Rick Mathew
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I don’t know about you but there are many important tasks associated with reefkeeping that could be classified as “Not my favorite thing to do”, like probe and doser calibrations, water changes, water testing and others. That being said these are important tasks that are necessary in order to maintain a healthy reef environment. With this in mind, I have done some simple things to help me speed up and simplify theses tasks, thus allowing me more time “with my tank”.
I thought I would share some of these with all of you.Maybe they will help you have more time with your tanks. Many of you most likely have your own “trick” that you would be willing to share that I would love to hear.
PROBES & DOSERS
This first one focuses on probe and doser calibration. I calibrate my pH probes on all my tanks (4 counting my salt mix tank) every month and my dosing pumps ever 3 months. My temperature probes are calibrated to a Continuous recording LogTag analyzer which has an accuracy of ±.9°F and NIST traceable . Because I use these probes to make decision for my tank, it is important that they be as accurate as possible. In some cases these probes are connected to automated systems like an Apex controller and they direct the controller to take certain actions as a consequence of their readings…Turn on heaters, pumps etc. If the probes are wrong the actions are wrong causing the tank conditions to be unstable or outside of ideal parameters. The dosing pumps are no less important. They are expected to deliver a specific amount of additive based on a probe reading or a water test result. If the pump delivery volume is variable or incorrect we are adding too little or too much of the required additive. I use a “visual QC” method to be sure the dosing pumps are delivering the correct amount. I will show you this later.
So here is my first time saver:
This is a “Multi Doser Calibration Setup”. With two pieces of acrylic, a piece of wood, 4 calibrated vials (From Amazon… https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O59Y224/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&th=1) and about 1hour’s worth of effort, I can now calibrate 4 dosers at the same time. I wrote an Apex program that will run the 10min calibration cycle for all 4 dosers at the same time….I can read the results directly using the calibrated vials…quick and easy…job done!
By the way, cleaning the end of the delivery tube every week or so helps keep the dosing volume more constant over time. They get clogged up and restrict the flow, especially the Alk doser.
VISUAL QC (Quality Control) For Dosing
It is not that I do not trust my dosers…but they do go bad and controllers do malfunction so I like to see what has been dosed on the previous cycle.
Every day when I check the sump I can visually see the amounts remaining for each of my additives and compare it to what it should be remaining by using an Excel Chart that I created (another story for another day). It is quick and easy and gives me confidence that my dosing amounts are correct.
This is what I was referring to as “Visual QC (Quality Control)”
Pictured below
This is the table I use as a reference to see how much should be remaining at the end of each dosing cycle for each of the additives.
pH PROBE CALIBRATION STAND
The pH Probe calibrations follow about the same story. Using pieces of acrylic I constructed 2 “Probe Calibration Stands” so I can calibrate 2 probes at a time…I plan to make two more so all 4 probes can be done…Below is one of the two Stands I constructed. It makes it quick and convenient to calibrate the probe.
These simple devices make my “not my favorite things to do” quicker and easier and gives me more time to enjoy this:
Here is a picture of my 150 Mixed Reef...not the best picture but you get the idea
Well that is about it for now…Hope this is helpful…comments welcomed.
Rick
P.S. If you are interested here is a link to my YouTube Channel where you can see all of my Reef Tank Video since the tank was set up in 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/user/perfectimage1000/playlists
I thought I would share some of these with all of you.Maybe they will help you have more time with your tanks. Many of you most likely have your own “trick” that you would be willing to share that I would love to hear.
PROBES & DOSERS
This first one focuses on probe and doser calibration. I calibrate my pH probes on all my tanks (4 counting my salt mix tank) every month and my dosing pumps ever 3 months. My temperature probes are calibrated to a Continuous recording LogTag analyzer which has an accuracy of ±.9°F and NIST traceable . Because I use these probes to make decision for my tank, it is important that they be as accurate as possible. In some cases these probes are connected to automated systems like an Apex controller and they direct the controller to take certain actions as a consequence of their readings…Turn on heaters, pumps etc. If the probes are wrong the actions are wrong causing the tank conditions to be unstable or outside of ideal parameters. The dosing pumps are no less important. They are expected to deliver a specific amount of additive based on a probe reading or a water test result. If the pump delivery volume is variable or incorrect we are adding too little or too much of the required additive. I use a “visual QC” method to be sure the dosing pumps are delivering the correct amount. I will show you this later.
So here is my first time saver:
This is a “Multi Doser Calibration Setup”. With two pieces of acrylic, a piece of wood, 4 calibrated vials (From Amazon… https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O59Y224/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&th=1) and about 1hour’s worth of effort, I can now calibrate 4 dosers at the same time. I wrote an Apex program that will run the 10min calibration cycle for all 4 dosers at the same time….I can read the results directly using the calibrated vials…quick and easy…job done!
By the way, cleaning the end of the delivery tube every week or so helps keep the dosing volume more constant over time. They get clogged up and restrict the flow, especially the Alk doser.
VISUAL QC (Quality Control) For Dosing
It is not that I do not trust my dosers…but they do go bad and controllers do malfunction so I like to see what has been dosed on the previous cycle.
Every day when I check the sump I can visually see the amounts remaining for each of my additives and compare it to what it should be remaining by using an Excel Chart that I created (another story for another day). It is quick and easy and gives me confidence that my dosing amounts are correct.
This is what I was referring to as “Visual QC (Quality Control)”
Pictured below
This is the table I use as a reference to see how much should be remaining at the end of each dosing cycle for each of the additives.
pH PROBE CALIBRATION STAND
The pH Probe calibrations follow about the same story. Using pieces of acrylic I constructed 2 “Probe Calibration Stands” so I can calibrate 2 probes at a time…I plan to make two more so all 4 probes can be done…Below is one of the two Stands I constructed. It makes it quick and convenient to calibrate the probe.
These simple devices make my “not my favorite things to do” quicker and easier and gives me more time to enjoy this:
Here is a picture of my 150 Mixed Reef...not the best picture but you get the idea
Well that is about it for now…Hope this is helpful…comments welcomed.
Rick
P.S. If you are interested here is a link to my YouTube Channel where you can see all of my Reef Tank Video since the tank was set up in 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/user/perfectimage1000/playlists
