KH drop and Stability

Bogartus · Oct 21, 2020

Hi I have a 250 gallon tank. I run a Koralin c3002 reactor. It has been very stable around 8.4 for the last couple of months. It has dropped to 7.87.9 over the last week. I added about 30 SPS / acropora frags about 2 to 3 weeks ago. My media in my ractor is still about 2/3 full. My CO2 bottle still has CO2. I run a Kormar peristaltic pump and I've had to turn it up from about 36ml to 50ml over the last week I'm still haven't got my reactor back up to 8.4 it's slightly increased to 7.9.
My question is could my KH have dropped from adding the 30 SPS frags or is it something else? Everything on the reactor seems to be working fine.

Justkeepswimming · Oct 21, 2020

Absolutely, increase demand and no change in supply. Bump it back up very slowly.

Bogartus · Oct 21, 2020

Justkeepswimming said:

Thank you reached out to another reefer and he said the same as you that will definitely make it drop and increase supply very slowly

Jerry Williams · Oct 21, 2020

Remember that ph 7.0 in neutral, above 7.0 is alkaline and below is acidic. It is impossible to melt any calcium in your Ca2 reactor unless you go below 7.0. From what I read you have the pH scale reversed when you said it went from 8.4 and slightly increased to 7.9. What happened was the pH dropped to 7.9 and you need to go below 7 to get any calcium to be desolved into your tank. Have you tested the Calcium saturation in the tank? If so what is it and does the calcium drop when you add coral?

pledosophy · Oct 21, 2020

Jerry Williams said:

Remember that ph 7.0 in neutral, above 7.0 is alkaline and below is acidic. It is impossible to melt any calcium in your Ca2 reactor unless you go below 7.0. From what I read you have the pH scale reversed when you said it went from 8.4 and slightly increased to 7.9. What happened was the pH dropped to 7.9 and you need to go below 7 to get any calcium to be desolved into your tank. Have you tested the Calcium saturation in the tank? If so what is it and does the calcium drop when you add coral?

I'm thinking the 8.4 number is his KH of the tank not his pH of the reactor.

Jerry Williams · Oct 22, 2020

pledosophy said:

I can see that now.

Bogartus · Oct 22, 2020

Jerry Williams said:

Remember that ph 7.0 in neutral, above 7.0 is alkaline and below is acidic. It is impossible to melt any calcium in your Ca2 reactor unless you go below 7.0. From what I read you have the pH scale reversed when you said it went from 8.4 and slightly increased to 7.9. What happened was the pH dropped to 7.9 and you need to go below 7 to get any calcium to be desolved into your tank. Have you tested the Calcium saturation in the tank? If so what is it and does the calcium drop when you add coral?

Sorry for the confusion I was talking about KH not pH my KH inside my reactor is about 5.8

Bogartus · Oct 22, 2020

Bogartus said:

Now I'm more confusion I mean my pH inside my reactor is around 5.8 my apex monitors it and alarms me if it goes below 5.2 and it can go up to 7 but it's staying right now around 5.8

Justkeepswimming · Oct 23, 2020

Bogartus said:

Depending on how you have your system set up and programmed, your apex might be turning off the co2 bubbles to increase the reactor PH due to the increase in tank KH. This is what Jerry was referring to in the above post. If your reactor Ph is high and kh is high in your tank, look and see if the co2 bubble are off ?

KH drop and Stability

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