THE Tank Build By Aqua Digital

[Aqua-Digital]

Hi

In regards to the balling review, of course this will take some time for anyone to see results and of course it all comes down to "are we seeing results that we would have anyway" So I would suggest look more at the parameter stability, the ease of control over the 3 elements, something you will neve get with 2 part or a ca reactor an then build your own assesment from there.

I also would say there is no point following the review if you then go off and buy some bargain bucket salt and hope to see the same results. Simply you wont, so if you are interested in doing balling then ya have to buy into the concept 100%. I have talked to enough people that switched to FM salts and in a month they got stability back and algal issues resolved.

This is "my" first tank run with balling so I am going to be interested also

THE PROBE

Amazing product - rapid response, comes with documentation showing its stats and has not needed calibrating in 6 weeks. The great thing is the price is no different.

Talk to PR again about your interest in one, we have a few left from the initial shipment.

Does it match a GHL Lab probe? Based on warranty (GHL 6 months) this probe 3 months and that I have GHL probes that are nearly 4 years old and still going great guns, I would say the GHL still holds its own with time against cost, basically paying for itself due to longevity.

I of course am going to be really interested to see how this new probe is performing in 12 months.

[Aqua-Digital]

The equipment set up.

As you can see below the whole system is set up minus adding the actual elements which I will do tomorrow.

GHL 4 stage doser connected to the profilux and plumbed in



All Pipe work going to the tube holder and coming from the balling containers, the containers come with screw tight fastners for the tube so no risk of one flying off.



Close up of the tube holder, I have been crafty and used spare peri tubing to run through the bubble Magus holder so the pipes are nice and tidy going into the sump. I have also used the more flexible air line as the Calcium line especially can choke up like a vein and is easier to unblock with this pipe.



And 1 x stand back and admire the goodies shot



Tomorrow I will discuss GHL programming with screen shots and also how to work out initial dose rates. I have cheated and already done this by 5 days of manual pre dosing and measuring of the element depletion per day, so i know already what my system draws, but I will focus on this important step more tomorrow

[don.ald]

looks good, clean and tidy!
how much room do you have to remove the skimmer cup?

[Aqua-Digital]

room to remove the skimmer cup = Enough and only just about enough, but its all that is needed

[Aqua-Digital]

Dosing/balling set up continued -

Ok here we go the rest of the guide

So before we can even start talking about setting up dose rates and anything else we need to program the doser.

For slave dosers with the profiLux

This is where the profiLux shines above all other controllers, as you know GHL make a slave doser that works in unison with the controller, this gives the unique feature that you can dose in controlled ML as well as timed, this is quite unique to ProfiLux and why all in one solutions really are far better.

I am assuming everyone knows how to program the initial state of the doser? Ok here is a basic overview

Plug doser with power applied into S1S4 directly (remove digital power bar)

Go to socket function outlet

Click on program digital power bar/ Doser

Set numbering from the last number of your power bar, for example if you have one power bar set as #7, the software will do the rest, follow onscreen prompts and exit.

Plug digital power bar back into S1S4 and doser data cable into the second western port on the power bar.

Stand Alone dosers

You have it more simple Just decide if you want timed or manual mode, then just sit back and wait for me to write up the balling dosing guide part. The slavers read on -

Now the fun stuff.

I have set my doser to work from S7 to S10 being a 4 pump doser, I am using pumps as follows

S7 = DKH set up on timer 2
S8 = Mg set up on timer 3
S9 = Ca set up on timer 4

So once you have programmed the initial state of your doser stay in socket function outlet and decide what timers you wish to use (once not already utilsed obviously). Then edit the sockets accordingly i.e socket 7 = timer 2

as shown here



Repeat the above for all dosers assigning different timers per dosing pump

Once done go to one of the assigned timers and decide how you wish the doser to operate.

My choice has been manual dosing, the reason for this is I like to have control as to when the dosing events take place (Sa doser users select manual dosing for this also). In the screen shot below you will see for Timer 2 which is pump 1 DKH I have selected manual mode and programmed 6 seperate timed events of 10ml over a 24 hour period, this gives me 60ml over 24 hours.



If you look closely the dosing rate I have edited to 50ml/min, the reason for this is to calibrate the doser to actually dose 10ml per timed cycle. The doser factory settings is 60ml/min so why change? Well its all down to what your dosing, what pipe you use etc etc, so the rate will change.

How to work out 10ml in one dosing cycle?

get yourself a 10ml syringe marked at 10ml and remove the plunger and block the small exit hole.

Set the doser up for one event a couple of minutes ahead of your current time.

place the tube in the upside down syringe and wait for the timed dosing event to start.

Remove the tube and note how much was dosed in this event.

Mine dosed 8ml instead on 10ml so i decreased the flow rate to 50ml/min then repeated above, it now doses 10ml in every event.

I repeated this for each pump.

This completes the equipment set up stage, next step balling salt mixing and setting up initial dosing -