Hi Guys,
I came across something interesting and I wanted to share. We all know that stability is key to being successful in this hobby. And if you go thru this thread over the years you know that my goal has always been to do less and less to take care of my tank.
I love the amount of technology I can add to my tank to keep an eye on it while not actually having to have eyes on it.
This tech has really been cool to teach me how much things are really changing while we try to keep things stable. With the addition of my Alkatronic Alkalinity Monitor I was able to see how fragging one large montipora colony in my system dropped the consumption of alkalinity in an 1100g system with 1000 pcs of coral by over 50% and it took 4 days until consumption was back to normal.
I can actually see Alkalinity rise in the system when I take a turkey baster and blow off the rocks.
My current system - 1100g total system volume: 400g Display tank lit by 8 Radions- they turn on at 5pm - Peak at 8pm - Stay Peaked till 1am and then fade out till 2am. Everything else is outside and in direct sunlight - No covering or shade. I have a 330g Sump, a 140g sump/fish holding tank and a 180g Frag tank.
I recently upgraded my calcium reactor and took the pH probe out of my calcium reactor and tossed it in my sump... and forgot about it.
Tonight I went to check that probe to see if it needed calibration and came across a remarkable graph:
http://www.o2manyfish.com/pics2post/2019/pH - Frag Tank vs Sump.PNG
The graph is courtesy of my Neptune Systems Apex. The Orange Line is the Alkalinity. This is checked every 2 hours via my Alkatronic. Ignore it for the time being, and also ignore what it's doing. The Green Line is the pH probe in my 180g outdoor frag tank. The pH probe sits right before the overflow teeth.
The red line is the pH probe that is in the main sump, right where all the water returns from the Frag Tank and Display tank.
Looking at the chart the Green line is peaking much higher and sooner than the red line. On Feb 20th the peak is at 11am, the 21st at noon, 22 at 12:30, 23rd at noon,24th at noon, 25th at 11:30.
The times of these peaks vary because on the 19th, and 20th we had rain. Rain clouds change when the peak brightness of the day is.
Now going backwards a bit the greenline starts to rise at 7:15am on every day... Sunrise.
The red line is the pH in the sump. This is right where the water is coming back from the frag tank and the display tank. The frag tank is getting about 800gph turnover (that value is from my Neptune Flow meter monitoring an Abyzz A200). Every 15 mins the Frag Tank water is being turned over.
The red line (pH in the Sump) doesn't reach it's daily peak till 2 hours after the frag tank.
Now here is the first part that amazed me. That Green line over the red line is the pH being generated by photosynthesis. Look how much just the frags are producing!
At first I saw the gap between the Red and green and thought - oh the probes are not calibrated correctly. But look how both start tracking the downhill run the same. The pH lines are running in parralel and the difference between the 2 probes on each day is .05.
Guess what time it is the the lines become parrallel...
5:15pm 6:15pm 5:45pm 6:15pm 7pm 6pm --- Anybody wanna guess why the lines are becoming parrallel at those times?
Sunset is at 5:40 to 5:45pm - Take into account rain storms and clouds and you can see that once the sun goes down the pH between frag tank and the system is consistent.
This was the first thing that amazed me. That the frag tank was driving the pH of the system.
The other thing was that the pH drops (and keeps dropping) from sunset till sunrise.
But let's not forget about the display tank. A 400g reef packed from front to back, left to right, and top to bottom.
http://www.o2manyfish.com/pics2post/2019/400g as of Feb 25th.jpg
The display tank is double the size of the frag tank, and I would guess has 2.5x the coral mass.
The Radions in the display tank turn on at 5pm and peak before 8pm.... Do you see any change in the parralleling pH lines.... Nope
The Radions don't seem to generate any pH at all! And this to me is astounding. I know the sun is more powerful, I know its brighter, and I know how much better it grows corals than inside. But to see how much more energy less coral is producing in sunlight is really amazing.
Now we can discuss the Orange line -- That's the Alk. Now with the Alk don't look at the details (actual value) or the lack of stability in the alk - I had some tech issues.
But compare the Alk graph to the Green pH graph. About 90mins after the pH peaks the Alk drops -- every day. The Alkatronic during this graph is measured every 120mins. But the point is there. You can actually see the corals getting juiced up by the sun and then using that energy to suck in the alk and grow.
I think this is some really amazing data. I am sure there are people with more science that can explain this in more detail and using a better selection of science words... But for me... *****in!!!
Dave B
