Need to be educated.

[Val Shebeko]

pH is not an issue unless it is. I'm always battling low pH. With out any intervention my pH will drop consistently below 7.8 and at times below 7.7 regardless of my alkalinity. I have kept my alkalinity boosted around 11-12dkh and even up to 12-13dkh. Having the house closed up year round due to allergies and especially in the winter with furnace and fireplaces going my pH is a huge issue. I have a CO2 meter now and it's consistently over 800-1000.

pH IME with our small closed systems are greatly influenced by CO2 levels in the home with out intervention.



Dosing limewater (kalk) has been my primary means of helping pH and alone will keep pH at and above 7.8. I used to dose via my ATO but evaporation rates vary which seems fine but following another reefers lead in trying to keep dosing levels consistent for alkalinity level sake I separated my limewater from my ATO.

So, now I have my RO/DI ATO with nothing else in it. And have another container I mix my limewater in and dose from there. I have a dedicated dosing pump that I have setup on a timer that doses for 1 second every minute or so 24/7. Doing so I actually found increased my base pH level overall even though it's dosing less then the evaporation rate but it's doing it consistently through out the day.

This tells me dosing via ATO was inconsistent enough to allow enough time for the CO2 in the air to drive that pH lower over all.

Follow on question.

In addition to the kalc. Do you dose alk , ca, and mg ?
Because right now I am set up to dose those three but the quantities seem to be trending up.
I got into this whole discussion because the falling Ph and increasing consumption of alk, ca, mg is supposededly related to an ion inbalance.
Further up this thread was some discuusion yesterday on ion inbalance and balancing dosing which is supposed to help with this inbalance.
I will go over that in detail later today butvwas curious on hearing your thoughts.
Thanks
Val
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[jason2459]

1 sec a minute. How many mils do you suppose that is ?

The kalc package says about a teaspoon per gal of RO. When I do that and let it settle over night I get a layer of undissolved material on the bottom
Of the bucket.

I pour off the liquid which I understand is the saturated solution. Can I add more ro to the bucket ? Or donI throw the undisolved away and start fresh ?

On the subject of Co in the house. I ran an outside line to the air intake of my skimmer. Seems to help a bit.

Looking forward to you thoughts on the kalc questions.

Thanks Val

I use a spectrapure stand alone pump plugged into my apex controller.

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
OSC 000:59/000:01/000:00 Then ON
If Output vPH_High_C7 = ON Then OFF
If Output vSumpHigh_A7 = ON Then OFF
If FeedD 120 Then OFF (used for when I add more ro/di and mix up the limewater)

It's supposed to be around 250ml/m. So, around 6,000ml/day or around 1.5 gallons/day and my ATO still kicks on several times a day. It has to be under the evaporation rate doing it this way.

I have a 29g Rubbermaid tote that I
1. fill up with RO/DI water.
2. dump in some lime.
3. stir it up with a PVC pipe for something under a minute.
4. Close the lid (doesn't have to be air tight)
5. wait a couple hours and start dosing

When the water gets low (I have a low float switch that alerts me when the container is low and needs filled) I
1. fill up with RO/DI water
2. add in much less lime then I initially did
3. stir it up with a PVC pipe for something under a minute
4. close the lid (doesn't have to be air tight)
5. wait a couple hours and resume dosing

Repeat

I have plans to clean out the sludge on the bottom like once a year which may be a good idea but I haven't gotten around to it in the past 8 years.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

 

[jason2459]

Follow on question.

In addition to the kalc. Do you dose alk , ca, and mg ?
Because right now I am set up to dose those three but the quantities seem to be trending up.
I got into this whole discussion because the falling Ph and increasing consumption of alk, ca, mg is supposededly related to an ion inbalance.
Further up this thread was some discuusion yesterday on ion inbalance and balancing dosing which is supposed to help with this inbalance.
I will go over that in detail later today butvwas curious on hearing your thoughts.
Thanks
Val
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Along with the limewater dosing I do an automatic water change of around 1% daily. I add a little bit of Mg to the new saltmix that gets added. Otherwise I have never gotten into dosing 2 part or calcium reactors. I know little about them. I have a mixed reef with some lps, soft corals, anemones, and a couple sps. The limewater, water changes, and food I feed seems to keep up plenty fine for me.

 

[Val Shebeko]

I am impressed !

Today I installed a 2nd Apex DOS. My next big project will be to learn the syntex of Apex programing. Reminds of early Excel days.

 

[Val Shebeko]

Ok, being a very large and very cautious chicken I set the kalc to 1 ml an hour round the clock and left
My other dosing alk, Ca and Mg as was and will retest water tomorrow.

If it starts trending up I will cut back on selected 3 part and see what happens.

If no up trend or down trend continues I will up the kalc by a quarter and test again.

Do you see any flaws or a know of a better way ?

Feel like a blinf guy in a minefield.

Thanks again for your insight. Appreiciate it.

 

[Dublo8]

Your on the right track. Remember to test in 24hrs to see where things are and again in another 24hrs. Increase or decrease your dosing rate depending on outcome and then again in a week...so on and so forth until your where you want to be. increased growth rates will obviously require increased dosing but you should be ok for a while once it's dialed in.

 

[Val Shebeko]

Your on the right track. Remember to test in 24hrs to see where things are and again in another 24hrs. Increase or decrease your dosing rate depending on outcome and then again in a week...so on and so forth until your where you want to be. increased growth rates will obviously require increased dosing but you should be ok for a while once it's dialed in.

Who knew water chemistry could be tis much fun ?

 

[Val Shebeko]

So, Kalc has beendosing or a week or more now.
In theoryI should b able to shut down the two part dosing keep adding Mg as required and should b good.
Kalk is now at 80 ml in a 24 hour period which translates into about 1 ml every 18 min.
Thoughts ?

 

[Val Shebeko]

Does anyone know right of the top of their head if there is a forum devoted to Apex Controller issues and insights.

For instance. Planning to be away for a while I set up an Apex and purchased two priceydosing pumps and have been doing water chemistry every day
So I can balance everything out before I go.

But the water chemistry has not been what I would expect it to be.

The apex.fusion and apex.local has been reporting doing as going on etc. charts, summaries.

This morning while pondering weak and weary I decided to press the manual feed on the pump.

Pump light comes on but pump does not engage.

On the other pump module pump light comes on , pump engages, etc etc

So, those kind of insights.

 

[jason2459]

Neptune has a sponsor section on R2R

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...F&share_sfid=803&share_fid=1020&share_type=sf

And they also have their own support forum
https://forum.neptunesystems.com

And support ticket system for bugs and hardware issues
https://www.neptunesystems.com/support/contact-support/

 

[Val Shebeko]

Thank you ! Slowly reading my way through. Much appreciate your reply.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The solids on the bottom may be extra undissolved calcium hydroxide, or may be undissolvable calcium carbonate. Often its a mix of the two.

You can add more water and see if it dissolves, or just ignore it, or throw it away.

 

[Val Shebeko]

The solids on the bottom may be extra undissolved calcium hydroxide, or may be undissolvable calcium carbonate. Often its a mix of the two.

You can add more water and see if it dissolves, or just ignore it, or throw it away.

 

[Val Shebeko]

I will throw it away just to know in my own mind where 0.0 is.

But as an aside. The solution will only reach a certain concentration/ i.e. Once satuaration is reached no more can be dissolved no mayer what.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I will throw it away just to know in my own mind where 0.0 is.

But as an aside. The solution will only reach a certain concentration/ i.e. Once satuaration is reached no more can be dissolved no mayer what.

Yes, that is correct. That's roughly 2 teaspoons per gallon, and more a lower temps than at higher temps.

 

[Val Shebeko]

To get some consistsncy in batches what to use ? Specific gravity ?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

To get some consistsncy in batches what to use ? Specific gravity ?

Either side is fine for calibration and use. Just use that side all the time.

 

[Val Shebeko]

I use a spectrapure stand alone pump plugged into my apex controller.

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
OSC 000:59/000:01/000:00 Then ON
If Output vPH_High_C7 = ON Then OFF
If Output vSumpHigh_A7 = ON Then OFF
If FeedD 120 Then OFF (used for when I add more ro/di and mix up the limewater)

It's supposed to be around 250ml/m. So, around 6,000ml/day or around 1.5 gallons/day and my ATO still kicks on several times a day. It has to be under the evaporation rate doing it this way.

I have a 29g Rubbermaid tote that I
1. fill up with RO/DI water.
2. dump in some lime.
3. stir it up with a PVC pipe for something under a minute.
4. Close the lid (doesn't have to be air tight)
5. wait a couple hours and start dosing

When the water gets low (I have a low float switch that alerts me when the container is low and needs filled) I
1. fill up with RO/DI water
2. add in much less lime then I initially did
3. stir it up with a PVC pipe for something under a minute
4. close the lid (doesn't have to be air tight)
5. wait a couple hours and resume dosing

Repeat

I have plans to clean out the sludge on the bottom like once a year which may be a good idea but I haven't gotten around to it in the past 8 years.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

Sonyou are adding 6000 mils a day or about a gallon and a half of kalc ?

 

[jason2459]

Sonyou are adding 6000 mils a day or about a gallon and a half of kalc ?

Yes, fully saturated limewater. 180 gallon tank with about 220 total system volume.

 

[Val Shebeko]

Yes, fully saturated limewater. 180 gallon tank with about 220 total system volume.

Fully saturated ?