Night Time Ph Swing

[Evan West]

So as per normal I like everyone have a nightime Ph drop, Id love to run my refugium all night but the tank has no cabnet around the stand and its in my room and I need to sleep lol. That being said my Ph swing drops .4 from 8 to 7.6. Is this a lot? I feel like the fact it is dropping below 7.8 is the bigger deal here....? Ideally you want none but what is still acceptable?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That is pretty low. More aeration will reduce the pH swing. Also, dosing high pH additives at night can help.

 

[Evan West]

That is pretty low. More aeration will reduce the pH swing. Also, dosing high pH additives at night can help.

Not sure I can get more ariation within reason. Already have a skimmer and good surface agitiation, could run a skimmer line outside I supose.
I just started dosing Kalk, what time of night should I dose it? Midway or twords the end?

 

[Deniss]

You could try an external chaeto reactor, and place it in a box (to prevent light going out). Or put a wrap around it (harder to check the reactor).
Keeps my PH quite stable doesn't go below 8 during night, before i had same problem as you.

 

[Evan West]

You could try an external chaeto reactor, and place it in a box (to prevent light going out). Or put a wrap around it (harder to check the reactor).
Keeps my PH quite stable doesn't go below 8 during night, before i had same problem as you.

Have chaeto in the refugium in the sump, just to bright to keep on all night, it goes off at 11pm and comes back on at 5:30am then the tank comes back on at 11am. The Ph recovers in an hour or two after the refugium comes back on but still need to keep it from going that low.

 

[Evan West]

Think ill try Kalk dosing at night and see if that helps enough

 

[Deniss]

That's too long between the refugium and display. I see ph slowly dropping within an hour when i'm not lighting either the reactor or display.

EDIT: i was too fast ;Happy i thought you meant refugium went off at 5.30 am and tank comming on at 11 am

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Not sure I can get more ariation within reason. Already have a skimmer and good surface agitiation, could run a skimmer line outside I supose.
I just started dosing Kalk, what time of night should I dose it? Midway or twords the end?

Assuming the air in the room is unchanging, perfect aeration eliminates the pH swing.

If you are sleeping in a closed room with it, your breathing may drive up CO2 at night. Opening windows may help in that case, or CO2 scavenging methods.

 

[Evan West]

Assuming the air in the room is unchanging, perfect aeration eliminates the pH swing.

If you are sleeping in a closed room with it, your breathing may drive up CO2 at night. Opening windows may help in that case, or CO2 scavenging methods.

I think ill aslo try running an air line outside, this would be the easiest fix for this.

 

[GoVols]

Opening windows may help in that case, or CO2 scavenging methods.

+1
Window opening junkie.

And stay away from SeaChem PH buffer it's has borate it it. At the least borate will through your test kits off, over time.

 

[Evan West]

+1
Window opening junkie.

And stay away from SeaChem PH buffer it's has borate it it. At the least borate will through your test kits off, over time.

Yeah Im gonna try to stick to kalk, ariation, and fuge ligting to get this Ph up.

 

[GoVols]

Yeah Im gonna try to stick to kalk, ariation, and fuge ligting to get this Ph up.

Unless your dosing kalk for cal and alk intake. Then you may not need to dose the kalk.
Might just need to get the trapped in Co2 out of the house but running a fuge light at night is a good thing too.

I would not dose kalk if my corals will not use it. You cal and alk will just keep rising.

 

[Evan West]

Unless your dosing kalk for cal and alk intake. Then you may not need to dose the kalk.
Might just need to get the trapped in Co2 out of the house but running a fuge light at night is a good thing too.

I would not dose kalk if my corals will not use it. You cal and alk will just keep rising.

Nah doing it for calcium and alk uptake so might as well just shift it to dose at night to help swings

 

[Evan West]

Ran airline to intake of the skimmer and put it out the window, no daytime raise yesterday but it was only down .1 this morning at 7.9, it was 7.6 same time yesterday!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ran airline to intake of the skimmer and put it out the window, no daytime raise yesterday but it was only down .1 this morning at 7.9, it was 7.6 same time yesterday!

Glad that is working out.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

What's the consensus now? Dosing kalk at night seems to be looking better and better

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What's the consensus now? Dosing kalk at night seems to be looking better and better

Dosing hydroxide at night will stabilize pH.

Dosing alk (any type) during the day will help stabilize alk.

Which is more useful may depend on the tank details.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

It just seems today, compared to 2017 and the recent rise in kalk dosing popularity that, dosing kalk at night is one good way to go for overall PH stability, and adding high ph alk supplements during the photo period to make up for alk demand.

I'm looking into kalk dosing, I've never messed with it before and am wondering if its worth the risk of the possible issues that come along with it, and to try and implicate it on a 2part run system without any disruption to the system, is it worth the couple of points in PH.

I guess I'll say also that I personally haven't tried running a skimmer line out side yet, or bought into the c02 media, and no reverse light cycle refugiums.

I believe it would be easier for me to have a 5 gallon bucket that I could have in a cabinet next to the tank on a dosing pump.

I'm not completely new to having a ph probe and while I dont believe the number values, I do believe the swings, its funny how much different something looks on a graph rather than a notebook with daily values written down.

So basically is the kalk juice worth the squeeze, or is it a last resort in order to get the ph up at night to reduce the overall PH fall? Has the point of view change since 2017?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Limewater (kalkwasser) is a fine way to go. I used it for 20 years.

But its not the only way to dose hydroxide, You can make a two part that has the same pH boost as limewater without the evaporation limitations.