Aquarist007
New member
thanks I understand that--but in my situation where I have to dose by hand--would the water parameters be stable for weekly testing or should it be done everyother day etc?
Let's talk about Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium in an SPS Tank
- Thread starter JB NY
- Start date
thanks I understand that--but in my situation where I have to dose by hand--would the water parameters be stable for weekly testing or should it be done everyother day etc?
MJAnderson
Premium Member
Aquarist007
New member
ok then--you are doing the same thing as me-- have you ever observed it following below 7.8
This is the problem in understanding I am having---if pH is lowering because of carbon dioxide conditions in the house then there should be a point where the carbon dioxide levels off in the house and concurrently in the tank so if you ignore the following co2 rate like some suggest it will start to come back up on its own.
SaraB
Coral Killer
Yes, I have hit in the 7.7's and then added Lime to the reactor. The interesting thing is that I have 2 sump/fuge systems side by side in my fishroom and one has lower PH than the other. The one with the lower PH has the display tank located in the basement, so that's what I concluded to it having low PH with the Furnace in the basement... or a different Kalk Reactor not working as well as the other. The system with the higher PH, the tank is on the first floor. Also, both sump/fuge systems are in the basement as well in a 10x21 fishroom.
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Rather than repeat what I've been told without quite understanding why it should be, I asked in the Reef Chemistry forum about these statements: 1. Dripping kalk may cause phosphate to precip out, and putting it right over your skimmer intake might help you bail some out; [generally good for corals] and 2. dripping kalk may cause mg to precip out. [can be a fixable problem for maintaining alk/cal.]
The initial respondent says yes, to a minor degree. The thread link is:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1181767
The initial respondent says yes, to a minor degree. The thread link is:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1181767
MJAnderson
Premium Member
Bertoni replied NO to the same question about Mag when I asked it after reading it in Randy's article.
Serioussnaps
New member
Well fiddlesticks.....Randy agrees with me because I see it HAPPEN IN MY SYSTEM.
I will admit I read most of this but not all so forgive me if this is in here. I've always tried to keep my alk at 10ish Dkh.....I find that everything does much better. I prefer to have my calcium on the low end. When my Alk got below 9 my Trach brain would not open during the day (not SPS I know). Since then I have tried to maintain my alk at a higher level.....also seems to keep any algae down (maybe the higher more stable Ph?). I JUST as of yesterday added a Kalk reactor so hopefully that will level everything out? I am sort of new to SPS but have never lost one......probably over 9 months or so....I have never seen RTN or STN. Just wanted to add my 2 cents.....also I have never tried higher calcium and lower alk for any period of time.
Aquarist007
New member
I don't think it is simply location of the furnace------
not all lowering of pH is strickly due to carbon dioxide levels in the tank. Also I think carbon dioxide problems in the house are a combination of air circulation and insulation. ---and carbon dioxide/ oxygen exchange occurs on the surface of the water of the tank besides in the sump/refugium and skimmer.
----and the hotter the room the more carbon dioxide it can hold
my eg here
--my sump and fuge are in the basement also--the main tank is in a small room at the front of the house. If I close the door to that room the circulation slows down and the temp really rises quickly due to the sun coming in the windows and the halides over the tank. You walk into that room after 15 min and it is very hot and the air is stiffling. Yet the air in the basement where the air conditioning is drawing from is cool and not hard to breathe---my pH in the main tank fluctuates over the entire week from 8.2-7.7.
I have a 30 gal quarantine/frag/reef tank(depending on the crisis) right beside my fuge and sump in the basement. The pH never ever moves---8.1 steady.
SaraB
Coral Killer
Yes, the air is warm in the room during the summer as I shut off the incoming air vent from the outside that was installed. Illinois is hot and humid in the summer. I keep the door open just a crack, but it does not help the heat factor. My husband is into collectibles and if I dare rust his collections in the basement, I'm in BIG trouble. PH stays in the 8.1 to the high 8.2's when the air is not running and the outside vent is opened (spring, fall & winter)
Since there seems to be some talk on this thread regarding ph I have a question.
How in the heck do you guys with a kalk reactor keep it stable?. I dose all top off with it at a drip rate and ph really fluctuates depending on how much kalkwasser I have in the reactor. Seems to keep it stable I'd have to add a certain amount every couple of days. If I add say a cup a month the ph swing from when it's added to when it's about 1/4 left is pretty dramatic (around 8.0 - 8.5).
thanks,
Albert
How in the heck do you guys with a kalk reactor keep it stable?. I dose all top off with it at a drip rate and ph really fluctuates depending on how much kalkwasser I have in the reactor. Seems to keep it stable I'd have to add a certain amount every couple of days. If I add say a cup a month the ph swing from when it's added to when it's about 1/4 left is pretty dramatic (around 8.0 - 8.5).
thanks,
Albert
Bertoni came up with an interesting observation: if you are supplementing [an dI hope I'm quoting him right] with 2-part or Kent's or whatever, you're actually adding some mg.
If you are supplementing with kalk, you are not, because there is no mg in kalk.
So if the corals are using mg, and you are not supplying it via your supplement, the net effect is that you are losing mg and need to supplement more.
That may reconcile Randy with Bertoni. Bertoni makes those comments in the thread I linked to above.
If you are supplementing with kalk, you are not, because there is no mg in kalk.
So if the corals are using mg, and you are not supplying it via your supplement, the net effect is that you are losing mg and need to supplement more.
That may reconcile Randy with Bertoni. Bertoni makes those comments in the thread I linked to above.
Yes I understand that. My problem is knowing how much to add to the reactor.....2 COFFEE CUPS!!!!! That just seems insane to me? Right now my reactor is stirring nothing...all the kalk is on the bottom but the alk is WAY over 16 dkh so it's working, my tap is 0 after RO/DI filter. I feel I've hijacked this......sorry. 2 CUPS of KALK....GEEZ.
JetCat USA
In Memoriam
the effluent in the reactor will only hold so much lime in solution (saturation) and then the rest of the 2 cups you added will settle to the bottom of the reactor, as water is pushed through to the tank and the saturated water is diluted with the new water entering the reactor the mixer kicks in ever so often and keeps the effluent saturated and the process repeats till the Kalk is completely depleted.
