Travel Leading to Alk Fluctuations

[David_CO]

I travel quite a bit for work, its not uncommon for me to be gone for 4-5 days in a row for several consecutive weeks. I've done a pretty good job of maintaining stable parameters but as my alk consumption has increased ive started to see some alk swings upon returning home. when im home my PH is 8.1-8.3, when I travel its 8.3-8.55 due to no one being home/ very low CO2.

My assumption is the lower PH upon coming home drives down the alk consumption. The other factor complicating things is right now I dose AFR and Kalk, I'm finding AFR difficult to manage due to its delayed release into the tank. I've been turning kalk on/off based on my trident testing but its not moving the needle enough to achieve stability. I experimented with trident controlled dosing for AFR, the delayed impact didnt work out so I disabled it.

Below are a couple examples from the last 2 weeks.


In the example below I left on the 7th and returned on the 12, as you can see a steep PH drop accompanied by a significant alk swing.

same story here, I was gone from the 28th-1st followed by an alk swing coming home.

The straight forward solution seems to be I need to switch to 2 part, my hesitation is AFR has given me great results aside from the stability issues. Any thoughts?

 

[David_CO]

@Lou Ekus

 

[14 foot reef]

Try to move all your Kalk Dosing to "photo period off only time" to flatten your day / night swing as step 1 and see if that help. If that helps the swing, you can further tweak it with Kalk off programing if PH or If Alk is too high.

I'd do one at a time to see the transition and monitor results.

 

[Dburr1014]

.2 shift.... Not bad at all.
How is everything doing otherwise?
If it's good, wouldn't change it. IMO

 

[David_CO]

Try to move all your Kalk Dosing to photo period off only time to flatten your day / night swing as step 1 and see if that help. If that helps the swing, you can further tweak it with Kalk off programing if PH or If Alk is too high.

I'd do one at a time to see the transition and monitor results.

I think i've exhausted my options with kalk, right now its either completely off or only dosing a low quantity overnight. When I travel my PH goes to 8.5+ regardless of kalk, before I started dosing it my high PH is practically identical to what it is now. My baseline kalk dosing program it was already heavily off photo period centric.

I think my big take away with the kalk is it doesnt contribute enough alk to allow me the control I need to combat the swings when I return.

 

[14 foot reef]

I think i've exhausted my options with kalk, right now its either completely off or only dosing a low quantity overnight. When I travel my PH goes to 8.5+ regardless of kalk, before I started dosing it my high PH is practically identical to what it is now. My baseline kalk dosing program it was already heavily off photo period centric.

I think my big take away with the kalk is it doesnt contribute enough alk to allow me the control I need to combat the swings when I return.

What if you only used Kalk when home, then turn all kalk off while your away, try and run that scenario next time your gone and see if that helps.
Kalk's main benefit is raising PH, so this may work.

 

[David_CO]

What if you only used Kalk when home, then turn all kalk off while your away, try and run that scenario next time your gone and see if that helps.
Kalk's main benefit is raising PH, so this may work.

I tried something close to the opposite of that this last trip, I need to dose kalk when im gone because the high PH drives higher Alk demand.

.2 shift.... Not bad at all.
How is everything doing otherwise?
If it's good, wouldn't change it. IMO

I have 2 acros with some minorly burnt tips. I agree the .2 is nominal but over a 2 week period the total shift was .4 to a alk higher then what i'd like to be at. My nitrates are 3 and phos is .06......Hanna alk reads 10, salifert reads 9.5, trident reads 9.4...the delta is roughly inline with previous testing against other batches of trident reagent, the hanna is always really high

 

[14 foot reef]

I tried something close to the opposite of that this last trip, I need to dose kalk when im gone because the high PH drives higher Alk demand.


I have 2 acros with some minorly burnt tips. I agree the .2 is nominal but over a 2 week period the total shift was .4 to a alk higher then what i'd like to be at. My nitrates are 3 and phos is .06......Hanna alk reads 10, salifert reads 9.5, trident reads 9.4...the delta is roughly inline with previous testing against other batches of trident reagent, the hanna is always really high

on this .......

I tried something close to the opposite of that this last trip, I need to dose kalk when im gone because the high PH drives higher Alk demand.

Maybe try an alk dose only instead of kalkwaaser when you're gone to raise alk only, and not PH.

Dose Alk when gone, Dose Kalkwaser when home.
Just a thought

 

[Lou Ekus]

I travel quite a bit for work, its not uncommon for me to be gone for 4-5 days in a row for several consecutive weeks. I've done a pretty good job of maintaining stable parameters but as my alk consumption has increased ive started to see some alk swings upon returning home. when im home my PH is 8.1-8.3, when I travel its 8.3-8.55 due to no one being home/ very low CO2.

My assumption is the lower PH upon coming home drives down the alk consumption. The other factor complicating things is right now I dose AFR and Kalk, I'm finding AFR difficult to manage due to its delayed release into the tank. I've been turning kalk on/off based on my trident testing but its not moving the needle enough to achieve stability. I experimented with trident controlled dosing for AFR, the delayed impact didnt work out so I disabled it.

Below are a couple examples from the last 2 weeks.


In the example below I left on the 7th and returned on the 12, as you can see a steep PH drop accompanied by a significant alk swing.

same story here, I was gone from the 28th-1st followed by an alk swing coming home.

The straight forward solution seems to be I need to switch to 2 part, my hesitation is AFR has given me great results aside from the stability issues. Any thoughts?

On the surface of this, I would say that the Kalk addition is the issue here. If you were using sodium bicarbonate, for your extra alkalinity needs, instead, you would not see that rise in pH when the CO2 goes down. You might want to try using the Kalk when you are home and then switch to sodium bicarbonate for the time when you are away. That would give you a pH boost when you are home and no increase in the pH when you are away....just a thought.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don’t see a pH problem in either situation and I’d just keep doing what you are doing.