Englishrebel's 260 Gallon System Build

[EnglishRebel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15186375#post15186375 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WaterKeeper
I think I mentioned that Alan in a earlier post. Limes solubility is limited and you can only get a little under 7 grams per gallon (a heaping tablespoonful or two) into solution. You can only feed more solution not add more lime into the solution to get the pH to climb. Sounds like you are making progress and a pH of 7.8, or above, is of little concern in most tanks.

Tom
Yes you are correct (after all you are a chemist ). As the solution is used up I'm not adding any more lime -- just RO/DI water. This afternoon the PH is at 7.79. I do have one question though. Where the 1/4" tubing drips into the sump I notice that the end of the tube has a lime build-up on the inside that I cleaned off. I must have about 8'-10' of tubing between the 2 gallon jug of limewater and the sump (with the peristaltic pump in line). Should I be concerned about build up in the line?
Thanks

 

[EnglishRebel]

PH is 7.83 at 9:00 this morning so the increased dosing (200mL/hour) of limewater seems to be working. Do you think I should continue to dose limewater once it reaches say 8.1? Will it fall back if I stop dosing?
Thanks

 

[WaterKeeper]

I'd keep going until you hit around 8.2 but check your alkalinity and, if over 13 dKH, then back off.

As for the precipitate, that happens at the end of the tube as there is a instantaneous moment where calcium carbonate (highly insoluble) precipitates at the very high pH of the lime water/seawater interface. It poses no problem but you need to clean it daily to avoid stopping up the line.

 

[EnglishRebel]

Tom
It's at 12.2 right now. I’ll check it twice a week.

 

[EnglishRebel]

Do you think I should continue to dose limewater once it reaches say 8.1? Will it fall back if I stop dosing?

 

[WaterKeeper]

Alan you can stop there but I would think things will hold in place better if you keep dosing at a lower rate. As you monitor alk routinely you can judge how much to add by trying to keep the alk at the current level and the pH holding above 8.0.

 

[RGibson]

WaterKeeper what is the best media to put in a calcium reactor i have a GEO reactor?

 

[WaterKeeper]

Any type of calcium carbonate (calcite/aragonite) media will work. Things like crushed coral or course grades of aragonite work fine. Here is a short article on Calcium Reactors by Steve Huntington.

To me, using CC or a large grained aragonite is fine as it is precipitated under NSW in the first place and should not have any harmful impurities present. You can get fancy media but I'm not sure if they really are of benefit. On the other hand mined limestone may be cheap but could have impurities present that you may not want in the tank.

 

[EnglishRebel]

Well my Aquatinics MH/T5 fixture/ballast arrived courtesy of the Big Brown Truck this afternoon. Will try and get it mounted tomorrow (if I can spare some time from a recently awarded consulting job, first in 18 months -- and I thought I was retired).
I noticed today that some of my mushrooms had wasted away (well detached themselves from the rock and are laying in the sand). I wonder if the rise in PH is the culprit although it's been a slow rise -- today it's 7.82.

 

[RGibson]

WaterKeeper think you for the info.
Ralph

 

[EnglishRebel]

Received my Aquatinics MH/T5 fixture today. Got it hooked up to my RKE. Here are some FT shots for your edification.

 

[mpoletti]

Very Nice Alan, The tank looks nice. What bulbs are your running?

 

[EnglishRebel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15210959#post15210959 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mpoletti
Very Nice Alan, The tank looks nice. What bulbs are your running?

Thank you.
At each end I'm running an AquaIllumination LED module (2x90W) and in the middle a 250 W 15K MH and two T5 Aquatinics.

 

[paulthomas]

Very nice. Again, your craftsmanship in the woodworking dept. is outstanding. The rest of the tank ain't too shabby neider.

Wow, those LEDs look very bright.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Yes, very nice!

 

[EnglishRebel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15211925#post15211925 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by paulthomas
Very nice. Again, your craftsmanship in the woodworking dept. is outstanding. The rest of the tank ain't too shabby neider.

Wow, those LEDs look very bright.

Thanks Paul. I would have liked to go all LED but two more fixtures would have been around $2400 so I'll wait until they drop in price.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15212426#post15212426 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by "Umm, fish?"
Yes, very nice!

I appreciate that Andy especially coming from you.

 

[EnglishRebel]

Still having issues with my bloody PH. I am dosing lime water and the PH was getting up around 7.83 (with hardness at 12.2 dKh) a few days ago and now it's back down to 7.56. I have not done anything to the tank (other than add the MH light fixture which shouldn't have any effect on PH). I did a 5% water change today but the PH of the NSW was 7.6 (it's about a month or so old).
I have no idea what's going on. I notice that when I turned the main pump on after doing a water change, I got hundreds of white stringy particles blowing out of the return piping. It doesn't look like algae (and would be green or brown anyway). It seems as if the stuff is "growing" on the inside of the pipes and gets dislodged when the pump starts up and rushes through the piping.
Do you thing it's got anything to do with the low PH? The stuff looks like slightly milky strands of very very thin pasta. It breaks apart very easily and is pushed around the tank by the Votechs for a long time. It's been about an hour now and there is still some floating around (I don't know where the rest went -- probably stuck in the rocks or down the overflow.
Sign me

 

[erics3000]

Hey Alan they are most likely sponges. If I pull rock from the bottom of the sump or an area where there isn't light I will find them sometime. When I changed my lighting a while back I had a bunch of them and they just disappered over time

 

[EnglishRebel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15225447#post15225447 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by erics3000
Hey Alan they are most likely sponges. If I pull rock from the bottom of the sump or an area where there isn't light I will find them sometime. When I changed my lighting a while back I had a bunch of them and they just disappered over time

Eric
That's interesting as I hadn't thought about that. I guess they were growing inside the pipework. I do have sponges on some of my rocks and come to think about it, they do sort of look like them. If they are sponges that's pretty amazing considering the water flow.

 

[edandsandy]

Alan,
I know you have the best advisors on here (WaterKeeper) and I am no expert.... but, we too had a difficult time with our PH for a few months. I still think you are experiencing a new tank set up, and it will settle down, ours finally did.