Any negatives to dosing kalk to maintain 8.3 Ph
- Thread starter Reckless_
- Start date
Be sure to monitor your alkalinity. The most common use of kalk is to maintain the alkalinity level, not so much to raise pH, which happens to be a welcome side effect.
But, do not chase pH. You will do more harm than good. A pH of 7.8-8.3 is perfectly fine.
But, do not chase pH. You will do more harm than good. A pH of 7.8-8.3 is perfectly fine.
I don't post much ,but have been doing this for 20+ yrs. If you mean saturated lime water when you refer to kalk dosing here ifs my experience. I use "kalkwasser", i.e. saturated limewater for my top off water to offset evaporation. I also do this because I have humans and gas appliances in my house, by testing I know I have high CO2 levels. This allows me to boost my PH to around 7.9 to 8.1. I have learned to not try and force PH to desired levels to much. Your air conditions around the tank will effect the PH the most. BTW by using lime water as top off my Ca and ALK stay in balance. If I do need to boost ALK or Ca I then start a dosing regiment.
Hope this helps,
Randy
Hope this helps,
Randy
darrick001
Member
I have been doing this for over 23 years. Over the last 7 years. I have tried almost everything over the first 3 years and my ph was 7.8- 8.1. 4 years ago I decided to change my system to a completely natural system. Did my best to emulate the ocean. I removed all mechanical filtration, the skimmer, filter media, switched to tritan, no water changes, removed the extra air pump increased the size of my refugium and raised it above the tank. Display 500 gallon refugium 210 gal. I only light 1/2 the other half is criptic. My PH jumped to 8.28 at night to 3.41 during the day. My ORP went from 300 to 450. It took about a years to stabilize but after the initial shock it started improving. I have a tons of pods , mysis everywhere. Nitrates are actually to low I have to feed heavy. There is a reason that algea scrubbers get better growth in a waterfall setup. They get extra CO2 from the air. My refugium uses More CO2 than the animals are producing. I have no sump and return from the refugium only drop 2 inches. Unfortunately I have to move so I'm working on creating a miniature version of this setup. No room in the new house for the 500. Some of the things that did help slightly. Change you media in your reactors when bacteria populate the media they use a lot of O2 and put off CO2. Run your calcium reactor and carbon or other reactors into the skimmer. Drawback is you have to watch the skimmer pump for calcium build up.
darrick001
Member
pH of 8.41 not 3.41
