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Trident controlled dosing

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Meshmez

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OK, who is using trident controlled dosing, and what has your experience been?

I have been putting off using it because it kinda scares me, but as I add more coral and stuff starts to grow its getting annoying to keep adjusting the dose up.
 
I just recently did it... so far, so good. I was skeptical at first but surprised how well it's worked once you dial it in... the first few days, I had to monitor and adjust the levels in the tank manually, and played with the dosing rates...

There's no real explanation on how it does it exactly or how much input it actually leverages from Trident results to calculate the dose intervals. But my guess is it does some quick math to see figure each dose per window. I am used the wizard and chose to use the peak consumption option where it does heavily during the light periods where most growth and consumption occurs and less during dark periods. The other option is constant equal doses throughout the day.


For example -- my alk (soda ash solution):
1595404137908.png
 
I don't think I would ever use the Trident to directly control dosing except maybe as a safety stop if values got to high, or an alert if they got too low. See what your parameters are, need more/less? then change the dosing amount manually and wait until the next day. Repeat as necessary. Last thing you want is some error with your Trident translating to a major dosing change.
 
I personally use it. I keep it at +-10% so I still have to interact with it from time to time. For example, I can see its maxing out its dosing at +10% of what I inputted but alk keeps dropping. I tweak it, until its within 10%. Repeat, until happy. I am going to move it to +-15% soon.
 
I felt the same way but finally started using it and it works very well. It has thresholds so that it won’t overdose. For example, I have my target Alk set to 8.5 but if it falls below 8.1 or above 8.9, controlled dosing will stop and I’ll be notified. It’ll continue to dose the baseline amount until it returns to normal.

It took me a couple of weeks to dial in the baseline amount. Started with 20 ml and ended up with 36 ml.

My suggestion is to use the wizard every time and don’t adjust the control intervals manually. Make adjustment decisions after the 6pm test and run the wizard again.
 
sfsuphysics said:
I don't think I would ever use the Trident to directly control dosing except maybe as a safety stop if values got to high, or an alert if they got too low. See what your parameters are, need more/less? then change the dosing amount manually and wait until the next day. Repeat as necessary. Last thing you want is some error with your Trident translating to a major dosing change.
Click to expand...
This was my plan, and what I have been doing, but it seems like every few days I have to adjust dosing to stay stable, then manually dose back to my target. Only to do it again in a few days. Again, I realize growth/ consumption is a good problem to have, just want to see what tools I have and how to best implement them.

I also wish there was a "one time dose" task. For instance let's say it takes me 3 days to get the dosing to stabilize and hold. I. That time alk has dropped 0.3 points from target. I can plug parameters into one of the many calculators out there to increase the 0.3. I wish I could say "dose x ml extra over the next 48 hr and then only do the normally scheduled dosing.
 
Meshmez said:
I also wish there was a "one time dose" task. For instance let's say it takes me 3 days to get the dosing to stabilize and hold. I. That time alk has dropped 0.3 points from target. I can plug parameters into one of the many calculators out there to increase the 0.3. I wish I could say "dose x ml extra over the next 48 hr and then only do the normally scheduled dosing.
Click to expand...

Yeah -- that was one of my wants for this programatically... if you wanted to do a catch up adjustment over time, there's no way to really do it atm.

But what I have found is absent of significant system changes, the movements all happen within a tight band... after you dial it in.
 
Here's how mine is set. I just manually increase/decrease the ml of ALK dosing if it needs to adjust more than 35%. Mine doses ALK during the day and CA at night.
Screenshot_20200722-190828.png
 
EBJ said:
Here's how mine is set. I just manually increase/decrease the ml of ALK dosing if it needs to adjust more than 35%. Mine doses ALK during the day and CA at night.
Click to expand...

How close do they get with to 8dHK value with +-35%? Hows does the graph look. I've had mines at 10% and it required me tweaking it ever few weeks.
 
It stays pretty stable when the consumption stabilizes and I'm not changing water. It went to 8.1 after I did a 10% water change. I just shut ALK dosing off for a day after a water change. Now I'm using more ALK because I raised my nutrients so it's dropping below 8 and trying to catch up.
Screenshot_20200722-194907.png
 
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I think it is more precise if you run more tests too. I only do 4 a day. Sometimes I run extra manual ALK tests during the day to see where it's at.
 
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