PH issues!!

Sdudley67 · Nov 22, 2015

Ok I have a 65 gallon mixed reef. No sps. Nitrates are 2. Phos .04. Alk is 12. Calcium 425 and mag 1300. I cannot for the life of me get and maintain my ph above 8. During the day it's 7.9 and then dips to almost 7.5. I just started running kalk but I use a smart ato to top off so the water level in the sumo drops 1/2 inch before it fills each time. Any suggestions? Was thinking of putting an airline outside to my skimmer.

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xthunderx · Nov 22, 2015

Sounds to me like you have it pretty much covered. Airline to the outside helps more than you would think. With kalk you won't have any problems maintaining Ph although you will need a more precise ATO like the Osmolator. Only other option is to drip kalk slowly that would absolutely help. Don't use your current ATO with kalk you would be asking for trouble with that much dumped at once.

Pro tip calibrate your probe if you haven't already. Always good to ensure you're getting accurate measurements.

loc01 · Nov 22, 2015

Open all your windows would help, do you run calcium reactor?

pciscott · Nov 22, 2015

Are you testing pH with a probe or a test kit? 7.5 is lower than it could posibly be with a alk of 12. The probes need to be replaced at times. Fresh air helps, but if hard to plumb you can build a co2 scrubber pretty cheap. How are your animals doing?

Sdudley67 · Nov 22, 2015

xthunderx said:

I calibrated the probe. Shows 7.7 currently. Now when you say drip the kalk, is that something that you just need to adjust the drip depending on the rise and fall of ph. And should there be a drip in which no change occurs?

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Sdudley67 · Nov 22, 2015

pciscott said:

Prob is pretty new. Calibrated fine. I thought the same with the alk and ph. But it's def correct. All fish are fine. Some Zoas are closed but everything is open and swaying as normal.

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xthunderx · Nov 22, 2015

You can adjust both the drip rate and concentration of kalk depending on your goals. But this is a very manual process. Bite the bullet and get an Osmolator.

Sounds like a bad probe, electrical interference, or issues with calibration. 7.5 is too low with that Alk reading (I agree with Scott). Very strange.

Sdudley67 · Nov 22, 2015

So I drilled a hole to the outside. My wife is thrilled! Anyways, tank has adjust to 7.8 in about 30 min of that being installed.

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Titanwerx · Nov 22, 2015

How big of a hole? Hope you put some kind of grate over it to keep unwanted pests out.

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Sdudley67 · Nov 23, 2015

Titanwerx said:

Slightly larger than 1/4in. It's siliconed in. Nothing's getting in. Just temp till I get my scrubber foing

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Jerry Williams · Nov 23, 2015

interesting.....

mic209 · Nov 23, 2015

The thing with Kalk, it only temporarily raises Ph, so it's best on a slow constant drip 24/7 to keep PH up. I don't know how it got so popular using with ATO, worst idea ever and I'm speaking from experience. Here's why, on my last tank, I had my ALK and CA solid as a rock dosing 2 part through dosers and Kalk in my ATO. I had this dialed in during the winter when ambient temp was low and evaporation was low. As summer came and the fan was running to keep the tank cool, my ALK and CA was sky rocketing, calcium was precipitating like crazy clogging up pumps and pipes. I could not figure out what was going on for weeks. It finally clicked in my head that it was from all the extra evaporation and a lot of saturated kalk being dumped into the tank. I stopped using kalk in my ATO and stopped worrying about ph and haven't had a problem since.

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Titanwerx · Nov 23, 2015

mic209 said:

The thing with Kalk, it only temporarily raises Ph, so it's best on a slow constant drip 24/7 to keep PH up. I don't know how it got so popular using with ATO, worst idea ever and I'm speaking from experience. Here's why, on my last tank, I had my ALK and CA solid as a rock dosing 2 part through dosers and Kalk in my ATO. I had this dialed in during the winter when ambient temp was low and evaporation was low. As summer came and the fan was running to keep the tank cool, my ALK and CA was sky rocketing, calcium was precipitating like crazy clogging up pumps and pipes. I could not figure out what was going on for weeks. It finally clicked in my head that it was from all the extra evaporation and a lot of saturated kalk being dumped into the tank. I stopped using kalk in my ATO and stopped worrying about ph and haven't had a problem since.

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This is a good point, and one anyone using Kalk should keep in mind. Another simple fix would have been to decrease the amount of Kalk being used during the summer months.

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xthunderx · Nov 23, 2015

For me Kalk works and I can see why it would be so popular, first it's super easy and second it uses equipment you already have.

Quick tip: 1 teaspoon per gallon in the summer, 2 teaspoons per gallon in the winter.

Been super happy with my results, ran this tank with nothing but Kalk for the first year.
http://www.socalireefs.com/forums/s...earl-Berry-Rouge-Millie-and-others&highlight=

Sdudley67 · Nov 23, 2015

mic209 said:

This is one issue I see happening. In utilizing the ato I get spikes. It's not consistent. I will most likely have to go to a drip or an actual doser to get a consistent amount all day keeping both in check.

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xthunderx · Nov 23, 2015

As long as you have a precise ATO this is not an issue. Tunze is perfect for this application because the optical eye can detect very small fluctuations in water level, dosing less kalk each time.

You still get little spikes, but as you can see from my results these spikes are not an issue.

loc01 · Nov 24, 2015

Sdudley67 said:

What is the ph now?

Sdudley67 · Nov 24, 2015

loc01 said:

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mikejrice · Nov 25, 2015

Ph is largely affected by atmospheric conditions where you live. Oxygen saturation drops with altitude and thus ph goes right along with it. Where do you live?

Those questions aside, keeping a reef in Colorado will teach anyone that a ph of 7.8 is perfectly acceptable as long as it is kept stable.

Michael Rice
Denver, Colorado

PH issues!!

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