Hi Tony, so great to have your support. I would normally be guessing as I have been doing up until you have now kindly pointing the way. Calcium reactors are a beast to tame.
Ron
Ron
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Hi Ron,Hi Tony, so great to have your support. I would normally be guessing as I have been doing up until you have now kindly pointing the way. Calcium reactors are a beast to tame.
Ron
Hi Ron,
Lets give it a day. Your starting in the morning at 8.93dkh and the throttle code is running. A 24hr cycle from this point will be good information to see where the alk levels go through a light cycle and where they end up tonight and tomorrow morning.
Tony
Hi Tony.Hi Ron,
Yes that helps give a better picture of what the reactor and alk in the tank is doing and how the various code is controlling things. How often are you testing and what is your light cycle on/off and ramping up and down?
Will take a better look tonight but will help to know how the testing times and light cycle are interacting with your alk levels and reactor control.
Tony
Hi Ron,Hi Tony.
My testing times are given in my last post. Testing every 3 hours at 2am,5am, 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm, 11pm daily.
My lighting starts at 11am at zero % ramping to to 40% at 2pm where it stays at 40% until 7pm when it then ramps back down to 0% at 9pm (10 hr photoperiod)
Ron
Hi Tony,Hi Ron,
Looking at your Alk levels and what's going on with the reactor control I see the following trend:
During much of the light cycle the reactor is running mostly on throttle. Towards the end of the light cycle the alk has dropped below the cutoff and now the carbon doser is on for much of the night as it catches up to alk use during the day. This is causing it to throttle again in the morning just before lights are coming back up and it's repeating the same cycle. Mine was following the same trends so I added a line that would keep the CO2 on full time during the light cycle when the alk was being consumed.
I would suggest the following line in your CO2_7_5 code after the VO_CO2Limiter line
If Output VO_CO2Limter = ON Then OFF
IF Time 11:00 to 20:00 Then ON
If pHCaR5 < 6.60 Then OFF
This will get the CaRx ramping up alk into the tank as your lights are approaching max intensity and demand is at it's highest. Try that for a couple days and lets see how the cycles go.
As long as you are not going crazy with CO2 while it's on this will help raise the low point you are seeing at 8.68dkh
I would also tighten the high level off line
If Alkx17 > 9.30 Then OFF
Change that to >9.1 Then OFF
Hi Ron,Hi Tony,
What you suggest reminds me of how I had to adjust my 2 part dosing where 70% of my demand occurred during lights on. So ensuring that Full ON coincides when lights are on. I have now added the Time command and lowered the safety net to turn off Full On dosing if the Alkalinity goes above 9.1.
Maybe there could be 2 sets of throttling strengths, one for lights on and one for lights out? Just a thought.
I will run this new code tonight and during the weekend. Hopefully this will get me closer to better results.
Thanks for giving so much of your time,
Ron
I have spoken to Richard Ross and message marc and they have had a good discussion about it.Thanks for your input. Actually I first read Marc's blog at the beginning of my journey but I was still not understanding fully. So I sent a question to Marc at melevsreef back on Sep12, 2021 as follows:
[ I don’t understand, when using this same code in your blog, how you ensure that “pH in the reactor is set to 6.8” ? How do you keep the pH fixed at a specific pH level.? Won’t the pH in the reactor always be fluctuating with no real fixed level? Is there some additional Apex code that you are using to keep this pH set somehow? ]
Marc did kindly reply saying that that was a very good question. He then went on to say that he had no idea how the pH is set to 6.8. He said this code was provided to him by another member on R2R. But suggested that I go and find a thread on reef2reef which discusses this code. ie this thread and this is how I landed here.
HI,I have spoken to Richard Ross and message marc and they have had a good discussion about it.
Marc has added the ph code to his blog last week.
The issues Is a different one .I didn’t understand why the reactor wasn’t turning off when the alkalinity reached the desired level. I was of the understanding that I would turn off when it’s above alk levels and use the timing code what is was under all levels. In fact I worked out that is not meant to do that but rather use the timer when it’s above desired alkalinity and be on nonstop when it’s below. Now that I understand that I am following Marc’s blow down to the T. I want to thank them again for helping and being really nice.
Hi Tony,Keep in mind some of the alk swing between day and night is just normal fluctuation as pH swings between day and night. So I don't think it will ever be perfectly flat. If I can keep my daily swing around .2dkh I am pretty happy.
Hi Ron,Hi Tony,
Below is my pHCaR5 VS Alkx17 graphed results over the last 3 days:
I think these are very impressive results! I am going to keep the status quo for the rest of the week and see how it goes. If all goes well, my goal is to raise my Alkalinity set point from 8.90 dkh currently up to 9.5 or so. Hoping that this doesn't cause any major adjustments other than one simple code change.
I started this calcium reactor struggle Aug 2021. My quest to control this reactor was never achieved until and only through your very kind directions and at the expense of too much of your time. All I can say is a huge THANK YOU>
Ron
Hi Tony,
I certainly would prefer if the pH in the reactor would drop quicker from its peak at 11am. That way, I could supply stronger effluent when it was needed the most during the mid afternoon.
I will try to mitigate this, as you have suggested.
Thanks
Hi Tony,Hi Ron Yes not a big change going from 8sec to 7sec interval. I have my on time set about an hour before the lights start to ramp up. My ramp time is only 30 min. Your pH drop is also influence by the secondary pressure controlled by the knob on the Carbon Doser. Higher pressure will give you a bigger bubble with each count. I would try with changing the on time first and maybe later try dropping to 6 seconds. Best not to mess with the pressure settings if you can help it. Eventually though you may need to if demand is not kept up with and the bubble count is very quick. Then it's time to up the pressure just a bit.
No matter what you do there will be some variance from day to day, .2-.3 swing is pretty good over a 24hr period.
Hi Tony,Hi Ron Yes not a big change going from 8sec to 7sec interval. I have my on time set about an hour before the lights start to ramp up. My ramp time is only 30 min. Your pH drop is also influence by the secondary pressure controlled by the knob on the Carbon Doser. Higher pressure will give you a bigger bubble with each count. I would try with changing the on time first and maybe later try dropping to 6 seconds. Best not to mess with the pressure settings if you can help it. Eventually though you may need to if demand is not kept up with and the bubble count is very quick. Then it's time to up the pressure just a bit.
No matter what you do there will be some variance from day to day, .2-.3 swing is pretty good over a 24hr period.