Alkatronic waste lower ph?

[christwendt]

Hello I’m doing frequent tests every 3 hours for alk. I’ve noticed my ph lower lately thought maybe the probe was going bad. Recalibrated and same thing. Will returning the reagent waste back into tank lower ph ?

 

[fishguy242]

@Lasse ?

 

[The_Paradox]

You’re putting acid back into the tank so yes. Waste line not return line.

 

[Lasse]

Please see this. I do not think it will affect the pH - only the dKH and that you will adjust with dosing. Have you change the ventilation of your house recently (because of tho warm/cold climate outside? Have you been more people (or/and dogs/cats) in the house recently?

I test 6 times a day and I use a waste container - not because of I do not want the water back of acid reasons - just that I do daily small WC this way. The water I get out I replace with new one. I did it as described in the linked thread but my conductivity probe brook so I replace around 60% of the lost water with new saltywater (fmy balling solutions replace the rest)

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It is like taking a small amount of tank water out, then adding back a small amount of 0 dKH seawater.

Thus it depletes alk a little bit. Depending on how you add that alk back, the net effect is no effect or a tiny drop in pH, and most likely in all cases, nothing really noticeable.

 

[christwendt]

It is like taking a small amount of tank water out, then adding back a small amount of 0 dKH seawater.

Thus it depletes alk a little bit. Depending on how you add that alk back, the net effect is no effect or a tiny drop in pH, and most likely in all cases, nothing really noticeable.

Thank you. It’s just very odd within getting my alaktronic my ph has dropped almost 0.2 points. I have changed co2 media and calibrated probes. Both Alkatronic ph probe and tank prob reading lower. I’m going to test by not returning waste water and see for a few days. Nothing else changed

 

[christwendt]

Please see this. I do not think it will affect the pH - only the dKH and that you will adjust with dosing. Have you change the ventilation of your house recently (because of tho warm/cold climate outside? Have you been more people (or/and dogs/cats) in the house recently?

I test 6 times a day and I use a waste container - not because of I do not want the water back of acid reasons - just that I do daily small WC this way. The water I get out I replace with new one. I did it as described in the linked thread but my conductivity probe brook so I replace around 60% of the lost water with new saltywater (fmy balling solutions replace the rest)

Sincerely Lasse

I have not made any changes to ventilation or animals. I have changed my co2 media and calibrated ph probe too. I’m going to test by not returning waste water to tank for a few days and see if my ph improves. Both the Alkatronic and tank ph probe are the same and reading almost 0.2 lower peak ph then before the Alkatronic.

 

[dwest]

How big is your tank? I have a 180 gallon tank. Whether I test every 12 hours or every 3 hours with my alkatronic, there is no measurable change with pH in my system.

I will say that I’ve been reefing for 30 years. My hair has turned gray(er) whenever I try to maintain higher pH. Stuff no doubt grows faster when pH is higher than my normal system pH. But it’s very difficult to keep it high. So I don’t try any more. Stuff still grows, just a little slower. I use kalk and 2 part (sodium carbonate version) to maintain alkalinity and calcium and pH is what it is.

 

[christwendt]

My tank is 110 total water. Interesting you have noticed no change in ph. I agree chasing isn’t the best but with a co2 scrubber I barely hit 8.15 prior. Without co2 scrubber hooked to skimmer I was low 7.6 ph overnight and high 7.8. If I don’t worry about ph I just feel 7.6 is pretty low overnight. I don’t dose anything that raises ph either so that doesn’t help me like kalk. I live in a small home with higher co2 due to two bodies and a large dog.

 

[Pod_01]

Without co2 scrubber hooked to skimmer I was low 7.6 ph overnight and high 7.8.

Out of curiosity what else are you doing with your tank.
Carbon dosing?
What do you use to supplement the Alk and Calcium?
Do you have detritus build up in the sump?
What Alk level do you run the tank?

Some things I tried:
Cleaning up my sump recently seems to have helped a bit.
Running Alk at 8.5-9 dKh seems to have reduced the night drops by 0.1 pH.
I tried higher pH Alk alternatives and that led to precipitation and precipitation build up on pumps that I never had before etc… It provided bump but resulted in lot more work so I gave up. Back to baking soda.
CO2 scrubber works but the cost is starting to bug me.

 

[christwendt]

Out of curiosity what else are you doing with your tank.
Carbon dosing?
What do you use to supplement the Alk and Calcium?
Do you have detritus build up in the sump?
What Alk level do you run the tank?

Some things I tried:
Cleaning up my sump recently seems to have helped a bit.
Running Alk at 8.5-9 dKh seems to have reduced the night drops by 0.1 pH.
I tried higher pH Alk alternatives and that led to precipitation and precipitation build up on pumps that I never had before etc… It provided bump but resulted in lot more work so I gave up. Back to baking soda.
CO2 scrubber works but the cost is starting to bug me.

I dose 10 ml diy nopox. 90 ml all for reef daily. I also single dose all traces via reef moon shiners. Iodine, manganese, cobalt, iron etc. the all for reef gives no ph boost like other alk products. I highly recommend for co2 media this product. It comes in a 5 gallon tub. It has lasted me over a year and way cheaper than buying little bags of media. Really saves the cost on co2 media. Need to order off eBay in my state because due to laws the actual website jorvet med won’t ship to my state.

 

[christwendt]

Out of curiosity what else are you doing with your tank.
Carbon dosing?
What do you use to supplement the Alk and Calcium?
Do you have detritus build up in the sump?
What Alk level do you run the tank?

Some things I tried:
Cleaning up my sump recently seems to have helped a bit.
Running Alk at 8.5-9 dKh seems to have reduced the night drops by 0.1 pH.
I tried higher pH Alk alternatives and that led to precipitation and precipitation build up on pumps that I never had before etc… It provided bump but resulted in lot more work so I gave up. Back to baking soda.
CO2 scrubber works but the cost is starting to bug me.

I also don’t have detritus in sump. I clean it well and have decent flow in there. My alk is around 8. If you look even my Alkatronic is showing low ph. The 7.5 was when I had skimmer offline so that makes sense but without a skimmer my ph is 7.6 high during the day..

 

[christwendt]

Another theory I might have is my waste line is right by my skimmer. I’m wondering if the allatronic reagent being returned was going to my skimmer too fast and causing my co2 media to be less effective. I’ll run a few tests since low ph doesn’t seem to be a common problem. It seems my ph is what it was before I had my scrubber online

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The NOpOX is a much bigger source of pH lowering than is the waste.

 

[christwendt]

The NOpOX is a much bigger source of pH lowering than is the waste.

Yea I was dosing the same amount of nopox prior to getting the Alkatronic. I actually am dosing less now that I got refugium back on line. You would think with the chaeto it would help even more with ph. If you see in Feb I would hit 8.2 each day. Now I can barely get over 8.0. The very low drops are when my skimmer was offline when I dosed a medication. Alkatronic is confirming too that my apex ph is right. It sends me a ph reading with each alk test so I know my probes are right and have calibrated 2x each within the last week.

 

[Pod_01]

Another theory I might have is my waste line is right by my skimmer.

You could collect the waste water for few days outside in a container and see how that impacts pH.

 

[christwendt]

You could collect the waste water for few days outside in a container and see how that impacts pH.

Exactly what I’m going to do. I’ll post back here incase anyone else ever wonders.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Exactly what I’m going to do. I’ll post back here incase anyone else ever wonders.

The pH of it is going to be below pH 4.5.

Then add that to tank water in the same proportion one would from an alk test or two, and check the effect. If it pH is detectably lowered, then you might add back the missing alk and remeasure pH.

 

[christwendt]

The pH of it is going to be below pH 4.5.

Then add that to tank water in the same proportion one would from an alk test or two, and check the effect. If it pH is detectably lowered, then you might add back the missing alk and remeasure pH.

Can you elaborate on this? I’m a little confused. I was going to shut off testing or move it to a container instead of back in tank for 3-4 days and see if my ph raises.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Can you elaborate on this? I’m a little confused. I was going to shut off testing or move it to a container instead of back in tank for 3-4 days and see if my ph raises.

That’s a fine plan. I thought you were suggesting saving up some of the waste, then adding it all at once and seeing what the pH does right after the addition.