Cali Kid Corals

Diy trident reagents.

An hour and a half? Who has that time...tonight. I'll get back with my thoughts in the am after I've watched the video. Cool idea. Mixed feelings as I do like supporting Neptune who developed all this, but cheaper reagents are a plus, so maybe this forces some competition on this front.
 
H2OPlayar said:
An hour and a half? Who has that time...tonight. I'll get back with my thoughts in the am after I've watched the video. Cool idea. Mixed feelings as I do like supporting Neptune who developed all this, but cheaper reagents are a plus, so maybe this forces some competition on this front.
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Yeah. I can see it from both sides. But at least there are options.
 
It kind of sucks that he is not sharing the formula and also jumping on the reagent cash cow, but maybe this will encourage Bulk Neptune Supply to reduce their reagent prices?
 
Chromis said:
It kind of sucks that he is not sharing the formula and also jumping on the reagent cash cow, but maybe this will encourage Bulk Neptune Supply to reduce their reagent prices?
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Hummmmm. Never thought of it that way. He said he was trying to share it on R2R but he got banned.
 
I watched the stream. Main thing that interests me (besides price) is that they don’t expire. Plus with the low price I could test way more often… so theoretically trident controlled dosing would the tank nice & stable
 
Ok, I listened to it. He knows his stuff and is trying to make the subscription service method be less expensive. He says he's doing this just because he has the knowledge and wants to share the cost savings with the community. I ordered a 6 month supply and I'll try them out. I still like the neptune ecosystem a lot, and will continue to use their products. Competition is healthy and keeps the development process driving forward.
 
You guys with Tridents actually find value in measuring Ca and Mg all the time? For anyone using a CA reactor, Kalk or AFR, what would this value even due for you that you would not pick up as a drift requiring a monthly test and manual correction? Been looking at these devices and can totally see the value of the Alktronic. Convert the data to a moving average and I would get a trend line showing Alk consumption is going up/down, validate that this trend is applying to Ca/Mg with a manual test and adjust my Dosing value accordingly. Alk can possibly tell you how other systems are effecting the tank as it jumps up/down through out the day/week assuming you can find a correlation with something like lighting, but Ca/Mg don't have that same variance.
 
Qwiv said:
You guys with Tridents actually find value in measuring Ca and Mg all the time? For anyone using a CA reactor, Kalk or AFR, what would this value even due for you that you would not pick up as a drift requiring a monthly test and manual correction? Been looking at these devices and can totally see the value of the Alktronic. Convert the data to a moving average and I would get a trend line showing Alk consumption is going up/down, validate that this trend is applying to Ca/Mg with a manual test and adjust my Dosing value accordingly. Alk can possibly tell you how other systems are effecting the tank as it jumps up/down through out the day/week assuming you can find a correlation with something like lighting, but Ca/Mg don't have that same variance.
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I think a lot of people see Trident this way and I’m not sure that’s the best way to see it. I see trident more as a tool to detect when things are off then to confirm if I’m dosing correctly or to adjust my dosing. In normal cases, after you have your dosing dialed in, whatever method used for dosing, testing once a week to adjust the amount of doses is really all you need. Where I see it helping you out is really in cases where something isn’t working right - out of 2-part, doser dead, doser stuck on, co2 tank empty for calcium reactor, ATO out of kalk, etc.

Yeah, sure I use it to adjust my calcium reactor reactor drip rate or the amount of co2 I inject, but that’s not my only or even main purpose.
 
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Totally, it is nice to watch the dosing trends, but better to see when something breaks.

Also, when I swap my gfo out, it sucks alkalinity with it, so it is nice to have an almost real time view of what the dosing is doing every 6 hours.
 
Qwiv said:
You guys with Tridents actually find value in measuring Ca and Mg all the time? For anyone using a CA reactor, Kalk or AFR, what would this value even due for you that you would not pick up as a drift requiring a monthly test and manual correction? Been looking at these devices and can totally see the value of the Alktronic. Convert the data to a moving average and I would get a trend line showing Alk consumption is going up/down, validate that this trend is applying to Ca/Mg with a manual test and adjust my Dosing value accordingly. Alk can possibly tell you how other systems are effecting the tank as it jumps up/down through out the day/week assuming you can find a correlation with something like lighting, but Ca/Mg don't have that same variance.
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My CA and Alk consumption is not in 'ratio'. My alk is being being taken up at a faster rate than Ca is. If I were to only pay attention to Alk, my CA would be super high by the end of the week much less end of the month. I am using a CaRx.
 
I’ve used the kh director and the kh guardian. Both for over a year or two. I was going to try the alkatronic next. But I think all of them are accurate until they aren’t. Seems like they always have to be played with. Maybe it’s just me and I don’t maintain it every 3 months with a deep clean. I’m gonna stick to my Hanna for now.
 
Vhuang168 said:
My CA and Alk consumption is not in 'ratio'. My alk is being being taken up at a faster rate than Ca is. If I were to only pay attention to Alk, my CA would be super high by the end of the week much less end of the month. I am using a CaRx.
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My ratio has never been like on tv of 50/50. It’s more like 90/10.
 
phc567 said:
My ratio has never been like on tv of 50/50. It’s more like 90/10.
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phc567 said:
It’s always been like that.
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We would need more info about what you mean exactly. There is a normal uptake ratio of Alk to Ca that corals use. it’s not an exact science but people who see a different ratio of uptake in their tanks are off by maybe 10% at the most. So they slowly see their Alk creep up or down with the same Ca level for example, and have to supplement one or the other. Mine uses a little more Alk than expected for the same amount of Ca used, for example.

If you are saying that you use 9 times as much Alk relative to Ca than the normal uptake expected, then there is possibly a serious issue you should try to investigate. I suspect you mean something else, but I can’t tell what for sure. It could be something as simple as you do relatively large water changes and that supplies most of your Ca. Since Alk is at much lower levels and drops faster you need to supplement it more to keep it stable. Or maybe your Alk in your water change water is lower than in your tank. Or maybe abiotic precipitation. Or maybe you use GFO heavily, that can suck up the Alk. Can’t tell, but safe to say your corals are not using 9x as much Alk as they should be relative to Ca.
 
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So over the years. This is what works for me. I estimate I have approximately 250 gallons. Since I live in San Francisco evaporation is constant. I’m guessing evaporation is about 2 gallons a day. I use a litremeter thru a Kalk stir. Then I dos Randy’s diy recipe. To make up the rest. Banking soda baked for a hour. Brs calcium. Magnesium is Randy’s diy. I keep alk around 9 cal 450 mag 1500. I check everything once a week with Hanna checkers. As of now I dos alk 52ml and cal 12ml. So I guess that’s more like 80/20ish. Mag I just check and dump it in as mag doesn’t move fast.
But it’s always been like this.
 
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