Aquarino KH — User Manual · Printed from manual.aquarino.com.br/en/kh/16-alkalinity-doser/

Alkalinity Doser

Corals consume alkalinity — KH — all the time: more during the day, with the lights on, and less at night. The Alkalinity Doser gives back to the aquarium what was consumed and keeps KH close to the target you chose, without letting the value rise or fall suddenly.

It is an external dosing pump connected to the panel's KH Buffer port, set up in Configuration → Alkalinity Doser. It works with any alkalinity product — 3-in-1 balling, All-For-Reef, alkalinity-only buffer — and the equipment does not ask which: it sees the result in its own measurement.

When you open the screen, the top shows a guide to the doser itself: Automatic alkalinity replacement, with a summary of the cycle and the How it works button, which shows or hides the rest. It starts open and sums up, in a few lines, what this chapter explains in detail:

Right below the guide are the controls:

16.1 How it works

With the doser on, in Normal or Fast mode, the device measures KH every hour, 24 hours a day, and doses right after each measurement. The interval and the time window you chose on the Target Alkalinity screen stay stored and apply again when you turn the doser off (sections 14.3 and 14.4).

With every measurement it learns a little more about your aquarium: how much it consumes at each hour of the day — more with the lights on, when corals calcify, and less at night. That lets the doser stay one step ahead: it doses what the aquarium will consume until the next measurement, instead of chasing what is already missing. The result is a stable KH, with no sudden rises or drops.

It also checks, measurement by measurement, how much each dose really raises KH, and makes up for small differences between the yield you entered and the real one. A value that is far off is not something it can fix: entering the right yield still matters (section 16.7).

What it does in each situation

The doser looks at where KH stands in relation to the target and to the tolerance margin you chose on the Target Alkalinity screen:

• KH dropped over the last few hours — during a consumption peak in the late afternoon, for example: it gives that drop back right away, without waiting.
• Reading above the target plus half the margin — with the target at 8.00 and the margin at 0.15, from 8.08: it does not dose that hour, and the next measurement decides again.

Hour without a measurement, hour without a dose

If a measurement does not happen — a failure, the device switched off —, that hour goes without a dose, and nothing is made up all at once later. The next measurement picks up from the current reading.

16.2 Correction mode

The mode turns the doser on and sets how gently it corrects towards the target. Both modes replace consumption the same way.

16.3 The limits of each day

The doser has two daily limits, which you set on the screen. They do different things:

Maximum daily correction

This is how much KH may change in one day in the correction towards the target, not counting consumption replacement. It goes from 0.15 to 1.00 dKH per day, and the factory default is 0.15, the most cautious value. Below the field, Corrected in the last 24 h shows how much of the correction has already been used.

Below the value, the screen shows a guide by coral type. It does not lock anything: you choose any value in the range, and the screen shows which type of corals it suits.

Daily dosing limit

This is the total the doser may deliver in any 24 hours, consumption replacement and correction added together. It is your aquarium's most important protection: if the device stops seeing KH change — a faulty probe, a wrong calibration, a wrong value in mL to raise 1.0 dKH —, the doser may think it needs to dose a lot, and the daily dosing limit does not let it, even with the wrong reading.

The default is 1.0 dKH per day, and the field accepts 0.1 to 10.0. Below the value, the screen shows how much it represents in millilitres per day and, under Dosed in the last 24 h, how much has already left the pump. This count, like Corrected in the last 24 h, adds up the measurements of the last 24 hours, not of the calendar day.

When the total of the last 24 hours reaches the maximum, the doser pauses until the oldest doses leave the 24-hour window, and the device keeps measuring. You find out in three ways: a line in the event log, an e-mail — even with notifications turned off — and the message Daily dosing limit reached. Consumption rose or another replacement failed. on the screen. When the window frees up, the doser resumes on its own.

16.4 If you have another replenishment system

There is no need to tell the device anything: it notices on its own.

At first, with another system already replacing everything, the doser may dose a little until it understands your aquarium; after that it stays practically idle. Since it can only add, KH may end up a little above target, within your tolerance margin — that is normal.

16.5 What you need to set up

1. Calibrate the pump, so the device knows how much product comes out (section 16.6).
2. Enter the mL to raise 1 dKH for your product in your aquarium (section 16.7). The field comes from the factory set to 1 mL, which suits no product: without the right value, the doser does not dose properly.
3. Enter the bottle size, in Capacity, to keep track of how much is left.

16.6 Calibrating the pump

Calibrating the pump is what makes an order to "dose 25 mL" actually deliver 25 mL. Doser tubing loses flow with use, so it is worth repeating this from time to time.

On the Alkalinity Doser screen, in the Reservoir block, tap Calibration: the panel opens right there, with three steps:

Step 1 · Fill the tubing

Click Purge and let the pump run until the tubing is completely full of buffer, with no bubbles. Click Stop when done.

Step 2 · Measure what the pump delivers

1. Put the end of the tubing into a graduated container — a cylinder, syringe or measuring cup.
2. Click Start Calibration. The pump will run for 60 seconds.
3. Measure the volume delivered and enter it in Volume Measured, in millilitres.

Step 3 · Check

Adjust the Dosing rate and click Test. The equipment should deliver 5 mL of buffer.

16.7 Telling it what your product yields

With the pump calibrated, the equipment still needs to know what your product yields. The mL to raise 1.0 dKH field is what turns "dose 0.25 dKH" into millilitres: it wants the volume, in mL, that raises your whole system by 1 dKH.

To work it out you need two numbers — the product's yield and the real water volume of your system.

Balanced — calcium and alkalinity in one bottle

Alkalinity only

16.8 The first day and day to day

16.9 Automatic protections

16.10 What you see

On the home screen

The KH Buffer indicator shows how much is left in the bottle:

In the event log, the e-mail and the graph