Stable ph,alk,Ca vs chasing numbers

Reefnsail123 · Mar 10, 2020

I've been dosing kalk to my 55gal corner roundfront tank through an IceCap kalk reactor using my ATO RO/DI water. I was having trouble with back flow into clean water but that is fixed with a one way connector. Things have been stable for a month now with pH 8.1, alk around 9(varies up or down by 0.2 and Ca of 410. This is with saturated Kalk(mixed in reactor every 6 hours and always powder in the bottom(about a tablespoon per week added) and my evaporation rate is about 4.5 gallons per week. Inhabitants are just frag sized softies and LPS with a montipora, and pocillapora thrown in so I can say I have a mixed tank. These numbers seem okay but not the "goal" often stated with significantly higher calcium, little higher ph and alk. As my corals mature and if I move up to more demanding SPS, will they adapt to these values if they are stable? I really prefer to keep things simple, would rather not have to test more frequently than before my weekly 10% water change and not really headed toward any fancy controller. Maybe the answer is not to move on to SPS?

rmurken · Mar 10, 2020

Watching. No SPS yet, but I will cross that bridge one of these days, and am not into constant testing.

X-37B · Mar 10, 2020

Whatever numbers you run "stability is more important than actual numbers within reason.
Pick your alk, cal, and mag and keep it stable.
My 120 is running at:
PH 7.9- 8.2 morning vs night
Alk 8+- .02
Cal 450
Mag 1350
These have been stable since the first month until now which is almost 9 months.
Testing is the only way to establish these numbers.
I test alk 2 times a week
Ca and Mag once a month.

William Robinson · Mar 11, 2020

Hey guys so Im in the same boat questioning myself. SPS Dominant Tank... Does the tank look good...yeah.... Do I think my pH should be higher..... yeah...
I am dosing Soda Ash 2mL twice a day. Think I should increase it? so torn

X-37B · Mar 11, 2020

William Robinson said:
Hey guys so Im in the same boat questioning myself. SPS Dominant Tank... Does the tank look good...yeah.... Do I think my pH should be higher..... yeah...
I am dosing Soda Ash 2mL twice a day. Think I should increase it? so torn

I read your build thread.
Do you have an ato?
I run 1/4 teaspoon of kalk per 5 gallons of ato water.
Yea its not much but the ph is 10. It will help keep ph higher in your tank.
Do you dose 2 part?

William Robinson · Mar 11, 2020

90's reefer said:
I read your build thread.
Do you have an ato?
I run 1/4 teaspoon of kalk per 5 gallons of ato water.
Yea its not much but the ph is 10. It will help keep ph higher in your tank.
Do you dose 2 part?

Which one? I have 4 tanks. Not sure which one I made a thread.

X-37B · Mar 11, 2020

William Robinson said:
Which one? I have 4 tanks. Not sure which one I made a thread.

40 breeder is what you have for your build thread.

William Robinson · Mar 11, 2020

90's reefer said:
40 breeder is what you have for your build thread.

Ahhh, No this is my SPS reef. I've got a full Neptune system, 4 channel dosing the whole 9 yards on this tank. That 40B was a build for my daughters room.
So maybe just pull the dosing on the Soda Ash and replace with kalkwasser? Not really wanting to add it to my ATO if I don't have to.

X-37B · Mar 11, 2020

Have you tested ph with another meter?
How often do you calibrate it?
My 120 swings 7.9-8.1 day and night.
Goes to 8.2 if I open the window.
I have an apex but never set it up lol.
I use a new apex probe on my ph meter though.
I have 2 different ph meters and calibrate each once a month.
The kalk in the ato has worked for 3+ years on nano and 120.
I run a Tunze ato with no issues to the pump.

William Robinson · Mar 11, 2020

90's reefer said:
Have you tested ph with another meter?
How often do you calibrate it?
My 120 swings 7.9-8.1 day and night.
Goes to 8.2 if I open the window.
I have an apex but never set it up lol.
I use a new apex probe on my ph meter though.
I have 2 different ph meters and calibrate each once a month.
The kalk in the ato has worked for 3+ years on nano and 120.
I run a Tunze ato with no issues to the pump.

Apex is primary pH monitor calibrated bi-weekly, Hannah is a back up calibrated monthly, and API is the backup to the backup

I have the normal swing but if you notice in the graph I sent above my peak is 7.91 getting to as low as 7.6. If it was just fish only I wouldn't be so concern really. Just it being an SPS tank I think I'm going to remove the Soda Ash and switch to Kalkwasser through my doser OR increase the soda ash.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 15, 2020

Reefnsail123 said:
I've been dosing kalk to my 55gal corner roundfront tank through an IceCap kalk reactor using my ATO RO/DI water. I was having trouble with back flow into clean water but that is fixed with a one way connector. Things have been stable for a month now with pH 8.1, alk around 9(varies up or down by 0.2 and Ca of 410. This is with saturated Kalk(mixed in reactor every 6 hours and always powder in the bottom(about a tablespoon per week added) and my evaporation rate is about 4.5 gallons per week. Inhabitants are just frag sized softies and LPS with a montipora, and pocillapora thrown in so I can say I have a mixed tank. These numbers seem okay but not the "goal" often stated with significantly higher calcium, little higher ph and alk. As my corals mature and if I move up to more demanding SPS, will they adapt to these values if they are stable? I really prefer to keep things simple, would rather not have to test more frequently than before my weekly 10% water change and not really headed toward any fancy controller. Maybe the answer is not to move on to SPS?

I do not recommend a "goal" that has higher values than yours, which are great.

I hate the term chasing numbers as it often implies doing so incorrectly. One can chase numbers and be perfectly stable.

In your case, i see no reason to change anything.

If you do want to boost calcium, doing so with a little calcium chloride will work perfectly and not impact anything else.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 15, 2020

William Robinson said:
Hey guys so Im in the same boat questioning myself. SPS Dominant Tank... Does the tank look good...yeah.... Do I think my pH should be higher..... yeah...
I am dosing Soda Ash 2mL twice a day. Think I should increase it? so torn

I don't see a mention of alkalinity.

William Robinson · Mar 16, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I don't see a mention of alkalinity.

I apologize my Alk remains quite high with the RSCP. When I tested day before yesterday it was 13.1dkh. Below is another screen grab from my apex over the weekend. I made sure to calibrate the probe yet again on Friday and random spot checks with my Hannah to ensure the data I was collecting was accurate. I had raised my pH with Aquavitro Balance to 8.2 back on 3/12 but by the next day 3/13 I was back in this "normal" pattern. I do not see any "ill" effects but if I can make it more healthy for my reef then I of course would like to.
My daily swing is consistent between 7.7 and 8.0, I opened the windows to the house this weekend all day and it seemed to have little to no noticeable effect.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 16, 2020

Aquavitro Balance is just a high pH alkalinity supplement (like my DIY that uses sodium hydroxide). Your alk is getting too high and I'd stop dosing it.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 16, 2020

I would add in this context that the claims about Aquavitro Balance by Aquavitro itself are totally false. It is so sad that companies continues such horrible misleading of consumers.

I will never, ever recommend an Aquavitro product due to this awful behavior.

William Robinson · Mar 16, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I would add in this context that the claims about Aquavitro Balance by Aquavitro itself are totally false. It is so sad that companies continues such horrible misleading of consumers.

I will never, ever recommend an Aquavitro product due to this awful behavior.

I used balance once time because it was supposed to raise pH without raising alk on 3/12 and pH fell back to my normal low range within 24 hours. Alk has actually dropped from a higher previous test so it is going in the right direction. Nothing I dose is actually contributing to my alk increase (except one very negligible thing mentioned below) which I cant explain other then the RSCP... Not sure what is going on there. I do have a doser running BRS Soda ash at 2mL per day and BRS Calcium Chloride at 2mL per day. Both very low and calcium is falling which I expect with such a negligible dose. I only have it there really at the moment to keep the motors turning once per day really and the lines primed.

Also, I would love to hear your thoughts on Aquavitro more. Items like Fuel etc compared to RS coral nutrition A & B