140G you say? maybe trade in the Ca reactor for a bigger tank
Taking DOWN calcium reactor : USELESS
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Anyway... Once you do your waterchange(s), please take your Alk measurements at the same time every day for the next several days and post them here. During this time, do not add any Kalk! We want to see what your tank consumes on its own without supplementation.
As far as pH goes, I’m not a fan of chasing pH but it seems like your pH is low because of your prior attempt to use a CaRx. If you have a window nearby, open it. If no window, run an air pump as suggested earlier. Beyond that, don’t worry about pH for right now.
Let’s focus on what your tank’s alkalinity consumption is over the next few days so we can come up with a strategy to maintain stable Alk moving forward.
As far as pH goes, I’m not a fan of chasing pH but it seems like your pH is low because of your prior attempt to use a CaRx. If you have a window nearby, open it. If no window, run an air pump as suggested earlier. Beyond that, don’t worry about pH for right now.
Let’s focus on what your tank’s alkalinity consumption is over the next few days so we can come up with a strategy to maintain stable Alk moving forward.
I'm still stuck at the beginning of this thread, and would like to know how the CaRx was running...
What was the pressure at the regulator?
What was the carbon doser bubble count?
What was the effluent rate?
Given that pH was so low suggest that all of the above was way too much for your tank.
I would imagine chasing pH because your reactor is the cause and then adding kalkwasser on top of that to raise pH suggests that lack of understanding caused these issues.
Shutting down the CaRx is great advice to get things under control, but I wouldn't leave it off line, instead set it up commensurate to your tanks needs... given your pictures and testimony, your CaRx isn't going to be doing much right now, but establishing that stability from the start will pay off in the long run.
What was the pressure at the regulator?
What was the carbon doser bubble count?
What was the effluent rate?
Given that pH was so low suggest that all of the above was way too much for your tank.
I would imagine chasing pH because your reactor is the cause and then adding kalkwasser on top of that to raise pH suggests that lack of understanding caused these issues.
Shutting down the CaRx is great advice to get things under control, but I wouldn't leave it off line, instead set it up commensurate to your tanks needs... given your pictures and testimony, your CaRx isn't going to be doing much right now, but establishing that stability from the start will pay off in the long run.
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hyeclass
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everything set up perfectly -
With all due respect, if that was the case, then your CaRx would have been able to maintain steady alkalinity in your tank and we wouldn’t be having this conversation and you would have never started a thread on how useless your calcium reactor is.
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hyeclass
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do you agree, if you don't have much corals in the tank and you running a CaRx what would you say it will happen?
my DKH was 7.5 till i over dos it listening to people in a reef2reef, i didn't do much reading how to really dos the system, i should have used the pump that's my mistake
Can you point to where someone on R2R suggested running a CaRx when demand didn’t warrant its use? I hate to say it, but there seems to be a general lack of understanding on basic supplementation in order to successfully maintain coral. One of the biggest cornerstones of maintaining a successful reef tank is the ability to maintain stable alkalinity.
Please, over the next few days, please take your unsupplemented Alk readings so we can see what your consumption is over time.
Please, over the next few days, please take your unsupplemented Alk readings so we can see what your consumption is over time.
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hyeclass
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general lack of understanding on basic supplementation in order to successfully maintain coral, you think you understand what is really going on, we still LEARNING, have you looked back and sow yourself saying, sh|t i should have done it this way, 10yrs ago, we understood less then we understand now, my alk was stable till i start listening to this PEOPLE on reef2reef, we here to HELP each other, NOT make fun of a person who's really struggling. it's like you making fun of a handicap person, it's NOT nice
issue is, i should NOT trust what people are saying over here, i should trust my fish store. everyone says things differently not only that giving a wrong input on the task i am trying to accomplish. i LOVE my local fish store, vivid aquariums, i talk to this guy name JAMES he really try to help me out, wow amazing people great store. we all learning from the mistakes we make. i think i have done a great JOB in this short time i spend in this hubby. i am very proud of myself, don't care if you think differently.
Shirak
Valuable Member
A CaRx needs to be tuned to the alk consumption for the tank it is hooked to. If it is tuned incorrectly alk will drop or alk will go sky high off the charts. It can work properly and keep alk stable on a tank with 6 small frags or a 1000 full sized corals and everything in between but only if is tuned properly. And to do that you must have a rough idea how much alk your tank is using every day and it needs to be monitored every day while the reactor is being adjusted for your system. When people ask how was it tuned.. they are trying to help but the information you are supplying in response (it’s tuned perfectly) is not informative. I am still trying to figure out from your kalk response how you were adding it. There are good ways to do it for pH and maintaining alk .. and bad ways. Am I understanding you just mixed it with rodi and dumped it in the sump?
Can you elaborate what "perfectly" means. And if you don't want to, that's perfectly fine as well. If you don't understand what caused the problem and take steps to correct it, you're bound to repeat it.
I'm agreeing with water dog up 5o the point that the CaRx shouldn't be used until its needed. I think that even in your tanks infant stage that a CaRx could've been a positive experience if you set it up correctly.
We have have various levels of learning curves and ser backs. Some more costly than others, but let this thread be a testimonial for others to learn from so that they don't make the same mistake.
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hyeclass
Well-Known Member
So many posts has been posted due to kal my alk is high not sure if you read the post I posted
Right, i read that. But I'm trying to put my finger on why your pH was low.
Of course as a tank matures pH will naturally rise closer to nsw. However I suspect (and you can easily clear this sticking point up) that the CaRx was the reason for the low pH.
Saying it was set perfect lends no credit to whether or not the CaRx can be ruled out.
It's not a gotcha question. I'm simply wanting to make sense of all this....
Shirak
Valuable Member
I don't use Kalk but my understanding is calcium hydroxide will not raise your alkalinity since it has no carbonate in it. Most likely your alk is high because of the CaRx which will dump tons of carbonate into your tank if it's not tuned for your system.
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hyeclass
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not enough nitrogen in the room. on my skimmer i am running a air. i am not sure how to improve my pH,
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Shirak
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In any event.. moving forward now that you have stopped the CO2 and stopped dosing kalk. As you say we all make mistakes and learn from them. You have already received good advice to just let things sit and do some water changes over the next few days and monitor your alk level until it drops down to somewhere between 8 and 9. At that point we can figure out how to keep it in that range. There are lots of ways to do that. So it's just a matter of picking one that's not too complicated and sticking with it as you monitor the tank for changes.
As far as the pH goes.. that will require some investigating. First on my list would be to make sure the pH probe is calibrated and reading correctly. Any time I get a reading on a test or one of my probes that is odd or way off from where it should be. First thing I do is confirm the reading is correct.
As far as the pH goes.. that will require some investigating. First on my list would be to make sure the pH probe is calibrated and reading correctly. Any time I get a reading on a test or one of my probes that is odd or way off from where it should be. First thing I do is confirm the reading is correct.
I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how a calcium reactor works. Please listen to the very kind advice in this thread. Saying things like "great job" and "proud of yourself" is great because those are your personal opinions but you are doing things fundamentally wrong at a basic level with very expensive equipment.
Honestly really impressed with the tact and kindness of R2R users in this thread.
Honestly really impressed with the tact and kindness of R2R users in this thread.
Shirak
Valuable Member
Was that last photo from today? CaRx pH 6.63?
monti mike
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I’m not going to offer any advice or critiques... but I will say I commend you for asking questions and trying to learn! When I first started I did something similar and “dosed” kalk without testing anything. Needless to say that was a complete disaster but I learned from it. You’ll get there! Sometimes this hobby is challenging but that’s also what makes it fun.
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