so my reef is ticking along and I see corals arent too happy. I test params, and, find my DKH at 13+ CA at 465, mag at 1465. need to figure out how to lower DKH without crashing CA or mag. I do not run a calcium reactor, just some Kalk in the ATO trying to raise PH (7.6-8), I have not added kalk to the ato in MONTHS. I dose Mag as needed as well, 50/50 mag sulfate/mag chloride. anyone have ideas on what I can do to get this in check
Screwy levels
- Thread starter Railcar79
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Stop chasing the pH. The alk value is the reflection of the waters ability to maintain a stable pH. Do not worry about the pH and let the other values drift back down to values similar to NSW.
First of all do not add anything until levels come down on there own to your liking. Then you need to figure out how much your tank is consuming of these elements. What I do is when my parameters are where I want them i will go three days without adding anything and the retest and divide results by three and see what my consumption rate is. Then I go to the reef calculator and determine how much to dose each day to keep parameters stable. I use a dosing pump but you can also manually dose. This method will help you keep everything stable without swings. I do not worry to much about ph.
pH drop is often caused by excess CO2 in the room, so I'd address that first. Then, ca and alk will drop without Kalkwasser, but you'll see that alk drops faster than ca (it is a 'balanced' ratio, though). I wouldn't worry about mag at this point since it's a bit high anyway.
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Railcar79
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Wow your pH is getting very low.. You need to find a way to ventilate the room better or else vent your skimmer outside, you could also dose kalkwasser (it specifically raises pH not alkalinity). If you need to lower the alkalinity you can simply do a 20% water change.
ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
What salt are you using?
