Ph won't go up

[alfieferenzo84]

so i been dripping kalk like crazy and my ph will not go up. but my alk,cal, mag is very high now... 11.8 alk, 470 cal, 1500 mag

Im trying to get to 8.5-8.8 to fight dino and advise?

 

[disc1]

What's the pH now? You know there are better and more effective means to fight dinos if the pH thing isn't cooperating. I'd be thinking of something different before I spiked alkalinity and put the corals in danger.

 

[alfieferenzo84]

8.17-8.27 ive dripped about 40 tsp over 48hrs. i see my alk/cal is flying up... but ph only goes up a tiny bit.

i have a new ph monitor from pinpoint. yes it was calibrated.

What other ways do you suggest?

I'm running 4hrs of light, dosing peroxide at 1ml per 10gal, and sucking what i can see out.

I do notice it went from a slime to a hair over the past 48hrs so something is doing something. however its still toxic algae as i tested with snails

 

[bertoni]

If the tank has a lot of aeration, the pH effect will last only a short period of time. There might not be much that you can do.

 

[alfieferenzo84]

alk is 12.1, cal is 470, mag 1500, ph is 8.17

so if i can't bring ph up to fight dino what do you all suggest?

 

[bertoni]

Dinoflagellates can be tough to eradicate, or impossible. What have you tried so far?

 

[alfieferenzo84]

Lights out, sucking it out, peroxide dosing, now I'm trying to raise ph but thats not working. i just checked my alk is at 15 now so I'm done playing with kalk its not raising my ph at all!!! All it is doing is raising my alk and cal levels. I guess i could hold a high alk level as i have read that might help?

I really don't know I'm about to just sell it all and stop doing it for awhile nothing is working

 

[2k3sgm]

Try getting fresh air from outside to your skimmer air intake. Lots of CO2 build up in houses over the winter months with the doors and windows all closed up.

 

[bertoni]

Some people have had to break down tanks due to dinoflagellate problems. I'd probably try some nutrient control techniques, but they often don't work. They are easy to try, though. Maybe I'd start with some GFO, and spend a few minutes a week siphoning out whatever slime was easy to reach. Better skimming might help, too, although that can be more expensive, at least in up-front costs.

 

[kissman]

What is your water source and have you tested it for nutrients and or TDS?

 

[alfieferenzo84]

zero no3,po4. i use ro/di

pinpoint ph

salifert others

 

[nicholasb]

I don't know about Dino, but using to much kalk to raise P.H. is bad . In your case you are way over the top!!. Kalk should use up excess CO2 in the water riasing the P.H, but it looks like you have got to much CO2 in the water to strat with. Kalk normaly gives you a P.H of 8.4, 8.5 at most, with out going over the top. Some alk 2 parts contain more carbonates than bicarbonates and are good for raising/stablizing P.H. But you should sill not over dose Alk, These 2 part will only give P.H 8.3. My gues is that If P.H kills dino, it will kill everthing else. I've never had Dino, but have battled cyano green hair, ich aptasia, and more and it is not fun. Good luck!!.

 

[alfieferenzo84]

^ sounds like you need to qt with copper or hypo to get rid of ich. add a clean up crew with peppermints and add more flow maybe get nitrates and phosphates down as well... Good luck

My kalk is 10.5 ph after mixing so i think my problem is my kalk is no good as I'm reading it should be a very min 12.4... this would explain why i can't get my ph up correct?

 

[kissman]

zero no3,po4. i use ro/di

pinpoint ph

salifert others

Have you tested the TDS coming out of RO/DI?

 

[tmz]

Fully saturated kalk has a ph of around 12.4. Since your tank is not consuming the carbnate alk and calcium it has in it at this point as evidenced by high alk and calcium; I wouldn't dose any more kalk .

Having said that. If you dose kalk(calcium hydroxide it slowly over 24 hours it can raise pH and keep it higher but it will add calcium and alkalinity The caclium and hydroxide dissassociae ad ing teh calcium. The hydroxide binds iteh CO2 to make CO3 carbonate alkainity. Slow and even dosing can be balanced against the amount of CO2 from the air getting into the tank to maintain a higher pH ,so; it's much better to dose it over a long period of time but only enough to maintain alk and calcium at a reasonable level.

Getting more fresh air into the room may help raise pH. A CO2 scrubber may help raise it .

This is from a recent post of mine on my thankfully limited experience with dinos:

I've had some but not a lot of experience getting them out of a tank.

I have gone after dinoflaellates in my friends lfs display tank several years ago . He keeps a very nice display tank with prime specimens .Sometimes he sells some .
In any case corals do move in an out with some frequency. On two occasions about a year apart a lot of dinos appeared on the rock and at the base of some corals. The tank is bare bottom but has a sand bed in the unlit sump.
I just sucked them out every few days with a turkey baster 4 times or so over the course of a week or two.
There were less each time . It took about 15 minutes each time . A little tedious, placing the turkey baster with the bulb squeezed down on the rock right at the base of the dino sucking it up and filling a large cup with the waste water and dinos about a dozen times.
We also raised the ph to 8.4/5 with a kalk drip . After that and the thorough removal efforts they did not come back. There are many strains of dinos and tanks are different ; so, I'm not sure this will work in every case but it worked for us.

I also had a few sneak in with a coral about a year ago in one of my displays. They disappeared in a few days, thankfully. My tanks run at about 8.15 to 8.35 pH daily swing and are dosed with vodka an vinegar which may or may not have something to do with it. I have never had a major outbreak but I might just be lucky. Probably jinxed myself now.

I found this article by Randy Farely helpful:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php