kalk reactor and ph

[the mad reefer]

My tank has always had a ph of 8.3-8.4 i hooked up my kalkreactor and now my tank has a ph of 8.5-8.55 is this too high of a ph? I only have the reactor stir at 2am my tank evaporates 1.5-2g a day usually during the late after noon is when it tops off the most(makes sense). can i cut back on the amount of kalk in the reactor or is 8.5 o.k. tia jim

 

[reedman]

8.5 is the upper limit of the range that most will say is tolerable. You really want to maintain between 8.1 and 8.3 for optimal conditions. What's keeping your PH elevated without the Kalk? 8.3 without Kalk seems high to me. Are you dosing anything for Alk. This can raise the PH depending on what you're dosing. Also, how are you delivering the Kalk to the tank? Dosing pump or peristaltic pump I assume so that it is added slowly over a long time.

 

[the mad reefer]

8.3 and 8.4 is from dripping kalk 24/7 about a drop every 4-5 seconds. been doing this for about a year now. I dose nothing else. I only do 15% water changes every 2 weeks to keep all the trace elements up to snuff. I am running all my top off through the reactor. It adds about 1/4-1/2 cup about every 45minutes to an hour. when it adds the top off i can see my ph rise .01-.02 in about three or 4 minutes and then comes back down about .01 after a few minutes. is this too much of a swing? by the way everything in the tank looks happy. just the ph seems a little high.

 

[mojoreef]

8.4 is about the natural ph in the wild on the reefs. So you not really to far out. Way to combat it would be to only dose the kalk after the lights go off. When photosynthisis stops thier is always a drop in ph, if you had it so the kalk came on during that period (lights off) and the of when the lights were back on again. it would probibly drop back to normal and thier would be less of a swing


Mike