karimwassef
Active member
I have a big DIY skimmer (12' = 144" high) and I turn it off at night to avoid completely removing the planktonic life. I also dose coral food, vitamins, fatty acids, amino acids and phyto at night.
I also have a big DIY kalk reactor that consumes about 1.5kg of powder a month. My coral growth does reflect that consumption.
However, I can see a negative input on my pH spiking at night. You're probably thinking that I typed that wrong and I meant to say that my pH drops too far. No, my measure pH spikes for a very short window of time without my skimmer being on at night. Let me explain:
My sump has three zones-
Zone 1 receives tank water and pushes water into the skimmer and chiller as well as receiving any dosing including from my kalk reactor.
Zone 2 is my multi-zone algae/Xenia/Chaeto scrubber with cryptic zone and compartment DSB.
Zone 3 is the final smoothing, sensing & water-level zone where the return pumps are. This is where the sensors are, including my pH sensors.
Normally, during the day, when I add kalk in zone 1, the extreme skimmer aeration allows it to become a source of Alkalinity without massively increasing my pH. This is because my skimmer's air intake is connected to the outside air forcing my water to stay in constant equilibrium at 8.2-8.4. This is important because using kalkwasser cannot maintain my tank's uptake otherwise. So, by the time the water gets to zone 3, the high pH is mitigated. This way, I keep my pH at 8.3, and Alk at 7.5dKH. I intentionally run at 500ppm Cal and 7.5dKH Alk.
At night, when I turn off my skimmer, the freshly added clear kalk water in zone 1 isn't aerated sufficiently keeping the pH at 8.6+. This makes its way to zone 3, triggering my sensors to override and shut down my Kalk reactor. To overcome this, I now need to dose more by day than by night. The high pH is very short lived so there's no net impact on the tank except for a reduction in nighttime alkalinity dosing.
I don't like this since I believe continuous low level dosing is superior to biased day dosing.
So, I need to achieve heavy aeration at night, without skimming to avoid killing my biofauna.
So, my proposal is to modify my skimmer's output. It is currently controlled by a single gate valve so I can dial in the water level accurately. I'd like to add a T before this valve and add a second automated valve in parallel. By day, this valve is closed, so the flow is the same as it is now. But, at night, instead of turning off my skimmer, I open the second valve instead. This drops the water level significantly stopping the skimming function but maintaining the aeration.
Thoughts?
Oh-I know I don't do things like most people and most of the system above has inspired royal flaming in the past by chemistry and tank experts. I know I can go to balling or two part or A calcium reactor and that would be super smart to do...
But my results are very good, so please help me solve the engineering problem at hand?
Here's my tank thread in case you want to see more
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2545088&page=5
I also have a big DIY kalk reactor that consumes about 1.5kg of powder a month. My coral growth does reflect that consumption.
However, I can see a negative input on my pH spiking at night. You're probably thinking that I typed that wrong and I meant to say that my pH drops too far. No, my measure pH spikes for a very short window of time without my skimmer being on at night. Let me explain:
My sump has three zones-
Zone 1 receives tank water and pushes water into the skimmer and chiller as well as receiving any dosing including from my kalk reactor.
Zone 2 is my multi-zone algae/Xenia/Chaeto scrubber with cryptic zone and compartment DSB.
Zone 3 is the final smoothing, sensing & water-level zone where the return pumps are. This is where the sensors are, including my pH sensors.
Normally, during the day, when I add kalk in zone 1, the extreme skimmer aeration allows it to become a source of Alkalinity without massively increasing my pH. This is because my skimmer's air intake is connected to the outside air forcing my water to stay in constant equilibrium at 8.2-8.4. This is important because using kalkwasser cannot maintain my tank's uptake otherwise. So, by the time the water gets to zone 3, the high pH is mitigated. This way, I keep my pH at 8.3, and Alk at 7.5dKH. I intentionally run at 500ppm Cal and 7.5dKH Alk.
At night, when I turn off my skimmer, the freshly added clear kalk water in zone 1 isn't aerated sufficiently keeping the pH at 8.6+. This makes its way to zone 3, triggering my sensors to override and shut down my Kalk reactor. To overcome this, I now need to dose more by day than by night. The high pH is very short lived so there's no net impact on the tank except for a reduction in nighttime alkalinity dosing.
I don't like this since I believe continuous low level dosing is superior to biased day dosing.
So, I need to achieve heavy aeration at night, without skimming to avoid killing my biofauna.
So, my proposal is to modify my skimmer's output. It is currently controlled by a single gate valve so I can dial in the water level accurately. I'd like to add a T before this valve and add a second automated valve in parallel. By day, this valve is closed, so the flow is the same as it is now. But, at night, instead of turning off my skimmer, I open the second valve instead. This drops the water level significantly stopping the skimming function but maintaining the aeration.
Thoughts?
Oh-I know I don't do things like most people and most of the system above has inspired royal flaming in the past by chemistry and tank experts. I know I can go to balling or two part or A calcium reactor and that would be super smart to do...
But my results are very good, so please help me solve the engineering problem at hand?
Here's my tank thread in case you want to see more
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2545088&page=5
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