zeroinverse
New member
Normally my tank runs between 8.1 and 8.4 in day to day variation. Starts at 8.1 before lights turn on and rises to 8.4 when lights turn off. That makes sense as it is the natural daytime pH rise with corresponding nighttime pH dip.
What happened is around mid-day, my pH all of a sudden went down to 7.9 very rapidly. And it stayed that way for several hours.
Around the initial dip, I previously programmed my APEX to shut off all calcium reactor functions whenever pH goes below 8.0. I have a check valve on my Maxijet used to push water through my calcium reactor. But just in case, I closed off the effluent outlet with the ball valve (this should create back pressure to prevent CARX from draining from the inlet (just like holding finger over a straw).
SOOOO, the only thing I "changed" yesterday was to add some BRS magnesium solution to my RODI topoff water. Maybe my topoff kicked in right before my pH dip.
BUT how can adding magnesium "dosing" drop my pH? Magnesium is supposed to help compete with calcium ions so that magnesium ions attach to carbonate surfaces and keep calcium in solution.
Only thing I can think of is that adding magnesium caused a rapid release of Calcium ions into the water that bound with hydroxide (OH) ions causing the pH to drop (more "free floating" hydrogen ions because my Ca took all the OH ions).
Anyone have any other reasons or ideas?
I will have to check my APEX log to see when my ATO kicked in.
What happened is around mid-day, my pH all of a sudden went down to 7.9 very rapidly. And it stayed that way for several hours.
Around the initial dip, I previously programmed my APEX to shut off all calcium reactor functions whenever pH goes below 8.0. I have a check valve on my Maxijet used to push water through my calcium reactor. But just in case, I closed off the effluent outlet with the ball valve (this should create back pressure to prevent CARX from draining from the inlet (just like holding finger over a straw).
SOOOO, the only thing I "changed" yesterday was to add some BRS magnesium solution to my RODI topoff water. Maybe my topoff kicked in right before my pH dip.
BUT how can adding magnesium "dosing" drop my pH? Magnesium is supposed to help compete with calcium ions so that magnesium ions attach to carbonate surfaces and keep calcium in solution.
Only thing I can think of is that adding magnesium caused a rapid release of Calcium ions into the water that bound with hydroxide (OH) ions causing the pH to drop (more "free floating" hydrogen ions because my Ca took all the OH ions).
Anyone have any other reasons or ideas?
I will have to check my APEX log to see when my ATO kicked in.
