Maxx
Staff Housemonkey
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2003
- Messages
- 2,935
11-02-2011
Okay things seem to have been squared away....finally.
Current parameters
Dkh - 9.6
Ca - 395
Mg 1575
pH at 8.25
I broke down and bought an Avast Marine Kalk reactor. I chwas thrifty and went with the build it yourself version which saved about $60. I'm currently dripping 2 liters of kalk per day via litermeter 3.
The magnesium is elevated because I neglected to check the tds of my RODi topoff water...it had jumped up to almost 30 and had caused a bryopsis outbreak.
Currently the highest pH levels are at night, with the pH dropping down to 8.11-8.15 at the lowest during the day.
All changes to the system in an effort to deal with the pH issue:
Purchased a HOB refugium and stuffed it full of cheatomorpha.
Purchased a newer skimmer that pulls more than 5x the amount of air that my previous one did.
Purchased a CO2 scrubber from the Filter Guys to feed the new skimmer.
Ran an additional line to the skimmer feeding it with outside air.
Purchased/built the Kalk reactor and hooked it up.
The fuge is pretty much useless other than giving my pods a place to cavort and play unmolested. Not really worth the money spent IMO...
The skimmer was needed and IMO is a major improvement to the system overall, but actually does little to improve the pH levels in the tank.
CO2 scrubber was helpful and I actually noticed a bump in the pH after hooking it up. It was worth the money spent IMO.
Outside air feeding the skimmer helped less than I thought. Noticed a 0.01 bump up in pH that might be attributable to that.
Have to say it, but the Kalk reactor was the biggest help in maintaining the pH for my system. Its only putting a little kalk into my system daily, My system is evaporating about 13 liters per day, kalk dripping accounts for 2 liters of that, (Almost 3.5 gallons a day in evaporation, Kalk makes up about half a gallon of it).
The biggest issue I had with the Kalk reactor was fear of pushing my Dkh/Alk through the roof. I'm still running the Calcium reactor in addition to the Kalk reactor and DkH has stayed steady at 9.6 since 10-26-2011 which is when I bumped the kalk dose from 1 liter per day to 2 LPD.
I know my Calcium levels would be higher if I wasnt pushing my Mag up that high. Overall, have to say that I should have done the Kalk thing earlier.
Regardless,
thanks to everyone who helped out with advice, information, and personal experiances and knowledge. I really appreciate it.
Nick
Okay things seem to have been squared away....finally.
Current parameters
Dkh - 9.6
Ca - 395
Mg 1575
pH at 8.25
I broke down and bought an Avast Marine Kalk reactor. I chwas thrifty and went with the build it yourself version which saved about $60. I'm currently dripping 2 liters of kalk per day via litermeter 3.
The magnesium is elevated because I neglected to check the tds of my RODi topoff water...it had jumped up to almost 30 and had caused a bryopsis outbreak.
Currently the highest pH levels are at night, with the pH dropping down to 8.11-8.15 at the lowest during the day.
All changes to the system in an effort to deal with the pH issue:
Purchased a HOB refugium and stuffed it full of cheatomorpha.
Purchased a newer skimmer that pulls more than 5x the amount of air that my previous one did.
Purchased a CO2 scrubber from the Filter Guys to feed the new skimmer.
Ran an additional line to the skimmer feeding it with outside air.
Purchased/built the Kalk reactor and hooked it up.
The fuge is pretty much useless other than giving my pods a place to cavort and play unmolested. Not really worth the money spent IMO...
The skimmer was needed and IMO is a major improvement to the system overall, but actually does little to improve the pH levels in the tank.
CO2 scrubber was helpful and I actually noticed a bump in the pH after hooking it up. It was worth the money spent IMO.
Outside air feeding the skimmer helped less than I thought. Noticed a 0.01 bump up in pH that might be attributable to that.
Have to say it, but the Kalk reactor was the biggest help in maintaining the pH for my system. Its only putting a little kalk into my system daily, My system is evaporating about 13 liters per day, kalk dripping accounts for 2 liters of that, (Almost 3.5 gallons a day in evaporation, Kalk makes up about half a gallon of it).
The biggest issue I had with the Kalk reactor was fear of pushing my Dkh/Alk through the roof. I'm still running the Calcium reactor in addition to the Kalk reactor and DkH has stayed steady at 9.6 since 10-26-2011 which is when I bumped the kalk dose from 1 liter per day to 2 LPD.
I know my Calcium levels would be higher if I wasnt pushing my Mag up that high. Overall, have to say that I should have done the Kalk thing earlier.
Regardless,
thanks to everyone who helped out with advice, information, and personal experiances and knowledge. I really appreciate it.
Nick
