This has a lot of info on it:
What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm
What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm
Huge PH Problem
- Thread starter Bonvivant
- Start date
ColaAddict
In Memoriam
Thanks for the link/info Randy 
You're welcome. Just pop back if you have additional questions.
Good luck.
Good luck.
Bonvivant
New member
Ok, another update. Today, the PH has risen to 7.9 during the day. I am unsure if the new probe has settled in or if the tank was in a cycle because of the additions. Whatever the case, the damage has been done. Looks like I am going to lose at least three Acro colonies. It really sucks because I grew them from small frags. Tomorrow I am putting the Kalk reactor online. After it settles in I will put the Calcium Reactor back on line. I will keep you guys posted.
I didn't notice you ran a CaCO3/CO2 reactor. Maybe it was grossly miscalibrated, adding excessive CO2.
:thumbsup:
When you start it back up, trying reducing the CO2 flow substantially.
When you start it back up, trying reducing the CO2 flow substantially.
Bonvivant
New member
I think I'm going to rename this forum "How to Utterly Destroy a Beautiful Reef in 10 Easy Steps!" A bit of an update. I received my Kalk reactor the other day. I needed the reactor to deal with a low PH Problem. Well while I was setting it up I inadvertently exposed it to full line pressure from my RO/DI Unit. Anyone wish to venture a guess as to what happened next??? Well lets just say it involved a big boom and me (and my surrounding environment) being completely covered in Limewater and Kalk paste. Well, after a day of cleaning up and another day of fixing the reactor, I get hit with a power outage that is predicted to last for several days. Guess what, the Vortech Power backup only lasts 24 hours. So, I am guessing things are not going to work out well for my poor reef. I think I may be rebooting in the near future. Oh well...at this point I just want to see what happens next.
Well, good luck dealing with these issues. We all experience them from time to time. 
Bonvivant
New member
Ok, another update. My PH issues continue. I now swing between 7.9 (day) and 7.4(lights out). I have all of the windows in my condo open. I run fans in the house and over the tank surface. I have an air pump pumping air from the outside to a DIY Kalk Co2 scrubber into my Skimmer AND an extra red dragon pump with venturi in the sump. I ordered the Co2 scrubbing media and filter which I will set up tonight. I am also using limewater for topoff. Almost all of my sps has died. The rest of my once healthy reef is not happy or healthy. I am at my wits end. If this media doesn't work then I am going to go back to my original setup and start over. I messed up a beautiful reef in an attempt to make things better when things were just fine as they were.
Bonvivant
New member
Ok, great news this morning. I have determined that my ph test kit and sl2 unit were both bad. So I bypassed the sl2 and recalibrated my ph probe for the sl1. The results were interesting. My PH now ranges from 7.91-8.29. I am super happy about that. Second discovery was that my temp probe was malfunctioning. This caused the tank to actually be at 72.4 instead of the 79.0 I normally maintain. The temperature combined with the shifting water parameters (my attempts to raise PH) might be why so many SPS died. I'm sad that I lost beautiful colonies but happy that things are finally working out. I now have an excuse to restock with nicer SPS when things have been stable for a while! Thank you everyone!
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