Dosing Kalk need confirmation.

[DEWreefing]

Is anyone running the Chris M method from ACI aquaculture? I have been on it for 2 days straight ph is around 8.3 to 8.35 during the night. He says don't worry about the ALK spike but I have went from 8.7 to 11.7. Corals look great but need to confirm if anyone else went through this. I drip the same amount of my daily evaporation. Through the day the auto top does not go off till an hour before kalk starts again.
Tomorrow I will be picking up a bunch of acro frags. Hopefully that will help. Corals are half open lights about to go out.

 

[Tommy Ngo]

Don’t worry about the alk spike as long as Ph is steady your alk will eventually settle down through time.

 

[joseserrano]

That is a big jump, but over 2 days it’s not the end of the world. Just watch for Alk burn on tips.

 

[DEWreefing]

That is a big jump, but over 2 days it’s not the end of the world. Just watch for Alk burn on tips.

Combating with .09 phosphates and 18 nitrates. 2 and 1/2 days hopefully is not to fast.

 

[bakbay]

Alk, pH, and CO2 are related right? Alk is the ability for water to buffer basic/acidity (pH). Given that kalk has a pH of 12.4 at full saturation, maintaining a stable pH can be unpredictable, esp dealing with one’s evap rate. Speaking of pH, make sure you don’t go past 8.5 (I have done this with CO2 scrubbing), SPS and chalices don’t do well with that. I think that we should try to control and maintain Alk but not pH.

Btw: I don’t think that adding SPS frags will put a dent in your alk consumption.

 

[DEWreefing]

Alk, pH, and CO2 are related right? Alk is the ability for water to buffer basic/acidity (pH). Given that kalk has a pH of 12.4 at full saturation, maintaining a stable pH can be unpredictable, esp dealing with one’s evap rate. Speaking of pH, make sure you don’t go past 8.5 (I have done this with CO2 scrubbing), SPS and chalices don’t do well with that. I think that we should try to control and maintain Alk but not pH.

Btw: I don’t think that adding SPS frags will put a dent in your alk consumption.

By frags I mean golf ball colonies

 

[DEWreefing]

.15 pH drop due to losing surface agitation had to clean pump today. Still not to bad of a drop considering.

 

[bakbay]

By frags I mean golf ball colonies

Cool but you’ll need a lot of them or lots of coraline algae to feel the swing. Judging from your tank pics, I doubt that the alk fluctuation is negligible. My 2c — hence I say you focus on Alk stability and not pH. Shoot for say Alk of 10 and pH will “swing” accordingly (8.2-8.4), or whatever.

This was me playing with pH — SPS colonies on top didn’t like it, so did some chalices on the bottom.

 

[five.five-six]

I don’t know what the Chris C method is but I use a Kalk reactor for 100% of my evap water and my corals are growing out of control. Also my pH doesn’t get much above 8 but the proof is in the pudding.

(Lights aren’t on yet)

 

[MikeyGinSD]

How do you drop your pH if it's too high..... Vinegar?

 

[DEWreefing]

How do you drop your pH if it's too high..... Vinegar?

Yes if your over 8.5 on a spike due to accident.

 

[DEWreefing]

Cool but you’ll need a lot of them or lots of coraline algae to feel the swing. Judging from your tank pics, I doubt that the alk fluctuation is negligible. My 2c — hence I say you focus on Alk stability and not pH. Shoot for say Alk of 10 and pH will “swing” accordingly (8.2-8.4), or whatever.

This was me playing with pH — SPS colonies on top didn’t like it, so did some chalices on the bottom.

Notice your alk is climbing and dropping twice a day .20 to .30 points probably what pissed them off. Chris Mckley method is keeping the ph above 8.2 to 8.35 all day long.

 

[DEWreefing]

I don’t know what the Chris C method is but I use a Kalk reactor for 100% of my evap water and my corals are growing out of control. Also my pH doesn’t get much above 8 but the proof is in the pudding.

(Lights aren’t on yet)

View attachment 114941 View attachment 114942

BRS investigates said they screwed up and stated keeping ph stable above 8.3 is the way.

 

[bakbay]

Good luck with your chase. I’ve been down this road and didn’t see anything difference in my tank — too much headache. I can peg my pH at a certain point but it’s far easier to control alk - CaRx is keeping it stable.

 

[five.five-six]

How do you drop your pH if it's too high..... Vinegar?

Long term that’s going to cause a bacterial bloom. High pH isn’t a problem I’ve had to deal with. I imagine injecting CO2 in the skimmer would be a good choice for lowering the pH

 

[DEWreefing]

Long term that’s going to cause a bacterial bloom. High pH isn’t a problem I’ve had to deal with. I imagine injecting CO2 in the skimmer would be a good choice for lowering the pH

Vinegar is just for an emergency. Old school reefers used vinegar as a carbon dose and to get a more saturated Kalk. Might be good if your fighting high nitrates and phosphates.

 

[DEWreefing]

Good news alk stopped building up it finally hit equilibrium.

 

[DEWreefing]

Update: 5 days in and corals are looking more fluffy and happy. Alk consumption while lights are on 8am to 10pm test at 10am and 8:30pm .9 to 1.2 dkh used up. 4.5 gallons added per day of kalkwasser. Acros coming soon.

 

[barretojesse93]

Nice! Can’t wait to invest into an apex lol just too darn expensive glad you got the balance. I hope to get acros in my tank one day


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[pledosophy]

I have been doing Chris's method for about a year now. It works. I went with the Brightwell kalk because it has some Mg in it.

I went through the alk swing, and eventually through a CA drop, but it leveled out. I used to test Alk every two days or so, I haven't tested it in a month.

Did you build the whole container to keep the kalk in? I noticed pretty quickly that how the kalk was stored made a huge difference in the amount used.

The other thing I noticed was I could not run my ATO 24/7. If the ATO had the tank full at lights out, then the kalk dose would raise my sump level just enough by lights on that my skimmer would get wonky and even more annoying my ATO overfill alarm would go off. So if you have a Tunze with the beep, then maybe turn it off while you are asleep.

Another little trick, there is a hack for the Apex that will allow you to see how much solution is left in your reservoir and send you a notification if it is low. Makes life a little easier when you are only refilling once a month. Less worrisome then getting the pH drop notification.