, I don't think B is that crucial because your Ca/Mg consumption isn't going to change so quickly I don't notice and my tank is already 'dialed-in' before the director arrives.

D2Mini's flame out on Triton made be wonder about Ca vs Alk as the bias for trace elements, and avoiding overdoing trace.

Good thing, the KH Director supports both A/B.

Some good points made. Honestly, I'm not in either camp yet, as I haven't started balling, but will when the time comes for needing to dose more alk than I have to this point, and my weapon of choice will be Aquaforest.

I agree, Ca and Mg won't change to the degree alk will so, who knows, in the end once I get rolling maybe I will end up in camp A as well. Regardless, it's informative to all, to read of others' viewpoints on this new equipment and how they plan to incorporate it in their setups.

 

[Jerel]

I just need to lower my shelf to accommodate the KH Director!!

 

[choss]

awesome pic. And I just need to add a shelf when I start balling.

 

[reefwiser]

From Facebook images of the KH director being assembled and reading for shipping[emoji3][emoji106]

 

[bkelley02]

From Facebook images of the KH director being assembled and reading for shipping[emoji3][emoji106]

I think I see mine in the back.

 

[Ditto]

Whoohooo X-mas early this year.

 

[Matthias Gross]

we have a HUGE amount of pre-orders, we do what we can to make everyone happy as soon as possible

 

[choss]

Mine is one of them. Hurry up and get those assembled!

 

[WWIII]

How far away from the tank can the kh director/supply doser be placed? Just wondering the maximum amount of hose allowed to get a true real time sample, instead of leftover water in the doser hose, if that makes sense? Or would alk remain steady and true in the dosing hose so that the test is accurate, just a little behind real time? I have no idea how many ml 1/4 inch hose holds per foot, just curious as what distance GHL will recommend?

 

[Janci]

How far away from the tank can the kh director/supply doser be placed? Just wondering the maximum amount of hose allowed to get a true real time sample, instead of leftover water in the doser hose, if that makes sense? Or would alk remain steady and true in the dosing hose so that the test is accurate, just a little behind real time? I have no idea how many ml 1/4 inch hose holds per foot, just curious as what distance GHL will recommend?

That is a great question. Did not think about that!

 

[reefwiser]

The doser will pump water from at least 10 feet as I have my ATO container out in my garage. My concern with a long run for the KH director would be you would be testing water that had been sitting in the dosing line. An the KH could have dropped while the water sat in the line on a long run. You would have to have a purge of the line for so many minutes to get fresh water into the sample container.

 

[Janci]

The doser will pump water from at least 10 feet as I have my ATO container out in my garage. My concern with a long run for the KH director would be you would be testing water that had been sitting in the dosing line. An the KH could have dropped while the water sat in the line on a long run. You would have to have a purge of the line for so many minutes to get fresh water into the sample container.

This is exactly what @WWIII wanted to say I believe.

 

[WWIII]

This is exactly what @WWIII wanted to say I believe.

Yeah that's what I was trying to say and just trying to wrap my head around. I did word it a little strange! Lol

I have the ultimate package on order and thinking to get the kh director as well. The other thing I'm thinking about is how to best replace the sample water with saltwater instead of the ato eventually replacing with rodi.

I'm thinking it's best to let a doser head put back 100ml of saltwater when the 100ml of test sample is pulled out. If we need to flush the lines, then this would be more. Not sure if the regular 2.1 doser is suitable to do this, or if the maxi doser would be the better option? Probably not a concern if only testing every so often, but if doing 4x per day or more, I think it would be needed. 100ml 4x per day for 2 weeks is around 1.5 gallons. Salinity would be lowered eventually. I'm thinking of setting up the maxi doser for AWC and then this could replace the testing sample whenever it is drawn out of the tank/sump. Let me know if anyone has any other thoughts or ideas on this.

In no way am I questioning the technology, just making sure I have everything ordered and setup correctly. Very excited to have finally made the decision to go with GHL to control my tank!

 

[choss]

wow - i hadn't that about the water in the line. I had thought about the fact that over time I may be lowering my salinity slightly. I may be able to offset this with my AWC system but I think it will take some time (and math) to get this all worked out. I'm planning on having my doser and KHD about 4 feet from the sump so there will be some amount of water in the line that will need to be flushed out.