I've looked around and can't seem to find an answer to my question, so if this has been covered elsewhere, a link to a thread would be excellent.
I totally understand if this is TL;DR material, but I really loved how maintenance free my tank was and it's not that way currently...
I've had a pretty stable system for about 2 years. I got an Apex in January. Prior to that I'd checked pH very infrequently (maybe every 2-3 months) and it was usually 8-8.1 on a pinpoint checker.
Until September, my pH was 8.0-8.18, and the average was ~8.09 according to the Apex data.
I dose with Randy's 2-part (BRS). 40g display, 30g sump. I was dosing ~26ml each per day (my dosers are close to 1.1ml/minute, and they run 24 minutes/day)
I test alk and cal weekly - alk was around 8.4, cal is ~410 (red sea kit)
I've never cared much about pH - definitely never chased numbers. Based on what I've read from Randy and others, as long as your system is stable and somewhere between 7.8 and 8.5 you're probably just fine.
About 3 months ago I started getting some alerts on my Apex that pH was >8.5 in the middle of day (highest I saw was 8.69). I had been dosing alk/cal 1 minute per hour, 30 minutes apart. (Alk for 1 minute at 8am, Cal for 1 minute at 8:30am, etc)
I programmed alk doser to shut off if pH was higher than 8.5, but I was still 8.5+ for 4-5 hours/day.
So, for the sake of not having a pH higher than what seems to be generally recommended, I adjusted to only dose the alk after the lights went out. I run an 11-hour lighting schedule (7:30-6:30), so i adjusted to dose alk for a minute 48 seconds every hour while lights were off.
I also run a reverse light schedule on my sump which has a grapefruit sized ball of chaeto and 20-30lbs of live rock in it.
This prevented the pH from exceeding 8.5 for about a month, but my pH average started slowly creeping up.
3 weeks ago I had to cut my alk dosing in half to keep from exceeding 8.5 during the day. I also changed the dosing schedule to 13 minutes at 3am when pH bottomed out at night. When I kept it at even doses every hour with lights out, it had virtually no drop at night and would then still peak over 8.6 during the day.
Attached a picture showing the past week of temp and pH.
If you look at the trend in the graph, you can see that starting the 24th, each days' peak pH is slightly higher than the previous until the 28th when I did a water change. It goes up about .03/day.
(Big drop in temp was during a glass cleaning when I removed the temp probe from the water for a few minutes)
I checked my pH probe against calibration fluid it seems to be accurate. My pinpoint pH checker matches the readings too.
I'm now doing weekly water changes to compensate for the alk drop.
I've added a few small frags in the past month or so - but nothing I can think of has changed in quite a while.
Any ideas as to what's going on?
Should I revert back to my normal alk dosing and see if the pH continues to climb or if it stays around 8.6-8.65?
Is that or could that be harmful to anything?
Am I just totally missing something?
Here's other potentially relevant information/parameters
1.025sg
Instant Ocean Salt
I had an airstone in my sump which has now been turned off.
I have a skimmer and a reactor with high capacity GFO.
Purigen and carbon in bags. No filter socks.
0.0 ammonia and nitrites
Nitrates are undetectable with API test kit
Phosphates are either 0.0 or 0.3 on hanna checker
Mag is ~1450
Also filed under "if it matters", I have a large-ish squamosa, a BTA, and various LPS and zoos. 4 fish and assorted inverts.
Everything is doing fine and growing, with the exception of the BTA. Doesn't look bad, but it hasn't grown at all since I got it in February.
I'd love to hear that I'm completely over thinking this, but it seems very odd and I didn't want to risk losing anything. I figured I would isolate the issue or cause, but it's been 2+ months and I'm at a loss.
Input is much appreciated.
I totally understand if this is TL;DR material, but I really loved how maintenance free my tank was and it's not that way currently...
I've had a pretty stable system for about 2 years. I got an Apex in January. Prior to that I'd checked pH very infrequently (maybe every 2-3 months) and it was usually 8-8.1 on a pinpoint checker.
Until September, my pH was 8.0-8.18, and the average was ~8.09 according to the Apex data.
I dose with Randy's 2-part (BRS). 40g display, 30g sump. I was dosing ~26ml each per day (my dosers are close to 1.1ml/minute, and they run 24 minutes/day)
I test alk and cal weekly - alk was around 8.4, cal is ~410 (red sea kit)
I've never cared much about pH - definitely never chased numbers. Based on what I've read from Randy and others, as long as your system is stable and somewhere between 7.8 and 8.5 you're probably just fine.
About 3 months ago I started getting some alerts on my Apex that pH was >8.5 in the middle of day (highest I saw was 8.69). I had been dosing alk/cal 1 minute per hour, 30 minutes apart. (Alk for 1 minute at 8am, Cal for 1 minute at 8:30am, etc)
I programmed alk doser to shut off if pH was higher than 8.5, but I was still 8.5+ for 4-5 hours/day.
So, for the sake of not having a pH higher than what seems to be generally recommended, I adjusted to only dose the alk after the lights went out. I run an 11-hour lighting schedule (7:30-6:30), so i adjusted to dose alk for a minute 48 seconds every hour while lights were off.
I also run a reverse light schedule on my sump which has a grapefruit sized ball of chaeto and 20-30lbs of live rock in it.
This prevented the pH from exceeding 8.5 for about a month, but my pH average started slowly creeping up.
3 weeks ago I had to cut my alk dosing in half to keep from exceeding 8.5 during the day. I also changed the dosing schedule to 13 minutes at 3am when pH bottomed out at night. When I kept it at even doses every hour with lights out, it had virtually no drop at night and would then still peak over 8.6 during the day.
Attached a picture showing the past week of temp and pH.
If you look at the trend in the graph, you can see that starting the 24th, each days' peak pH is slightly higher than the previous until the 28th when I did a water change. It goes up about .03/day.
(Big drop in temp was during a glass cleaning when I removed the temp probe from the water for a few minutes)
I checked my pH probe against calibration fluid it seems to be accurate. My pinpoint pH checker matches the readings too.
I'm now doing weekly water changes to compensate for the alk drop.
I've added a few small frags in the past month or so - but nothing I can think of has changed in quite a while.
Any ideas as to what's going on?
Should I revert back to my normal alk dosing and see if the pH continues to climb or if it stays around 8.6-8.65?
Is that or could that be harmful to anything?
Am I just totally missing something?
Here's other potentially relevant information/parameters
1.025sg
Instant Ocean Salt
I had an airstone in my sump which has now been turned off.
I have a skimmer and a reactor with high capacity GFO.
Purigen and carbon in bags. No filter socks.
0.0 ammonia and nitrites
Nitrates are undetectable with API test kit
Phosphates are either 0.0 or 0.3 on hanna checker
Mag is ~1450
Also filed under "if it matters", I have a large-ish squamosa, a BTA, and various LPS and zoos. 4 fish and assorted inverts.
Everything is doing fine and growing, with the exception of the BTA. Doesn't look bad, but it hasn't grown at all since I got it in February.
I'd love to hear that I'm completely over thinking this, but it seems very odd and I didn't want to risk losing anything. I figured I would isolate the issue or cause, but it's been 2+ months and I'm at a loss.
Input is much appreciated.
