Durand tank build (1 Viewer)

[reef junkie]

I’ve been able to slowly back some my no3 dosing while still maintaining good numbers. Po4 stays right .03-.05. Alk I’m still messing with. But April air dehumidifier arrived from
Wholesaler today. So that’s the plan for the day to get that installed and see if it affects the top off rate at all.
I’ve been thinking if I can easily monitor how often the tunze ato turned on so I can see how often it turns on. I tried to do this though the apex but was not able to get it figured out. I mostly just want to know if it turns on and how often per day so I can turn kalk up or down.

 

[Jonty]

less humid air would mean higher top-off rates, I would have thought.

 

[reef junkie]

less humid air would mean higher top-off rates, I would have thought.

That’s my thought as well. Just curious if the dehumidifier I installed yesterday will impact the humidity through out the house enough to be able to increase top off to the tank. Time will tell.

 

[spsick]

That’s my thought as well. Just curious if the dehumidifier I installed yesterday will impact the humidity through out the house enough to be able to increase top off to the tank. Time will tell.

I found in the past it’s relative to proximity to the tank. With it in the basement for me it’s pulling moisture from where I want and not impacting the tanks consumption too much.

 

[MistakesWereMade]

I use a Neptune Liquid Level Sensor (LLS) on my ATO tank to measure my consumption. I manually turn on/off my RODI supply to fill the ATO tank. I just have the min/max values on the LLS set to alarm if the tank gets too full (float didn't shut off) or if the tank is running low (needs to be filled). Anyway, here are a couple of images to show what the graph ends up looking like. First picture is set to 1 day, second picture just displays a week. You can see where I filled the tank. If you know your tank size, you could easily calculate the water added/evaporated per day.
=

 

[reef junkie]

I use a Neptune Liquid Level Sensor (LLS) on my ATO tank to measure my consumption. I manually turn on/off my RODI supply to fill the ATO tank. I just have the min/max values on the LLS set to alarm if the tank gets too full (float didn't shut off) or if the tank is running low (needs to be filled). Anyway, here are a couple of images to show what the graph ends up looking like. First picture is set to 1 day, second picture just displays a week. You can see where I filled the tank. If you know your tank size, you could easily calculate the water added/evaporated per day.
View attachment 62733=View attachment 62732

I looked at these as well and thought it might be a good option. I do pull from my ato tank for my kalk dosser and my ato.

 

[Varig]

Is your ato reservoir built into your sump or stand alone? If stand alone the “easy” way is to weigh (I’m a dad, I laugh at these silly things) the container daily. I guess even if it’s built into your sump, maybe consider using a 5 gallon bucket for a couple days so you can do the loss in weight method? Unless you want to know “forever,” then you need something else obvi.

 

[reef junkie]

Is your ato reservoir built into your sump or stand alone? If stand alone the “easy” way is to weigh (I’m a dad, I laugh at these silly things) the container daily. I guess even if it’s built into your sump, maybe consider using a 5 gallon bucket for a couple days so you can do the loss in weight method? Unless you want to know “forever,” then you need something else obvi.

I want to know forever. Lol. If I can monitor the number of times the ato kicks on I can up or lower my kalk dose.
I suppose I could always calculate the amount I add and the amount I dose out. But that’s like work and I want something so easy and cave man can do it

 

[Varig]

You want more kalk for the ph benefit or because it’s cheap alk/Ca or? I also use kalkwasser, but my plan has always just been to dose the max I can when my evaporation is at a minimum (humid summer I expect) and just leave it and make up the rest with All for reef or 2 part (hopefully I get to the point that I need the extra supplement). But I would think it would be a huge pain to keep adjusting kalk dose to maximize it while then having to subsequently reduce the other dosing pumps. Perhaps I’m missing the point though? Happy to keep learning. I need to live vicariously through people who’s tanks aren’t Fugly with Dinos and diatoms

 

[MistakesWereMade]

If your tunze is plugged into an EB8 or other controllable outlet, you could write a little bit of code to just turn on the outlet for that 1x or 2x a day. Just often/long enough so the tunze doesn't time out. Then measuring the amount of water used would be easier to figure out. At the very least you could look at the power usage for that outlet to see how long it runs for.

 

[reef junkie]

If your tunze is plugged into an EB8 or other controllable outlet, you could write a little bit of code to just turn on the outlet for that 1x or 2x a day. Just often/long enough so the tunze doesn't time out. Then measuring the amount of water used would be easier to figure out. At the very least you could look at the power usage for that outlet to see how long it runs for.

I did try having it on the apex. But I was unsuccessful at getting any sort of reading on power consumption since technically the Tunze is always on. Appreciate the feed back and ideas though. To put on a timed schedule I think would get old pretty quick as well since i would get a pound beeping alarm every time the Tunze would turn on. Would be a good alarm telling you its on though LOL Since its mostly there to cover any ground that the kalk doser is missing its prob not a huge deal to monitor how often it turns on, just was thinking it would be nice to maximize the dosing on the Kalk if I was able to monitor things just a little bit more.

 

[reef junkie]

Had to make a trip out to maple grove yesterday so while out I was able to swing into new wave. Saw this gem and at an unbelievable price I could not pass it up. I’m now able to have so much more all for reef ready to go.

I’ve been running the same dosing line in my all for reef for awhile now and I’m noting the build up inside the hoses. Thinking it might be time to replace them soon.

 

[Fishfoo]

Nice find! Yeah I will get some buildup in the line and even more so at the bottom of the container (I use the DIY version so that could be why). Always good to change/clean them occasionally, for peace of mind if nothing else.

 

[reef junkie]

Nice find! Yeah I will get some buildup in the line and even more so at the bottom of the container (I use the DIY version so that could be why). Always good to change/clean them occasionally, for peace of mind if nothing else.

I’m using the powder.
is there a recommended line to uses? Some better than others?

 

[Fishfoo]

I’m using the powder.
is there a recommended line to uses? Some better than others?

I don’t think so, just standard dosing tubing. That’s what I’ve used for years at least

 

[reef junkie]

Tried 1/4” lines from big box store. Too big To fit the kamoer X1. Will look at some BRS dosing tubing.

Testing this am since im up to dang early again. I have been slacking in this department.
Alk 8
Po4 .02
No3 31.4

No3 keeps creaping up on me weekly. I continue to drop my dosing rate each weekly slowly. I was at 7ml and will drop to 5ml per day and see how we test next week. Crazy when I started all this Nitrate dosing my calculation in the 40ml range was needed but stated at 20ml per day. Ive been slowly dropping every couple weeks. I started adding reef chili in with my mix of food as well thinking it will help keep the Po4 up so it wont bottom out. Also crazy to see since Po4 was so high when I started Dosing nitrates. But its great to see how all these work together.

Still trying to dial in the alk dosing as summer is here and have less evaporation. Not seeing any increase since adding on the whole house dehumidifier. Currently at 1600ml per day of Kalk and upped my dose of All For Reef from 40 to 44ml per day. Will continue to test until I can get back up to 9.

 

[reef junkie]

About to run out of frozen PE mysis and no place to be found on the east metro. So decided to give the avast plank auto feeder a try. Ordered it today so should have on Friday. Planning to hook up to Apex and feed small amounts multiple times a day. Hopefully I can figure out a good option for feeding through or around screen mesh top.

 

[Ben Nicholls]

How big is your screen mesh? I just drop the pellets from my feeder right through the screen.

 

[reef junkie]

How big is your screen mesh? I just drop the pellets from my feeder right through the screen.

That’s is what I’m currently doing. But with the avast plank and feed tube/pump that won’t really be an option. I ordered some corners and hopefully I can just do a notch in the mesh screen and fit the tube through.

 

[reef junkie]

Plank in. Still need to finish up the screen top. I tried pitting the feeder on the other side3 of the tank but this thing is pretty large and it would not fit between tank and wall. So had to move to this side. I have it set up to run 10 seconds at a time, 5 times per day.