Need some help - Controllers

Capt_krill

Capt_krill

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I have been in the hobby for over 2 years now, starting at a small 29G freshwater, converted to a salt and moved to a 90G and currently looking at upgrading. Been through every type of light, MH T5 and LED. Just finished building my LED light 6 months ago and about to tear it down and rebuilt it for a 4ft tank.

Over the 2 years Ive been in this hobby I have noticed that there are some things that I would like to take out of the equation of having to take care of. Notably, dosing for Alk, Ca, and Mg. Testing for them can be a pain, however not a major point.

I am currently looking for a controller that can maintain the following in order of importance from least to greatest

-pH monitoring
-NO2, NO3, PO4 monitoring (at least ability to add later on)
-ATO
-Alk, Ca, Mg dosing/monitoring
-My LED fixture, controlling light schedule more than just 100% on and 100% off every day. I'd like to be able to control them to the point of mimicking sunrise, and sunset with the inclusion of Red LEDs along with my Cool Whites, Warm Whites, Royals and Cool Blues, on 4 Meanwell 60-48D drivers (probably will end up adding an extra 24 -36 LEDs, which means an extra 2-3 drivers to my tank for the 4 foot build.

I have looked at multiple controllers, Reef Keeper, Reef Angel, Apex Contollers, and even so far as a Arduino based controller called "Krusduino". None seem to fit the bill without getting quite pricey for the controller, probes, dosing pumps, ATO system etc.

Any suggestions would be most appreciative.

-Tony
 
yea it's going to be expensive to do everything you have on your list. Your list contains stuff that only top of the line controllers are going to do. I do not think there is even accurate was to continually monitor ALk, Ca, and Mg. There are dosing pumps but that's done based on you determining what was used, not by a probe reading something and saying it needs more of it.
 
No doubt it is going to be expensive, but it came out to being much more than I would have figured.

Monitoring is what I am really concerned about when it comes to Alk Ca and Mg.
Dosing I realize will have to set up manually to keep up with what what the controller is saying.

I am just trying to keep everything as monitored as possible digitally instead of chemically testing.
 
@Capt_krill wrote:
No doubt it is going to be expensive said:
I think the best thing right now is hanna pocket checkers. they have ALk (not 100% on this one), CA, and Phosphate already, Mg is still in the works. It's not a continual status, but you could do a weakly test, faster and easier then normal test kits.
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I thought the hanna checkers took 5 minutes to give a read out?
Although, I would agree that they would be easier... i hate titration test.
 
I do know that Pinpoint has a Ca digital monitor, but nothing for a controller, maybe itis just a dream...sad.

I have the Elos test kits and so far they have been very good, just time consuming. 30 minutes to do Alk, Ca and Mg...

I had a major drop in Alk the past couple weeks...ended up bottoming out at 4 before i got the Elos kits and ESV Alk, Ca and Mg.

Steadily rose Ca from 350 to 430, Alk from 4ish to 7.5 (currently still dosing), and Mg from 1130 to 1250 (still dosing).

I was just hoping to find a controller to monitor those 3 attributes.
 
No controller manages them. Easiest thing you can do is get Hanna checkers have not received the ca checker yet it is on it's way. But the phos and alk are easy to us


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- Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I am not sure how long it takes for a read out. I know the phosphate is pretty quick.

The Ca monitor by pinpoint, I believe is an expensive piece of junk. Constant calibration are needed, but I do not know this first hand just read about them.
 
@ss95003 wrote:
I am not sure how long it takes for a read out. I know the phosphate is pretty quick. The Ca monitor by pinpoint said:
The Alk and Calcium ones are nearly instant (~5 seconds or so), it is only the PO4 one that you have wait for a 3 minute countdown.

I have really liked the Hannah Checkers for configuring the exact daily movements (ppm) of alkalinity for dialing in the length of time my dosing pumps are set for.
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