pH at 7,65-7,9... should I be concerned?

VJV · Oct 12, 2018

Hi, I have switched to calcium reactor from Balling and (as expected) the pH fell to te above low range. Should I be concerned? I know calcification will slow down but is it actually going to kill my corals while I find a solution?

Likely going to dose Kalkwasser to bring pH up, potentially add a CO2 scrubber to my slimmer intake.

At this point I will not be adding a refugium and I can’t drill holes in the wall to get outside air directly into the skimmer.

I could add an air stone to the sump but HATE the salt creep so probably won’t.

Thanks!

Tuffyyyyy · Oct 12, 2018

I think your remedies are fine. I'd guess that you'll be alright with low(ish) pH for a while. Just try to minimize breathing directly into the tank.

chipmunkofdoom2 · Oct 12, 2018

A pH of 7.65 is problematic and warrants attention in my opinion. At that pH, coral skeletons will dissolve to buffer the water.

An air stone may not help with pH. All an air stone does is increase gas exchange. Gas exchange only helps pH if it drives CO2 out of the tank. Gas exchange will only drive CO2 out of the tank if the air in your home has relatively lower concentrations of CO2. If your home is like most, your CO2 is probably elevated, and an air stone may only add more CO2 into your tank, which will lower the pH further.

VJV · Oct 12, 2018

Thanks! I leave by the sea in Portugal and the living room (where the tank sits) is aerated with large windows facing north and south, so my home CO2 should be fairly low.

I have a ton of surface agitation alteady so probably the airdrome would not help much.

Just added kale to the ATO. Never used it before so it sinal very new to me...

rainmaker · Oct 12, 2018

If your not using a second chamber to help use up co2 from reactor you can try that

Fumanchu · Oct 12, 2018

Becareful not to spike your alkalinity with the kalk. Also not sure if you have a secondary chamber with fiber medium to scrub off some of that CO2. And maybe Bring your effluent line closer to skimmer or supply side of the sump near the filter socks. If you have a pump an air stone already try it ,you dont really have much to lose.. Good luck and keep us posted I'll definitely be following

Fumanchu · Oct 12, 2018

Meant finer medium

VJV · Oct 12, 2018

I do not have the secondary chamber. It is a new Tunze 3172 reactor and it is a very basic design (I like simple stuff [emoji4]).

I would really like to add a Algae reactor down the line and feed the effluent of the Calcium reactor into the algae reactor.

I believe that solution would be perfect.

I would also like to dose Kalk with a dosing pump instead of the ATO which would allow me to dial in the precise amount. However, o need a container that can hold some 20 liters of kalk solution and a way to have the tube sit a couple of inches above the bottom, in order to avoid pumping the Kalk slurry.

rainmaker · Oct 12, 2018

You can make a second chamber from any reactor and growing cheato in sump or a separate reactor can help also take up co2

Amoo · Oct 12, 2018

Sounds to me, like you already are on the right track @VJV you just need time/money to implement some of your solutions.

Fumanchu · Oct 12, 2018

+1
You got this bro......

VJV · Oct 13, 2018

Well, I added the Kalk to my ATO reservoir last night and after 12h it has had no impact on the pH...?????

I used a 300 gallon per hour pump to mix the Kalk in the 14 gallon reservoir for a couple of minutes. Could this have killed the potency of the solution?

VJV · Oct 13, 2018

Just tested the pH of the Kalk solution with my probe and it is reading 10.15, so I guess it should be ok...? The probe is calibrated with 7,0 and 9,0 solutions so perhaps not as accurate at higher ranges...

VJV · Oct 13, 2018

Another question: when my solenoid shuts down I can still see some bubbles coming out of the bubble counter, albeit at a very slow rate.

Does this mean that I have a leak or is it normal?

rainmaker · Oct 13, 2018

Should cut off completely the oring in solenoid is bad I always kept a spare solenoid valve to replace with because they do wear out

VJV · Oct 13, 2018

Thanks, it is a brand new one from GHL. I wonder if the leak can be coming from the tubing....?

I have the solenoid after the bubble counter, but I guess it should cut off 100% regardless right?

rainmaker · Oct 13, 2018

Don’t know what you mean by after counter if bubbles are still coming threw counter should be solenoid or you have to much pressure turned up on regulator

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 13, 2018

Just to clarify the second chamber comments, the second chamber will not reduce the total CO2 entering the tank each minute (essentially, all CO2 leaving the CO2 cylinder enters the tank unless you have an aeration step where you blow it off).

What a second chamber can/will do is allow you to reduce the flow of CO2 to attain the same total amount of alk and calcium added tot eh water, by using less CO2 from the cylinder.

VJV · Oct 13, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Just to clarify the second chamber comments, the second chamber will not reduce the total CO2 entering the tank each minute (essentially, all CO2 leaving the CO2 cylinder enters the tank unless you have an aeration step where you blow it off).

What a second chamber can/will do is allow you to reduce the flow of CO2 to attain the same total amount of alk and calcium added tot eh water, by using less CO2 from the cylinder.

Thanks for chiming in Randy. Would you consider the 7.65-7.9 range as too low and something that can potentially kill my SPS?

By tomorrow I will have a better picture on how the Kalk has moved this range upwards. If still. It enough I can easily bring my refugium back online but I really would rather avoid it because it usually brings me more problems than benefits.