Opening your windows... What your demand

[rogergolf66]

As you open your windows up and your ph rises in the tank make sure u watch your al, cal, mag demand 3 years in a row now after opening the doors and windows growth has gone crazy in my tank and had to make adjustments to my alk, cal, mag supplement amounts.

alk dropped 1.2 dkh
Calcium dropped 65ppm
Mag dropped 110ppm

Just wanted you to keep it in mind as your corals are growing!!!

Roger

 

[tony727]

Roger do you leave your tanks outside without A/C or are you running your A/C with doors/windows open?
I have a large room without A/C and I was worried everything would get too hot for an extra tank without a chiller.

 

[CuzzA]

That's interesting you mentioned this, if you recall my post from a few days ago about my pH skyrocketing from opening windows and doors and I hooked my skimmer line to the exterior of my home, well I've noticed that my Alk level dropped and since then I have been running daily test. I've documented that my Alk consumption is much greater now than before.

Perhaps, now I know why.

 

[reefer4unme]

I have a airline hose ran from my skimmer to a window which helped raise my PH and notice my paremeters fluctuated a lot in the beginning.my alk would drop dramatically which I also been testing daily as well as dosing more.thanks for the heads up on the explanation

 

[rogergolf66]

Roger do you leave your tanks outside without A/C or are you running your A/C with doors/windows open?
I have a large room without A/C and I was worried everything would get too hot for an extra tank without a chiller.

My tanks r inside the house with ac. That's why when I open the house up after the summer every year the CO2 locked up in the house escapes and the ph goes up in the tank and increases growth of my sps.

That's interesting you mentioned this, if you recall my post from a few days ago about my pH skyrocketing from opening windows and doors and I hooked my skimmer line to the exterior of my home, well I've noticed that my Alk level dropped and since then I have been running daily test. I've documented that my Alk consumption is much greater now than before.

Perhaps, now I know why.

Yes every year this happens to me also.

I have a airline hose ran from my skimmer to a window which helped raise my PH and notice my paremeters fluctuated a lot in the beginning.my alk would drop dramatically which I also been testing daily as well as dosing more.thanks for the heads up on the explanation

Me too but opening the house up gets that effect through the whole tank not just the skimmer line

 

[Ted_C]

the pH level changes the end point titration! All the test kits use the same methodology to determine levels - that is an acid/base titration with a color change indicator when all the acid or all the base is used up and one additional drop of the chemical changes the color.

As your pH goes up - it appears to take more (or less) of the chemical to neutralize what's in the water - so your levels look lower/higher. The levels are probably actually the same.

That's why stability is the key.

It's all in the math and science: http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/acidbaseeqia/phcurves.html

Imagine this titration curve:

Now imagine instead of starting near zero, you start at 2

Your going to hit that "inflection point" sooner than 25 ml (25 cm3) lets say ~20 ml. SO when you look on your chart - 25 ml was 500 PPM Ca. 20 ml is 370 PPM Ca.

 

[rogergolf66]

Ted u r a very smart man, Im sure smarter then my self, but I am basing my results more on growth equaling demand. It's pretty easy to visually see the slow growth all summer say 1/4inch every 6 weeks. Compared to winter time I see the same corals growing an inch plus in 6 weeks. So demand of alk, cal, mag would have to increase as the corals are growing faster they use more up of what's in the water correct?...

Over the years I have seen growth definanetly increase substantial every year after opening up the house. The only measurable change in the tank is the increase in ph do to the fact the co2 in the house is now lower and hense the tank ph rises to the fresh air instead of the co2 trapped in the house. Days after opening the house up the growth level increases hense the levels drop because of consumption from the corals.

I'm sure the science behind what u posted has truth to it.

Ok so I'm thinking this through. I'm no chemist or scientist by any means. So the higer ph allows the corals to more easily take in the minerals needed to grow there skeleton. This is what I remember reading in advanced reef keeping years ago. I'm sure I'm simplifying that a lot but u got the point.

So if the higher ph is now making the levels appear lower in the tank then all summer when I bumb my levels back to where I want them are you saying they are actually even higher then the reading my test kits read because of the higher ph?

I know probably all over the place on this post.

I would love to keep my ph more consistent year round but unfortunately everything I have tried to get ph up during the summer has failed to reach the ph I can keep in the winter months. List of things I have tried are.

Co2 scrubber helped .05-.15
Dosing Kalk at night every hour also helped .05-.15
Skimmer line outside to pull in more fresh air.

What I think causes my lower ph is no sand in the tank. I have never had this issue in tanks I have run a sand bed with. Also the thing I think would fix the problem would be a reverse lit fug but unfortunately I can't find a place to keep one

Thx for the post Ted. Looking forward to your thoughts on that all that.

Roger

 

[Ted_C]

or - and this is just a thought - your upping the output on your calcium reactor / dosing when you see your numbers dip from your test kits? If your doing this - then it's like Red Sea's trick with the coral pro salt. your "amping" the available minerals with the increased output by providing more Ca, Alk and Mg - so the corals grow more.

Yes - I am also sure of your research regarding growth of corals and different (higher) pH. So its probably "a little of this and a little of that."

 

[Seagars]

Recommendation to open the house up every once and awhile?

 

[rogergolf66]

or - and this is just a thought - your upping the output on your calcium reactor / dosing when you see your numbers dip from your test kits? If your doing this - then it's like Red Sea's trick with the coral pro salt. your "amping" the available minerals with the increased output by providing more Ca, Alk and Mg - so the corals grow more. Quote


Well I don't up the reactor till after the dip a mm d by then I have already seen the growth increase.

Recommendation to open the house up every once and awhile?

Yes but so hot in summer