Apex program for Kalk reactor

Wagtribe · Jan 31, 2022

I have added a Avast Marine Kalk Reactor so far so good. I was dosing RODI water from my ATO reservoir but was struggling keeping pH above 7.9. I am using the Neptune pmup to now supply the Reactor with RODI from ATO reservoir with the following program on Apex:
Fallback OFF
OSC 000:00/000:30/014:30 Then ON
If pH > 8.30 Then OFF
If pH < 8.20 Then ON
so far so good....but if I leave it like this will it return to OSC once the pH level drops below 8.2 or just continue to run? Don't want to take the risk to "see what happens"!

MnFish1 · Jan 31, 2022

Wagtribe said:
I have added a Avast Marine Kalk Reactor so far so good. I was dosing RODI water from my ATO reservoir but was struggling keeping pH above 7.9. I am using the Neptune pmup to now supply the Reactor with RODI from ATO reservoir with the following program on Apex:
Fallback OFF
OSC 000:00/000:30/014:30 Then ON
If pH > 8.30 Then OFF
If pH < 8.20 Then ON
so far so good....but if I leave it like this will it return to OSC once the pH level drops below 8.2 or just continue to run? Don't want to take the risk to "see what happens"!

One comment - the pH on the reef changes through the day. You do not have to worry about the pH changing between 8.1 ad 8,3 for example. Why are you setting it as Osc?

TMB · Jan 31, 2022

This may or may not be a good plan. Hard to tell, but I can point out a few things to consider.
How big is the tank? You have the program set to add Kalk for 30 seconds an hour. How much that is depends on the setup, but that sounds like a lot. You really need to track Alkalinity not PH.
What you're really after is ALK/Cal supplementation, not just a PH boost. The PH boost is just a nice side effect of Kalk dosing.
The 4th line is unnecessary I think, because you just want a high PH safety shutdown.

Now if you know your daily dosing requirement, have tested the output of this setup, and your code matches that, then disregard all the above. HTH

TMB · Jan 31, 2022

Oops, your code is for 30 seconds every 15 minutes! I really think that's a lot. But again depending on your setup...

Here's my Kalk code, it relies on Alkatronic and PH to limit if needed. Again, Alkalinity is my primary concern. not PH.
This adds about 1200ml per day of Kalk in a 60 gallon system. I do run a calcium reactor too, so I think our systems might be a bit different. I'm not using this as my only supplementation. HTH

Wagtribe · Feb 1, 2022

To fill in some missing pieces, Tank is 130 with 38 sump. Running ROX 0.8 Carbon/GFO mix in reactor. Was dosing All for reef;36mL (I will come back to this in a sec), Red Sea foundation C Mag.;4mL & NO3

O4; 4.8mL daily. I started using the dosing pump to the Kalk stirrer (adding 12.4pH rodi water to tank), but struggled seting up proper times and ended up with mediocre results (pH was Avg. 7.96) One major factor I observed is, after I started using ATO pump to feed the Kalk stirrer I was in the pH numbers I was looking to reach but also that my ALK skyrocket from 8.95 gradually to 11.01 and my already high Calcium numbers were over 500! I stopped all the dosing except the Mag. as it's # was good, 1268. Today my pH avg. is 8.26 going only down to 8.19 and as high as 8.38. Basically my plan was use the Kalk Reactor as the ATO for the tank, replacing 1.5 gal tank water a day. The salt is fine, the Temp is fine but I am VERY nervous about the ALK/CAL high numbers. I confess to getting too much input from Youtube videos. I have done plenty or reading about Kalk and trying to keep steady pH level for my corals. But over and over I was hearing to stop watching Cal/Alk #s and look at your corals to see the results. So far the corals seem to be happy, everyone is open and color is good.

1. Is dosing All for Reef making my Alk/Cal numbers higher?
2. How can I remedy the high numbers? I do a daily 1 gal. auto water change that gives me over 30 gal. each month changed out. I use Tropic Marin Classic salt mix.

TMB · Feb 1, 2022

Wagtribe said:
But over and over I was hearing to stop watching Cal/Alk #s and look at your corals to see the results.

Here's the problem right there. I wouldn't listen to anyone that says this!
Alk and Calcium numbers are WAAAAAY more important than PH (stability that is - not the actual number - they just need to be normal numbers)

Answers to your questions:
1. Yes. Stop using this if you want to dose Kalk at a high enough dose to effect PH
2. The high numbers are from all the Alk/CAl additions you're making from: water changes, all for 1, and Kalk

If you want the numbers to settle back to where they should be, this is what I would do:
1. Stop ALL dosing - and continue water changes
2. Let numbers come back down naturally
3. When testing reveals the need to dose - start Kalk again. Just start slow and watch Alk / Cal. Those numbers are what you're dosing to maintain - not PH. You cannot dose for PH alone - don't listen to anyone that tells you otherwise.
4. Kalk dosing can be used until you are adding more than the daily evaporation - at that point you will need to add other sources of supplementation, i.e. 2-part, or calcium reactor.

HTH